Basic Folk

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at https://basicfolk.com/donate/  Lizzie No talks to Ondara When  Ondara  was a little boy growing up in Nairobi, Kenya, music was both everywhere and just out of reach. He walked around the market listening to vendors playing music from stereos, stopping to listen when he heard something that caught his attention. His family couldn’t afford musical instrum...

Lizzie No talks to Mali Obomsawin Y’all ready for a crossover? Basic Folk listeners will remember Mali Obomsawin from their work as a bassist, singer, and songwriter with folk trio Lula Wiles, but today we are celebrating Mali’s debut as a jazz bandleader/composer. Mali’s new album, ‘Sweet Tooth,’ was inspired by field recordings of elders from Mali’s Wabanaki community. Mali’s improvisational app...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at https://basicfolk.com/donate/  Originally from Charlottesville, Virginia,  Caroline Spence  came from this cool family that always seemed to be messing around with music: listening and playing music. She’s recently been discovering and sharing home movies from when she was a kid: scooting around in diapers on a guitar case, singing with her grandfather a...

When Will Sheff was a baby, he had a life-threatening illness that required him to have a tracheotomy. From that moment, he was always aware of being fragile and somewhat out of place in his body. He never quite fit in in the New England prep school culture he grew up in. His childhood was full of magic, however. He spent a lot of time in the woods, and when he looked up at the sky he felt the pre...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at https://basicfolk.com/donate/ Lizzie No interviews Caleb Caudle on Basic Folk! Caleb Caudle  has lived a lot of his life on the road. His father was a truck driver and Caleb learned early on that making a living often meant long days away from home. The North Carolina-born Caudle started out in a rock band before he found his calling as a thoughtful alt-c...

Fiddler Brittany Haas has an impressive resume: she started touring at 14 with Darol Anger, recorded her debut album at 17, started performing with Crooked Still before she finished college and has played on Chris Thile’s radio program Live From Here and done stints in David Rawlings and Gillian Welch’s David Rawlings Machine. Currently, she’s teaching workshops and classes in between working with...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at https://basicfolk.com/donate/ Amy Ray  is best known for being one half of  Indigo Girls  with Emily Sailers, a band that’s been going strong since the late 80’s. She’s also known for her activism and love for all types of music. On her latest solo album,  If It All Goes South , Amy’s bringing us songs of comfort and healing. Recorded live to tape in Nash...

Lizzie No interviews Ken Yates! Ken Yates grew up in the college town of London, Ontario and he is truly Canada’s Next Top Model, by which I mean he is wonderfully talented, disarmingly nice, and from Canada, obviously. Ken is a Berklee College of Music graduate, and I took the opportunity to talk with him about that experience. Why would somebody choose to go to music school, what were you hoping...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at https://basicfolk.com/donate/ Kyshona  is an artist with a literal mission statement: “To be a voice and a vessel for those who feel lost, forgotten, silenced and are hurting.” She’s found that having this tool at her disposal gives her work meaning, especially on those nights when she’s felt like she hasn’t sold enough tickets, merch or gotten enough app...

Lauren Balthrop's Mobile, AL upbringing saw her soaking in the music of The Andrews Sisters, Steve Sondheim, R.E.M., Elliott Smith and Neil Young. As a child, she was involved in activities that varied from sports, to drama, to music and beyond. She never really settled on a passion, until she found acting and theatre. She pursued that dream from fourth grade until after college, moving to New...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at https://basicfolk.com/donate/ Lizzie No  interviews  Molly Tuttle  on Basic Folk! Growing up in Palo Alto. California,  Molly Tuttle  was surrounded by music. Her dad was a teacher at Gryphon Stringed instruments, which is not-so-coincidentally where I got the pickups installed on my mini harp. Molly took to the guitar early and intensely, eventually earn...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at https://basicfolk.com/donate/ Milwaukee-born Peter Mulvey has, along with classical duo SistaStrings , made an anti-fascist record. According to Peter, “to make an anti - fascist record, you must keep kindness and compassion in the foreground.” Love is the Only Thing goes from family, to politics, to family, racism and then back to family. It's as opt...

