Basic Folk

Singer-songwriter Amythyst Kiah joins us this week. She can be heard along side Layla McCalla, Allison Russell and Rhiannon Giddens in the Grammy nominated project Songs of Our Native Daughters . Amythyst talks about growing up an independent worker in Mississippi and how music forced her into collaboration. She recounts how writing songs helped her through some of the most difficult family strive...

Rachel Lynne, the highly emotive songwriter, joins us for a live episode at Club Passim! Lynne was born and raised in Georgia. She spent her young life obsessed with music, especially sad and lonesome country music. Her own music cannot be described as country, but it has a certain lonesome quality to it. If you've ever experienced any serious emotions, one listen to Rachel's music and you...

Basic Folk is live at Club Passim in Cambridge with Americana songwriter  Dinty Child . Member of Session Americana, Dinty is releasing his debut solo album after being a part of the Boston folk and roots community for about three decades. His record, Lucky Ones,  will be out on January 17 , with a release show  January 16 at Oberon in Harvard Sq , Cambridge. In our conversation, we talk about gro...

Singer/Songwriter and guitarist Abraham Alexander has an incredible life story: born in Greece to Nigerian parents, he immigrated to the US when he was 11. Months after that move, his mother died, putting Abraham into foster care until he was adopted at age 16. He was extremely athletic when he was young and found community through sports and encouragement from his parents, who actually had an int...

Rebecca Loebe is a Georgia-born musician raised in the Atlanta music community via Eddie's Attic. Loebe attended Berklee College of Music and spent time in the Boston music world before settling in Austin, TX. She also had the unique experience of being a part of the very first season of "The Voice" as part of Adam Levine's team. She appeared on the show for a couple of episodes an...

Molly Venter of Red Molly and Goodnight Moonshine has a style reminiscent of the clearest folk singers from the 60's combined with a classic 50's rock vibe. On top of all this, she's an incredibly delightful person. Molly's story begins in New Haven, CT, where she was raised by two parents whose past times included sailing and performing music. Molly actually learned how to play gu...

Montreal's Leif Vollebekk emotional delivery creates a world of color in my mind. It's not surprising that he has Synesthesia, a perceptual condition in which the stimulation of one sense triggers an automatic, involuntary experience in another sense. Leif sees colors when he hears music, therefore, his music invokes colorful emotion. Raised in Ottawa, he inherited a few instruments from f...

Jenny Owen Youngs! Jenny is an indie pop songwriter, queer icon and podcast host. I am thrilled to have her on Basic Folk! Her new EP,  Night Shift, is out now (November 15) and we talk about it and all of her whole life in our conversation. From her young life in rural New Jersey to space camp (where she wished for more space and less camp) to coming out in a very public way in 2012. Jenny is a s...

Ryan Walsh of the literary (read: nerd) indie rock band Hallelujah The Hills has new music on the way. The new  I'm You LP releases on November 15, 2019. Walsh, originally from Dedham, MA, has always held an interest in history and folk music, particularly when it comes to his hometown. Dedham was the site of where Sacco and Vanzetti were wrongly held for murder and also, subsequently, was nam...

Betsy Siggins  is a folk boss in charge, and we’re beyond honored to welcome her as a guest on Basic Folk. Siggins has been an integral part of the folk music world since the late 1950’s when she and her roommate, Joan Baez, starting hanging around the Cambridge scene at Club 47. She’s work at the famous folk club until it closed in the 1960’s, where after that she worked with The Smithsonian in W...

Emily Mure is a real life New York native! She is a life-long oboist, who had big plans for a career in classical music. That all changed when she discovered the guitar, thanks to the encouragement of her grandfather. Emily excelled at songwriting and quickly dove into this brave new world. After college, she moved to Ireland for 6 months where she soaked up the busking community in Galway. She re...

Wallis Bird is a joyful musician who is an incredibly emotionally exciting live performer and songwriter. On Basic Folk we talk about her upbringing, her views on faith and spirituality and her immediate attraction to the guitar. We also get into her career talking about the publishing offers she started getting at 12 years old.   American Songwriter Podcast Network: https://americansongwriter.com...

