No Depression Ceases To Publish

Howard Parker · From: Maryland

I loved this rag..Great writing encompassing a lot of the music we/I seem to prefer.

Forwarded from another source:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 19, 2008
Contact: Traci Thomas 615-664-1167

NO DEPRESSION MAGAZINE TO CEASE PUBLISHING AFTER MAY-JUNE ISSUE

SEATTLE, WA - No Depression, the bimonthly magazine covering a broad
range of American roots music since 1995, will bring to an end its print
publication with its 75th issue in May-June 2008.

Plans to expand the publication's website (www.nodepression.net) with
additional content will move forward, though it will in no way replace
the print edition.

The magazine's March-April issue, currently en route to subscribers and
stores, includes the following note from publishers Grant Alden, Peter
Blackstock and Kyla Fairchild as its Page 2 "Hello Stranger" column:

"Dear Friends:

Barring the intercession of unknown angels, you hold in your hands the
next-to-the-last edition of No Depression we will publish. It is
difficult even to type those words, so please know that we have not come
lightly to this decision.

In the thirteen years since we began plotting and publishing No
Depression, we have taken pride not only in the quality of the work we
were able to offer our readers, but in the way we insisted upon doing
business. We have never inflated our numbers; we have always paid our
bills (and, especially, our freelancers) on time. And we have always
tried our best to tell the truth.

First things, then: If you have a subscription to ND, please know that
we will do our very best to take care of you. We will be negotiating
with a handful of magazines who may be interested in fulfilling your
subscription. That is the best we can do under the circumstances.
Those circumstances are both complicated and painfully simple. The
simple answer is that advertising revenue in this issue is 64% of what
it was for our March- April issue just two years ago. We expect that
number to continue to decline.

The longer answer involves not simply the well-documented and industry
wide reduction in print advertising, but the precipitous fall of the
music industry. As a niche publication, ND is well insulated from
reductions in, say, GM's print advertising budget; our size meant they
weren't going to buy space in our pages, regardless.

On the other hand, because we're a niche title we are dependent upon
advertisers who have a specific reason to reach our audience. That is:
record labels. We, like many of our friends and competitors, are
dependent upon advertising from the community we serve.

That community is, as they say, in transition. In this evolving
downloadable world, what a record label is and does is all up to
question. What is irrefutable is that their advertising budgets are
drastically reduced, for reasons we well understand. It seems clear at
this point that whatever businesses evolve to replace (or transform)
record labels will have much less need to advertise in print.

The decline of brick and mortar music retail means we have fewer
newsstands on which to sell our magazine, and small labels have fewer
venues that might embrace and hand-sell their music. Ditto for
independent bookstores. Paper manufacturers have consolidated and begun
closing mills to cut production; we've been told to expect three price
increases in 2008. Last year there was a shift in postal regulations,
written by and for big publishers, which shifted costs down to smaller
publishers whose economies of scale are unable to take advantage of
advanced sorting techniques.

Then there's the economy...

The cumulative toll of those forces makes it increasingly difficult for
all small magazines to survive. Whatever the potentials of the web, it
cannot be good for our democracy to see independent voices further
marginalized. But that's what's happening. The big money on the web is
being made, not surprisingly, primarily by big businesses.

ND has never been a big business. It was started with a $2,000 loan from
Peter's savings account (the only monetary investment ever provided, or
sought by, the magazine). We have five more or less full-time employees,
including we three who own the magazine. We have always worked from
spare bedrooms and drawn what seemed modest salaries.

What makes this especially painful and particularly frustrating is that
our readership has not significantly declined, our newsstand
sell-through remains among the best in our portion of the industry, and
our passion for and pleasure in the music has in no way diminished. We
still have shelves full of first-rate music we'd love to tell you about.

And we have taken great pride in being one of the last bastions of the
long-form article, despite the received wisdom throughout publishing
that shorter is better. We were particularly gratified to be nominated
for our third Utne award last year.

Our cards are now on the table.

