Frontman Ryan Miller joins us to talk about all things Guster . From their tried and true collaborative writing process to the theatrical delights of their recent "We Also Have Eras" tour, to what it really looks like to make environmental sustainability a priority on tour. Guster has just released their 9th studio album, Ooh La La . As we talked about the new record, Ryan talked about how these new songs touch on questions that...
Jun 06, 2024•59 min•Ep. 264
I hate surprises. However, Oklahoma's pride and joy John Moreland surprised us with his latest album Visitor and I guess I'm okay with it. Moreland's gone back to a sparse acoustic instrumentation, unlike the electronic sound (which I also loved) on his previous release, 2022's Birds in the Ceiling. Recently, he took a page from his wife Pearl Rachinsky and musician (and recent tour buddy) Chris Staples' book, and quit his smartphone, took a social media break and stopped all touring for six mo...
May 30, 2024•59 min•Ep. 263
Barnstar! , Boston's premiere kinda bluegrass and definitely bombastic band, has released their new album Furious Kindness and we're #blessed to welcome Mark Erelli and Zachariah Hickman to the pod. Originally a fun side hustle and bluegrass vehicle for Zack, the group, which also includes Charlie Rose and Taylor and Jake Armerding, started very casually performing at the legendary local Cantab Lounge. Zack accurately likens the vibe of the place to a basement Star Wars Cantina full of bluegrass...
May 23, 2024•58 min
Two long-time collaborators, cellist Francesa Ter-Berg and violinist Flora Curazon, Fran & Flora , have bonded over their obsession with ancient music, rooted in Eastern European and Jewish culture, for over a dozen years. Together and separately, the English musicians have been studying with teachers of ethnomusicology in places like Transylvania and Romania. There, they took in the music as well as the cultural influences. That's not to speak of their higher musical education, Francesca ho...
May 16, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 261
Billy Bragg joins lizzie and Cindy on-board Cayamo to talk about songwriting, social justice, punk rock and, of course, The Little Guy (Bragg's nickname for Woody Guthrie). In our interview we talked about using humor as a way to connect to his audience, so that he can bring up his political activism like fighting for transgender rights, the importance of unions and abortion rights. It's interesting to hear how he wants the Americana audience to remain as relevant as he does. Billy talked about ...
May 09, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 260
Singer-songwriter Leyla McCalla and her band (bassist Pete Olynciw, drummer Shawn Meyers and guitarist Nahum Zdybel) join us onboard the Cayamo cruise to go through their incredible, righteous and fun new record Sun Without Heat . It is a Leyla McCalla solo album but no solo artist is an island! Once we saw Leyla perform with her band, with whom she has collaborated for the past six years, we had to get the whole collaborative outfit in on the interview. The sounds on the album are inspired by A...
May 02, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 259
Siri Undlin, better known as Humbird, is a talented singer-songwriter from the Twin Cities with deep roots in Minnesota music and the land that surrounds her. Growing up, she was a true cold weather kid who loved hockey during winter In Minnesota, but also loved music and feeding her vivid imagination. Her love of music was nurtured by her parents, religious music, church choir and also her Aunt Joan, who taught Siri guitar at age 12. Hockey actually led her to her first band Celtic Club, with a...
Apr 25, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 258
We're live at sea! lizzie and Cindy recorded this episode onboard Cayamo , which is a singer/songwriter cruise that's been sailing yearly since 2008 and is one of the best music festivals we've attended. AND it's another edition of FOLK DEBATE CLUB . This time it's Community vs Capitalism ! Our panel features Jenny Owen Youngs (musician and co-host of Buffy the Vampire Slayer podcast, Buffering the Vampire Slayer), Amy Reitnouer Jacobs (Co-Founder / Executive Director of The Bluegrass Situation ...
Apr 18, 2024•49 min•Ep. 257
Originally from Greenville Georgia, musician Jontavious Willis is a Blues music phenom. When we talk about the Blues, the phrase or the word "torchbearer" comes up a lot when it comes to young, new Blues artists. I think of that word as a double edged sword. When you think of a torchbearer, you think about someone who's carrying on a flame that was lit long ago. It's somebody who's carrying on a tradition, but it also can come with restrictions. Such as oldheads telling you you're not doing it r...
Apr 11, 2024•50 min
Coincidentally, long-time friends Aoife O'Donovan and Dawn Landes both have new albums with strong feminist themes, so I (Cindy) wanted to interview them together and talk about WOMEN. Aoife's album, All My Friends, is specifically centered around Carrie Chapman Catt, a prominent leader in the Suffragist Movement, and her work in the fight for the 19th Amendment. Inspired by speeches and letters, one song, War Measure, is even based on a letter of support from Woodrow Wilson to Chapman Catt. Thi...
