Tag: Basic Folk

Basic Folk: Edie Carey & Sarah Sample

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Friends and collaborators Edie Carey & Sarah Sample teamed up in 2014 for their first album, ‘Til the Morning: Lullabies and Songs of Comfort. The pair both had babies and were wanting to do a project that centered around calming music for both children and adults. They were shocked at the album’s reception by adults (AKA non-babies) who listened after experiencing grief, trauma, and huge loss. This type of music certainly had an important place in the world. Now, they have done it again, but with more of a focus on calming music for adults with their follow-up. Lantern In The Dark: Songs of Comfort and Lullabies includes some originals, their first co-write, and new interpretations of songs by Wilco, The Beatles, Cyndi Lauper, and James Taylor.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • AMAZON • MP3

In our Basic Folk conversation, we tackle the concept of comfort and what they experienced in the surprise reaction from their first record. What is a good balance of comfort? It was also a great time to talk about their experiences as touring musicians with young babies. For instance, the types of questions they would get asked that they are sure their male counterparts with young children would not get. They talk about the songs on the album, one of which was written by Edie in the aftermath of her mom’s sudden and recent passing. We wrap it all up, of course, by hearing each of their James Taylor stories and a delightful bedtime-themed lightning round.

Photo Credit: Steve Willis

Basic Folk: Kasey Anderson

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

We’re starting with the end in our conversation with Kasey Anderson. On Basic Folk we’ve covered a lot of firsts: debut albums, origin stories, and the beginnings. Ever since I have known Kasey, his social media bio has been, “Gradually retiring songwriter.” I’m always teasing him about “What does that mean? When are you going to retire?” Officially, this latest album, To the Places We Lived, is his “last album.” I want to put that in very heavy quotes, because I hate to imagine a world where a great songwriter friend of mine is not making records. I think his insistence on this album as the last one has more to do with saying goodbye to parts of the music industry that he wants to release and ways of being in the world that he doesn’t want to engage with anymore. What do we need to let go of? What do we need to release? That’s the place where this album begins.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • AMAZON • MP3

In our conversation, we talk about Kasey’s whole songwriting career and the moment where he went surprise viral for one of his political songs, “The Dangerous Ones.” We talk about his time being incarcerated and what that taught him about himself, what it taught him about the world, what it taught him about white supremacy. We talk about his family. We talk about his sobriety and his work in helping others get clean and stay clean, and what staying clean means in a holistic and gentle sense.

The songs on this album are mournful, literate, and very, very fun. My favorite is “Back to Nashville;” it’s a rock and blues song. Kasey is the type of artist who can write a really contemplative song about self reflection or grief or loss, and then a blues rocker that makes you want to shake your ass the next second.

Photo Credit: Matthew Leonetti

Chuck Prophet Talks Music, Surfing, and Storytelling with Mark Erelli

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Editor’s note: For this episode, we invited our friend Mark Erelli to interview Chuck Prophet. The two are familiar with each other’s work through songwriting together for Mark’s latest album Lay Your Darkness Down (2023). We’re thrilled to welcome Mark back as guest host!

Chuck Prophet has been a mainstay on the indie and Americana music scenes since the 1980s, before either designation was a common part of the rock ‘n’ roll lexicon. Through his guitar work in the seminal psychedelic desert rock band Green On Red, musical collaborations with Kelly Willis, Kim Richey, and Warren Zevon, and a string of over a dozen solo records, Prophet has carved out a respected niche in rock music history with his “California Noir” sound. It’s a streak he probably could have kept riding for the rest of his career, if not for his sudden diagnosis with lymphoma a couple years ago. During his treatment and eventual recovery from cancer, Prophet found solace in his record collection — in particular the vibrant rhythms and danceable energy of Cumbia. He eventually sought out a favorite local band in the genre to jam, and then formally collaborate on Wake The Dead, Prophet’s first new solo album in four years. The project blends his longtime band The Mission Express with members of the Cumbia outfit Quiensave, and the result is equal parts familiar and fresh.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • AMAZON • MP3

I have firsthand knowledge of Prophet’s freewheeling collaborative process, having worked with him and his longtime songwriting partner Klipschutz on a song for my 2020 album Blindsided. I once taught with Chuck at a folk festival songwriting school, and was relieved to be able to play before him at the instructor open mic, because no one wants to follow Chuck Prophet. His musical catalog is so deep and broad that it’s both inspiring… and a bit overwhelming. It was a joy to reconnect with him for a wide-ranging conversation about his new album that also touched upon his sense of humor, guitar-playing techniques, surfing culture, and even his favorite Bob Seger song.

