Leyla McCalla couldn’t have known that, weeks after releasing her fourth solo album, Breaking the Thermometer, the New York Times would publish a major report detailing the long history of Haiti’s mistreatment at the hands of France and the United States. But McCalla, the Haitian American daughter of Haitian-born human rights activists and the granddaughter…

Growing up in the southern Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, Tray Wellington discovered the banjo as a teenager. Now in his early 20s with a full-length debut album titled Black Banjo, Wellington subverts the musical expectations he has felt as a Black musician by presenting banjo in a jazz-tinged, progressive style. While his influences include…

Crooked Tree is Molly Tuttle’s third full-length album and her first officially fronting a bluegrass band, but the 29-year-old-picker has been pushing the genre forward for the better part of her life. She started playing guitar at 8 years old and playing live onstage by age 11, often performing alongside her father or as part…

If there's one aspect of Aoife O'Donovan's career that has endured through the years, it's a sense of community. Tinkering with different combinations of creative chemistry across multiple albums for groups of varying styles, it was no surprise to find O'Donovan working with others in pursuit of her third solo album, Age of Apathy. Still,…

Speaking to Yola over Zoom is way more fun than a video call has any right to be. From the time she dials in from the UK, she's ready to chat. Good thing, because there's a lot to talk about. About a week earlier, she picked up two Grammy nominations in the American Roots Music…