Tag: Music Podcast

The Travis Book Happy Hour: Tim O’Brien

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Editor’s note: The Travis Book Happy Hour is hosted by Travis Book of the GRAMMY Award-winning band, The Infamous Stringdusters. The show’s focus is musical collaboration and conversation around matters of being. The podcast is the best of the interview and music from the live show recorded in Brevard, NC, and is brought to you by Americana Vibes and The Bluegrass Situation.

Tim O’Brien has always been one of my biggest influences. I love his voice, his playing, and his writing. His album Red On Blonde was his tribute to Bob Dylan and it scored him a Grammy nomination. As a member of the legendary bluegrass band Hot Rize, he spent the 80’s traveling and playing, honing his craft. His record Fiddler’s Green is one of my favorites. I was humbled when he agreed to join me for the happy hour and the show was a career highlight for me. I hope you enjoy it. Huge thanks to Tim O’Brien, Jan Fabricius, Tommy Maher, Thompson Guitars, Americana Vibes, and The Bluegrass Situation.

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Timestamps:

0:06 – Soundbyte
1:00 – Introduction
2:55 – “Rise Sun”
5:38 – “Monologue”
8:58 – “I’m Not Alone”
15:00 – Interview 1
31:42 – “Workin’ On A Building”
35:25 – “Untold Stories”
38:40 – “More Love”
44:07 – “Brother Wind”
48:38 – Interview 2
1:06:26 – “When You Pray Move Your Feet”
1:11:11 – “I’m Nervous”
1:14:30 – “I’m Not Afraid of Dying”
1:19:32 – Outro

The Travis Book Happy Hour Podcast is brought to you by Thompson Guitars and is presented by Americana Vibes and The Bluegrass Situation as part of the BGS Podcast Network. You can find the Travis Book Happy Hour on Instagram and Facebook and online at thetravisbookhappyhour.com.

Photo Credit: Scott Simontacchi

The Show On The Road – Devon Gilfillian

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

This week, we feature a talk with genre-leaping singer-songwriter Devon Gilfillian who is back with a remarkable new LP, Love You Anyway. Shapeshifting between danceable southern soul, hip-hop, silky R&B, and AM gold rock ‘n’ roll, the record isn’t afraid to confront the thorny politics of voting rights and wrongful incarceration while still celebrating a newly revolutionary Black joy.

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Raised in Philadelphia and now based in Nashville, Gilfillian was so inspired by socially-conscious soul icons like Marvin Gaye that he used his time in the darkness of 2020 to release two albums: first the fiery Black Hole Rainbow which became a critical hit, and then a new take on What’s Going On, which raised funds for low-income communities of color, and provided resources and education around the democratic process.

Taking a cue from the lush production of 1970’s Stax and Motown, the new LP leads with the joyous “All I Really Wanna Do,” inviting us onto a cosmic journey of discovery and continues with the playful, sultry “Brown Sugar Queen,” a Prince x Anderson Paak super-sized jam that features rising Swedish pop star Janice.

Photo credit: Emmanuel Afolabi

Basic Folk – William Prince

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

William Prince spent a long time recording his debut album. By the time Earthly Days was released in 2015, Prince had lived a lot of life and was ready for the sort of instant stardom that would throw a lot of emerging singer-songwriters for a loop. A number of extraordinary things happened followed the release of Earthly Days: the song “Breathless” was a hit on the Billboard adult contemporary music charts, Prince won the Juno Award for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year, and he toured the hell out of the record for several years, opening for artists like Neil Young. This extended tour gave him the opportunity to basically perfect his live set in a way many new artists don’t get to.

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William has gone deeper and deeper and deeper with subsequent releases. He describes love and loss and self and community and fear and courage with universal appeal on 2020’s Reliever. He reinterprets the orthodoxy and aesthetics of his Christian upbringing through an indigenous lens on Gospel First Nation. He synthesizes varied traditions and flexes impressive vocal chops almost casually.

William’s new record, Stand In The Joy, comes out April 14th on Six Shooter Records, and it is a catchy, ambitious testimony about the power of love and hope. Talking about the album with William gave me the chance to ask him about his evolving spirituality, the tension between tradition and trendiness in roots music, how the loves of his life change how he shows up as a performer, what it’s like to work with superstar producer Dave Cobb, and what freedom looks like from a Peguis First Nations perspective.

Photo Credit: Joey Senft

Basic Folk – Kimaya Diggs

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, librettist, teacher, and dog lady Kimaya Diggs grew up surrounded by music. In her family, music was a tool for connection. Kimaya’s 2018 debut album, Breastfed, puts together the story of her upbringing through dreamy soul-folk jams. Even though she had been a musician all her life, she experienced a steep learning curve when it came to recording in the studio. She quickly figured out how the complex processes of mixing and mastering can impact how an audience receives your music, AND how frustrating it can be to play guitar to a click track.