Photo Credit: Chuck Prophet by Kory Thibeault; Mark Erelli by Joe Navas

Basic Folk: Liv Greene

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Oh, how I’ve longed to talk to Liv Greene. Every once in a while you come across a young artist that seems older and wiser than her 26 years. Liv’s been giving me that impression since I met her in 2019, when she was at Club Passim waiting tables and breaking hearts on the stage at just 21 years. Ok, enough about being young.

Liv’s been writing, studying music, and going to music camps since she was 12. Arguably she’s been studying music all her life with her Americana loving parents, who were filling the house with the sounds of Patty Griffin, Emmylou Harris, and Shawn Colvin, to name a few women in heavy rotation at the Greene house. Being the only of her friends that liked that kind of music, Liv attended many D.C.-area concerts with her mom, taking in the magic of live music at a very tender age. Speaking of tenderness, that’s what Liv Greene is all about and she digs into it in our conversation.

Liv started writing and playing shortly after she was inspired by a Taylor Swift concert. From there, she took off on the instrument and even sought out music education in camps like Miles of Music in New Hampshire. It was at that camp, as well as the arts academy Interlochen High School, where she started meeting peers with similar interests. She found herself living for summers with her music camp friends. Prior to her senior year at Interlochen, Liv was a closeted queer at her all-girls Catholic school mostly writing fictionalized stories into her songs because she could not deal with who she was.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • AMAZON • MP3

Liv attended and graduated from The New England Conservatory of Music and released her debut album (produced by Isa Burke) right in time for the pandemic in May of 2020. Shortly after that, she moved to Nashville and has spent the last several years on an intense path of self-discovery. Liv found her community, came out, wrote, and self-produced her new album, Deep Feeler (out October 18). On the album, you can hear the growth she’s experienced and you can hear her thriving in her corner of the Nashville music scene, including indie folk. We talk about all of this, including what it means to have a neurodivergent brain, music production, the roller skating community, and Liv’s favorite Taurus personality traits.

Photo Credit: Joseph Ross Smith

Basic Folk: Blind Pilot

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Oregon-bred indie folk music outfit Blind Pilot go on a deep spiritual journey on their new album, In the Shadow of the Holy Mountain, produced by Josh Kaufman. The music inspiration for frontman Israel Nebeker lay in his songwriting process. This is the first Blind Pilot album in eight years, because after struggling with writing for years, Nebeker set aside the songs he had been working on. (Which will be included on a new solo record in 2025.) He gave himself a month to write an album’s worth of songs to present to the band. He demo-ed the songs and headed out for a trip centered around spiritual growth in Norway.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • AMAZON • MP3

Searching for ancestral connections and tracing his own roots, Nebeker sought out the Sámi – a semi-nomadic Scandinavian people – their culture and community. He participated in a Sámi shamanic journey exploring indigenous spirituality. A shaman took him on a drum journey and invited him to listen for ancestors and visions. His vision included his ancestors beckoning him to a path that led straight to a mountain, which was clearly his family legacy and origin. Back in the studio with the band, he re-listened to his songs and was very surprised to realize that the album was about his ancestors. The connection that the rest of the band felt in delivering the music is palpable. The special emotional dynamic that always exists with Blind Pilot is supercharged on In the Shadow of the Holy Mountain.

Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez

Amy Helm: Letters to Women and the Legacy of The Barn

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Amy Helm has had one of the most fascinating lives that any person can have. As you might have guessed from her famous last name, she comes from roots music royalty. Amy is the daughter of Levon Helm, the beloved late drummer for the incredible groundbreaking Canadian-American group The Band. She also continues to run The Barn, a music venue and recording studio built by her dad and Garth Hudson, which served as Levon Helm Studios.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • AMAZON • MP3

In her own career, she has created a new lineage of musical tradition, family, great songwriting, poetry, and a feminine power that emanates off of her. We’re talking about her new album, Silver City, but we’re also talking about songwriting. We’re talking about grief. We’re talking about single parenthood. We’re talking about family. We’re talking about being on the road. We’re talking about how our bodies change over time and how that changes us as a vocalist and as an artist.

Photo Credit: Ebru Yildiz

Basic Folk: Lisa Loeb

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Looking back at her wildly successful and always adventurous career up to this point, it feels inevitable that Lisa Loeb was always going to be a songwriter. But young Lisa probably could have done any creative job well. She grew up surrounded by music, yes, but she also had a passion for theater and got her degree in comparative literature. It was her theater and film side hustles that led Lisa to her first big break. Lisa’s friend Ethan Hawke shared her song “Stay” with Ben Stiller, who included the song in the soundtrack for the film Reality Bites. “Stay” was a massive hit and Lisa was the first-ever artist to have a Number 1 hit on the Billboard charts without a recording contract.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • AMAZON • MP3

The second act of Loeb’s career is the main focus of our Basic Folk conversation. This chapter in the book of Lisa Loeb is all about… children’s music! As her latest album, That’s What It’s All About, demonstrates, Loeb has managed to keep playfulness and curiosity at the center of her life well into adulthood. She has figured out the delicate balance of making music for kids that adults can relate to as well. Happy memories of music from her own childhood, as well as nods to her elders, make this new record a sonic storybook that listeners of all ages will enjoy.

