(University of Texas Press)

www.utexas.edu/utpress

www.nodepression.com

We Harp magazine refugees here at Blurt obviously have great empathy for any music journalists who lose their magazine. So it's encouraging to see the alternative country bible No Depression - which ceased publication last spring - reemerge as a quarterly "bookazine" from the University of Texas press. At least in theory....

In practice, however, No Depression's bow in a new format is, well, a tad depressing, as both the magazine's merits and its shortfalls have basically transferred form. One certainly can't fault its editors and writers for their honorable devotion to American roots music. No D's expansion of its mission as it matured into African-American artists is even laudable, and this collection of 16 articles on "The Next Generation" admirably includes two Black acts.

But it's not just the shift towards an academic journal that makes this tome largely a snooze for the reader. The magazine's style of largely linear and yawningly respectful-in-tone features - and too often overly-in-depth stories on acts whose reach and accomplishments are minimal (as the sad secret of Americana is that even some of its most respected acts barely Soundscan in the thousands and sometimes even in the hundreds) - continues here. Too often, partway through an article, interest in the subject and even finishing the story wanes.

So even a fascinating artist like cover girl Abigail Washburn, who injects Chinese flavors into American musical traditions, is written about in a way that feels as monochromatic as the pages the story is printed on, devoid of the genuine color great music should inspire in its chroniclers. There's just not much of the snap, crackle and pop that one hears in truly innovative and compelling music within the writing here. A long story about how promising singer and fiddler Carrie Rodriguez has found her own artistic soul on an album that largely reduces her to sounding like most every other Adult Album Alternative chanteuse collapses under the strain of its stretched premise. And a lengthy essay enumerating the pop music merits of - of all people - Hanson leaves this reader scratching my head and wondering why it was included, even if its contention might be borne out by the music they are now making (though a line asserting that "MMM Bop" is on the same creative plane as "Tutti Frutti" is downright laughable).

On the other hand, while the magazine's CD reviews were all too often devoid of any genuine criticism - which served neither the consumer nor the artists - the 11 reviews here include some incisive observations (including the sad but largely overlooked fact that Al Green's recent work, good as it sounds - the man could sing computer manuals with savvy and soul - doesn't have the sort of songs that made him a star as well as an icon). And in a more permanent trade paperback format, couldn't the space be better used to spotlight those albums of any vintage that make the case for Americana, which remains a largely failed movement, rather than current releases?

And at five pennies shy of 20 bucks for the book, one has to wonder just who the hell is going to buy the darn thing. The intentions here are indeed admirable, and the devotion of the No Depression gang to their mission can't be faulted. But one has to wonder if this reemergence into the marketplace is executed in a fashion that includes the meaning of that word that implies fatal. ROB PATTERSON