No Depression (album)
Encyclopedia
No Depression is the first studio album by alternative country
band Uncle Tupelo
, released in June 1990. After its formation in the late 1980s, Uncle Tupelo recorded the Not Forever, Just for Now demo tape, which received a positive review by the College Media Journal in 1989. The review led to the band's signing with what would become Rockville Records later that year. The album was recorded with producers Sean Slade
and Paul Q. Kolderie
at Fort Apache Studios
, on a budget of US$3,500.
No Depression was critically acclaimed and sold well for an independent release. Selling over 15,000 copies within a year of its release, the album's success led to the release of the No Depression
periodical. The record is considered one of the most important alternative country albums, and its title is often used as a synonym for the alternative country genre after being popularized by No Depression magazine
. After regaining the rights to the album through a lawsuit, Uncle Tupelo released a remastered version in 2003 through Legacy Records, expanded to include six bonus tracks.
, Jeff Tweedy
and Mike Heidorn
began their musical careers in the 1980s playing in a garage band
, The Plebes. After a few gigs, creative differences between the members led to the development of a punk rock
sound for the band. As punk rock was unpopular in the St. Louis
region, the band changed their style to blues-rock
and renamed themselves Uncle Tupelo. At this point, they stopped performing covers and began to write their own songs.
The band discovered a musical niche around Washington University in St. Louis
, where bands such as Brian Henneman
's Chicken Truck performed in a similar style. The trio recorded its first professional tracks in Champaign, Illinois
with producer Adam Schmitt
. The demo tape
, Not Forever, Just for Now, contained early versions of several songs that would later appear on their debut album, including "Train", "Whiskey Bottle", "Flatness", "Screen Door", and "Before I Break".
That demo, as well as the band's rigorous touring schedule, attracted the attention of several music scouts. Record labels initially were wary of signing the band whom they perceived as straddling "the divide between the countrified punk of early 1980s such as Green on Red
, Jason & the Scorchers
, and X—none of whom had bum-rushed the charts—and the Pacific Northwest
grunge
of Mudhoney
and Nirvana
, which was still years from breaking out commercially". However, the influential CMJ New Music Report gave the demo tape a favorable review in 1989, praising its "mature, developed, seriously thought-out songwriting". This review prompted New York City-based distributor Dutch East India Trading
to provide funding for the band to record an album on their Giant Records label, shortly before the label was renamed to Rockville Records.
, a musician-run studio in the Roxbury
neighborhood of Boston
, Massachusetts
. As the trio could not afford the cost of recording at a twenty-four track
studio in nearby Cambridge
, they settled on the cheaper Fort Apache studio. The album cost US$3,500 to produce, $1,000 of which went to in-house producers Sean Slade
and Paul Q. Kolderie
. The band was interested in working with Slade and Kolderie after hearing their production of Dinosaur Jr.'s album Bug
. The producers allowed Farrar to use the same 1961 Gibson Les Paul
guitar that J. Mascis used on Bug, which gave the power chord
s on No Depression a richer tone.
Slade and Kolderie suggested that the band deemphasize the roots rock
influences heard on Not Forever, Just for Now and convinced them to replace the harmonica
parts with pedal steel guitar
. For this, Slade and Kolderie recruited guitarist Rich Gilbert of Human Sexual Response
for the recording. The tracks were recorded using little overdubbing
; only a few banjo
and acoustic guitar
parts were later added to the songs. At the suggestion of Slade and Kolderie, No Depression was recorded on eight-track, so "the music would compress and "jump" off the tape during playback". The recording sessions occurred before Uncle Tupelo officially became affiliated with Giant Records, so there was little input from the label.
