This was a long time ago. Driving south to Portland, Oregon, everything in some kind of order, hot coffee and an advance tape of Poison Idea's Feel the Darkness for company, until quite abruptly instead of punk rock on the tape, there was bluegrass. Now, Poison Idea were a phenomenally gifted punk band, anchored by the subtle (really) guitar work of the well over 400-pound Pig Champion. But though they once covered the Go-Go's, they never went in for bluegrass.

Poison Idea's manager was a middle-aged gentleman who worked mostly as a photographer, and that in itself seemed an odd pairing. But the juxtaposition of classic bluegrass and punk rock required some kind of explanation. "Oh yeah," he said over the phone. "I grew up backstage at the Grand Ole Opry."

A few months later, two photographs of Hank Williams arrived in the mail. (One is on the cover, the other on p. 50.) That is how this issue's cover story came about.

How if fits into our conception of No Depression is a somewhat different matter. Bottom line? We wanted to, which is pretty much the same reason this magazine started four issues back, and which will remain our guiding principle, and never mind that the thing's grown like Topsy.

For whatever reason, people get caught up in labeling music, and proclaiming the arrival of musical movements. And so the question becomes, should this particular musical movement be called twangcore, insurgent country, alternative country...doesn't matter. The music predates (and will survive) whatever labeling and movement the moment ascribes to it. We just want to write about it.
–GRANT ALDEN

My parents kindly and (I hope) proudly page through this magazine when I send it to them, but they have no idea what I'm talking about. Mom pronounces Bob Zimmerman's more commonly known pseudonym
"DYE-lan"; Dad's listened to many a violin in his days, but few fiddles. (Ironic, then, that a fiddle player in one of the bands featured in this issue very nearly went to study acoustics from him as a grad student in mechanical engineering at the University of Texas; but I digress.)

Anyhow, folks occasionally ask Dad what the kids are up to. When he tells them about No Depression, he usually receives puzzled looks in return, so his stock answer has become, "It's a magazine about alternative-country music – whatever that is." Funny, though; even though I'm the co-editor of this magazine, the more I've thought about his reply, the more I've come to feel the same way.

As we've made our way through our first four issues, we've struggled constantly with the concept of what constitutes alternative country. A lot of musicians don't cotton to being considered part of a "movement", and it's easy to sympathize with their perspective; after all, it's not as if a bunch of them signed a pact pledging their allegiance to the alliance of rock 'n' roll and country. Nevertheless, listening to these bands in context with each other, it's fairly easy to envision a bigger picture that encompasses their individual identities.

Trying to find a frame that can hold that bigger picture is ultimately a pointless task. As my colleague states above, it really just comes down to what we want to write about. If we can continue to do that, and continue to grow as we have in the first year of existence, we'll be happy to have achieved our own modest level of "success" – whatever that is.

–PETER BLACKSTOCK