An essay I wrote about Nashville yesterday and today was recently published in my college alum magazine, Northwestern. There's also video there of me talking about our key indie music events: Next Big Nashville, Americana and IBMA. Key excerpt:
Nowadays the international media companies that own the big labels measure Nashville’s output against the aberrant fortunes made by Garth Brooks and Shania Twain in the 1990s, a veritable recipe for overthinking, corporate interference, risk management and artistic disappointment.
I was always struck how southern Chicago was, with its blues and soul food and ample evidence of the great migrations from the Delta and elsewhere. And ironically it was at a blues record label in Chicago (I was an intern at Alligator Records in 1987) that I was first exposed, by a co-worker, to bluegrass music in a serious way. I've kept in close touch with Chicago ever since and I was happy to have a platform there to say something about the city I love here.
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