Sunday Drive
traipsing thru the internets

Been a few weeks since we've fired up the ol' americanacycle for a Drive. When high temps are only in the 40s, I suppose the last thing you want to do is feel the wind in your hair, etc. That's my excuse, and the fact that I've taken on another 'real' job at Boulder Book Store. My first minimum wage job in 15 years! I always want to feel younger, but ...

Anyhows, the new No Depression website is now active. I counted on their "Please Release Me" list of release dates on their older site, but that doesn't seem to have made the cut. In other news of great seismic shifts in the americana-sphere, one of the best independent distributors of our kind of music has pulled down the proverbial blinds. Miles of Music did a fine job pulling together albums from established acts and self-publishers, but couldn't compete with the pretty bells and whistles elsewhere. So what's next?

Please don't make it Paste Magazine, one of the last alternative mags featuring at least a modicum of americana content. Paste's online presence noticed that things are heating up in the Magnolia Electric Co camp. I'll have to save a space in my stocking this Christmas ... Wouldn't mind this either.

Plenty of fellow music snobs make a point of stressing their dislike of the holiday music which is dusted off over the next several weeks. I count myself as among those welcoming an excuse to play such favorites as Emmylou's Light of the Stable or "Nothing But a Child" by Steve Earle. 2008 has already delivered promising collections by Mary-Chapin Carpenter and Bela Fleck. Also on the horizon are Christmas Cheer by the Boxmasters, unreleased material from Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer called American Noel, Northern Lights by Gretchen Peters, and something called Hotel Cafe Presents Winter Songs, with contributions from Brandi Carlile, Nicole Atkins, and a handful of artists who sound like Jack Johnson ...

alright then,
Scott