Tag: roots music

Eli West: Timber and Timbre

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Eli West first rose to prominence in the acoustic music world as part of a duo with fellow singer-songwriter Cahalen Morrison. After creating three highly regarded albums together in the 2010s, West set off on his own. In 2016, he released The Both, featuring appearances by folks like Dori Freeman and Bill Frissell and on 2021’s well-received Tapered Point of Stone, West led a band that included Watchhouse’s Andrew Marlin and Clint Mullican and fiddler Christian Sedelmyer (Jerry Douglas Band).

This summer, the Seattle-based musician delivered his third solo album, The Shape of a Sway, where he is backed by his current sidemen, fiddler Patrick M’Gonigle and bassist Forest Marowitz, along with longtime collaborator Matt Flinner (mandolin, banjo) and an old college buddy, Peter Hatch (harmonium, piano).

West didn’t take a straight line to becoming a professional musician. Although he played violin and guitar growing up in the Pacific Northwest, he studied visual arts and political science in college. Then he headed east, where he went to timber framing schools in Vermont and Maine. Returning to Seattle, he got a job as a graphic designer.

Dissatisfied with his 9-to-5 existence, he quit his desk job after several years and went to Seattle’s Bainbridge Graduate Institute to study business. About halfway through, he realized business school wasn’t for him. It was around this time that West, who was getting more interested in bluegrass, met Morrison. He quickly decided to take a big leap and start playing and touring with Morrison. “My 30s were my 20s and it was awesome,” he shares with BGS. “And music was the means for that.”

West took some time to talk about his new album and his life while loading up a rental truck with timber frame kit to take to Orcas Island off the coast of Washington, where he and his wife own the Victorian Valley wedding chapel.

The Shape of a Sway is your third solo album. What type of a musical evolution do you see with this album?

Eli West: [With] each sequential record since my project with Cahalen, I’ve just been kind of establishing myself as a solo artist and singing my own music.

Tapered Point of Stone occurred right after my dad died and then this [album] occurred right after I became a dad. And making it halfway through life, turning 40, thinking about the second half. So, there’s kind of a transition theme. Looking up to someone and then all of a sudden looking down to my kids. Kind of switching teachers. My parents were my teachers and now my kids are my teachers. That’s a really abrupt shift.

I was writing for my last two records, but with this record I’m finally singing my songs that matter to me in a way that if they fall on other ears and feel good, I’m stoked. But I’m mostly happy with them as my own journal entries.

You have said you had something of a late start as a songwriter. How did your recent significant life events – your father dying, you getting married, and having children – influence your songwriting?

It took me so long to start songwriting, because I felt like I was cocky if I was putting my songs out if I hadn’t lived life. So, I needed to experience death. I needed to experience life on the other end, being a dad. I just didn’t have enough to say until then. It felt arrogant to do that without those experiences.

I have more certainty in whatever I’m doing. And I honestly needed a few years to think about my dad dying before I became a dad. And that certitude I feel in my music now, too.

I’m not writing to anything. I’m writing for myself. I have a lot of friends in Nashville, but I hate Nashville, because everyone’s writing to something. Not everybody, but there’s a big trend of writing to something to get awards or get someone to cover it – you know, that kind of thing.

How did you select the ten songs – did you pick them because they felt like a piece or because they were the ones ready to record?

It’s half matchmaking and half just the dam breaking because it was time. Making sense of getting half of your life, getting married, settling down, not road-dogging anymore, and ultimately deciding to have kids. So the matchmaking was finding the songs that spoke truth to being a new parent, I guess.

Are there tunes that you feel especially stand out to you from a songwriter’s perspective?

Well, “Ever Lovin Need To Know” doesn’t have a lot of meaning and it’s kind of filling syllables and it just feels good. It had meaning, but it was more about the feeling of the song than the content. “Spite and Love” is maybe the other end, where I had read this article in the New York Times about crows holding grudges and that just kind of launched it. I’m really proud of the lyrical content of that song.

And what songs served as the impetus for the album?

“Ever Lovin Need To Know” kind of felt like the tipping point where I could start assembling songs… And then “Rocks and Trees” is the most pertinent to my current situation. I have a nine-month-old daughter and that is speaking to that reality of who she is in my life.

“Rocks and Trees” also contains the line that you used for the album’s title.