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These lessons learned left Kimaya excited to get to work on her second album. In the meantime she had adopted a traumatized racing greyhound, and tragically lost her mom to breast cancer. There was so much love and loss to process, and Kimaya was figuring out how to share these precious pieces of her life while still honoring her mom’s privacy and her own healing journey. You might think that as a result, the album would comprise 45 minutes of whispered meditations on the great beyond. But Quincy is an album bursting with joy and exuberant grooves.

Kimaya’s husband, Jacob, plays in her band and contributed music for this new album. One of the most interesting parts of our conversation was when Kimaya shared how she manages to keep both her marriage and her creative partnership healthy at the same time. Here’s a hint: the secret has to do with co-writing.

Photo Credit: Anja Schutz

The Show On The Road – The Deslondes

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

This week, the show is back in New Orleans for a special talk with Sam Doores, one of the talented founders of well-traveled roots-rockers The Deslondes. We dive into their newest LP Ways & Means and how California-born Sam — who plays various instruments from electric guitar to keys, and sings in seven bands and counting throughout the Crescent City — collected many of its slow-burn soul-adjacent songs like “Five Year Plan” while holed up in a storage unit studio squat, questioning his place as an adult with real responsibilities who also happens to be a soul-searching artist criss-crossing our beautiful (or crumbling) almost-post-pandemic world.

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Imagine if you will, you walk into a saloon lost somewhere between 1930 and 1975. The band onstage has three distinct lead singers, and the songs feel like hard lived-in tales that could live in a TV western or the soundtrack to Boogie Nights, with vibes that would inspire both Ray Charles and Woody Guthrie, Tom Waits and The Beatles. If you’re confused, good. Algorithms can force music upon you at any time these days and I’ll admit, Spotify wants me to listen to The Deslondes, at all hours. They’re not wrong. If I have one job in this podcast it’s to share the music that lights a fire in me as a fellow songwriter and has me grasping for genre-descriptor straws. I have no idea, clearly, how to describe this band. I will say, songs like “Howl at the Moon” make me feel like I’m somehow still proud to be an American, plying my trade somewhere in the still kind of Wild West.

Starting with their charmingly ramshackle and bluesy self-titled debut in 2015, the band, which formed in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, has always made a point to write democratically and spread songs around to their singers. Sam for one, Dan Cutler (bass) for another and notably the always compelling Riley Downing, whose ancient deep drawl sounds like it should be its own character in Yellowstone — and all harmonize gorgeously together. Downing and Doores also both have duo and solo albums which are lovely, but what they create here in The Deslondes — especially in timeless story songs like “South Dakota Wild One” about Riley’s wandering youth — are special in the way accidental supergroups make music that somehow shouldn’t exist.

It was a pleasure getting together with Sam for a rare in-person chat just off Frenchmen Street. If there’s one thing I love most about New Orleans, it’s that it creates new artists that seem to follow the beat of their own drummer, genres be-damned. Give Ways & Means a spin — it might transport you somewhere you need to go.

Photo credit: Bobbi Wernig

Basic Folk – Brett Dennen

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Brett Dennen is a songwriter, painter and summer camp enthusiast. His camp experience was instrumental in developing his musicality. He attended Camp Jack Hazard in the Sierra Nevada Mountains where young Brett was enamored with the music his camp counselors would play on guitar around the campfire. He was introduced to Paul Simon, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and John Denver thanks to his counselors and his parents. He really developed as a songwriter in college at UC Santa Cruz. After school, he wove himself into the LA songwriter scene, which in the early 2000’s was a haven for musicians like himself, Alexi Murdoch, Damien Rice and Josh Ritter. He developed a large fanbase that remains loyal to this day.

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Brett talks about running his own summer camp, Camp Dennen, which allows him to create community through nature and art. He shares his experience of writing and thinking about being a dad and how that relates to the reality of fatherhood. And he talks about decidedly not being in the cool crowd and also not caring about it … well, not caring about it as much as he used to. Brett’s written some of my favorite songs of the 21st century. It was an honor to have him on the pod!

Photo Credit: Elli Lauren

Basic Folk – Sara Watkins

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Nickel Creek, the bluegrass trio whose been in existence for almost 35 years, returns with their first original release in nine years. It’s brainy, it’s theatrical, its twists and turns are not predictable from its authors, who have entered mid-life. To that point, there is lots of middle on this album. The middle’s not the most exciting or thrilling part (see: beginning or ending), but there is plenty happening and plenty to celebrate. The band says that’s the feeling they want to convey through the record. Lucky us, we get to crawl into the band’s history and approach to the new music via folk fashion icon, Sara Watkins.

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Despite the focus on the middle, Sara gets into the beginning of her musical experience, talking of her practicing habits, musical summer camp, and being friends with 70 year old bluegrass players at the local pizza parlor. She also talks about her vocal prowess, particularly on “Where The Long Line Leads,” where she blazes; singing on the very edge of her voice and it’s so exciting. Of course we talk about her history of stage outfits, from mid-length skirts to jumpsuits, she’s done a lot of fashion in the folk world over the course of her career. Sara Watkins is a dream: from Nickel Creek, to I’m With Her and the Watkins Family Hour! Enjoy this wonderful person! Go get that Nickel Creek record – holy cow!

