Colophon

About

Why I’m here, and who keeps the lights on.

Hi, I’m Kjell.

I grew up a long way from Nashville — in Kristiansand, on the south coast of Norway — but the first time I heard Townes Van Zandt sing “If I Needed You” on a cassette my uncle had brought back from Texas, something in me went quiet in a way it had never gone quiet before. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.

Midnight Americana is the place where I write down what I find. It’s independent, it’s personal, and it’s built by hand — one record, one session, one late night at a time.

What this site is

An independent home for country, Americana and roots music. No paid placement. No press-release rewriting. No algorithm dressed up as taste. Just slow, honest writing about records made by people who still care about the song.

I publish album reviews after the third listen, never the first. I sit with artists rather than “cover” them. I keep a running calendar of festivals worth the drive, and a weekly dispatch for the people who like their music on paper as well as on speakers.

The masthead

Editor in chief
Kjell Mersland
Publisher
KM TECH LABS
Kristiansand, Norway
Org. no. 934 044 029
Domain
midnightamericana.com

My editorial principles

  • 01 No paid reviews. Ever.
  • 02 No score for an album I’ve played fewer than three times.
  • 03 I name my sources. I correct in public.
  • 04 Every dispatch is written by a human — me — by hand.
  • 05 If a record changes my mind a year later, I say so.

Press ethics

As a Norwegian publication, Midnight Americana follows the Norwegian Editor’s Code (Redaktørplakaten) and the Code of Ethics of the Norwegian Press (Vær Varsom-plakaten) in all editorial work. Complaints about content can be sent to the editor in chief by email above.