Contrary to popular belief,
\nNo Depression<\/i> didn’t give birth to the alt-country movement.
\nNo more than did
\nNevermind<\/i> start the grunge movement. But the album, created
\nby three bushy-haired, beer-drinking kids raised on punk with a
\ndeep appreciation of authentic country music, was good enough to
\nhave a magazine named after it.<\/p>\n
The term ‘alt country’ (or the more amusing ‘y’allternative’) is
\nabout as vague as ‘alternative.’ Some define it was ‘roots’ music,
\nor country music without the synthesizers or gloss that defined
\nmainstream country music in the ’90s. Others define ‘alt-country’
\nas music that’s too country to get played on alternative radio and
\ntoo rough to be played on mainstream country music stations.<\/p>\n
Fortunately,
\nNo Depression<\/i> is so good that neither definition comes into
\nplay. The album just simply\u2026rocks. The opening track,
\n“Graveyard Shift” has a chugging, pulverizing guitar riff that Jay
\nFarrar bounces around like a tennis ball against the side of a
\ngarage. Farrar’s returns have been diminishing over the past few
\nyears. And unfortunately, he never sounded as urgent and ragged as
\nhe did on this album. Bassist Jeff Tweedy has had much better luck
\nsustaining his artistic relevance with Wilco, but after listening
\nto
\nA Ghost Is Born<\/i>, it’s welcoming to hear him more concerned
\nwith rocking out than making 12-minute arty statements of fuzzy
\nnoise.<\/p>\n
Farrar did the majority of the songwriting on
\nNo Depression<\/i>. Much of the album deals with
\nNebraska<\/i>-era Springsteen tales of small town desperation,
\nempty bottles and factory jobs. Tweedy takes songwriting credits
\nfor the longing “That Year,” but his major coup comes with “Screen
\nDoor.” The song focuses on a group of friends in a town where
\nescape seems impossible. At first, it sounds like a testament of
\nsmall town values, but the chorus “We don’t care what happens
\noutside the screen door” is hardly an endorsement for rural
\nisolation.<\/p>\n
\nNo Depression<\/i> features two expert covers from their idols:
\nA.P. Carter’s “No Depression” and Leadbelly’s “John Hardy.” The
\nsongs fit perfectly into the album, which is a testament of the
\nsongwriting talents of Farrar and Tweedy. The rockabilly punch in
\nthe middle of “John Hardy” is one of the most perfect marriages of
\npunk and country.<\/p>\n
The band would get more ambitions on
\nAnodyne<\/i>, which would also result in the ugly split between
\nTweedy and Farrar. And while
\nAnodyne<\/i> may arguably be the superior album, it doesn’t
\ncontain near the joy and spontaneity of
\nNo Depression<\/i>. As chaotic as a night of whisky drinking and
\nas idealistic as a pipe dream,
\nNo Depression<\/i> is a landmark album with a very human
\nheart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7103],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-38212","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-uncle-tupelo","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38212"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38212"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}