This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen magazine #102 (October / November 2002). The magazine is available on newsstands and by subscription.

Vital Natural Resources

Penguin Eggs
Winter 2001, Issue No 12 (2001); One year subscription Cdn$23.25/US$23.50

Penguin Eggs is a quarterly publication that bills itself as "Canada's Folk, Roots, and World Music Magazine," and it covers the same general range of music as Dirty Linen from a more northerly perspective. The 52-page issue reviewed here includes relatively short, but generally well-written features on performers (La Bottine Souriante, Garnet Rogers, Gillian Welch, The Waifs, and Long John Baldry), a Canadian-oriented news section, roots record charts, a couple of pages of book and gig reviews, and medium-length reviews of 63 world-spanning CDs. Layout is straightforward, and inside photos are black and white. There's always room for more voices in folk music journalism, and Penguin Eggs is worth checking out if you'd like to hear another one.

— Tom Nelligan (Waltham, MA)

Rhythms: Australia's Roots Music Monthly
Issue 118, May '02; issue 119 June '02; AUS$44/yr

In April, Rhythms celebrated its 10th anniversary of serving Australia's roots-music community. A monthly full color publication, it averages 90+ pages an issue and contains a variety of interviews and profiles (generally shorter than those in Dirty Linen), a number of reviews, calendars, charts, and gig guides, and, of course, lots of music-related advertising.

Cover stories have included a balance between Australian artists and those from other countries, among them Bob Brozman, Kasey Chambers, Dr. John, Vika and Linda, and Emmylou Harris. In addition to profiles, stories in the issues reviewed included an Australian band's journal of attending SXSW, accompanied by the impressions of one of the magazine's writers who was there also; a selection of the best concert and record reviews from the magazine's 10 years; a road trip by several of the editors to Jazzfest in New Orleans; and an annotated list of picks for Australia's best 100 albums. There's a heavier emphasis on rock and a corresponding lesser emphasis on folk than in Dirty Linen. In editorial tone and style, Rhythms is probably a bit closer to No Depression than DL.

— Kerry Dexter (Tallahassee, FL)