Lyrically the songs reflected the band members' experiences growing up in Belleville. Farrar and Tweedy romanticized tales about unemployment, alcoholism, and the feeling of living in a small town in an effort to emulate the profundity of songwriters such as Woody Guthrie
. Musically, No Depression was influenced by the start-stop musical pattern of the Minutemen
. The cover of the album features a blurry photo of the band, taken by J. Hamilton, reminiscent of the albums released on Folkways Records
.
and the Southwestern United States
. Missouri radio stations KDHX
and KCOU
frequently played tracks off the album. By March 1991, No Depression had sold over 15,000 units, a hit by independent record standards. The proceeds from the album recuperated the $3,500 cost of the album, but Rockville refused to pay the band any royalties. Farrar and Tweedy later successfully sued Rockville CEO
Barry Tenenbaum to attain the royalties. The surprise success of the album prompted Columbia Records
to pay the band to record additional tracks with Slade and Kolderie at Fort Apache Studio in the summer of 1990, but the results were not released. Rolling Stone
did not publish a review of the album upon its initial release, although the magazine later featured Uncle Tupelo in an article about rising stars alongside the Black Crowes. Rolling Stone later called the album "one of the loudest, loneliest wails in recent memory to arise from the Midwest's recession-plagued plains". Robert Christgau
dismissed the album as a "dud".
After the lawsuit with Tenenbaum, Farrar and Tweedy received the rights to their first three albums (including No Depression), which were previously held by Rockville. In 2003, Uncle Tupelo remastered and re-released No Depression with six bonus tracks through Legacy Records, a Sony Music label. Among the bonus tracks were cover versions of the Flying Burrito Brothers' "Sin City", the Carter Family's "Blues Die Hard", and The Vertebrats
' "Left in the Dark". The liner notes for the re-release featured an article written by Mike Heidorn about Uncle Tupelo's early days and the creation of No Depression. Upon re-release, Allmusic referred to the album as "Uncle Tupelo's landmark opening salvo
", praising its "undeniable electricity" and remarking that it brought "new life" to the fusion of country and punk rock. Rolling Stone critic Tom Moon lauded "the band's impressive songwriting range", but noted that the bonus material was "pleasant but unconsequential". Pitchfork Media
gave the re-issue a 6.7 rating out of 10, proclaiming "No Depression is innovative for about thirteen minutes, after which it's sorely redundant".
No Depression is cited by RealNetworks
as one of the most important albums in the alternative country genre. This was partly due to the success of the alternative country periodical No Depression
, which took its name partly from the album. Due the impact of the album on alternative country, "No Depression" is sometimes used as a synonym for the genre. Allmusic critic Jason Ankeny noted that the album helped the band "kick-start a revolution which reverberated throughout the American underground". In 1999, Spin
listed the album as one of the "Top 90 Albums of the 90s".
2003 CD reissue bonus track
Additional personnel
Alternative country
Alternative country is a loosely defined sub-genre of country music, which includes acts that differ significantly in style from mainstream or pop country music...
band Uncle Tupelo
Uncle Tupelo
Uncle Tupelo was an alternative country music group from Belleville, Illinois, active between 1987 and 1994. Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn formed the band after the lead singer of their previous band, The Primitives, left to attend college. The trio recorded three albums for Rockville...
, released in June 1990. After its formation in the late 1980s, Uncle Tupelo recorded the Not Forever, Just for Now demo tape, which received a positive review by the College Media Journal in 1989. The review led to the band's signing with what would become Rockville Records later that year. The album was recorded with producers Sean Slade
Sean Slade
Sean Slade is a record producer, engineer, and mixer. He has worked with artists including Hole, Radiohead, Warren Zevon, Juliana Hatfield, Dinosaur Jr., Uncle Tupelo, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Boo Radleys, Sebadoh, Lush, the Go-Go's, and The Dictators among others. In 2005 he produced The...
and Paul Q. Kolderie
Paul Q. Kolderie
Paul Q. Kolderie is a record producer, engineer, and mixer. He has worked with Pixies, Radiohead, Orangutang, Hole, Dinosaur Jr., Juliana Hatfield, Wax, Warren Zevon, Uncle Tupelo, Throwing Muses, Morphine, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Abandoned Pools, and The Go-Go's...
at Fort Apache Studios
Fort Apache Studios
Fort Apache Studios is a New England recording studio internationally renowned for alternative rock sessions produced there since 1986. The studio is currently located in the village of Bellows Falls, Vermont in space leased in an old hotel called The Windham, owned by the town of Rockingham,...
, on a budget of US$3,500.