Photo Credit: Josh Goleman

The Show On The Road – Anna Moss (Handmade Moments)

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

This week, we feature a conversation taped live in New Orleans with Arkansas-born multi-instrumentalist and roots-soul singer Anna Moss, who has criss-crossed the country in recent years with her sonic partner Joel Ludford in their band, Handmade Moments.

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Growing up as a bathroom-singing nerd playing saxophone in the school band, Anna admits that if she could wield any superpower it might be invisibility. Not necessarily the first thing you think of for an openly political, big-voiced folk festival favorite who has made a name for herself sitting in with some of the biggest names in the Americana scene. A recent collaboration with Rainbow Girls bore especially potent fruit — and if you read my Music That Moved Me in 2022 list, you’ll see at the very top was Anna’s thorny “Big Dick Energy.”

Rarely does a song make you laugh and then dance and then follow with a sucker punch about how unsafe many women feel just taking up space in the world. The video also illustrates the song’s deft twist: Women can gang together to mock and minimize the men who for so long have taken away their agency and power. And yet, the song also makes you want to forget it all and just groove to the sexiest flute solo in recent memory. If this is a foreshadowing of what’s to come with Anna’s solo work, call me quite intrigued.

Whether she’s playing crunchy bass clarinet or upright bass, electric or acoustic guitar, or singing with Joel in Handmade Moments or her other jazzy group, the Nightshades, Anna is never shy about speaking her mind in her music. Take a listen to Handmade Moments’ rapidly rhyming, gorgeously harmonized climate-change banger, “Hole In The Ocean,” which wouldn’t feel out of place in a slam-poetry jam. A song on their forthcoming record End Of The Wars (coming in May) directly confronts Trump’s cult-like status, again not pulling any punches. Want to see an early version of the song played with sax in a cave? Sure you do.

The dangers of the road are not lost on Anna and Joel of course. They were hit head-on during a freak accident on a run in Northern California years back and were lucky to make it out relatively unscathed. She’s trying to keep things a bit mellower these days. It was special talking to Anna in her adopted new home of New Orleans, and the soulful sounds that trickle into her living room on Frenchman Street can be heard throughout the songs she’s working on. Fittingly, a slow burn live track she released, “Slow Down, Kamikaze,” is a great reminder to stop trying to do too much and focus on what actually matters.

Basic Folk – Adeem the Artist

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Adeem the Artist has gained a slew of new fans in the past year with their new album White Trash Revelry, but they are anything but an overnight success. Their journey to singer-songwriter acclaim began in middle school, when they moved from the Carolinas to New York State. Finding themself a southerner in the North, they found out that being from the American South meant something to people. It came with a certain set of assumptions and expectations that they have reckoned with over the course of their eight albums.

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2022’s White Trash Revelry is packed with poignant, witty, economical lyrics and characters so real you could reach out and shake their hands. Throughout the album you’ll notice a complicated relationship with religion, which of course we had to dig into on the podcast. In a past life Adeem was called strongly to the church, and served as a worship leader. You might be surprised at how highly transferable their pastoral skill set has been in their work as a singer-songwriter.

This episode contains many, many, many laughs, some guitar talk, some crowdfunding talk, some deep family and spiritual talk, and a million great insights from one of alt-country music’s rising stars.

Photo Credit: Shawn Poynter

Basic Folk Debate Club: Lyrics vs. Melody

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Welcome to Folk Debate Club, our occasional crossover series with fellow folk-pod Why We Write! Today, to discuss Lyrics vs. Melody, we welcome our panel of guests: music journalist and former singer/songwriter Kim Ruehl, Isa Burke (Lula Wiles, Aoife O’Donovan), musician and Basic Folk guest host Lizzie No, and yours truly, Cindy Howes, boss of Basic Folk.

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Our conversation begins with a case each for melody and lyrics from members of the panel. Some panelists are more fluid with their thoughts and feelings and at least one of us changes sides mid-discussion. Some interesting opinions emerge! For instance, manipulation in music is no good if the listener can see through your bullshit: “Part of the job [of songwriters] is to emotionally manipulate people. When you are feeling manipulated is when the person has missed,” says Kim. The panel talks about rawness: it can take lyrical editing before it can be presented to the public. “It’s sometimes hard to tell as the songwriter, like, how raw am I actually being?”, shares Isa, who goes on to talk about how being raw in melody can be very effective. She points to her emotional guitar solo (that was done during a difficult moment in her life) in the Lula Wiles song “The Way That It Is” as one of her most favorite musical accomplishments (listen below).

Bob Dylan comes up within 90 seconds of the debate! Don’t worry, Taylor Swift, Maggie Rogers, Stevie Wonder, Adele, and Paul McCartney also make cameo appearances. And Lizzie No ftw: “Lyrics are the hand-holding that we need to bring us into the glory of instrumental music.” Enjoy! We had a good time doing this, so we’ll see you again soon!

Photo Credit: Liz Dutton (Cindy Howes); Louise Bichan (Isa Burke); Bernie McAllister (Lizzie No); Kim Ruehl