No Depression in Heaven is a Carter Family song from the 30's, when the dreary economic environment forced people to dream of and to seek better days. The Carter Family, along with folks like Merle Travis and Jimmie Rodgers, were seminal forces in the creation of what we know as Country Music. But the dreary and commercial Country Music scene that has gradually evolved, typified by packaged acts like Garth Brooks and Shania Twain, has spawned another movement which rejects the Nashville/Hollywood Country Scene. Taking their name from the Carter Family song, and a mid-nineties album release by an alternative country band called Uncle Tupelo, the movement of young country rebels calls itself No Depression.

The movement looks to the Carters, Travis, Hank Williams Sr, Buck Owens and Merle Haggard as its pioneers, and to Gram Parsons, John Fogerty and Neil Young as the first to blend Country Roots music with Rock and Roll, thus giving No Depression music its distinctive sound. The movement has its own periodical (likewise named No Depression), with a web page here click. Sid Griffin, a songwriter and lead singer for The Long Ryders and Western Electric who has also penned a bio of Gram Parsons, is a principle figure. Other bands which exemplify the sound are Son Volt, The Jayhawks and Whiskey Town. The "New Insurgent Country" web page gives more info on the No Depression scene.

I find this exciting first of all, because I have always been a fan of Parsons, Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam and others who have now been embraced by the No Depressioners. It is great to see a movement of artists, most in their teens or twenties, who recognize the significance of roots in Country music, and are willing and able to shake things up. A thread once asked, in relation to the perceived absence of young people in traditional music, "Where are the Kids?" It appears that at least some of them are alive and well in the No Depression movement.