Editor’s note:  Lizzie No  interviews  Adia Victoria  on Basic Folk! Be sure to go back and listen to Lizzie’s previous guest host spots on the pod and  subscribe , so you never miss Lizzie! For  Adia Victoria , the blues are not just a genre of music or a set of formal elements. She lives the blues. In her life and work the blues are a mode of creating, a river-tradition into which she steps with...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at https://basicfolk.com/donate/ I have been wanting to talk to Scotland-born fiddler and current New Yorker,  Hannah Read  on the pod, for longer than Basic Folk has existed. I met her at the very fun camp, Miles of Music in New Hampshire. We laughed our faces off all week and I was truly blown out of the water by her fiddling and singing. She’s just releas...

We go track by track on Canadian-born New Zealand feminist trouble maker and country music superstar, Tami Neilson ’s 5th album, Kingmaker. Recorded at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios, the songs of Kingmaker expose industry systems, exploding patriarchal structures of the industry, society, and family. It’s definitely not new territory for Tami, her previous two albums called attention to misogyny a...

This preview of Backstage (Basic Folk's bonus episodes) features Willi Carlisle ( who was on BF episode 171 this past week), talking about learning the traditional song "The Riddle Song (I Gave My Love a Cherry)". Check out the full episode and a performance from Willi, by contributing to Basic Folk. Links below! Hear Field Music with Willi in it's entirety:  http://basicfolk.com/B...

It's hard to not fall a little in love with Willi Carlisle . The former high school football captain is irresistible on stage and on record. He grew up an outsider and the feeling remains in his adult life. In writing about his intense life, he's found an outlet and in his music we, the others, feel seen. His history is filled with complex experiences like having a musician father, singing...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at https://basicfolk.com/donate/ Editor’s note:  Lizzie No  interviews  Leon Timbo  on Basic Folk! Be sure to go back and listen to Lizzie’s previous guest host spots on the pod and  subscribe , so you never miss Lizzie! When Leon Timbo was a teenager, he prayed for a singing voice. As a young poet and the child of a preacher, he was a born storyteller, but...

This preview of Backstage (Basic Folk's bonus episodes) features Dietrich Strause. Dietrich, who just appeared in our main feed (ep. 171), hangs with Cindy and Lizzie: talking about music at weddings, what it's like to play a wedding and the main difference between Baz Luhrmann and Tchaikovsky Hear the entire Friend Hang with Dietrich:  http://basicfolk.com/Backstage Contribute and gain Ba...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at https://basicfolk.com/donate/ Dietrich Strause , raised in Lancaster, PA, was classically trained on trumpet growing up, but the allure of songwriting and performing his own music pulled him into the Americana world. He found his way to the Boston area and into the super collaborative and supportive community found there. On his new album,  You And I Must...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at https://basicfolk.com/donate/ Edie Carey 's last solo full length album was in 2010 (holy smokes!), so we are more than ready to dig into her new record  The Veil , encompassing themes like motherhood, infertility, love, being a lady while raising a girl and all the things that make you cry in your cereal. Edie first appeared on Basic Folk on episode...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at https://basicfolk.com/donate/ Editor’s note:  Lizzie No  interviews  Cristina Vane  on Basic Folk! Be sure to go back and listen to Lizzie’s previous guest host spots on the pod and  subscribe , so you never miss Lizzie! Blues musician Cristina Vane has lived many lives. She grew up in Europe listening to an eclectic mix of emo, pop, and rock. She came to...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at https://basicfolk.com/donate/ Former Grant Lee Buffalo frontman, Grant-Lee Phillips ' latest solo album,  All That You Can Dream , is -quite- dreamy. During the pandemic, Grant's been contemplating many things and figuring out how to spend his time away from the road. One interest he's been cultivating is painting. He's been sharing his pa...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at https://basicfolk.com/donate/ Editor’s note:  Lizzie No  interviews  S.G. Goodman  on Basic Folk! Be sure to go back and listen to Lizzie’s previous guest host spots on the pod and  subscribe , so you never miss Lizzie! S.G. Goodman ’s Kentucky upbringing is front and center in a lot of her songwriting. She is an artist concerned not just with her roots,...

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at https://basicfolk.com/donate/ Richard Thompson's memoir, Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967 - 1975 (now out in paperback) is a page-turner of a read about a legend at the dawn of British folk rock. Thompson details his early days with Fairport Convention, one of the most influential folk bands of all time. He writes how they strived to...