We were, for reasons obvious to readers of this blog, a bit depressed when music editor Audra Schroeder announced recently that she would retire as a music journalist and pursue writing about Things That Aren't Music. Today, though, a little shot of human-resources Prozac: We have a new music editor. And he's great.

His name is Kiernan Maletsky, and he's currently the music editor of our sister paper in St. Louis. A Colorado native and graduate of the University of Missouri, Kiernan co-founded a local music blog in Columbia before turning to a life of alt-weekly journalism. He freelanced (for former Observer music editor Pete Freedman) at the Colorado Springs Independent and at Denver's Westword before being named music editor of St. Louis' Riverfront Times in early 2011.

In St. Louis, Kiernan says, he was "once choke-held out of a venue by Nelly's security." But who hasn't been, really? More importantly, he steadily grew that web site's music readership with a daily dose of smart, local stories about the city's diverse and dynamic music scene.

I have no doubt he'll do the same here. I worked with Kiernan at Westword, where he proved himself to be a true musical omnivore, utterly free of cultural snobbery. He also works hard, is disturbingly nice, and has excellent penmanship with a Sharpie, which you will confirm independently when he invariably burns you a CD. It will take some time - and some help from the coworkers and freelancers he'll inherit - to get to know Dallas, its musicians, and its history. But before long it'll be like he was birthed by Rhett Miller in the greenroom of Trees. Or something.

Kiernan will arrive in Dallas in January, with his even-more-lovely girlfriend, and will introduce himself here properly then. In the meantime you can find him on Twitter and, if I know him, in the comments below.

Thanks for you patience.

Joe Tone, editor