Molly Sarle of Mountain Man has been working on her solo record for a little while and it's finally out! The beautiful Karaoke Angel is the Santa Cruz, CA's native debut album. During our conversation on Basic Folk, Molly talks about her family and where music was in her life growing up. We dig into a few very interesting topics like religion! sex! and cats!   American Songwriter Podcast N...

Joe Troop, frontman for the Buenos Aires "Latin-Grass" group Che Apalache, has loved bluegrass since he was 15. He kind of discovered that fact almost at the same time he discovered his attraction to men. As a North Carolina native, Troop is a proud out gay man in a world that doesn't always accept him: the rural south. Please enjoy and subscribe!   American Songwriter Podcast Network:...

Amanda Shires, Texas born, Nashville based, sideplayer turned songwriter, turned force of nature in Americana, folk and alt-country world. Her partnership with Jason Isbell is legendary. Her most current project, The Highwomen, is well on it's way to legendary status.   American Songwriter Podcast Network Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

David Huckfelt, founding member of the Minneapolis folk band, The Pines, emanates poetry in everything he does. From his solo work to his outlook on life, Huckfelt is living artwork. It was a real pleasure to speak with him about his Iowa upbringing, his connection to indigenous people and his two-week solitary writing retreat on the most remote and least visited national park in mighty Lake Super...

Scottish-American songwriter Johnathan Rice might have first landed on your radar through his duo Jenny & Johnny with his former partner Jenny Lewis. Rice's story starts in Virginia and Scotland where he spent time going back and forth for his dad's work. Each place having its own effect on his young musicianship. Virginia embodied a typical mid-90's American teen experience. In Sc...

Basic Folk is Live at Club Passim! Alisa Amador grew up in Cambridge, MA surrounded by the influence of her parents' Latin group Sol y Canto. She has managed to cultivate a warm sound that walks the line of folk, jazz, blues, soul and Latin. One thing so apparent about these laid back, warm songs is their similarities to the human that's writing and performing them.   American Songwriter P...

Basic Folk is live at Club Passim with Melissa Ferrick! The indie folk songwriter genius lesbian icon joins us for our very first live recording of the podcast. We get honest conversation and live music from Melissa, who had recently moved to Cambridge, graduated grad school at Harvard and got a new teaching job at Northeastern. She played songs from her latest self-titled album as well as a new s...

Songwriter, author and podcaster Ben Arthur did not know what he was in for on Basic Folk, but neither did I. Most times there is a plan when I approach an interview, however, every once in awhile the plan gets thrown out and we really dig into it. "I didn't expect all the psychological profiling that we're doing... but I'm into it" Ben says after a couple of minutes into the i...

Bridget Kearney, bassist for Lake Street Dive, has been deeply immersed in studying music since childhood. From the "super nerds" she met at jazz camp to the nights in her parents' basement transposing songs, Kearney has dedicated herself to the betterment of her craft. In our conversation, we talk about how her experience in playing in orchestras prepared her for collaborative life in...

Matt Smith is a living legend with his unbelievable run at Club Passim, the historic folk venue nestled in a Harvard Square basement. Currently Managing Director at Passim, Matt is the most passionate music lover I know. I met Matt while working as a student at WERS, where he was bringing in fantastic shows into a listening room filled with people who were clambering for honest music in an intimat...

Chris Eldridge won his first Grammy this year with The Punch Brothers. After 8 nominations between Punch Brothers, The Seldom Scene and his work with Julian Lage, this award was very overdue! Eldridge, who goes by the nickname Critter, grew up around bluegrass with his dad being a member of The Seldom Scene and being around influential players like Tony Rice.   American Songwriter Podcast Network...

Jim Kweskin is maybe the most famous person you might not know. With The Jim Kweskin Jug band, he mixed together folk and jazz which invigorated the straight-laced Cambridge folk scene in the 1960's. A regular at The Club 47, now Club Passim, Kweskin talks about how he came to the jug band style and how his band's relaxed stage presence changed the dynamic of the live folk show in profound...

Corey Laitman is a really interesting musician and person. Their music is vulnerable in a way that you rarely find (Deb Talan, Edie Carey, Patty Griffin) with a voice that basically encompasses all human emotions in 0.5 seconds. It's amazing. Corey's spirit is inspired by their vast imagination and connection to nature. We talk in the podcast about how humans are intrinsically connected to...