The Americana and roots music authority

One year and one day in the life of a...whatever this is

One year and one day ago, Kyla and I hit go on this website, fingers firmly crossed and breath duly held. I'm not sure I had any expectations or even a clue about what was going to happen here. We didn't know if anyone would join, or what they would do once they got here. Yet, here we are 366 days later with nearly 7,000 members as of this blog post, over 8,000 fans on Facebook and nearly 3,000 Twitter followers. Which is to say nothing of our average of 90,000 unique readers each month.

During our first year in this format - whatever it is - more than a half-million people around the world have come here to read about roots music, watch videos, look at photos, listen to the songs we've featured on the home page. We've grown into a vibrant community of artists, labels, bloggers, djs, venue owners, festival promoters, and fans around the world. And, we've seen a number of intelligent, well-written blog posts from strangers we never would have known were it not for this site (see my list of some highlights from 2009).

We enjoyed the first ever No Depression Festival and started making plans for a second. We've thrown our hat into the podcasting ring with the monthly ND Indie Roots Music Podcast. We've also launched the No Depression Archives - an enormous undertaking for which you can thank Kyla and her team of a couple dozen volunteers. There, in case you're unfamiliar, you can find more than 7,000 articles from the entire print history of No Depression, the magazine. And, we continue to map out other projects and goals which will make this site easier to use and more comprehensive in the future.

I feel a little like I'm giving a State of the Union speech now. Maybe I should add "the state of our union is strong."

As the community manager here, though, I couldn't possibly let this milestone go by without saying thank you for the first full year. It delights me to no end to be able to facilitate a community built around the music I love and the artists who inspire me. I've said it before and I'll say it again now - thank you for showing up. Thanks for blogging and uploading your media, for buying ads, participating in forum discussions, starting groups which highlight the local music scenes around the world. Thanks for donating to help us stay afloat, for telling your friends about us, and for simply coming by every now and then to see what's new.

In this era of uncertainty in the media, it's exciting to be part of a website like this one, where strangers with a common interest are coming together to fashion a new way forward. We couldn't be here without you, and we sincerely welcome any ideas, feedback, questions, or concerns. There's no wrong way to use this site (aside from spamming people), so please continue to knock yourselves out. As I've noted before, this community is whatever we make it together. Here's to another exciting year!

Tags: americana, archives, festival, nodepression, state of the union

Comment by Michael Bialas on February 28, 2010 at 1:19pm: Congrats to Kyla, Kim and everyone involved for making such formidable contributions to No Depression the past year. It's been a pleasure to be a part of it and best wishes for many more joyful anniversaries.

Comment by Mark W. Lennon on February 28, 2010 at 1:49pm: Thanks for all of you guys hard work!

Comment by Lost Hills on February 28, 2010 at 4:31pm: Super cool site, Kim. You guys have done an excellent job with it. Still miss the magazine, though. The mag deserves a special place in history. I read every issue for five or six years and passed them on to my friends. I bought a lot of albums I hadn't heard with my ears based on ND articles. Supported Miles Of Music, too, and they are also gone now. Alt. Country was supposed to be the next big thing, but it just didn't capture the imaginations of the main stream. No Depression magazine chronicled the movement when it was new and exciting, and they did it with a lot of style and verve. Those of us who were regular readers won't forget...

Comment by Grant Alden on March 1, 2010 at 3:35am: Alt.country was supposed to be the next medium-sized thing, that's how Peter said it, and he was dead right.
I appreciate all y'all's hard work, and (to borrow from Kenny Roby) am glad it's not me doing it.

Comment by Gar on March 1, 2010 at 6:03am: Thank you folks, for all your work on this great site which I try to visit daily. It's fun to be a part of a community of great music fans.

Comment by Jeff Gilbert on March 1, 2010 at 2:28pm: I still miss the mag a lot, but you've done a great job of creating and maintaining the next best thing. Please keep it going. Thanks!

Comment by Sedona Grisham on March 1, 2010 at 2:56pm: Thanks for keeping us updated with highlights from Cayamo. Really wish I could have heard Brandi's cover of Roy Orbison--I have always thought that Brandi is like a reincarnated Roy/Patsy Cline fronting a pablo-head era radiohead--she is our living legend!

I miss the magazine too! But thank you so much for keeping the energy going! Your entires inspire me to contribute more :)

Comment by Martha Ann Brooks on March 1, 2010 at 3:48pm: Y'all've done a great job. (Yep - I'm from the south.)
I've really enjoyed reading, listening, and watching the videos.
Wishing y'all continued success.