While Voodoo Lounge definitely has some good songs, I still think Steel Wheels is the best of their latter day material. Then again, I also like A Bigger Bang. It's no masterwork by any means but I still enjoy listening to it.

Maybe. I do know those "Extended Versions" CDs are usually cheap knockoffs of material available elsewhere. As for seeing Mountain, anytime you go to see a band that's well past it's prime that's sort of the chance you take. For instance the Marshall Tucker Band is still touring and charging $30 a pop to see a group that only includes one original member. I've heard they're still good live but I'm not forking over 30 bucks to see a ghost of what once was.

Admittedly I go through phases but that's mostly with different artists, not musical styles. I can go from a Sabbath binge to a reggae binge into listening to country, bluegrass, ska, etc. As for Gold, I like it but I feel it's the most highly derivative of his solo albums, at least to my ears. By the time he got to Cold Roses I could hear the influence of the Grateful Dead but couldn't pick up on chords and vocal imitations like I could with Gold. Then again, he said he wanted Gold to sound like changing channels on an FM tuner back in the 70s. He accomplished that with nods to The Band, Neil Young, Van Morrison, etc. throughout that record. He even throws in some Prince at one point.

In regards to whether Ratdog plays any of their material in concert or not? I've seen Ratdog a few times but don't recall any Kingfish. To find out for sure I imagine you can find some of their setlists online.

I agree about the article but I'll take Strangers Almanac over Trace if only by a nose. I love both records.

The internet is a wonderful thing. I suggest looking it up at allmusic.com or amazon.com.

I saw The Other Ones (the first incarnation) and The Dead, neither of which should be confused with The Grateful Dead. That said, I enjoyed The Other Ones much more than The Dead. My last Grateful Dead show was in the spring of '95 in Charlotte: Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, NC (Friday, 3/24/95) Feel Like a Stranger Stagger Lee Minglewood Blues High Time If the Shoe Fits Black Throated Wind Bird Song -> Promised Land Here Comes Sunshine Samba in the Rain Women are Smarter Eyes of the World -> Drums -> Space -> The Last Time -> Black Peter -> Around and Around Encore: Liberty

Slump takes down magazine Changes in the recording industry prove fatal for roots-music chronicle No Depression MAGAZINE COVER By David Menconi, Staff Writer This week's announcement that No Depression magazine was shutting down took most of its fans by surprise. The bi-monthly magazine, which helped define as well as popularize alternative-country music, will end a 13-year run with its May/June issue. "I feel gobsmacked," says Raleigh's Phyllis Gordon, a subscriber for nearly a decade and one of No Depression's many Triangle readers. "This is really a shock. It's like finding out your best friend has moved to China." You can read the rest of the article here: http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/956544.html

Hard to believe this woman once suffered from stage fright.

I'm pretty sure this is the first issue I ever purchased: This one is probably the earliest issue I own: One issue I wish was in my collection (it's presently going for $50 through the No Depression website):

It goes back much further than that, it's an old hymn that dates back to 1907. In regards to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album, it's also been on my most wanted list for a while. I've heard it many times over the years but have never actually owned a copy in any format. It's definitely worth the investment.

By Paul Saitowitz If the music world had its own Olympics, the flag-bearers marching in front of the alt-country team would probably be Wilco’s formidable Jeff Tweedy and the sometimes likeable, always beguiling Ryan Adams. But while those two have undeniably spearheaded (if not mainstreamed) a genre that was cultivated by folks like Gram Parsons and Townes Van Zandt years ago, there is a third, slightly more anonymous teammate who should be by their side. No, it’s not Rhett Miller. The Old 97’s frontman is certainly a valued member of the squad, but he hangs out a bit too much with the pop-music kids to warrant captain status. Rather, the unsung hero and deserved third standard-bearer is Jay Farrar. You can read the rest of the article here: http://www.sdcitybeat.com/cms/story/detail...r_and_away/6658

I first got turned onto Sarah due to her gigs with local artist Tift Merritt. Seems Sarah's husband Johnny Irion used to be in a band with Tift's boyfriend Zeke Hutchins called Queen Sarah Saturday. They've done lots of shows in the area together over the years.

Arlo was just through here on his "solo reunion" tour. I passed on seeing him but he's always been very entertaining when I've seen him in the past (MerleFest, Furthur Festival). Not sure if you've checked out his daughter Sara Lee Guthrie but she's quite the chip off the old block.

Actually no one said a fucking word until YOU pointed it out. You also seem to have not only a short but a selective memory when it comes to making racist remarks on this board. If you bring up such subjects you should fully expect to be called on them. Take your ball and go home if you want but that doesn't make you any less guilty of the things you've said. Perhaps if you didn't want any controversy you would have been better served by not saying anything about icantquityoubabe's use of the word "japped" but you opted not to do that so you've got no one to blame but yourself. Like I've said, you're a shit stirrer, nothing more, nothing less.

