Keeping up a steady beat, the great Memphis drummer Howard Grimes drives hypnotic storytelling in his new memoir, Howard Grimes, Timekeeper: My Life in Rhythm (Devault Graves Books), written with the superb Memphis journalist and music historian Preston Lauterbach. The […]
When he was 15, Jackson Browne wrote the lines “don’t confront me with my failures / I have not forgotten them” in for a song called “These Days,” which Nico recorded, and which he released later on his 1973 album, […]
Rodney Crowell’s songwriting just gets better and better. He wears his introspection on his sleeve with an incantatory presence, and his lyrics artfully create little worlds that depict the ragged ways that we fail and thus seek redemption and love. […]
Emily Duff rocks all night, delivering soulful songs that probe the depths of our emotions, the jagged edges of our relationships, the persistent ache of desire, and joy of being alive. Duff wraps her messages in tight three-minute songs that […]
Last week’s column featured a short review of Mary Gauthier’s new book, Saved by a Song, and an excerpt from the book’s introduction. This week, I talk with Mary about her process of writing the book and her ideas about […]
Charlie Worsham never wastes a note; his crisp leads move smoothly from jazz and blues to rockabilly and pop and country. The six songs on his new EP drive hard with joyous abandon (“For the Love”), but then they pull […]
When Mary Gauthier was 7 years old, she and her mother would head to the bookmobile on Saturday mornings near their home in Baton Rouge. It was her favorite day of the week. After she got inside the mobile library, […]
The late, great Shel Silverstein left us with wry, tongue-in-cheek nods to the vagaries of life in songs such as “A Boy Named Sue,” “One’s on the Way,” “Big Four Poster Bed,” “Marie Leveau,” and “The Cover of the Rolling […]
Floating in quietly on the downstrums of a guitar, Amy Helm’s tender vocals evoke a loving kindness and compassion on “Verse 23,” the sparse opening track of her third album, What the Flood Leaves Behind. Swelling background vocals carry the […]
All her life Rickie Lee Jones has been looking for that beacon that lights up the sky to show her the direction to travel next. Running down a highway, following the music or destiny that carries her forward, Jones moves […]
Sign up for our twice-weekly email newsletter for roots music reviews, stories, columns, and more from No Depression.
We respect your privacy and will never sell our email list to a third party.
