Tag: Cindy Howes

Leyla McCalla’s Joyful Rebellion: Sun Without Heat and the Freedom of Play

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Singer-songwriter Leyla McCalla and her band (bassist Pete Olynciw, drummer Shawn Meyers, and guitarist Nahum Zdybel) join us onboard Cayamo to go through their incredible, righteous and fun new record Sun Without the 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.

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The sounds on the album are inspired by Afrobeat, Haitian music, folk music, indie music, Americana music, Brazilian tropicalismo, amongst others. Leyla calls it, “A record that is playful and full of joy while holding the pain and tension of transformation.” McCalla’s liberatory politics find their way into the record, evidenced by the title – which comes from a Frederick Douglass speech given six years before the Emancipation Proclamation. Leyla explores her cultural heritage while reflecting the African diaspora using elements of Afrofuturism. She’s leaning into a concept that challenges women in music (particularly women of color) of how to free herself from labor that should not be hers, and fighting for her right to be joyful in her creative expression.

When asked about how these new songs feel through the lens of somatic experience, Leyla says the new music feels different and that she’s let go of the idea of perfectionism as a single mom of three kids. A lot of the record was informed by different authors she’s read recently like adrienne maree brown (Pleasure Activism) and Susan Raffo (Liberated To the Bone). Leyla’s really changing the game in Americana, when it comes to incorporating the academic into truly bitchin’ music.

Sidenote: we really loved hanging out with this crew at sea on Cayamo. They had great vibes, good laughs, and also very good outfits. Lizzie even recruited Pete to play bass in an impromptu trio while on board. More good times with Leyla and band, please!

Photo Credit: Chris Scheurich

Humbird: From Dinner Table Singing to Dismantling White Supremacy

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

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, but also loved music and feeding her vivid imagination. Her interest in 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, which would play at Irish Pubs, talent shows, and of course, at the local hockey rink. They introduced her to Celtic music and her first live performances.

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In this episode of Basic Folk, Undlin shares her rich experience studying folklore and fairy tales, which greatly influence her musical journey. She discusses her intensive research in Ireland and Nordic countries, exploring how music intertwines with storytelling traditions.

Throughout the episode, Undlin reflects on her upbringing, her time at an art school, and her evolving approach to songwriting, blending traditional folk music with indie music and experimental sounds. On her new album, Right On, Siri is acknowledging and addressing white supremacy in middle America, as highlighted in her song “Child of Violence.” She talks candidly about what writing and releasing the song taught her about white supremacy. Touring has provided Undlin with unexpected challenges and valuable insights, shaping her perspective as a musician and performer. We talk about the importance of being open to chaos and disciplined in one’s mindset while navigating the music industry and life on the road.

(Editor’s Note: Read our recent interview feature with Humbird here.)

Photo Credit: Juliet Farmer

Basic Folk: Community vs Capitalism, Live from Cayamo

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

We’re live at sea! Our hosts Lizzie No and Cindy Howes recorded this episode onboard Cayamo, which is a singer-songwriter, Americana cruise that’s been sailing yearly since 2008. It’s 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 BGS) and Natalie Dean (director of events at Sixthman, which presents Cayamo). We talk about both of these concepts through the lens of folk music and the music industry at large. Community building amongst folk artists and fans in authentic and unique ways will help drive your passion. Organically finding community through event production, online presence, or music promotion is at the core of folk culture. Community trust and cultural diversity are key in ensuring that folk music artists will thrive in our capitalistic society.

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How do you build that trust among your audience in a way that allows them to build trust with each other? How do you stay true to your values while being able to pay for your life? How have musical community leaders cultivated their particular communities?

Capitalism is our current reality, but it historically has not mixed well with community. Clearly, one must be pursued vigorously, moreso than the other! Or does it? Is there a way that these two can live side by side in folk music?

If you are listening to this or reading this right now, I can make this assumption: You want to support music financially and with your heart. Music is something that sustains our lives, but it’s also a profession and something people consume. Don’t worry, we “figure it all out” in this episode of FOLK DEBATE CLUB AT SEA!

Photo Credit: Will Byington

Jontavious Willis Says Blues Music Is for The Kids

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Originally from Greenville, Georgia, Jontavious Willis is a blues music phenom. When we talk about the blues, the phrase “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 that you’re not doing it right or asking you, “Have you really paid your dues? Are you really faithful to the tradition?” And asking you questions about whether or not you belong.

Jontavious handles that double-edged sword with such alacrity. His writing is firmly contemporary at the same time that his playing is rooted in the tradition of country blues. He knows so much about the genre that he’s basically a walking encyclopedia of the blues. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but instead of the traditional Basic Folk lightning round, we played a pop-up game at the end of the interview. I put different styles of the blues (like Delta or Piedmont) in one cup and various 2024 topics, ripped from the headlines, in another. Then we just matched them up. He was so quick on his feet.

