Photo by Ken Shipley
Hello. Thanks for stopping by. I’m a music journalist, critic, author and researcher with an interest in American musical traditions and working-class ingenuity. I’m known for researching and writing about songwriters and the Midwest, but my range of interest extends to other categories such as country music, American and British folk music and regional underground music of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.
My career began in 2007 at the Chicago Tribune where I co-founded the legacy newspaper’s first social media strategy team and worked as an online producer. I contributed online coverage during the 2008 presidential election, and also created social media programs and reported for the paper’s entertainment verticals Metromix and Redeye. I was the founding digital editor of Time Out Chicago Kids, where I helped build the magazine’s website from the ground up, before becoming a music editor at Time Out Chicago. I also served as music critic of Chicago magazine.
Today, my byline has appeared in Pitchfork, Spin, Rolling Stone, Billboard, The Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Reader, Chicago Sun-Times, The A.V. Club, Jezebel, No Depression, Aquarium Drunkard, Uncut and numerous other print and web-based publications. I’ve interviewed Liz Phair, Jack White, Connie Smith, John Mellencamp, Juliana Hatfield, Glen Hansard, Norma Tanega, Angel Olsen, Loudon Wainwright III, Margo Price, Bill Fay, Dan Auerbach, Debbie Harry, John Waters, Yo La Tengo, Michael Kiwanuka, Tanya Tucker, Hüsker Dü, the Pixies, Anaïs Mitchell, Greg Dulli, Mavis Staples, Sierra Ferrell, Bobby Weir, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Phoebe Bridgers, Bill Kreutzmann, Graham Nash, Joan Baez, Keith Urban, Billy Joel, Ringo Starr, Dwight Yoakam and countless others.
My debut book, Jason Molina: Riding with the Ghost, was named a Best Music Book of 2017 by Pitchfork. My book about John Prine’s debut album for Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series was published in November 2021. I’m the first person authorized to write long form liner notes for the iconic New York band Blondie. They were released in the archival box set Against the Odds in August 2022, and were awarded the ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor Award for Liner Notes in 2023. I’ve also won Southern California Journalism awards from the LA Press Club for my profile and feature writing.
From 2020-2025, I was part-time faculty at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism where I lectured on music journalism and taught journalism fundamentals including writing, reporting, interviewing and digital content strategy. Today, I’m proudly employed at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville where I serve as a writer and editor. I’m part of a brilliant team working to preserve, interpret and illuminate the country music genre and explore the broad and ever-evolving narratives of its history and contributions to culture.
I hold a bachelor’s degree in English from Indiana University and a master’s degree in journalism from DePaul University, and am a member of the Authors Guild, the Society for Professional Journalists, the LA Press Club and the Recording Academy.
Please get in touch if you'd like to discuss a project. I'm also available to speak about my work as Jason Molina's biographer, or work on John Prine. If you're a filmmaker interested in discussing a Molina or Prine documentary, or other appearance or use of my work, please contact my literary agent Alice Speilburg: alice [at] speilburgliterary [dot] com.
Follow me on:
Instagram: @erinoz
Bluesky: @erinosmon.bsky.social
Contact me at:
Email: erino [dot] writes [at] gmail [dot] com