Barry Mazor

Barry Mazor is a long-time music and media journalist, and the author of several books, including Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music and Meeting Jimmie Rodgers: How America’s Original Roots Music Hero Changed the Pop Sounds of a Century. He has also contributed to the volumes Oxford Handbook of Country Music, The Best of No Depression (2005), the Encyclopedia Britannica, The Grove Dictionary of American Music, The Encyclopedia of Country Music, and the Routledge Encyclopedia of the Blues. Mazor has been writing regularly on roots and country music for The Wall Street Journal since 2003, and was previously a senior editor and columnist for the “alternative country” music bible, No Depression magazine. His artist profiles, interviews, essays and music reviews have also appeared in The Oxford American,The Washington Post, the Village Voice,  The New Republic, The Nashville Scene, American Songwriter, The Journal of Country Music,  Fretboard, and Crawdaddy, among other publications. Mazor was the 2008 winner of The Charlie Lamb Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts graduate film school, and a B.A. from The George Washington University.  He lives in Nashville, TN, with his wife, Nina Melechen.