Basic Folk Archives - Page 14 of 17 - The Bluegrass Situation

Basic Folk – Patrick Haggerty of Lavender Country

Posted on November 10, 2022August 30, 2023 by Shelby Williamson

A note: our guest on this episode, Patrick Haggerty of Lavender Country, passed away on October 31 at the age of 78, several weeks after he’d had a stroke. This episode was produced before his death. We are grateful to be able to share this conversation with Patrick and we hope our listeners will take some time to learn about Patrick’s remarkable life, especially his pro-LGBTQ+ and pro-working class activism. We are sending love to his many fans, friends, and especially his family at this difficult time.

Patrick Haggerty, the frontperson of Lavender Country, is considered a legend of queer country music. He made history when he released the first openly gay country album in 1973. In a lot of ways, Nashville still isn’t ready for queer folks to be our outspoken selves, but in 1973 it was almost unthinkable. Patrick walked into the cultural storm consciously, knowing that his story needed to be told even though few were ready to hear it.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • STITCHER • AMAZON • MP3After being shunned from the music industry, Patrick continued to do important work in the communities he cared about. He worked for decades as a social worker, community organizer, gay rights activist, and anti-racism activist. He got married and raised children. Then, a wild twist of internet fate took place. One of Lavender Country’s songs got posted to YouTube and Patrick found himself signed to a record label, and creating his second album. He re-emerged into a world that was more gay-friendly, and to a new legion of fans who had found his music on the internet.

It was a special honor to speak with Patrick and his husband, JB, after spending time on the road with them this past spring during the “Roundup” queer country tour. Their steadfast relationship, humor, activism, and dedication to building a better world have taught me so much about what it means to make a life in music as a queer person. We at Basic Folk are honored to share this conversation with you.

Content Warning: this episode contains mentions of self-harm, suicide, and homophobia.

Editor’s Note: Basic Folk is currently running their annual fall fundraiser! Visit basicfolk.com/donate for a message from hosts Cindy Howes and Lizzie No, and to support this listener-funded podcast.

Photo Credit: Marie Tamanova

Basic Folk – Ondara

Posted on November 3, 2022 by Shelby Williamson

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 instruments, and the household radio was constantly in demand so he would wait until everyone was asleep so that he could listen to music by himself. He began writing poems, and eventually a cappella songs. He figured that if Bob Dylan could create a legacy setting insightful poems to music, so could he.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • STITCHER • AMAZON • MP3In 2013, Ondara won the green card lottery and moved to Minneapolis, because a) he had a family member there, and b) his hero Bob Dylan came from there. Ondara quickly discovered that Minnesota was a little different than he had dreamed. He was working temp jobs to buy his first guitar, writing dozens of songs that would eventually become his debut album, Tales of America, and getting his foot in the door in the Minneapolis open mic scene. But he found that it was difficult to put a band together, that the life of a songwriter was lonely, and that, in America, the color of his skin came with a whole set of expectations about how he should behave (and even about what kind of music he should create).

Ondara has worked to understand these expectations without bowing to them. He shared during our conversation that being Black in America means joining a tradition of art and resistance, and that helping The Cause matters to him. And his ability to contribute to the cause has grown exponentially, since Ondara hit the road in support of his hit debut album, and opening for artists like Neil Young, Lindsey Buckingham, and the Lumineers.

Since then, Ondara has looked outward for subject matter, releasing a pandemic-inspired album in 2020 based on his friends’ stories of quarantine dating and struggling to pay the rent. He has also undertaken a significant spiritual journey as he struggles to reconcile fame and the demands of capitalism with his desire to become a grounded, useful, wise, grown-up adult. His solution, for now, comes in the form of the Spanish Villager, the hyper-performative character at the center of his new album.

Photo Credit: Nate Ryan

Basic Folk – Mali Obomsawin

Posted on October 27, 2022November 2, 2022 by Shelby Williamson

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.

