Basic Folk

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at  basicfolk.com/donate Ok I think that Erin McKeown was really into this conversation solely because it allowed her/them to dig deep into the new record Kiss Off Kiss . Halfway through the interview, Erin proclaimed how fun it was to get to address each track... I concur! It was very fun. KoK was funded through a generous gift from a friend of Erin's,...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at  basicfolk.com/donate Mary Gauthier 's book, Saved By A Song, is a must-read for all humans with feelings that need feeling. Gauthier has been writing and recording songs since the the early 90's, but she actually started her music career relatively late at age 30. She had grown up as an adopted child in Thibodaux, Louisiana, which was something t...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at basicfolk.com/donate ! Carl Nichols (aka Buffalo Nichols ) found out that he liked playing guitar way more than anything else when he was around 12 years old. He took his older sister's guitar (what? she wasn't using it) and started obsessively learning to play. He'd listen to songs 200 times in a row to get it right. Very soon, he was out per...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at basicfolk.com/donate ! This special episode of Basic Folk features Allison Russell , Jake Blount , Kaïa Kater , and guest host Lizzie No in a roundtable conversation about Black artists in folk music. Black musicians are more visible than ever in the roots music space, but they continue to face unique challenges from tokenizing placements on festival line...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at basicfolk.com/donate   You can contribute $5 a month or more and get access to Backstage, our exclusive bonus content. Here's a preview of what's happening Backstage. Hope you will join us!    For our first Backstage ep, we are going to check out something we like to call “Field Music.” We’ll hear a recording of a traditional song from a folk musi...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at basicfolk.com/donate Editor's note: Lizzie No interviews Dar Williams on Basic Folk! Be sure to got back and listen to Lizzie's previous guest host spots on the pod and subscribe, so you never miss Lizzie! Dar’s new album, ‘I’ll Meet You Here,’ is out now. Dar Williams , originally from Mount Kisco, NY, grew up in an era and a household where ever...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at basicfolk.com/donate Amy Helm grew up surrounded by some of the most influential musicians in American roots music, including her father Levon Helm , legendary drummer and singer for The Band. That also meant that her childhood was a “very colorful” experience where she was raised by a “village of brilliant and talented people who were also wrestling with...

Carolyn Kendrick 's California childhood was filled with music: from listening to music to musicians in her family, especially her father, a professional jazz drummer. Having a well revered musician in her family meant overcoming a reputation that preceded her, but it also gave her a special relationship with the beat as a guitarist and a fiddler. She talks about her connection to rhythm and h...

Editor’s note: Basic Folk is pleased to introduce our listeners to one of our favorite podcasts by sharing an episode in our feed! One of my favorite and most insightful interviews on Basic Folk has to have been from Ben Arthur . Ben let the walls come down and allowed us to both dig into his psyche. It was a rare privilege to be able to strip feelings and actions down to their studs and really ex...

Martin Sexton 's career was built by his work as a street musician on the Boston scene in the 80's and early 90's. His audience knows him for being connector by making them a part of the magic he, the performer, creates onstage. On the street, he would use tricks like strategically placing himself in an area that would bottleneck a crowd and keep people around with delightful audience...

Editor's note: Lizzie No interviews Alisa Amador on Basic Folk! We're so pumped for you to hear this conversation with Lizzie and Alisa. Be sure to got back and listen to Lizzie's previous guest host spots on the pod and subscribe, so you never miss Lizzie! Alisa Amador's EP Narratives is out on 9/17/2021 It was such a treat to talk with Alisa Amador . I love the way that she talks...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at basicfolk.com/donate Chris Thile  ( Nickel Creek , The Punch Brothers ) has been making music nonstop since he was 5 years old. His musical parents found him a mandolin, he started taking lessons and jamming at nearby Southern California pizza shops. He met Sara and Sean Watkins when he was 12 and started the band Nickel Creek. In the meantime Chris'...

Paula Fuga is a magic person. The Hawaiian singer/songwriter has lived through some of life's horrors. When she was young, her living situation was extremely unstable for several years. She lived with her mom, who suffered from addiction, on the beach around a pretty shady crowd of people. She accounts her survival to her dream of being a performer. That dream would manifest itself into vision...

