Tag: podcast

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

Basic Folk – Sam Phillips

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Sam Phillips was born to a family that loved doling out nicknames. She was called “Sam” growing up in a house that was filled with readers. She nurtured her love of philosophy and spirituality by exploring different religions and devouring works by authors like C.S. Lewis and Thomas Merton. Early in her career, she found success as a Christian musician under her real name: Leslie Phillips. She made several albums, but became uncomfortable with her label marketing her as “the Christian Cyndi Lauper.” She also had a desire to write songs that didn’t reinforce people’s religious beliefs. For her final Leslie Phillips album, she worked with future spouse/ex-spouse, T-Bone Burnett, “a fellow Christian with a maverick approach to songs about faith and morality,” and found a kindred spirit. She decided to rebrand and start recording as Sam Phillips. Sam and T-Bone worked together from 1988’s The Indescribable Wow to 2004’s A Boot and a Shoe.

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In our conversation, we talk about Sam’s writing process, which she is always changing up. She comes up with her best ideas when she “turns off the trying part of her brain,” but at the same time, she strongly believes in the power of editing. Sam’s probably best known for composing and performing the score for the beloved Amy Sherman-Palladino series Gilmore Girls, for which she also made a brief appearance on the season finale in 2006. You remember those “La la la’s” while Lorelei and Rory carried around their armpit purses, and drank coffee while wearing those horrible boot cut jeans? That was Sam Phillips! Currently, Sam is working on a new album and she’s taking her time, so don’t rush her, OK?

Photo Credit: Eric Gorfain

The Show On The Road – Iris DeMent

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

This week, we feature my conversation with beloved folk firebrand Iris DeMent. Born the youngest of 14 to a singing Pentecostal family in Arkansas and raised in California, DeMent released her iconic 1992 John Prine-endorsed debut, Infamous Angel, and has been creating poetic protest records and warm collaborations ever since (garnering two folk Grammy nominations along the way), culminating in her much anticipated and fiery new LP, Working On A World.

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Certain songwriters in the folk field will occasionally speak up about injustice or corruption — but with Working On A World, DeMent puts the protest front and center: honoring luminaries like Mahalia Jackson, John Lewis, Martin Luther King Jr. and even The Chicks for giving her hope that putting your principles and life on the line will help bend history towards progress and righteousness.

DeMent, who is now based in Iowa with her musician and collaborator husband Greg Brown (check out their biting co-write “I’ll Be Your Jesus”), will be the first to say that at times in her wide-ranging career, playing clubs to enraptured but small audiences, she has questioned whether she was doing enough to make a difference. But songs like the epic Dylan-esque take-down “Going Down To Sing in Texas” show that Dement is still at her fired-up best, confronting the Lone Star State’s open carry gun laws that put so many at risk, while also spitting in the face of all the wannabe tyrants who shun the very progress she is still hoping to see. In many ways, Working On A World is a hard-won release of pent-up energy, created over the course of six years with co-producers Richard Bennett, Jim Rooney and Pieta Brown.

While many of her longtime fans are used to her fearless political confrontations — 1996’s seething The Way I Should and its dark anthem “Wasteland of the Free” demand answers from sexual abusers and government war mongers alike — casual listeners may only know DeMent from her playful duets with sonic soulmate John Prine, most notably the foul-mouthed love song “In Spite Of Ourselves.” With a little laugh, she says she’s alright with that too. Life is long and the music, no matter the light or the dark, is equally as powerful.

Photo Credit: Dasha Brown

Basic Folk – Anna Tivel and Jeffrey Martin

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Fun times with our favorite non-duo duo Anna Tivel and Jeffrey Martin. The pair met in the early 2010’s in Portland, bonded over songwriting and have been together ever since. They got together at a time when they were both learning how to tour and they were able to figure it all out as a pair. And yes, they have toured and do tour together and have sung on each other’s records, but there has never been an interest in an official collaboration. In this special interview, they discuss their thoughts and feelings on their partner’s musical style: from how each learned music, to the way they each write songs. They discuss the space they give each other to be alone in creativity and how that space is key to their success as partners.

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Anna released her latest album, the acclaimed Outsiders, in 2022 and Jeffrey is currently working on a new record. In fact, Jeffrey is recording his upcoming release in a small shack he built on their property in Portland. He completed the structure just in time for the pandemic to start, which was perfect timing since it meant he had his own space to work outside of his house, and they both had a place to perform their weekly livestreams. Jeffrey is also quite handy and has agreed to build a house for me and don’t think I won’t hold him to it. We have it on tape, Jeffrey. Please enjoy this fun interview with two of my favorite people and musicians.

Photo Credit: Matt Kennelly

The Show On The Road – Cleve Francis

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

This week, my talk with self-described folk-country scientist and songwriter Cleve Francis, whose winding fifty year story in music is nearly unparalleled. Few African American artists had their work heard in the folk boom of the early 1960s, and while Francis studied to become a heart specialist after leaving the small hamlet of Jennings, Louisiana, the honey-voiced gems he laid down with his guitar in the gorgeous compilation Beyond the Willow Tree are finding devoted new audiences — this podcaster included.

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After diving into that encyclopedic collection which showcases his songs from 1968-1970, you can see that Francis’s tastes were vast. Sparsely recorded with his beautifully airy yet powerful voice leading the way, he tributes everything from Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement to his loving interpretations of Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, The Beatles and Bob Dylan (his fiery take on “With God On Our Side” is a must-listen). And yet, if you look deeper into his story, you’ll notice that Francis’s real love was for old school country music.

In Nashville, the list of major-label Black stars not named Charley Pride was short — and still is. But in the 1990s, while already a successful cardiologist, Francis took leave of his office in Virginia and jumped on a tour bus to promote his catchy CMT-approved records Tourist in Paradise and Walkin’. Always the trailblazer, he also founded the Black Country Music Association to help find opportunities for up-and-coming artists who were left out of the Music City limelight.

While he did return to his patients and left Nashville to its devices in the late 1990s, Francis and his work creating what he likes to call “soul-folk” are thankfully being discovered anew via the wizardry of the internet. I was so personally moved by the open-hearted power of his collection Beyond the Willow Tree that I had to find out more, and I’m so glad I did.

Photo Credit: Michael S. Williamson