No Depression: What It Sounds Like (Vol. 1)
Various Artists
Dualtone Music

 

In 1995, Peter Blackstock and Grant Alden started publishing No Depression, a bimonthly magazine devoted to alternative country music, a genre that can trace its roots back to Gram Parsons’ hugely influential albums of the early 1970s (or even earlier, to late-’60s Byrds stuff) but remains decidedly undefinable.

 

“Indeed, the definition is elusive precisely because, as will all true art, this music pays no mind to strictures or bounds,” write Blackstock and Alden in the liner notes to No Depression: What It Sounds Like (Vol. 1), a representative alt-country collection. “And yet, somewhere, somehow, there is a commonality, a harmonizing chord struck between the cracks of the styles and genres that blend together amid the artists portrayed in our paper.”

 

The compilation features tracks by some of alt-country’s luminaries, including Alejandro Escovedo (“Five Hearts Breaking”), Doug Sahm (“Cowboy Peyton Place”) and Allison Moorer (“Is Heaven Good Enough for You”). It also includes songs by more mainstream artists like Whiskeytown, Robbie Fulks and Kasey Chambers, all of whom help make the CD extremely accessible to alt-country newcomers.

 

Perhaps fittingly, the CD is bookended by artists who have infinitely inspired the alt-country scene: Johnny Cash at the beginning and the Carter Family at the end. Their music — and that of their disciples — might be hard to define, but it’s also easy to enjoy, respect and appreciate.