No Depression was critically acclaimed and sold well for an independent release. Selling over 15,000 copies within a year of its release, the album's success led to the release of the No Depression
No Depression (periodical)
No Depression was a bi-monthly magazine that covered a broad range of roots music, including alternative country and Americana.-History:...
periodical. The record is considered one of the most important alternative country albums, and its title is often used as a synonym for the alternative country genre after being popularized by No Depression magazine
No Depression (periodical)
No Depression was a bi-monthly magazine that covered a broad range of roots music, including alternative country and Americana.-History:...
. After regaining the rights to the album through a lawsuit, Uncle Tupelo released a remastered version in 2003 through Legacy Records, expanded to include six bonus tracks.
Background
Jay FarrarJay Farrar
Jay Farrar is an American songwriter and musician currently based in St. Louis, Missouri. A veteran of two critically acclaimed music groups, Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt, he began his solo music career in 2001...
, Jeff Tweedy
Jeff Tweedy
Jeffrey Scot "Jeff" Tweedy is an American songwriter, musician and leader of the band Wilco. Tweedy joined rockabilly band The Plebes with high school friend Jay Farrar in the early 1980s, but Tweedy's musical interests caused one of Farrar's brothers to quit...
and Mike Heidorn
Mike Heidorn
Mike Heidorn, born 1967 in Belleville, Illinois, is the former drummer and founding member of alternative country bands Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt. Heidorn also played with the Uncle Tupelo precursors the Primitives and the one-off band Coffee Creek with Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy of Uncle Tupelo...
began their musical careers in the 1980s playing in a garage band
Garage band
The term garage band can refer to:* A band that performs garage rock* GarageBand, audio production software published by Apple Inc.* GarageBand.com, a website that helps publicize emerging bands...
, The Plebes. After a few gigs, creative differences between the members led to the development of a punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
sound for the band. As punk rock was unpopular in the St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
region, the band changed their style to blues-rock
Blues-rock
Blues rock is a hybrid musical genre combining bluesy improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended boogie jams with rock and roll styles. The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar, piano, bass guitar and drum kit, with the electric guitar usually amplified through a...
and renamed themselves Uncle Tupelo. At this point, they stopped performing covers and began to write their own songs.
The band discovered a musical niche around Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
, where bands such as Brian Henneman
Brian Henneman
Brian Henneman is an alt-country/roots rock musician best known as the frontman for the Bottle Rockets, as a songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist. Artists such as John Prine, Neil Young and Merle Haggard have influenced his songwriting style. Henneman began his musical career in the mid-1980s...
's Chicken Truck performed in a similar style. The trio recorded its first professional tracks in Champaign, Illinois
Champaign, Illinois
Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...
with producer Adam Schmitt
Adam Schmitt
Adam Schmitt is a singer/songwriter from Champaign, Illinois. He recorded two albums with Reprise Records in the early 1990s before the label released his contract. Afterwards, he began to record albums in his studio, Mixolydian Studios, working with artists such as Hum and Uncle Tupelo...
. The demo tape
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
, Not Forever, Just for Now, contained early versions of several songs that would later appear on their debut album, including "Train", "Whiskey Bottle", "Flatness", "Screen Door", and "Before I Break".
That demo, as well as the band's rigorous touring schedule, attracted the attention of several music scouts. Record labels initially were wary of signing the band whom they perceived as straddling "the divide between the countrified punk of early 1980s such as Green on Red
Green on Red
Green on Red was an American rock band, formed in the Tucson, Arizona punk scene, but based for most of its career in Los Angeles, California, where it was loosely associated with the Paisley Underground...
, Jason & the Scorchers
Jason & the Scorchers
Jason & the Scorchers, originally Jason & the Nashville Scorchers, are a Cowpunk / Country rock band formed in 1981 and led by singer/songwriter Jason Ringenberg....
