Basic Folk

I have always really liked Jonatha Brooke. She's one of those writers who always knows what to do, which is the basis for why we like pop music. Her songs take you to the place you wanna go while still hitting vulnerability and insight. This week, JB gives details about her upbringing in a Christian Science household and where she stands now with her religion. We also get to talking about the...

Magic musical human wonder Jocie Adams (Arc Iris) is a very funny, grounded and kind person IRL; on stage she is a mystical badass alien superhero who expressively emerges from a giant vagina at the start of her live shows while wearing a gold bodysuit. Arc Iris' music is rooted in rock, pop, glam, folk and something else that you can't put your finger on (maybe it's stardust?). On Bas...

A bonus ep of Basic Folk where Erin McKeown gets particularly basic about her former project Voice on The Verge. She explains their origin and intention behind the group and I started getting v into all the obscure folk references she made. It didn't make the edited ep, but enough people (4 people) said they would like to hear it!   American Songwriter Podcast Network Advertising Inquiries: ht...

Erin McKeown has been queering the folk world for over two decades with her unpredictable and relentlessly unwavering superhuman musical gifts. Erin gets real in our conversation. She talks about (my favorite) summer camp, being super into drugs and sports in high school, her relationship with her gender (she thinks she's an alien), spirituality and her friendship with Rachel Maddow.   America...

Bill Deasy is one of Pittsburgh's big 90s success stories due to his band The Gathering Field scoring a record deal in 1996 with Atlantic Records. While they only released one album on a major label, the band and Bill have remained a mainstay in the Pittsburgh region and beyond. Bill is calm, real and pretty open about his upbringing, including the trauma of losing a sibling at a very young ag...

Ready to ugly cry? No? Ok, I will give you a moment to prepare... Because tuning into the most vulnerable, intimate and secret human feelings is what songwriter Edie Carey is all about. Born and raised in Suburban Boston, Edie was raised by a poet, a therapist and and English teacher. Her wistful writing definitely takes influence from all three. Hope you enjoy my interview with the "aggressiv...

Amy Ray, one half of the legendary folk rock band Indigo Girls, is known for her strong Southern roots, fierce devotion to all types of music, her activism and (unbeknownst to her) her image as a gay fashion icon (and how she uses her clothes as an activist)... or should I say institution. We talk about all this during our interview, which took place at Brandi Carlile's Girls Just Wanna Weeken...

KT Tunstall is an open-hearted Scottish dreamboat. She is a master at the art of conversation and makes a person feel heard, understand and smart. We get right into it: talking about her relationship with her father, death, sexuality, of course, her roots in folk music. Her latest album Wax is the second in a trilogy of records that will focus on the soul, body and mind as she has entered this ver...

Emily Saliers of Indigo Girls graciously joins me on Basic Folk this week. An iconic figure in modern folk rock, Emily gets into it about the history of her guitar playing, expanding her horizons on her first solo album (Murmuration Nation), her dedication to hip-hop and reflections on Indigo Girls, which was released 30 years ago this week (February 28, 1989). This was an extremely enjoyable inte...

Peter Mulvey's music is emotional, rousing, gritty and real. The Milwaukee singer-songwriter has been at it since the late 1980's playing in the streets of Dublin and Boston before starting his career proper in the early 1990's. Mulvey's upbringing was with liberal parents who are in love with science and activism and fully supported their son's early interest in acting and the...

California-born and Boston resident Rachel Sumner had an early interest in classical music that lead her to pursuing a career in film orchestration. After switching gears at Berklee College of Music, Rachel became interested in bluegrass thanks to discovery the music of Hazel Dickens And Alice Gerrard. Eventually, she met her future bandmates of Twisted Pine at the Cantab Lounge's bluegrass ni...

This week I have Irish singer/songwriter, Mark Dignam, on the podcast! Mark grew up in the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. It was in Dublin where he gained experience as a performer by busking around town with well-known folk singer, Glen Hansard. Since then, Dignam has brought his love of music to Pittsburgh, PA where he continues to write and perform. In our conversation, we discuss the Catholic C...