Though we will do this at greater length next issue, we should like
particularly to thank the advertisers who have stuck with us these many
years; the writers, illustrators, and photographers who have worked for
far less than they're worth; and our readers: You.
Thank you all. It has been our great joy to serve you.

GRANT ALDEN
PETER BLACKSTOCK
KYLA FAIRCHILD"

No Depression published its first issue in September 1995 (with Son Volt
on the cover) and continued quarterly for its first year, switching to
bimonthly in September 1996. ND received an Utne Magazine Award for Arts
& Literature Coverage in 2001 and has been nominated for the award on
several other occasions (including in 2007). The Chicago Tribune ranked
No Depression #20 in its 2004 list of the nation's Top 50 magazines of
any kind.

Artists who have appeared on the cover of No Depression over the years
include Johnny Cash (2002), Wilco (1996), Willie Nelson (2004), Ryan
Adams' seminal band Whiskeytown (1997), the Drive-By Truckers (2003),
Ralph Stanley (1998), Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint (2006), Gillian
Welch (2001), Lyle Lovett (2003), Porter Wagoner (2007), and Alejandro
Escovedo (1998, as Artist of the Decade).

END OF FORWARDED MESSAGE
_________________
Howard Parker

03\' Carter D-10
70\'s Dekley D-10
52\' Fender Custom
Many guitars by Paul Beard
Listowner Resoguit-L

Tucker Jackson · From: Portland, Oregon, USA

This is bad news. I've subscribed to this magazine for 10 years...

Roy Ayres · From: Riverview, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

Howard,

No disrespect intended toward you or the magazine, but in my 65 years in the music business, I had never heard of a publication called "No Depression" until I read your post. To me, "depression" can mean only three things: (1) a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity; (2) A period beginning about 1929 when banks went belly up, the U.S. economy went down the tubes, and most people (including my family) were starving; and (3) a sunken area in a surface, such as a depression in the ground. I would never have taken a publication named "No Depression" to be a music publication. I'm just wondering if the number of subscribers would have been sufficient to support the magazine if its title were more recognizable as a music magazine? Was the publication widely known among musicians and music lovers and my ignorance just a matter of me being that far behind the times?

Again, no disrespect intended; I'm just curious.

Thanx
_________________
Pioneers of Western Swing HOF, Seattle 2005
Western Swing Music HOF, Sacramento 2006
International Steel Guitar HOF, St.Louis 2007
Visit my Web Site at RoysFootprints.com
Browse my Photo Album and be sure to sign my Guest Book.

Herb Steiner · From: Spicewood TX 78669

This is more than bad news; this is tragic. ND was a major source of information for me in a world that increasingly neglected roots and Americana music.

Though I never met Grant and Kyla, Peter Blackstock is a good friend of mine since the time we were colleagues at the Austin Chronicle... he in music editorial, yours truly in the advertising dept. Peter is a true fan of American music and a dedicated journalist.

I was honored when he asked me to write an obituary for Speedy West, when other more renowned and equally knowledgeable journalists, like Rich Kienzle, could have done a great job as well.

I relied on ND for information about bands and artists flying under the mainstream radar that I'd be interested in.

The real country music community is losing a valuable contributor to the cause, and for this I'm in mourning.
_________________
My rig: Infinity and Telonics.

Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg?

Howard Parker · From: Maryland

A bit of explanation:

From Publishers Weekly
The alternative country movement, which comprises cowpunkers, folkies, Bakersfield sound revivalists?anyone "too old, too loud or too eccentric for country radio"?is still waiting for a magazine to do for it what Rolling Stone did for rock and roll. In the interim, the jovially amateurish fanzine, No Depression, founded in 1995 by Seattle writers Alden and Blackstock and named after an A.P. Carter song, fills the gap. This smart, handsomely published selection from its first three years offers 35 interviews with some of the movement's most prominent poster children. Famously independent musicians like Steve Earle, Iris Dement, Cheri Knight and the Midwestern country-rock band, Wilco, are informative and earnest. More consistently entertaining are Alden's joint interview with old-timers Waylon Jennings and Billy Joe Shaver, who scrap over song-writing credits, and Allison Stewart's encounter with indie auteur Will Oldham (who likens himself to Judy Collins and clearly delights in leading his interviewer by the nose). For confirmed fans, however, it will be enough just to hear Earle explain what makes Shania Twain like Def Leppard, or to get an alt-country history lesson from Jason Ringenberg of the seminal Jason & the Scorchers. The editors supply discographies for the in-print albums of the artists, as well as a listing of the "101 most influential" alternative country music albums in print.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

==>I've been a subscriber for about 5 years, it got me interested in "classic country" and branches. This rag was partially responsible for my interest in PSG.