Photo Credit: Juan Patino

Basic Folk: Bruce Molsky & Darol Anger

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

The names Bruce Molsky and Darol Anger have come up more often than not when talking to fiddlers on Basic Folk. The pair have single-handedly mentored hundreds of our favorites in fiddle music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Darol’s online music school, music camps, festivals, and more. The pair joined us on the occasion of their newest folk music collab, their new album Lockdown Breakdown. Folk music has often been associate with nerdiness, so we get right into their nerdy roots with Bruce’s love of fountain pens, his background in mechanical engineering, and all facts about American roots music, bluegrass, and fiddle music you can stand.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • AMAZON • MP3

Both talk about their origins: Bruce in the Bronx and Darol in Northern California, which eventually led him to become a co-founding member of the David Grisman Quintet. We discuss the social aspect of the old time and bluegrass world and how that has translated into the way they each approach socializing. Then, we get into the thousands of fiddle lessons they’ve given younger players and why they like to mentor younger generations.

And of course, we chat about the album, which was recorded live in a Nashville studio in just a few days. Darol and Bruce talk about what the energy was like in the room for all their live takes during the session. It was a pleasure to speak with these two very funny, very influential musicians! They are doing incredible and important work.

Photo Credit: Jeppe Blomgren

Balancing Dreams and Reality: A Folk Debate on Ambition

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Welcome to another edition of Folk Debate Club, our occasional debate series! To discuss ambition vs. acceptance, we welcome our panel: music journalist Kim Ruehl, Basic Folk boss Cindy Howes, and yours truly Lizzie No. We would like to extend a very warm welcome to our special guests singer-songwriter Michaela Anne and producer Aaron Shafer-Haiss, also hosts of The Other 22 Hours podcast. In our lively conversation we work through thoughts and feelings about the definition of ambition: a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work. We take the approach from a music industry, folk music and even dive into the audience perspective of how fans might feel about an artist’s ambition.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • AMAZON • MP3

It is no surprise that capitalism gets rung right out as a reason that ambition goes wrong for artists. As Kim says, “​Art ​is ​like ​the ​nervous ​system ​of ​humanity,” and mixing creation with ambition-gone-wrong is a dangerous game that a lot (most?) professional musicians play with at some point in their careers. This episode has everything: navigating our way out of toxic work environments, messy reactions to unpopular yet important political stances and how to not throw away the people who disagree with you. Listen along and enjoy the ride.

Photo Credit: Lizzie No by Cole Neilson; Cindy Howes by Liz Dutton; Michaela Anne and producer Aaron Shafer-Haiss; Kim Ruehl by Rich Amory

Jeffrey Foucault Remembers Billy Conway with The Universal Fire

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

In our episode with Wisconsin-born, New England-based Jeffrey Foucault, we had a handful of questions for the singer-songwriter about his background: coffee, the Midwest, and Mark Twain wisdom. Then, we talked about Billy Conway for more than an hour. Conway was Foucault’s long-time partner in music, his drummer, and best friend who died from cancer in 2021. He was a roots rock and roll legend in Boston with his tenure in Morphine and Treat Her Right. Conway was like a holy man, known for his creative, curious, and infectious spirit where even people who met him only one time (myself included) were quite taken and inspired by his presence. His loss hit the music community hard. In 2023, a tribute album showcasing the songwriting of Conway recorded by some of his closest friends (including Chris Smither, Foucault, Kris Delmhorst, and Billy’s wife Laurie Sargent) was released. And now, with his latest album release, Jeff’s given us a working wake for his friend Billy, The Universal Fire.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • AMAZON • MP3

Elsewhere in the episode, we talked about what was going on with Jeff when he met and started working with Billy in 2013. What state of mind made this spectacular friendship and collaboration completely click? Jeff has also been conscious about his reaction to Conway’s death and processing grief, when it comes to being an example for his teenage daughter (who is also getting into folk music and live performance, too – hi, Hazel!)

We also dig into the new album. Jeffrey paralleled the loss of Billy Conway with a different type of loss, the 2008 fire at the Universal Studios lot in California that destroyed master tapes of hugely influential American recordings. And finally, we check in on how Jeffrey’s human-ness is faring in the high-tech world in the year 2024.

Photo Credit: Joe Navas