The Korea File

On April 16th, 2014 the MV Sewol sunk off the coast of Mokpo in the south-west of the country killing 304 passengers. The victims were primarily high school students bound for a field trip to Jeju-do. Nine months later, South Korean society continues to struggle with the issues of public safety and government accountability. Rebekah Jaung of sewoltruth.com spoke with me at the group's petition ten...

Ruth Minnikin is a Canadian singer-songwriter formerly of The Heavy Blinkers, Booming Airplanes and The Guthries and Reels. She now performs as Ruth Minnikin and her Bandwagon on Jeju Island and around Korea. She received nominations for Best Female Album and Best Folk Album at the 2007 Nova Scotia Music Awards and has performed at the East Coast Music Awards, South by Southwest, and North by Nort...

The Barberettes are Seoul's premiere doo wop trio and self-described retro time travellers. Guitarist and vocalist Shinae An Wheeler spoke with The Korea File in late December, reflecting on the group's highly successful year and what 2015 holds for one of Seoul's hottest groups. With music from the Kim Sisters, Kang Soong-won and The Barberettes. This live acoustic performance from the Barberette...

Ben Spencer came to Korea expecting modernity on steroids. What he got was the most isolated teaching post in the country--a sleepy fishing settlement on Chuja-do, a small group of islands in the Jeju Strait. He talks to The Korea File about adapting to loneliness and the idiosyncratic community he's found himself in.

In this episode, Jung discusses her oral history project recording the stories of the grandmothers of Jeju. From an essay on aamora.com: "For the last couple of years, I've taken photos and written essays of sweet grannies in my island home, Jeju-do, South Korea. Here, we call grannies 'Halmang' in Jeju dialect. Most of them live alone in peaceful rural villages, set against the mountains and the...

In this episode: Kentucky-native and Fulbright scholar Tanner Jones loves banjo, bourbon and Korean traditional sounds. In this conversation, Jones discusses his ongoing research and passion for Korean traditional music on Jeju-do. This episode's Shamanic ritual chanting is graciously provided by musicians 강수선, 김윤수, 이용옥 and 김연희 of Jeju's Chilmeoridang-kut Society.

Michael Brown, an unarmed 18 year old was shot to death by a police officer in Ferguson, MO in August of this year. Brown's death, and the events that followed in Ferguson have stirred intense debate in the United States touching on issues of race, justice and police violence. This week, members of Jeju's foreign community came together with candles and song for a Wednesday evening vigil to show s...

Live, from Strange Fruit: After more than 3 years of performing all over the country, Table People are gearing up to record a final album before moving on to other projects. I caught up with guitarist and songwriter Eric Davis to discuss the ephemerality of live shows vs. the permanence of recording, and how a band can choose to get by on charm or chops.

"Big Jay" Motz has lived on Jeju-do forever. He's also developed an extraordinary and unique relationship with the island's female divers, the Haenyo. In this interview, he discusses his participation in their diving tradition, the 해녀's role within the matriarchal family structure of Jeju and how he's seen the island change in the face of massive development over the course of 14 years.

Live from Club Bbang in Hongdae, MINERI guitarist 임정규 and bassist Blair Lee talk about the band's humble beginnings and what it's like to rock hard as the most consistently amazing live band in Seoul.

With excerpts from a 10/18/2014 performance at Hongdae's Strange Fruit in Seoul, Lauren Walker and Mark Lentz discuss improvisation, motivation and the band's origin story.

At last- hear 'Oh Oh No I Think I'm Yours: The Yours Story' reveal the madness and passion behind Seoul's hardest-working freak-folk family band.