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Jontavious is a great example of a new spin on a genre that a lot of people think they know already. He is so adamant that the blues is a contemporary genre and always has been. He made the point during our interview that a lot of the blues legends we’ve encased in the amber of memory were young teens or 20-somethings when they wrote their iconic songs. It’s really a genre for free people, for young people, for people looking ahead. It’s not about the past. Another point he made while discussing his Southern roots: When we talk about country, often we’re talking about a musical genre with a certain difficult history. But for him, and I imagine for a lot of other artists, country is a way of life. It’s about being out in the wild. It’s about having a connection to nature. It’s about sitting with quiet. It’s about having time on your hands to experiment with songwriting, or being a singer. It’s about a genuine experience of being connected to a particular place in time.

This interview and live performance was recorded for the podcast live at the Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival (FWAAMFest). When I was a kid, my dad’s family used to have these big reunions. They’re from a North and South Carolina Baptist family, and it would be a big barbecue at the state park or in a church hall. We would have t-shirts made, people of all ages milling around, catching up. Often there would be an elder getting up to say a long prayer or make an announcement. This sense of belonging and intergenerational connection is what FWAAMFest felt like. Brandi Waller-Pace, the festival founder, is such a visionary, and they bring together artists of so many different genres, all of which fit under the roots music umbrella. There’s this beautiful link between all of the music based on the African American Storytelling Tradition and the Artistic Tradition. In addition to being able to interview Jontavious live onstage, this was my first time headlining a festival, so it couldn’t have been more of a special day for me.

Photo credit: Ben Noey Jr.

Aoife O’Donovan & Dawn Landes on Basic Folk

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Aoife O’Donovan and Dawn Landes are long-time friends. Coincidentally, they both have new albums with strong feminist themes, so I 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. Inspired by speeches and letters, one song of Aoife’s, “War Measure,” is based on a letter of support from Woodrow Wilson to Chapman Catt. This album also marks the biggest project Aoife has worked on with her husband Eric Jacobsen, who conducts the Orlando Philharmonic and the Virginia Symphony Orchestras. It’s also the first record she’s released since becoming a mother. Of her song “Daughters,” she says she sings “as a modern woman, not wanting to leave the fight to the daughters of our daughters.”

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Dawn Landes, also a mother, has a broader focus with her new album, The Liberated Woman’s Songbook. It features songs from the 1971 songbook of the same title, intended to inspire second wave feminists’ women’s liberation movement, and modern feminism of the 1970s. The songs span from 1830 (“Hard is the Fortune of All Womankind”) to 1970 (“There Was a Young Woman Who Swallowed a Lie,” “Liberation, Now!“), showcasing how women of the past expressed political activism in the struggle for gender equality.

Both Aoife and Dawn released their albums during Women’s History Month, which led us to a discussion of what that choice means to each of them. We also talk about protest signs, the Taylor Swift movie, gender stereotypes, and of course, all waves of feminism. Chatting about the 19th Amendment, we acknowledge that this only allowed white women to vote, which then leads to talk of how suffragists and feminist protest songwriters – like Meredith Tax – contributed to and gleaned inspiration from the civil rights movement.

Aoife and Dawn are legends! We start with what their internal dialogues were like when first undertaking these ambitious and important projects and end with Aoife putting Barbie on blast. All and all, this one’s a winner.

Photo Credit: Dawn Landes by Heather Evans Smith; Aoife O’Donovan by Sasha Israel.

Appalachian Bluegrasser Missy Raines Explains The West Virginia Thing

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

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 explores the influence of the vast and varied bluegrass music scene she found there, as well as the scene in nearby Washington, D.C..

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Raines has made a significant impact on the genre, earning 14 International Bluegrass Music Association awards, including 10 for Bass Player of the Year. Her latest album, Highlander, showcases Raines’ mastery of the bass alongside an ensemble of top-tier musicians from Nashville – her home base for the last 34 years – and plenty of special guests, too, blending traditional bluegrass with innovative twists.

Throughout our conversation, Raines reflects on her deep connection to Appalachian culture and the Appalachian Mountains, which have profoundly influenced her music. We explore her experiences performing live at music festivals and the evolution of bluegrass music as a genre and community. We recount the passion her family felt for music, touching on the story of her mom and aunt crying their eyes out over John Duffey leaving their favorite bluegrass band, The Country Gentlemen.

Raines also talks about taking care of her late brother Rick, who died of HIV-AIDS in 1994 at the age of 39. Through that experience, she was empowered to help others whose loved ones were also dying and suffering from HIV and AIDS. With her unique blend of banjo and fiddle music, and her activism in a normally conservative genre, Raines continues to push the boundaries of the genre while staying true to its roots, making her a trailblazer in the world of Americana and folk music. Our conversation was in depth, fun and enlightening – I had high hopes for this one and I was not disappointed!