I just don't know where I'll get my monthly fix for roots news.

h

Mark Eaton · Posted 19 Feb 2008 4:47 pm

Roy, to satisfy your curiosity, the name for the magazine came from a Carter Family song from 1936 written by A.P. Carter(and I see that Howard chipped in another post while I was searching for the lyrics below):

"NO DEPRESSION (IN HEAVEN)"

"For fear the hearts of men are failing,
For these are latter days we know.
The Great Depression now is spreading,
God's word declared it would be so.

CHORUS:
I'm going where there's no depression,
To the lovely land that's free from care.
I'll leave this world of toil and trouble,
My home's in Heaven, I'm going there.

In that bright land, there'll be no hunger,
No orphan children cryin' for bread,
No weeping widows, toil or struggle,
No shrouds, no coffins, and no death.

This dark hour of midnight nearing
And tribulation time will come.
The storms will hurl in midnight fear
And sweep lost millions to their doom."

And I am truly depressed by the demise of this magazine, it is my favorite. I learned through its pages about a lot of great music: Roots, Americana, Alternative Country, and Traditional Country.

In the most recent issue there is a good article about Dale Watson.

I have gone out and purchased C.D.s by some outstanding "under the radar" artists after learning about them in No Depression.

For me anyway, this is going to leave a big gap.
_________________
Mark

Howard Parker · From: Maryland

Roy asks:

Stu Schulman · From: Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)

Bummer,That's the only mag that I have a subscription to.WA! WA WA! Sad

_________________
Steeltronics Z-pickup,Desert Rose S-10 4+5,Desert Rose Keyless S-10 3+5... Mullen G2 S-10 3+5,Telonics 206 pickups,Telonics volume pedal.,Blanton SD -10,Emmons GS_10...Zirctone bar,Bill Groner Bar...any amp that isn't broken.Steel Seat.Com seats...Licking paint chips off of Chinese Toys since 1952.

Roy Ayres · From: Riverview, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

Mark and Howard,

Thanks to both of you.

(Incidentally, I was born during the Great Depression (1929) and I've been depressed ever since.)
_________________
Pioneers of Western Swing HOF, Seattle 2005
Western Swing Music HOF, Sacramento 2006
International Steel Guitar HOF, St.Louis 2007
Visit my Web Site at RoysFootprints.com
Browse my Photo Album and be sure to sign my Guest Book.

Stu Schulman · From: Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)

Roy,It's a great magazine,Nothing else to compare it to,You should try and find some back issues,Stu
_________________
Steeltronics Z-pickup,Desert Rose S-10 4+5,Desert Rose Keyless S-10 3+5... Mullen G2 S-10 3+5,Telonics 206 pickups,Telonics volume pedal.,Blanton SD -10,Emmons GS_10...Zirctone bar,Bill Groner Bar...any amp that isn't broken.Steel Seat.Com seats...Licking paint chips off of Chinese Toys since 1952.

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

To me, this is the end of the era of old-school popular music print journalism. Virtually everything else has turned to fluff and nostalgia, to my tastes. I hate to see ND go down. I've been buying it off my local newstand for a long time now.

But I really don't see why this can't be replaced with an online publishing business model. There are kinks to work out still, same as for the rest of the music biz, and I do agree with this comment:

Joey Ace · From: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

ND had an in depth interview with Lloyd Green last year. They were a breath of fresh air.

I'll miss them.