Apr 04, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 255
Acclaimed bluegrass musician Missy Raines is also a very cool and funny lady originally from West Virginia, not far from the Maryland border and the city of Cumberland. First of all, I had questions for her about why people from West Virginia are SO into their state. She gets into that and also the influence of the rich tapestry of bluegrass music she found there as well as the scene in nearby Washington DC. Raines has made a significant impact on the genre, earning 14 International Bluegrass Mu...
Mar 28, 2024•1 hr 8 min
Bob Hillman had a real thing going on in the early 2000's. He had made waves in New York City rubbing shoulders with some of the finest songwriters of the era at places like the open mic, Fast Folk and The Living Room, the singer-songwriter was creatively fulfilled, but not gaining the momentum in order to experience strategic growth in folk music. After opening for a long list of dates for Suzanne Vega, Hillman decided it was time to step away and get back to business.... school that is. He got...
Mar 21, 2024•55 min•Ep. 253
Joe Pug will not engage in the Left-Brained Vs Right-Brained debate. His artistry and pragmatic business sense have lived in actual parallel through his music career. His songwriting and creativity are fueled by passion and result in dramatic and exciting songs, as on his new album Sketch of a Promised Departure . He also has stayed ahead of the curve and created an ecosystem where self-reliance, growth and music business thrive especially with his latest venture, The Nation of Heat Vault that h...
Mar 14, 2024•58 min
Singer songwriter Hannah Connolly, originally from Eau Claire, WI (same as Justin Vernon and the Bon Iver crew!) has just released her second solo album, Shadowboxing . Written to reflect musical and life transitions, it was recorded in beautiful Idyllwild, CA, just outside of her new hometown of Los Angeles. While in the mountain town, Hannah reconnected with nature through hiking and found joy in connecting with her friends and collaborators in music. The process of making the record was cruci...
Mar 07, 2024•58 min•Ep. 251
Bestie Lizzie No has just released their career-defining new record Halfsies and we are 100% here for it on our 250th episode!! lizzie, who co-hosts Basic Folk, put her entire being, identity and creativity into this project. There's a lot going on with their main character, the avatar Miss Freedomland, and we're getting to the bottom of it in our conversation. Our hero's journey begins even before the main character is born. Her inception grew out of disdain for childhood beauty pageants, which...
Feb 29, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 250
Dinty Child , founding member of Session Americana, the beloved Boston roots music collective, who've accidentally been a band for twenty years, has just released his second solo album, Letting the Lions In. The new songs feature co-writing on all tracks between Dinty and Boston area songwriters like Mark Erelli, Kris Delmhorst and Dave Godowsky. A self-proclaimed slow-writer, the majority of these songs were written on the annual Sub Rosa songwriting retreat Dinty runs on Three Mile Island (no,...
Feb 22, 2024•50 min•Ep. 249
Tyrone Cotton , a decades-long mainstay of the Louisville, KY music scene just released his 2023 debut album, "Man Like Me." A quick listen to these songs reveals an artist who has spent decades steeped in roots music. Lizzie No spoke with Tyrone and Ray Rizzo, one of the album’s producers, about Tyrone’s journey as an artist and the making of ‘Man Like Me.’ Tyrone grew up listening to his grandfather and his friends in the neighborhood playing guitar. Along with his $60 guitar, Tyrone headed of...
Feb 15, 2024•34 min
Canada's Talia Schlanger is best known for her work in broadcasting; guest-hosting Q with Tom Power on CBC and Alec Baldwin's "Here's the Thing" podcast, as well as taking over for David Dye on NPR Music's World Cafe in Philadelphia. Before all that, Talia was an actor and singer in many theater productions including Mamma Mia, Queen's We Will Rock You and Green Day's American Idiot. While she has found much success in her two previous careers, something has been pulling on Talia for years. She ...
Feb 08, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 248
Dive into the enchanting world of Elise Leavy , a musician hailing from the picturesque Monterey, California through her latest album A Little Longer . Elise's artistic journey is steeped in the influence of her magical surroundings and a childhood filled with music, thanks to her mom's painting and stepdad's musical talents. Growing up with a deep appreciation for nature and a belief in faeries, Elise shares how these elements shaped her musical perspective. As we explore Elise's musical evolut...
Feb 01, 2024•51 min•Ep. 246
Sarah Jarosz is what happens when young women are taken seriously. A huge part of the mandolinist’s story is that she had supportive male mentors and that has added to her confidence. We all know the age old story of “Young woman shows promise, gets exploited by the patriarchy and it affects her work.” We need to hear stories like this. Starting in her hometown of Wimberley, Texas, just 45 minutes outside of Austin - the live music capital of the world, Sarah found the mandolin at ten years old....
