Folk Alley Sessions

In 2018, Mary Gauthier joined Folk Alley for an exclusive session at the 30A Songwriters Festival in Florida. Here she talks about working alongside combat veterans and with the SongwritingWith: Soldiers organization to share their experiences. Listen to the interview and watch performances of songs from her album, 'Rifles and Rosary Beads.'

In late March of 2019, guitarist extraordinaire and songwriter, Molly Tuttle came by the studios of Beehive Productions in Saranac Lake, NY to share some thoughts about her musical history and to perform songs from her debut full-length album, 'When You’re Ready' for Folk Alley.

(This Folk Alley Session was originally published in November, 2014) - What happens when two greats join forces? Well, in the case of Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn, a whole lot of banjo playing. For their 2014 eponymous duo album, Fleck says the main conceit was that "it would just be the two of us all the way," and not just in the studio. They also wanted to be able to tour the project properly...

(This Folk Alley Session was originally published in November, 2013) The wonder of the North Carolinian duo, Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz and the music they create as Watchhouse (formerly Mandolin Orange) is the beauty and ease with which they come together vocally and musically. The songs are haunting in their simplicity - a quality that instantly connects with audiences. Hear the duo's perform...

Digging into the Folk Alley Sessions archives to revisit one of our all-time favorite exclusive performances. In 2013, Brown Bird (the late David Lamb and MorganEve Swain) stopped by the Folk Alley studio at WKSU in Kent, OH just as their album, 'Fits of Reason' was being released. The duo, influenced by a variety of world music, uses their tight harmonies to add the spirit of these sounds to an A...

On a wintery January day in 2019, Kieran Kane & Rayna Gellert invited us to their cozy lake-side cabin in the Adirondacks of New York for an intimate Folk Alley Session. Here they perform songs from their release, 'When the Sun Goes Down.'

Sam Bush is a hero to multiple generations of folk fans - from those that remember his breakthrough work with the New Grass Revival to his current status as king of the summer festival circuit. His enthusiasm for the music and his continuing efforts to stretch the reach of the mandolin make him one of the most popular folk artists working today. In October, 2010, Sam and bandmate Stephen Mougin st...

In the summer of 2016, folk powerhouse duo The Small Glories (Cara Luft and JD Edwards) stopped in at Beehive Productions in Saranac Lake, New York for an intimate performance, and to talk about becoming a band and their album, 'Wondrous Traveler.'

(This Session was originally published in March, 2014.) The folk and roots music world is full of cross-generational collaboration. But it usually takes the form of folksingers pairing up with other folksingers, borrowing from a long musical tradition. It's another thing altogether to take words written long ago and give them musical life. Leyla McCalla does just that on her album, 'Vari-Colored S...

(This Folk Alley Session was first published in February, 2011) Guitarist Frank Vignola has been mastering his craft since before he was big enough for a standard-sized instrument. Known as one of the best in the business, he's played with names like Les Paul, Ringo Starr, Donald Fagen and Mark O'Connor. The native New Yorker stopped by the Folk Alley studios in early 2011 to tell host, Jim Blum t...

Folk Alley Sessions Archive: (This session was originally published in November, 20011). Before going onstage as the opening act for the 45th Kent State Folk Festival in 2011, the Carolina Chocolate Drops - Rhiannon Giddens, Dom Flemons, Leyla McCalla, and Hubby Jenkins) stopped by the Folk Alley studios to play a few songs and chat with host, Jim Blum.

Folk Alley Sessions Archive: Jay Ungar & Molly Mason Family Band stopped by the Folk Alley studio at WKSU in Kent, OH in December of 2011 for an exclusive performance and interview with Jim Blum.

John Gorka could be the standard bearer of the contemporary singer/songwriter. Infused with humor and touching personal moments, Gorka's music focuses on the heart with an honesty that connects with listeners on many levels. A long-time favorite at folk venues across the country, he continues to surprise as he incorporates changes in his own life into his songs as he embraces middle-age along with...

(This Folk Alley Session was originally published March 14, 2014) RUNA draws on the diverse musical backgrounds of its band members and offers a contemporary and refreshing approach to traditional and more recently composed Celtic material. Through their repertoire of both highly energetic and graceful, acoustic melodies, along with their fusion of music from Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the Uni...

When you combine the transcendent poetry of Bob Dylan with the gritty, real-world rock-n-roll storytelling that Bruce Springsteen made so famous, and then add a dash of the political activism embodied by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, you’ll have Irish singer-songwriter Pat Byrne. Known for creating a rootsy, Americana sound that has a unique Irish twist, Byrne now lives part-time in the US (he ca...

From the Folk Alley Sessions archives, in 2010, Karan Casey and her band stopped in to Folk Alley's studio for an exclusive performance and interview with Jim Blum.

Eamon O'Leary and Jefferson Hamer met in New York while performing traditional Irish music. They discovered a shared love of the old songs - from Ireland and throughout the British Isles. They joined together on an album that became the name of their duo - The Murphy Beds - which O'Leary says is a mystery to their audiences in Ireland. In 2015, the pair visited Saranac Lake, NY for an exclusive Fo...

We all have people in our lives who inspire us, encourage us, and who push us to dream, hope and create. For musicians Guy Davis and Fabrizio Poggi, two of those inspirations where the great bluesmen, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Earlier in 2017, Davis and Poggi released a tribute album, 'Sonny and Brownie's Last Train' and stopped by Folk Alley for an exclusive in-studio performance and to tal...

She's a poet, a writer, an artist, an entrepreneur and someone who knows how to use her voice articulately and effectively to encourage great social change. She is Ani DiFranco, a fantastically talented guitarist and a singer who first started making music in coffee shops when she was just 9 years old. Early in 2016, Ani was at the 30A Songwriters Festival in Florida and she graciously sat down wi...

When the Indigo Girls dropped by the Folk Alley house during this year’s 30ASongwriters Festival, the duo was gearing up for the release of its 15th album, Look Long . As they played an intimate set that included two new songs and one old fan favorite, the duo had much to say between songs about the new album, their decades of collaboration, their most requested classic, and much more.

At the 2020 30A Songwriters Festival in Florida, with her new album 'Long Way Back: The Songs of Glimmer' on they way, Kim Richey dropped by the Folk Alley house to wrap her smooth vocals around some solo, acoustic versions of songs from her 1999 album, 'Glimmer.' She also talked about the way the songs felt to her then and how they feel now, with 20 more years of life to them.

L.A. born John Craigie discovered beauty in storytelling through music, diving into the folk scene in the grunge-driven '90s. For him, it's about the relationship between singer and audience (so much so that he added a group of friends to his latest studio sessions - creating a house concert vibe). He's something of a neo-hippie, in-name-only Math major who found his true self touring the country...

At the end of the day, Vancouver native and banjo player Taylor Ashton says, his new album is “pretty fun.” The Romantic is a record that was 10 years in the making, a record that forced Ashton into the solo spotlight for the very first time in his music career, and a record that is, at its heart, about change. Taylor Ashton joined Folk Alley at the eclectic studio space at The Porches Inn in Nort...

Kyshona Armstrong was a music therapist before she shifted her focus to pursuing a career in songwriting. Drawing from her background experience of using music as a healing force in people’s lives, the songwriting on Armstrong’s latest album, Listen. , is heavy on transcendence and empowerment. During this year’s 30A Songwriters Festival, we talked with Armstrong about all of this and more. Tune i...

During the 2020 30A Songwriters Festival, we chatted with the Secret Sisters - Laura Rogers and Lydia Slagle - about their latest album, Saturn Return , as they performed some of the album’s finest songs at the Folk Alley beach house.