Singer/Songwriter Maya de Vitry is on the podcast this week! Maya was a former member of the string trio The Stray Birds, but now she has stepped out on her own with her first solo album, Adaptations.  de Vitry grew up on 7 acres of rolling green in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Even from a small age her musical talent and intelligence were evident. We discuss her singing Iris Dement’s “Our Town” at si...

Originally from a rural Farmington, Maine, Eleanor Buckland of Lula Wiles grew up playing fiddle in her family’s jams. This week on Basic Folk, Buckland talks being a fourth generation musician, her rock guitar father, and the basements tapes she has from her grandma, legendary bluegrass player, Betty Buckland.  As a kid, Buckland’s violin took her to fiddle camp where she cultivated her love of f...

Alex Stanton is a Pittsburgh born singer/songwriter who heads up the indie folk band townsppl. Growing up Stanton spent a lot of time hanging out on the set of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. His mom worked in the art department for the show and that actually ties in with how he got his first guitar. Also Stanton discusses opening his own music school, Sunburst School of Music in Squirrel Hill. W...

Anais Mitchell is about to hit Broadway with Hadestown! But first! The Vermont songwriter is on Basic Folk. Her folk opera, Hadestown, set to open at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway March 2019. Anais tells me about her childhood on a sheep farm in Vermont. She unpacks her love and loyalty in her collaborations and the mystical way she found her visual artist for Hadestown. Lastly, we talk abou...

Before becoming a fulltime performer/songwriter Dawn Landes worked as a sound engineer for many years. After studying for a bit at NYU she left school to pursue an internship at Phillip Glass' studio. Dawn tells me of the impact that Fast Folk had on her career and the role Suzanne Vega played in her life as Dawn’s mentor. We also get into the musical she is working on called "Row" abo...

On Basic Folk this week I sit down with Mark Erelli, a singer-songwriter out of the New England area. Growing up Erelli did a little of everything: tennis, musicals, science, and then... he found rock music. This was all thanks to his high school science teacher who would play bootleg Grateful Dead tapes during exams. Once Erelli had discovered The Dead he said it was like all American music was w...

Grenadian-Canadian clawhammer banjo player and songwriter, Kaia Kater, grew up in a folk family-- her grandpa is a luthier and her mother ran a number of the Canada’s major folk festivals while Kaia was growing up. Kaia is a child of an immigrant from Grenada. We explore her inspirations and research for her latest album, Grenades (October 2018 Folkways/Acronym Records), which is a mediation on Gr...

Nora Jane Struthers started in bluegrass, but has leaned towards Americana and rock and rock in the past decade after living in Nashville. She's also got an incredible life story that includes overcoming dyslexia, infertility and falling in love with her bandmate. She plays and records as Nora Jane Struthers and The Party Line. Nora opens up about the pressure and weird power that comes with b...

Anna Tivel is my guest this week. Tivel is known for her character songs that portray the beauty and pain in everyday individuals. Born in a small farming town in Skagit Valley, Washington, Anna came to songwriting as a recent college grad waiting tables in downtown Portland. Her first song, she reports, was about "whales having fun." Since then she has quickly risen through the ranks of t...

In this week’s episode, I sit down (and basically LOL the entire time) with one-man-band Matt Lorenz of The Suitcase Junket. Originally from a small town in rural Vermont, Lorenz’s first instrument was a free, second- hand piano the family had gotten from a posting on a bulletin board. As his musical career continued so did his love of recycled instruments. Now he creates most of his instruments b...

This week I talk with folk singer-songwriter Ana Egge. Dubbed the "Nina Simone of Folk Music" Ana and I sit down to discuss her early influences growing up on a commune in rural New Mexico, crafting her own guitar at the age of 15, and writing herself into understanding. I met Ana in Boston around 2005 through the Boston folk music scene. I have always been in awe of her musical talent and...

Meet the host Cindy Howes! I love folk music and interviewing people. I have over 20 years experience in broadcasting and being super obsessed with music. This episode introduces myself and the intention of Basic Folk: "Conversations with authentic Americana, singer-songwriters and roots musicians that fly under the radar." The intention is to foster this special community (that is found i...