, and X—none of whom had bum-rushed the charts—and the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
of Mudhoney
Mudhoney
Mudhoney is an American alternative rock band. Formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1988 following the demise of Green River, Mudhoney's members are vocalist and rhythm guitarist Mark Arm, lead guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Guy Maddison, and drummer Dan Peters. Original bassist Matt Lukin left the...
and Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
, which was still years from breaking out commercially". However, the influential CMJ New Music Report gave the demo tape a favorable review in 1989, praising its "mature, developed, seriously thought-out songwriting". This review prompted New York City-based distributor Dutch East India Trading
Dutch East India Trading
Dutch East India Trading is an independent record label based in Rockville Centre, New York. It has released music by such artists as Sun Dial, The Orb, The Smiths, Soul-Junk, Die Monster Die, Prong, The Cure, Robert Wyatt, A Guy Called Gerald, Bongwater, Opium Den, Indian Bingo, Meat Beat...
to provide funding for the band to record an album on their Giant Records label, shortly before the label was renamed to Rockville Records.
Recording
Six months before signing a full contract with Giant/Rockville, Uncle Tupelo recorded the tracks for No Depression over ten days in January 1990 at Fort Apache SouthFort Apache Studios
Fort Apache Studios is a New England recording studio internationally renowned for alternative rock sessions produced there since 1986. The studio is currently located in the village of Bellows Falls, Vermont in space leased in an old hotel called The Windham, owned by the town of Rockingham,...
, a musician-run studio in the Roxbury
Roxbury, Massachusetts
Roxbury is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was one of the first towns founded in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, and became a city in 1846 until annexed to Boston on January 5, 1868...
neighborhood of Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. As the trio could not afford the cost of recording at a twenty-four track
Multitrack recording
Multitrack recording is a method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole...
studio in nearby Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, they settled on the cheaper Fort Apache studio. The album cost US$3,500 to produce, $1,000 of which went to in-house producers Sean Slade
Sean Slade
Sean Slade is a record producer, engineer, and mixer. He has worked with artists including Hole, Radiohead, Warren Zevon, Juliana Hatfield, Dinosaur Jr., Uncle Tupelo, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Boo Radleys, Sebadoh, Lush, the Go-Go's, and The Dictators among others. In 2005 he produced The...
and Paul Q. Kolderie
Paul Q. Kolderie
Paul Q. Kolderie is a record producer, engineer, and mixer. He has worked with Pixies, Radiohead, Orangutang, Hole, Dinosaur Jr., Juliana Hatfield, Wax, Warren Zevon, Uncle Tupelo, Throwing Muses, Morphine, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Abandoned Pools, and The Go-Go's...
. The band was interested in working with Slade and Kolderie after hearing their production of Dinosaur Jr.'s album Bug
Bug (Dinosaur Jr album)
Bug is the third album by American alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr., released in October 1988 through SST Records.It was the last Dinosaur Jr album with original bassist Lou Barlow until Beyond in 2007....
. The producers allowed Farrar to use the same 1961 Gibson Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...
guitar that J. Mascis used on Bug, which gave the power chord
Power chord
In music, a power chord is a chord consisting of only the root note of the chord and the fifth interval, usually played on electric guitar, and typically through an amplification process that imparts distortion...
s on No Depression a richer tone.
Slade and Kolderie suggested that the band deemphasize the roots rock
Roots rock
Roots rock is a term now used to describe rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is particularly associated with the creation of hybrid sub-genres from the later 1960s including country rock and Southern rock, which have been seen as responses to the...
influences heard on Not Forever, Just for Now and convinced them to replace the harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
parts with pedal steel guitar
Pedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
. For this, Slade and Kolderie recruited guitarist Rich Gilbert of Human Sexual Response
Human Sexual Response (band)
Human Sexual Response was an American New Wave band formed in Boston, MA in 1978. The band broke up in 1982.-Formation and early years:Casey Cameron formed an all-kazoo band with her neighbors, among whom were Larry Bangor , Dini Lamot , and Windle Davis...
for the recording. The tracks were recorded using little overdubbing
Overdubbing
Overdubbing is a technique used by recording studios to add a supplementary recorded sound to a previously recorded performance....
; only a few banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
and acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
parts were later added to the songs. At the suggestion of Slade and Kolderie, No Depression was recorded on eight-track, so "the music would compress and "jump" off the tape during playback". The recording sessions occurred before Uncle Tupelo officially became affiliated with Giant Records, so there was little input from the label.