Photo Credit: Stacie Huckeba

Bob Hillman’s Rock and Roll Return: From Beach Volleyball to Marketing to Musician

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Bob Hillman had a real thing going on in the early 2000s. He had made waves in New York City, rubbing shoulders with some of the finest songwriters of the era at places like Fast Folk and The Living Room. The singer-songwriter was creatively fulfilled, but not gaining the momentum needed to experience strategic growth in folk music. After opening 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 his MBA in marketing and went on to hold a decent paying job for the next decade and a half, raising his family in the Bay Area.

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After a layoff, Bob thought it was time to dig in again and started writing, recording, and performing. Since 2016, he’s released a couple of albums and an EP or two. The most recent is the mostly acoustic Downtown in the Rain. In our conversation, we talk about what it’s like to reignite his creative entrepreneurial musical spirit, how he used that energy in his corporate jobs, and also how he hopes to one day meet his singing partner on the EP, Maria Taylor.

Photo Credit: Brian Joseph

Joe Pug Will Not Ossify

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

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’s stayed ahead of the curve and created an ecosystem where self-reliance, growth and business thrive especially with his latest venture, The Nation of Heat Vault, that has every album, podcast, and newsletter up behind a paywall. In our interview, we dig into his creative process, family life and artistic balance while creating his latest project.

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The album was made on his own time at his new home studio, which he’s been working on for a decade. His reflection on having complete control over the music production is one of relief and joy in that he was able to take as long as he wanted. In this episode, we go through several songs on the album, remarking on songs like “Then the Rain,” which shines in its simplicity just like many songs of Lucinda Williams’, one of his biggest inspirations. We also talk about his journey into adulthood when he moved to Chicago, a chapter in his life he writes about in detail on the new album. He talks about what he hopes for his own young kids’ futures and how parenting has changed since he first became a dad seven or eight years ago. And of course, we talk about his fantastic podcast, The Working Songwriter, and how being an interviewer has changed his attitude about being the interviewee.

Photo Credit: Ryan Nolan

Hannah Connolly is Finding Her Happy Little Emo Heart Again

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Singer-songwriter Hannah Connolly, originally from Eau Claire, Wisconsin (the same as Justin Vernon and the Bon Iver crew!) has just released her second solo album, Shadowboxing. Written to reflect on musical and life transitions, it was recorded in beautiful Idyllwild, California, just outside of her new hometown of Los Angeles. While in that mountain town, Hannah reconnected with nature through hiking, finding joy in connecting with her friends and collaborators in music.

The process of making Shadowboxing, which was celebratory and fun, was crucial for Connolly’s mental health in music. Her debut album, 2020’s From Where We Are, centered around the trauma and healing she and her family faced after her little brother, Cullen, was killed by a drunk driver in 2015. Born with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Cullen was the life of the party and a bright light in every room he entered. Being able to process and mourn his loss through the making of her first record was not only extremely difficult, but also very necessary for Hannah. In our Basic Folk conversation, we talk about who Cullen was and how he continues to influence Hannah’s life and music. These days, Hannah is looking for the fun and lightness again, which is exactly what her little brother would want her to do.

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Even though Connolly’s visual storytelling and folky roots are strong, they are no match for her love of emo music, which has influenced her since she was a teenager. She even performed, recorded, and toured in an emo band prior to “going solo.” Hannah gets into her emo past, her childhood stint in musical theater and, of course, cheese curds in this new episode of Basic Folk. She also gives us the all important updates on her wedding planning! She recently got engaged to Eric Cannata of the alternative rock band, Young the Giant. I’m so happy for Hannah, not only for her future marriage, but also for creating this joyful new album.

Photo Credit: Phil Chester and Sara Byrne

Lizzie No: The GOAT on Gender, Tiaras, and Leveling Up (Basic Folk)

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

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 Lizzie’s mother actually won back in the early ’60s at a now defunct amusement park called Freedomland. And, there are photos of Little Catherine Quinlan with a look of disgust on her five-year-old face. Lizzie grew up with this story and as she got older, she began to think hard about societal expectations and the stock put into women and children’s emotional expression through their faces. Lizzie also grew up hearing and saying the word “No,” hence the stage name.

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Enter Miss Freedomland! (Also the name of Lizzie’s new record label.) She has been tasked with a journey to become free, which will require inner healing, exploration of self-identity, and giving up performance of gender that just feels wrong. The album starts with our main character trying to level up (because, yes, this is a video game) with her own self-expression, revisiting past traumas and shedding the baggage and hot garbage that got her trapped in the first place.

In our conversation, we go track by track through this showstopper of a record and even get some solo live performances. I hope you enjoy exploring Lizzie’s world as much as I did. These songs are brilliant and the concept executed remarkably. Thanks to Studio 9 in North Adams, Massachusetts for the use of their beautiful studio!

Photo Credit: Cole Nielsen