Search - Uncle Tupelo :: No Depression

Alt-Country begins here ....

B. Dreiling | Lawrence, KS USA | 04/17/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Uncle Tupelo might be one of the most impressive and important bands you have never heard of. In the few short years -- and four amazing albums -- of their existence they developed a sound that would turn into the alt-country movement."No Depression" is the first record they released. You can hear the twang of the country music background that was around them in Bellville, IL, the punk rock sounds of The Clash and The Romones in the heavy, quick guitar riffs, and the folk influences of Bob Dylan in the lyrics of this album. It really transcended any music of the time.The songs individually are all excellent. The songs "No Depression", "Screen Door" and "Live Worth Livin'" stand out in my mind as the best of the disk. Farrar and Tweedy's voices compliment each other track to track while also giving a depth to the sound of the album. Quickly you will pick up on differences of Farrar's raspy voice, and deep outward looking lyrics while Tweedy's voice is smoother and lyrics are more inward looking.I would recommend any current fans of the new resurgence of Alt-Country (the likes of Ryan Adam and Jesse Malin) to pick up this CD and all of Uncle Tupelo's albums to see where the genre began. Fans of Wilco (Tweedy's current band) and Son Volt (Farrar's band) will already know about the greatness of them music, and should also pick of these disks as before the re-release they were almost impossible to find."

A foundational album by a dynamic indie-rock band

Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com | ...in Middle America | 05/25/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Uncle Tupelo, coming from the St. Louis suburbs on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, were a striking and dynamic Midwestern indie-rock band, synthesizing the driving, punkish rhythms of earlier bands such as Soul Asylum with the Seattle-based grunge scene and the various soul-searching, profundity drenched REM wannabees. As an extra, double-dog-dare twist, they also threw in clever hints of old-fashioned country and twang, music that hip kids in the South and Midwest had been taught to despise as redneck trash. They were not, as advertised, the founders of alt.country (Gram Parsons, Willie Nelson, High Sheriff Ricky Barnes and the Knitters might have something to say about that...) but they were probably the band that made the biggest dent in the indie-rock landscape of the time.This 1990 debut showed an enthusiastic and eclectic band, mostly a three-piece comprised of songwriter guitarists Jay Ferrar and Jeff Tweedy, along with drummer Mike Heidorn, which plowed through emotive, grungy roots rock and some folkie acoustic material, with unrepentant whiffs of cowpunk and grindcore included in the margins. This new CD edition offers six extra tracks -- live perfomances, demo tracks and outtakes -- as well as casual, informative liner notes by drummer Mike Heidorn, and lots of Uncle Tupelo memorabilia, such as reprints of old show posters, advertising the band playing at frat parties and teeny local bars. For devoted fans or the newly curious, this is a pretty classy package."

Oh My, yes indeed!

Frank Garon | Breinigsville, PA United States | 08/09/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Now this, THIS is my kind of music. Punk meets Country, with Rock sprinkled all over for good measure! From the opening note of "Graveyard Shift" to the close of "Blues Die Hard, there's 19 tracks of pure great music to be had here.



This stuff is potent - what creativity, what diversity, what a great sound these guys put out. Makes me mad I didn't discover them sooner, because Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt are two of the best groups I've been lucky enough to come across in the past year or two. Really and truly well worth buying this one is, you will be very glad you did!"