Lyrically the songs reflected the band members' experiences growing up in Belleville. Farrar and Tweedy romanticized tales about unemployment, alcoholism, and the feeling of living in a small town in an effort to emulate the profundity of songwriters such as Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
. Musically, No Depression was influenced by the start-stop musical pattern of the Minutemen
Minutemen (band)
Minutemen were an American hardcore punk band formed in San Pedro, California in 1980. Composed of guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley, Minutemen recorded four albums and eight EPs before Boon's death in an automobile accident in December 1985...
. The cover of the album features a blurry photo of the band, taken by J. Hamilton, reminiscent of the albums released on Folkways Records
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...
.
Promotion and reception
No Depression was released by Rockville Records on June 21, 1990. The promotional tour for the album began at Cicero's Basement, a St. Louis bar associated with Washington University. The tour took Uncle Tupelo to both the East CoastEast Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
and the Southwestern United States
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...
. Missouri radio stations KDHX
KDHX
KDHX is an award winning, independent, non-commercial, listener-supported community radio station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States located at 88.1 MHz FM offering a full spectrum of music along with cultural and public affairs programming since 1987...
and KCOU
KCOU
KCOU is a radio station broadcasting the College radio format. Licensed to Columbia, Missouri, USA, the station is currently owned by the Missouri Students Association at the University of Missouri.-History:...
frequently played tracks off the album. By March 1991, No Depression had sold over 15,000 units, a hit by independent record standards. The proceeds from the album recuperated the $3,500 cost of the album, but Rockville refused to pay the band any royalties. Farrar and Tweedy later successfully sued Rockville CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
Barry Tenenbaum to attain the royalties. The surprise success of the album prompted Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
to pay the band to record additional tracks with Slade and Kolderie at Fort Apache Studio in the summer of 1990, but the results were not released. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
did not publish a review of the album upon its initial release, although the magazine later featured Uncle Tupelo in an article about rising stars alongside the Black Crowes. Rolling Stone later called the album "one of the loudest, loneliest wails in recent memory to arise from the Midwest's recession-plagued plains". Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
dismissed the album as a "dud".
After the lawsuit with Tenenbaum, Farrar and Tweedy received the rights to their first three albums (including No Depression), which were previously held by Rockville. In 2003, Uncle Tupelo remastered and re-released No Depression with six bonus tracks through Legacy Records, a Sony Music label. Among the bonus tracks were cover versions of the Flying Burrito Brothers' "Sin City", the Carter Family's "Blues Die Hard", and The Vertebrats
The Vertebrats
The Vertebrats are a musical group formed in the twin cities of Champaign-Urbana , Illinois, initially active from 1979 until 1982. They are credited with being one of the originators of a local CU DIY music scene that still exists...
' "Left in the Dark". The liner notes for the re-release featured an article written by Mike Heidorn about Uncle Tupelo's early days and the creation of No Depression. Upon re-release, Allmusic referred to the album as "Uncle Tupelo's landmark opening salvo
Salvo
A salvo is the simultaneous discharge of artillery or firearms including the firing of guns either to hit a target or to perform a salute.Troops armed with muzzleloaders required time in which to refill their arms with gun powder and shot...
", praising its "undeniable electricity" and remarking that it brought "new life" to the fusion of country and punk rock. Rolling Stone critic Tom Moon lauded "the band's impressive songwriting range", but noted that the bonus material was "pleasant but unconsequential". Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
gave the re-issue a 6.7 rating out of 10, proclaiming "No Depression is innovative for about thirteen minutes, after which it's sorely redundant".
No Depression is cited by RealNetworks
RealNetworks
RealNetworks, Inc. is a provider of Internet media delivery software and services based in Downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. The company is the creator of RealAudio, a compressed audio format; RealVideo, a compressed video format; RealPlayer, a media player; RealDownloader, a download...
as one of the most important albums in the alternative country genre. This was partly due to the success of the alternative country periodical No Depression
No Depression (periodical)
No Depression was a bi-monthly magazine that covered a broad range of roots music, including alternative country and Americana.-History:...