Jan 25, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 246
Vivian Leva and Riley Calcagno, known as Viv & Riley, dive deep into the nuances of old-time music, folk influences, and the process behind their album, Imaginary People . The duo, who met at a music camp in Port Townsend, Washington, trace their roots from Riley's disciplined musical practice to Viv's intuitive approach. The two found inspiration from growing up in the Seattle area listening to KEXP (Riley), to living in Portland, Oregon to their current home in Durham, North Carol...
Jan 18, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 245
Rachael Kilgour unravels the layers of her late father on the album, "My Father Loved Me." Recorded in the cold of Toronto and produced by Rose Cousins (who also joins us for this conversation), this album carries the essence of Canadian roots and is a profound exploration of family heritage through the lens of an ordinary, hard working and humble man who died in 2017. The Duluth-born Rachael, and Rose, based in Halifax, reflect on their cold weather experiences, infusing the recording process w...
Jan 11, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 244
The cover of Darrell Scott's latest album, Old Cane Back Rocker, immediately sets the tone for your listening experience. The inclusion of the names of the Darrell Scott String Band (Bryn Davies, Matt Flinner and Shad Cobb) lets you know right off the bat that this recording is a band effort. The photo on the album cover gives a visual of Scotts' family roots in rural Kentucky. His cousin Dwight Messer is standing in front of his former childhood home, now abandoned on the family land. The music...
Jan 04, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 243
Let's get folking special! We're closing out 2023 with an exclusive live recording from folk mothership Club Passim , the historic folk venue located in Cambridge, MA, celebrating the bi-annual festival campfire . and its remarkable 25th anniversary. It started as a way for the club to book a slow holiday weekend and now 25 years later, campfire. is still held every Memorial Day and Labor Day weekend and remains an extremely popular fundraiser for Passim. Cindy and lizzie host this live show fea...
Dec 28, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Songwriter Maya de Vitry and bassist Ethan Jodziewicz come to their partnership with an understanding for their chosen lifestyle and a creative playfulness that enhances their connection. While Maya's roots are firmly planted in folk music, Ethan brings classical music and improvisation to the table. They've been collaborating together since Maya's post-Stray Birds solo career, which launched in early 2019 with her record, Adaptations . Fast forward to 2023, they are back alongside Joel Timmons ...
Dec 14, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 242
Thirty years ago, Rosanne Cash experienced an all-encompassing transformation. She had just left Nashville, her major label record deal and her marriage. She was living in New York and found herself falling in love with her producer, the guitarist John Leventhal. Her previous album Interiors had set the stage for the new Rosanne. With her landmark album, The Wheel , Cash and Leventhal came together to work on a brand new sound for the artist, who had a well established career in mainstream count...
Dec 07, 2023•30 min•Ep. 241
Long before the world fell in love with the music of Iron & Wine, and even before he knew that he wanted a career in music, Sam Beam knew that he loved making things. His parents, who didn’t necessarily understand their artsy kid but wanted to support him, kept Sam well-supplied in drawing paper and art supplies so that his imagination could run free. Sam knew that he was different from other kids but that didn’t bother him. In his early days of making music, Sam obsessively honed his skills...
Nov 30, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 240
After two decades in The Infamous Stringdusters , the Grammy-award winning neo bluegrass band, Travis Book releases his rock americana debut: Love and Other Strange Emotions . That's not to say that Book, who thrives on collaboration, got here on his own. The Colorado musician (now residing in Western North Carolina), was raised by parents who went out their way to ensure that young Travis respected music and had access to instruments. His mother bought him his first bass guitar and his dad allo...
Nov 16, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 239
Former trumpet player and anxious adventurer Caroline Cotter had been constantly on the move performing hundreds of live shows since 2015. At the dawn of the pandemic she had a full album in the can and ready to go. When the world shut down, so did she. She set her songs to the side and didn't pick up her guitar for a long while. She left her city of Portland, Maine and headed even more north to the Acadia region and reconnected with nature: i.e. hugging as many trees and rocks and one woman can...
Nov 09, 2023•55 min•Ep. 238
Jobi Riccio has only begun to scratch the surface of what they have to offer on their debut album Whiplash . The songwriting is centered around self-discovery and mourning past lives laid alongside super smart country and pop melodies. Our hero grew up an outdoor kid amongst the woods of Red Rocks Parks and Amphitheatre in Colorado. A strong bluegrass community encircled her playing from a very young age in a way that encouraged her to pursue music as a career. She spent time in Boston attending...
Nov 02, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 237