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Mali’s improvisational approach to creating music results in a remarkable living piece of music that not only illustrates hundreds of years of their people’s history, but also illuminates their hopes for the rematriation of Native lands. One of the most insidious lies about Native people in the Americas is that they are relics of the past, not constantly-evolving communities. Through their music and activism, Mali refutes this claim. The record weaves field recordings with intense instrumentals and Mali’s stunning voice. They even co-wrote a Penobscot language chant to close the album. Sweet Tooth confronts heartbreaking history while insisting upon a path forward. It is at turns heartbreaking, jarring, tender, and fun.

Those who are interested in learning more about the concept of intersectionality will find this episode of Basic Folk fascinating. Mali and I dig deep into what it looks like to embrace gender freedom while remaining loyal to the bonds shared by women of color within a hostile colonial culture.

Photo Credit: Abby and Jared Lank

Basic Folk – Caroline Spence

Posted on October 20, 2022November 2, 2022 by Shelby Williamson

Originally from Charlottesville, Virginia, Caroline Spence came from this cool family that always seemed to be messing around with music: both 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 and mother. The clips, which she used in the video for “Clean Getaway,” were a gift in which she was able to see her personality and genuine love of music from a young age. She was emboldened to perform and write by her musical aunt, who invited Caroline to open for her as a teenager.

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She came to Nashville for a job in the music industry and slowly started putting herself out there as a songwriter for other musicians. Her writing is based in honesty and she opens up about her relationship to the truth in our conversation. We also get into how she had to develop ego, why it matters and how she let herself have access to it. We discuss her love of flowers and how she relates the songs on her new album True North to different flowers. Caroline is an avid reader of Mary Oliver and even has a song named after her as the poet feels devotional and spiritual. Enjoy Caroline Spence!

Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Raitz

Basic Folk – Will Sheff

Posted on October 13, 2022November 2, 2022 by Shelby Williamson

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 with 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 presence of the divine more deeply than he ever did in church.

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A lot of people dream of forming a band with their high school buddies and making it big. Will and his friends actually did it. Folk rock outfit Okkervil River released nine critically acclaimed albums and traveled the world together. You can read all about them elsewhere. I was most interested in how being the frontman of Okkervil River made Will into the performer and writer he is today.

One of the most interesting questions that Will explores on his new solo album, Nothing Special, is how to remove ego from the album-making process, even as he puts his own name front and center for the first time. This question led us down paths of meditation and consciousness, drugs and religion, power and acceptance. This record creates impressionistic scenes as much as it tells stories. It is an expression of Will’s higher self, tempered with humility. Nothing Special is bound to be a blessing.

Photo Credit: Bret Curry

Basic Folk – Caleb Caudle

Posted on October 6, 2022August 30, 2023 by Shelby Williamson

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 musician started out in a rock band before he found his calling as a thoughtful alt-country singer-songwriter. When Caleb released his debut solo album Red Bank Road in 2007, he was just beginning to realize what made his songwriting voice distinctive, and his numerous releases since then have been a journey deeper into his own sound and point of view.

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Caleb has driven a hard road in music, releasing albums and touring relentlessly since ‘07. Albums like Carolina Ghost and Better Hurry Up gained him a reputation as one of the Americana performers to watch in Nashville. As Caleb opened up about getting sober and being more intentional about his legacy, his gifts as a songwriter truly started to blossom. He recorded his latest release, Forsythia, at the Cash Cabin with a close group of trusted collaborators. It is an album whose imagery brings you home with him to North Carolina and into himself. He even came full circle with a new recording of “Red Bank Road,” the title track from his debut album.

Caleb brings the past with him while challenging himself to make something new with his life and with his art.

Photo Credit: Joseph Cash

Basic Folk – Brittany Haas

Posted on September 29, 2022February 8, 2023 by Shelby Williamson

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, 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 her band Hawktail along with Paul Kowert, Jordan Tice and Dominick Leslie. Their latest album, Place of Growth, is a song cycle in appreciation to the natural elements, which have always intrigued Brittany.