Steve Hinson · From: Hendersonville Tn USA

This is bad news...I didn't subscribe to ND,but I bought many copies over the years...there was a really great Johnny Bush interview in one issue in which he talked about Buddy Emmons and Jimmy Day...I hope the online edition does OK.
_________________
http://www.myspace.com/stevehinsonnashville

Carroll Hale · From: EastTexas, USA

let's hope (www.nodepression.net) will do a good job or trying to fill in the missing stories/features of ND.......although, some folks like the print version of most things better than the internet.. Very Happy

jmho
ch

Iain · From: Edinburgh, Scotland

A real, real shame. Great magazine, to which I subscribe. I've learned LOADS from it.

What a pity.

Joe Buczek · From: Montana, USA

Another ND subscriber here who is greatly disappointed to learn this news. Crying or Very sad

What a fantastic source of musical news and inspiration for us to lose. Its a sad day. My condolences to fellow ND readers and to those who never had the pleasure.
_________________
Joe Buczek
"My other steel is a dobro."
Williams S-10, Nashville 112

Drew Howard · From: 48854

Whew - this really sucks!

No Depression was the name of an an Uncle Tupelo song, no?

cheers,
Drew

Joe Buczek · From: Montana, USA

Mark Eaton · Posted 14 Mar 2008 7:10 am

It's the same song. Uncle Tupelo recorded it early in their career which was one of the first albums labeled "alt. country."

This in turn had a part in the formation and inspiration of the magazine.
_________________
Mark

Pat Irvin · From: Kansas City, Missouri, USA

You can find articles, music and other content from contributors to No Depression all over the internet on websites and blogs. Most of these folks know each other and link to each others online material already.

Start at www.livinginstereo.com

Then just work your way through the links to other Audio Blogs (you will soon be linking to tons of other sites) and just save the ones you find interesting. Lots of great stuff that isn't the same material as No Depression but it's similar and from some of the same writers.
_________________
2003 Zum D-10 8x5, Late 60's Fender 400 8x0, 1954 Fender Custom T-8, 1968 Fender Telecaster, Peavey Nashville 1000, Session 500, Session 400, PodXT

Steve Hotra · From: Camas, Washington

I have just discovered the songs of the Carter family, including "There's No Depression in Heaven"
At first I thought the song was about mental depression, (don't laugh too hard)
As I read the lyrics, I realized there is a perspective about life that's needs to be remembered.
As a result, I've dug deeper into this genre of music.
I found a ton of their lyrics at a bluegrass gospel site.
I'm a Pastor of Music and Worship and I have made a commitment to introduce these kinds of songs, including "O Come Angel Band" and "We Shall Rise", to a younger generation.
BTW, I'm a 51 year old who grew up on R&R.

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

Roy, I understand that you might not be familiar with the mag, I am and I have copies I bought over here.

Would you have CDs of any of the alt-country and no drepression type artists... the Drive by Truckers, Wilco, Son Volt, The Jayhawks, blue Mountain, Sobberbone, Ryan Adams, Whiskeytown, Gillian
Welch, Alejandro Escovedo, Sally Timms, the Cowboy Junkies.. for example?

If not, it simply be a case of 'travelling' in different circles.

Good mag, but not the end of good mags if it does go, we still have Mojo, Uncut, etc.. but a strong roots music mag... no-one else comes close.

Keith Cordell · From: San Diego

Paste magazine covers some of this territory, so you might check it out. Harp magazine does as well.

Bryan Daste · From: Portland, Oregon, USA

I was sad to see No Depression go (though it's still online), but had the good fortune to have my band's CD reviewed (positively) in the final issue. Smile

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

I have only read maybe 2 issues of ND, it appears to me, after reading the above article, that two years ago they saw this coming and perhaps should have reconsidered there business philosophy. Small businesses MUST change with the times or they will not be, as in this case, a small business anymore. Print is out, Internet is in, ON-LINE is in, Downloads are in( legal of course) . Major Newspapers are failing it is no surprise that a small publication with a VERY OFF TOPIC cult title would struggle. I wonder how many young newcomers to the MUSIC world think ND is a music related publication ? To me, with todays current events, the title depresses me !

I wish them well

tp

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