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If you can forgive a humble editor’s head swelling a little in pride, it’s hard to feel much of anything else for this ultra-kind and thoughtful tribute to our magazine — and its 30-year effort to cover some good music with both brain and heart in equal measure.
That it comes from a blog connected to one of my favorite radio stations in the country just makes it extra special.
Of course anyone would naturally be pleased and moved to be called “incredible” by a writer who has clearly been reading our work for about as long as we have been producing it, but I am also pleased that the author singles out the efforts of several of our quite deserving writers who authored a number of our best features in the current issue 67.
Along those lines, I will give you my favorite paragraph from this article, the closing one, written by Chris Estey:
“In fact, all the authors of the articles and criticism are the kinds of people you can trust about any non-mainstream genre you’re interested in; Jack seems to hire scribes you want to buy a drink for and talk all night about the Minneapolis scene, the feuds and the love affairs between bands on the road, the albums that kept you alive till the next morning after the night all your friends ran when the cops kicked their way into the club. This is bourbon and fireside rock criticism, and yet it’s as up to date and “on it” as any blog or website you’ll read tomorrow. If you ever wished that Pitchfork was more tied into the original regional-aesthetic based, beguiled but no-BS root of the heralded rock press (CREEM, Crawdaddy), then The Big Takeover is your last great read on slick, shiny paper. It is not just another music publication, it is possibly the only one left.”
I can only say thanks to Mr. Estey for his incredibly kind summation of our work, and I hope many listeners from what is in turn an “incredible” station (I even remember hearing a fantastic show on KEXP one night devoted to 1930s country, while in the car, driving from Seattle’s Seatac Airport to the Anacortes Ferry!) are inspired to indeed check out our new issue! Or you (the Subscription and Back Issues buttons are to your left if you want to click on them).
Made my day, any way! And my sincere gratitude for the love and enthusiasm!
