No Depression was launched in September 1995 (as a quarterly) by co-editors/co-founders Grant Alden and Peter Blackstock. Kyla Fairchild, who handled the business functions of the magazine from the beginning, became a co-publisher with Alden and Blackstock in 1998. The magazine was named for the
Carter Family song "
No Depression in Heaven," the 1990 album
No Depression by the band
Uncle Tupelo, and an early
AOL online discussion group on alternative country called The No Depression Folder.
No Depression has received the
Utne Reader Independent Press Awards for Arts & Literature coverage, and was cited as one of the nation's Top 20 magazines of any kind in 2004 by the
Chicago Tribune. Two
No Depression music festivals took place at Marymoore Park, just outside Seattle. The first was on July 11, 2009, and featured
Gillian Welch,
Iron and Wine,
Patterson Hood and the Screwtopians,
Jesse Sykes,
Justin Townes Earle,
Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Zee Avi, and Seattle roots music all-stars. The second was August 21, 2010 and featured
The Swell Season,
Lucinda Williams,
The Cave Singers,
Alejandro Escovedo,
Chuck Prophet,
Sera Cahoone, and
The Maldives. The publishers announced in February 2008 that the May–June 2008 issue would be their last.
Buddy Miller was featured on the cover of the final issue, with
No Depression declaring him Artist of the Decade. Soon after, co-founders Alden and Blackstock sold their ownership stakes to Fairchild in 2008 and 2010, respectively. In the wake of the magazine going out of print,
No Depression launched a community website (NoDepression.com) on the Ning platform in February 2009. Fairchild sold her ownership of
No Depression to FreshGrass LLC in 2014. In 2016, the FreshGrass Foundation – a nonprofit organization that supports roots musicians and music scenes around the United States – took over
No Depression and the FreshGrass Festival which it operates in conjunction with Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA). ==Return to print, Move to digital-only==