, which took its name partly from the album. Due the impact of the album on alternative country, "No Depression" is sometimes used as a synonym for the genre. Allmusic critic Jason Ankeny noted that the album helped the band "kick-start a revolution which reverberated throughout the American underground". In 1999, Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
listed the album as one of the "Top 90 Albums of the 90s".
Track listing
All songs written by Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn except as indicated.- "Graveyard Shift" – 4:43
- "That Year" (Farrar, Tweedy) – 2:59
- "Before I Break" – 2:48
- "No DepressionNo Depression in Heaven"No Depression in Heaven" is a song that was first recorded by the original Carter Family in 1936 during the Great Depression. Although A.P...
" (A.P. Carter) – 2:20 - "Factory Belt" – 3:13
- "Whiskey Bottle" – 4:46
- "Outdone" (Farrar, Tweedy) – 2:48
- "Train" (Tweedy) – 3:19
- "Life Worth Livin'" – 3:32
- "Flatness" (Tweedy) – 2:58
- "So Called Friend" (Farrar) – 3:12
- "Screen Door" – 2:42
- "John HardyJohn Hardy (song)"John Hardy" is a traditional American folk song based on the life of a railroad worker in West Virginia. The historical John Hardy killed a man during a craps game, was found guilty of murder in the first degree, and was hanged on January 19, 1894....
" (traditional, arr. Lead Belly) – 2:21- Track 13 is a CD only bonus track.
2003 CD reissue bonus track
- "Left in the Dark" (Draznik) – 3:09
- "Won't Forget" – 2:51
- "Sin City" (ParsonsGram ParsonsGram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons is best known for his work within the country genre; he also mixed blues, folk, and rock to create what he called "Cosmic American Music"...
, HillmanChris HillmanChristopher Hillman was one of the original members of The Byrds which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, and Michael Clarke....
) – 3:53 - "Whiskey Bottle" (Live Acoustic) – 4:40
- "No Depression" (1988 Demo) – 2:19
- "Blues Die Hard" (1987 Demo) (A. P. Carter) – 4:08
- Tracks 17–19 previously unreleased.
Personnel
Uncle Tupelo- Jay FarrarJay FarrarJay Farrar is an American songwriter and musician currently based in St. Louis, Missouri. A veteran of two critically acclaimed music groups, Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt, he began his solo music career in 2001...
– vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, banjoBanjoIn the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, mandolinMandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, fiddleFiddleThe term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
, harmonicaHarmonicaThe harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes... - Mike HeidornMike HeidornMike Heidorn, born 1967 in Belleville, Illinois, is the former drummer and founding member of alternative country bands Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt. Heidorn also played with the Uncle Tupelo precursors the Primitives and the one-off band Coffee Creek with Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy of Uncle Tupelo...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, cymbalCymbalCymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
s - Jeff TweedyJeff TweedyJeffrey Scot "Jeff" Tweedy is an American songwriter, musician and leader of the band Wilco. Tweedy joined rockabilly band The Plebes with high school friend Jay Farrar in the early 1980s, but Tweedy's musical interests caused one of Farrar's brothers to quit...
– vocals, acoustic guitarAcoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
, bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
Additional personnel
- Rich Gilbert – pedal steel guitarPedal steel guitarThe pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
- J. Hamilton – photography
- Paul Q. KolderiePaul Q. KolderiePaul Q. Kolderie is a record producer, engineer, and mixer. He has worked with Pixies, Radiohead, Orangutang, Hole, Dinosaur Jr., Juliana Hatfield, Wax, Warren Zevon, Uncle Tupelo, Throwing Muses, Morphine, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Abandoned Pools, and The Go-Go's...
– productionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, audio engineeringAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
, sound effects - Sean SladeSean SladeSean Slade is a record producer, engineer, and mixer. He has worked with artists including Hole, Radiohead, Warren Zevon, Juliana Hatfield, Dinosaur Jr., Uncle Tupelo, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Boo Radleys, Sebadoh, Lush, the Go-Go's, and The Dictators among others. In 2005 he produced The...
– production, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, engineering, background vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
External links
- No Depression liner notes (2003 reissue) from factorybelt.net