A Requiem for No Depression's Print Journal and More May Miscellany

No Depression says goodbye to print; New Little Feat and John Howie Jr; Remembering David Briggs, Mike Peters, and Jill Sobule; Celebrating 100 years of Clifton Chenier with all-star tribute album.

May 02, 2025

As we jump into May, here are a few random thoughts inspired by this week’s music news…

A Requiem for No Depression's Print Journal

We’ve been down this road before.

Issue #75 signalled the end of No Depression’s first print run in May-June of 2008. Buddy Miller adorned the cover, and it boasted features on Hayes Carll, Pinetop Perkins, James McMurtry, the Old ‘97s, Billy Bragg, and others. It also contained reviews of then-new releases by Alejandro Escovedo, the B-52s, George Jones, Counting Crows, R.E.M., Whiskeytown, and Willie Nelson, among many more.

In the meantime, NoDepression.com became a community and a home for roots music fans to feast on short and long form features, reviews, columns, and plenty of great photographs. They allowed users to not only comment but to submit their own reviews and articles to post on the site.

Then, in the fall of 2015, ND returned to the world of print as a quarterly journal. It was a beauty: hard stock paper, high-quality art and photographs throughout, and of course, top-notch journalism. For the next ten years, the print journal and the website existed side-by-side, one promoting the other.

Then, on their homepage this week, was the announcement that the current print issue of No Depression would be their last.

“After much consideration, we’ve made the difficult decision to retire the print journal,” the statement reads, citing “the rising costs of production and shipping” that have made publishing the journal “increasingly unsustainable.”

Instead, going forward, they announced that the website will begin a tiered membership program. They will also bring back commenting capability (a feature they discontinued in 2018). A few features, such as Fresh Tracks, Crowdfunding Radar, and Bonus Tracks, will be available to all, while their long-form features, reviews, and other content will be reserved for members (memberships start at a very reasonable $36/year).

Looking through the comments on ND’s socials in response to this news, it’s uncertain whether some readers are thinking No Depression is going away for good, or if they understand it’s just the quarterly journal. Some seem to be genuinely aghast that ND is considering memberships. (One reader went so far as to comment, “I will NEVER pay to view a website.”)

As someone who began reading No Depression in the mid-1990s, started submitting to their website in the late 2010s (my first submission was for a Phil Cook album), and became a regular contributor soon after, I know how much time, research, love, and care go into each review, feature, and interview. Never wanting to “pay to view a website” is, thankfully, a viewpoint not shared by those who value quality writing.

After joining their cadre of freelancers in 2018, by the summer of 2022, ND published my first piece for their print journal, an interview with Bonnie Raitt. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to file profiles on everyone from Bobby Darin to Kevn Kinney for subsequent issues.

I’m thankful to No Depression not only for giving me a platform to grow and stretch as a writer, but for delivering 30 years of peerless journalism to fans of roots music, whether in print or online. Here’s hoping they survive for another 30 years. No doubt, those roots music lovers who support quality writing will make sure that happens.

The Return of John Howie Jr and the Rosewood Bluff

Speaking of No Depression, the first interview I filed for them was with John Howie, Jr, for his solo album, Not Tonight. Now, almost seven years on, Howie reunites with the Rosewood Bluff (Nathan Golub, pedal steel; Tim Shearer, guitar; Mark Connor, bass; and Southern Culture on the Skids’s Dave Hartman on drums) for The Return of John Howie Jr and the Rosewood Bluff. It swaggers, shuffles, two-steps, and sways through weepers and drinkers, boasts and ghosts, heartaches and kiss-offs, all led by Howie’s impressively expressive baritone.

Tracks like “Easy On Me,” “(There’s a) Ghost In My Room,” “My Memory (Ain’t What It Used to Be),” and “Breakin’ Up” exhibit country music at its best: hardcore honky-tonk with clever wordplay performed with just enough reckless soul to keep you guessing. One of the best country platters of the year so far.

Little Feat Strikes Up the Band

Lowell George and Paul Barrere may no longer be with us, but as last year’s Grammy-nominated Sam’s Place proved, the Feat are not only still around, but they’re still vital. New bloods Scott Sharrard (guitars and vocals) and Tony Leone (drums) have lit a spark under Fred Tackett, Sam Clayton, Kenny Gradney, and co-founder Bill Payne, that permeates throughout Strike Up the Band, their first new album of all original material in many a moon.

From the opening notes of “4 Days of Heaven, 3 Days of Work,” it’s obvious this is classic Little Feat. Sharrard’s slide burns, howls, soars, and bites throughout, matched only by Payne’s whacked-out prognificent keys that conclude a majestic “Shipwrecks.” Leone’s groove impressively fills the mighty void left by the great Richie Hayward, while adding his own unique feel. Give Strike Up the Band a shot; this lifelong Feat fan guarantees you’ll find a lot to love about it.

An All-Star Tribute Celebrates the Centennial of Clifton Chenier’s Birth

May 2nd signifies 100 years since the birth of the King of Zydeco, the inimitable Clifton Chenier. To honor this occasion (and as if they heard I was writing a book about some of this stuff), Louisiana-based Valcour Records is releasing an all-star tribute album on June 27th featuring artists as legendary and varied as The Rolling Stones, Taj Mahal, Lucinda Williams, swamp pop hall of famer Tommy McLain, John Hiatt, Charley Crockett, Molly Tuttle, and Marcia Ball, along with many of Louisiana’s best as they celebrate an artist that mixed blues, R&B, Conjunto, Creole, and Afro-Cuban rhythms into a sound fully unique but massively influential. The whole project is fantastic and a helluva lotta fun.

Check out the first single, Lucinda Williams’s and Tommy McLain’s swamp pop take on the country standard, “Release Me,” below.

Farewell to David Briggs, Mike Peters, and Jill Sobule

Another ace session player has left us. As with Mac Gayden last month, David Briggs played on some of the most seminal tracks in music history. An original member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section hand picked by FAME founder Rick Hall (along with Norbert Putnam and Jerry Carrigan), Briggs and his piano soon moved up to Nashville and became a part of the coveted “A Team” that adorned recordings by everyone from Elvis Presley to Bob Seger, Alice Cooper to Barbara Mandrell. He passed this week at the age of 82.

Here’s just one of the many iconic David Briggs moments set to tape, his unmistakable trillin’ underscores this Conway classic:

The voice of The Alarm, one of the great rootsy/alternative/whatever rock bands of the ‘80s, Mike Peters, lost his battle with chronic lymphocytic leukemia this week. He was 66. My favorite period of the Alarm would have to be the 1989 Tony Visconti-produced Change, which spawned a rock radio hit in the driving “Sold Me Down the River,” which I love, but the album peaks with the soul ballad, “Love Don’t Come Easy,” complete with a slyly subtle Beatles nod during the coda.

Jill Sobule was much more than her groundbreaking, ‘90s-defining hit (below). She was a sharp, witty songwriter and a captivating force on stage and in life. Tragically, her publicist confirmed that she died in a house fire in the early morning hours on May 1st. She was 66.

The Mixtape

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