Editor’s note: Basic Folk is pleased to introduce our listeners to one of our favorite podcasts by sharing an episode in our feed! I truly appreciate an interview where the hosts are basically scholars on their subject – aka they come so prepared it’s wild. Scott and Paul are industry professionals who are super knowledgeable about the songwriting craft, so they come at these interviews with a uni...

Becca Mancari does things her own way. Raised in New York and Virginia, Mancari found herself living a nomadic lifestyle in her teens and twenties. As she grew as a songwriter and performer she also found her footing as an outspoken queer woman. She re-negotiated her relationship to spirituality and gender and this transformation found its way into her music in powerful ways. Her 2020 album ‘the g...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at basicfolk.com/donate Two years into starting his band Mandolin Orange, Andrew Marlin and his partner Emily Franz were having second thoughts about their band name. Nine years later, they announced their new name: Watchhouse. It's easy to understand why it took so long: they were putting out records, gaining momentum and quickly establishing themselves...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at basicfolk.com/donate Ok, so yes I cried when I interviewed Rachel Baiman . Her writing is stirring and brutal and then when you read about the inspiration behind the songs on her new album Cycles , it's like automatic water works for me. From frank observations of her grandparent's loss of agency to women reckoning the heaviness and grief of mothe...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at basicfolk.com/donate John Hiatt 's latest is a collab with bluegrass great Jerry Douglas, with Jerry as producer and his band as backup for Hiatt. John's digging into some serious past memories for these songs, which include a song about his older brother Michael. Michael died by suicide when John was only 9 and it's only until now where he&#3...

Kaoru Ishibashi who is known as Kishi Bashi , is a violinist, guitarist, multi instrumentalist, singer and songwriter from WA state and VA. He got a really interesting start in music because he went to Cornell to study engineering, ended up flunking out, and kind of realizing his true path in music. He went to Berklee College of Music to study film scoring, started playing in bands, moved to NYC,...

Editor's note: Basic Folk is pleased to introduce our listeners to one of our favorite podcasts by sharing an episode in our feed! Get Up in the Cool is a sweet old-time/bluegrass podcast hosted by Cameron DeWhitt. What's amazing about this podcast is that Cameron has taken "the hang" at the jam and turned it into a podcast. The Jam happens *very* frequently in the old-time, bluegr...

Alex Cuba grew up 50 minutes west of Havana immersed in the music of his town Artemisa. His father, the musician Valentin Puentes, is a household name in the country and prioritized Cuban music in the house growing up. When Alex was six years old, Valentin told his son not to sing, leading Alex to concentrate on his bass guitar playing. As a teenager, Alex rebelled and started soaking in the sound...

Mali Obomsawin is the mighty bassist/songwriter/singer from Lula Wiles , whose musical talents run tandem to her activist spirit. She really had no choice in the matter, seeing that her parents met through their advocacy for Abenaki and First Nations sovereignty battles. Mali's dad is a member of the Odanak Abenaki Nation and her mom at the time they met, was following and supporting tribal la...

Joe Pug explains that the venn diagram of his fans and the people he'd like to have a beer with is almost exactly a single circle. The prolific troubadour has been organically gaining admirers one by one throughout his entire musical history. When he began, the Maryland songwriter would not only give away copies of his music, but he would send multiple copies to Joe Pug converts, so they could...

Editor's note: we're pleased to welcome guest host Lizzie No to Basic Folk for her debut episode with Amythyst Kiah! Lizzie will be on the podcast interviewing folk musicians once a month. We're thrilled to bring her perspective and insight to our listeners. Enjoy!  Amythyst Kiah is a star rising so quickly in the roots music universe that it is almost impossible to keep up with her. R...

Denison Witmer 's music is gentle and kind, he's a skilled woodworker, an avid birdwatcher and until 2020 hadn't made a record for 7 years. Growing up in Lancaster, Denison was lucky enough to get some guitar lessons from Don Peris of The Innocence Mission, a well loved indie-folk band. This led to one of many lasting relationships in music as Don went on to produce some of Denison&#39...