You read way more into my posts than you should. Yes, I was referring to "Jethro Tull".

http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/...19&srvc=rss Jason Isbell in the driver’s seat After splitting with wife and band, ex-Trucker Isbell steers career toward ‘Ditch’ By Jed Gottlieb / Music When love ends, the fallout is never pretty. But as tough as you’ve had it, Alabama singer-guitarist Jason Isbell probably had it worse. Last year, Isbell’s marriage ended at the same time he was leaving his band, the Drive-By Truckers. What’s worse is that Isbell was married to Truckers’ bassist Shonna Tucker. Thankfully Isbell, who plays Wednesday at the Paradise, had something to fall back on: a nearly finished solo album he’d spent years writing and recording (with many of the Truckers, including Tucker, helping out). Isbell has kept the bad blood to a minimum and doesn’t say much about the splits with a woman and a band he spent the better part of a decade with. “I’m not interested in working with them and I don’t think they’re interested in working with me, so it’s just not something either one of us want to revisit,” he said with a cool, Southern drawl. Instead, he’s turned his attention to other lost loves. Isbell’s solo debut, “Sirens of the Ditch,” is full of heartbreakers that bring to mind the most tragic and touching Trucker tunes. But one song, “Dress Blues,” a poignant elegy to a U.S. Marine killed in the Iraq War, has a more brutal gravity than the rest. Like “Outfit,” his masterful hymn to his father and growing up poor in the South, Isbell’s “Dress Blues” puts to use the smart, specific, Steinbeck-like details that etch a deep melancholy. “It’s pretty much a true story,” Isbell said of the song. “It’s about somebody I went to high school with named Matthew Conley and the fallout in that community when he didn’t come back from the war. “It was really, really technically easy to write that song,” he continued. “It all came out in 20, 30 minutes at the most. There wasn’t a whole lot of planning involved. Sometimes that’s the way the best ones come out. You just have to hang on as they come.” Like any break between loves or band mates - or both in his case - Isbell must believe it was for the best. He has to convince himself that he’s a better person and a better artist now. “Sirens of the Ditch” and the brilliant bitter pill of “Dress Blues” should reassure Isbell he made the right move. “A lot of the things the Truckers were doing were never my ideas,” he said. “I just came in and filled a role, so when it was time for me to do my own album, I did things differently. I write a lot and I feel like I do a pretty good job with it, and I have a pretty good band. So hopefully this will work out just fine.” It’s good to see he’s hopeful after the fallout. The heartbreak of “Sirens” makes for great art, but it can’t be good on the artist’s psyche. “I’m already writing songs for the next record,” Isbell said. “One thing I can say is that they’re rock songs. The next album won’t be so slow. It’s a rock record.” Jason Isbell, with Will Hoge and Dawn Landes, at the Paradise, Wednesday. Tickets: $15; 617-562-8800, thedise.com.

Even though I was a fan of some of the folks I saw covered in the magazine the first few times I glanced through a copy it wasn't until a few years later that I actually began to read it on a regular basis and eventually subscribed to it. I understand the No Depression website will continue but will not attempt to be some sort of replacement for the print edition.

Just so long as you don't mind them making you look like a fucking idiot.

Thanks, the two or three of us here that are Wilco fans really appreciate it.

What in the fuck are you talking about? To fans of alternative country like myself, No Depression going out of publication is a great loss. You're only showing your fucking ignorance of the magazine by making jokes more closely associated with country music, something No Depression was rarely ever about. Yes, they put folks like Willie Nelson and Don Williams on the cover but they were the rare exception, it was usually someone like Gram Parsons, Steve Earle, Billy Joe Shaver Whiskeytown, Uncle Tupelo, Jay Farrar, Drive-By Truckers, Alejandro Escovedo, etc., musicians who represented the flipside to mainstream country music, the side commercial radio and CMT/TNN refused to acknowledge. Before you go making such asides in the future you might be better served by actually educating yourself on the subject first.

The fighting is over a poster that has a history of making racial remarks since joining the site. When no one said a word about icantquityoubabe's use of the word "japped" he had to make an issue of it, thus stirring the pot even more.

Why? There's not a damn thing the matter with being a fan of Dolly Parton's. Unfortunately she hasn't been in the best of health lately though. Hopefully she'll recover soon so you'll be able to see her.

The Bleeding Hearts Stayin' After Class Revisited Saturday, February 9th Slim's Downtown Distillery Raleigh, NC The Bleeding Hearts "Pretty Enough" Before beginning work on their next record The Bleeding Hearts played their debut (Stayin' After Class) all the way through and then finished up by playing a couple of numbers that'll be on the next record.

I'm not sure how new you are to message boards or if you're new to them at all but once fans of a certain artist have their say there may not be much more they have to offer. It's not like there's only one post and no one replied at all. Every thread, even ones about Janis Joplin, eventually run their course.