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She’s a trailblazer in fiddling and also has an acute awareness of burnout. The past few years have seen her pursuing and obtaining a masters in social work and teaching classes at East Tennessee State University as their artist-in-residence. Our conversation includes a discussion of balance and awareness when it comes to keeping her music joyful. And then there’s science: she has a degree in Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. Also, Hawktail’s latest album is a journey through the natural world. We talk about the band giving each other the space to be themselves on the record. Brittany is chill, brilliant and generous. Enjoy and then go listen to Hawktail’s new record all in one sitting.

Photo Credit: Dylan Ladds

Basic Folk – Amy Ray

Posted on September 22, 2022November 2, 2022 by Shelby Williamson

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 Nashville, this album features an incredible lineup of guests like Brandi Carlile, I’m With Her, Allison Russell, Phil Cook and Alison Brown. She’s confronting racism, homophobia, religion and mortality in her songs and we go deep into those topics in this episode.

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Aside from exploring gender identity and being comfortable in your own body, I had an agenda in our interview. I’ve talked about this a little on the podcast, but recently our dog Willis suddenly and unexpectedly died. Amy’s new album features the song “Muscadine,” which was written when her oldest dog passed away. The song’s about “learning to love and receive love in the purest way, and to not be picky about life, but to stay the course with curiosity and gratitude.” I was grateful for Amy’s words of wisdom about the loss of a dog and am happy to share them with you. Actually, Amy’s full of wisdom and is always so open to whatever questions come her way. Enjoy this conversation with a very, very good person.

Photo Credit: Sandlin Gaither

Basic Folk – Ken Yates

Posted on September 16, 2022September 16, 2022 by Shelby Williamson

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 to gain, and what did you actually get out of it, are questions that are fascinating to me, and Ken’s answers were super interesting. One takeaway I learned from his stories of Berklee is that even some of the most talented musicians feel like they have no idea what they’re doing.

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Ken’s breakout 2016 album, Huntsville, earned him the Emerging Artist of the Year award at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. It was not just a huge and competitive honor, but it was also a defining moment where Ken started getting categorized as a folk artist.

Ken released a beautiful album, Quiet Talkers, in 2020, and instead of touring in support of that album, he had to do a bunch of covid-era online shows. I was impressed with how gracious and level-headed he seemed despite the crappy circumstances. This grace, perspective, emotional openness, and flexibility are a big part of what makes his new album, Cerulean, so special. Cerulean came out in 2022 and it bridges the gap between folk and indie rock, between skepticism and hope, between the pain of losing someone and the possibility of embracing what you have. Cerulean has a distinct groove, features vocals from Americana stars like Kathleen Edwards, Liz Longley, and Katie Pruitt, AND some of the prettiest production I’ve heard all year.

Photo Credit: Jen Squires

Basic Folk – Kyshona

Posted on September 8, 2022September 9, 2022 by Shelby Williamson

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 applause. If one person comes up to her and tells her they feel seen, she walks away feeling like she’s done her work.

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That work also includes many years of being a music therapist with mental health patients, children and those who are experiencing incarceration. Through music, she’s found that everyone has a story to tell. It is her honor and privilege to help them tell their stories.

Growing up in South Carolina, she was surrounded by music thanks to her father and grandfather’s musical groups. She was classically trained on the piano and also the oboe, which she compares to a human voice. After receiving a music scholarship, she found her way to the field of music therapy and found so much purpose and meaning. After graduating from University of Georgia and working as a music therapist, she found her own way to her songwriting in order to keep a separation from her work. She’s released several solo albums, most notably, her 2020 album Listen, whose title track made waves in the Americana world. Recently, she’s released three singles leading us to highly anticipate her next full length. Enjoy the wise and delightful Kyshona!

Editor’s note: Kyshona will be a part of BGS’ 10th Anniversary Happy Hour celebration at Nashville’s City Winery Lounge as part of Americanafest on Wednesday September 14, along with Willie Watson and Rainbow Girls.

Photo Credit: Nora Canfield