Yeah, I don’t like naming a record after a song title. I think picking a lyric is way more interesting. I think there’s more satisfaction in finding that as a listener, than having a song title be the album title. So, “the shape of a sway” was kind of a secondary line that ended up meaning a lot to me. I have this newborn daughter, and I feel like I really know her not in a cognitive sense, but in a feeling sense. And “the shape of a sway” is this kind of different way to know somebody.

It feels like your lyrics often concern people exploring, examining, and searching for answers, but you don’t necessarily provide answers or explanations. Also, several songs (“All The Saints,” and the cover of Jean Ritchie’s “Cool of the Day”) have spiritual or religious imagery. Is this intentional or coincidental?

I’m glad you brought that up. I grew up in the church but then realized there’s just such a bigger common denominator than religion to get to know the world and people. So, I’ve happily delivered myself from that. But I think I ask better questions of myself because I acknowledge that human experience is bigger than any one religion.

I’m kind of looking back on those religious questions with a humanist empirical perspective, and I think that’s pretty fascinating to look back at the same questions but have a deeper well of experience and knowledge.

Was it difficult to quit the more structured world of graphic design and later business grad school for a life of a musician?

I think we’re all trying to reclaim this word “freedom” in this time and the definition of freedom for me was choosing a creative pursuit. There was some privilege and luxury in that, but it just felt like freedom. And I am grateful.

Has your background in design influenced the way you make music, similar to the connection that people have drawn between music and math?

Yes, spatial thinking – relative understanding based on space – what it feels like to be in one room and look into another room. I think of music and arrangements like that. The flow of walking through space and anticipation and memory, that’s really how I navigate music. That sounds kind of cocky, but I think you know what I mean.

You have talked about how collaborations are important to you. And this album features performers who you are familiar with (Patrick M’Gonigle, Forest Marowitz, Peter Hatch, and Matt Flinner). So, I was wondering how you walked the line with the arrangements and the collaborating, when it’s your name on the cover.

Yeah, I think any relationship [involves] grabbing onto the things that are important. The first line of this “Rocks and Trees” song is “a heavy rock that’s lightly held.” So, how to grab on to important things, but not white-knuckle them. I mean, I had this a few times, mostly in relationships, but also in musical collaborations that you seize the moment, but you don’t pretend it’s eternal.

And there’s a kind of like healthy promiscuity in music that just feeds the creative side. That said, this band that I play with right now – I feel so lucky. They’re just some of my favorite musicians. Besides Matt, we’re all in the Northwest now. And I think beyond anything, that’s why I do this – it’s just to play music with pals that I appreciate.

I had tried to record this a year previous, [and] it was basically too lightly held. I went in with a framework, but not enough rehearsing or structure around mostly [the] arrangements. And it was a great session. Those songs sound great. But it just didn’t have that kind of cohesive thing. So, I think my ideal process is leaving like 20% to be determined the day of recording. And then like that shit is always so great. But I need the 80% structure there.

You play a rather impressive variety of instruments. Guitar is your main instrument, but you play mandolin on this album’s two original instrumentals (“Gentleman’s Bulldog” and “Thanks and Sorry”). And you also play banjo and pedal steel. Do you feel like you have a particular facility with playing instruments?

I did Suzuki violin as a kid, which focuses mostly on ear training and that really helps to be fluid on instruments later in life. So, I’m really grateful for this Suzuki method!

This album has a little less bluegrass sound to it. Songs like “Spite and Love” and your reworking of Paul Simon’s “Hearts and Bones,” in particular, have real adventurous arrangements. Listening to it, the album sounds more genre-less – in a good way.

Yes, I am without genre. I just am drawn to good music, and I don’t like bad music. That’s how I define genre. There’s a lot of whim and not feeling bound to anything. So, that’s a freedom, and I kind of don’t care.

The Shape of a Sway also contains fewer instrumentals than your prior albums, was that by design?

I also love instrumental music…But the lyrical content of this record is important enough that I think that the instrumentals are just kind of supplemental.

You end the album with a real lively version of “I’d Rather Be A Train.” Was that on purpose?

[Chuckles] That Larry Sparks song was mostly just to make sure I still love bluegrass or to show that I love bluegrass.

Photo Credit: Jenny Jimenez

Basic Folk: Olive Klug

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Olive Klug and I recorded this interview in my closet while they were in Portland, Maine, to play a show. Along with their band Cori, Haley, and Payton they stayed with us and it was a real pleasure to be around them for a few days. You can tell that Olive is at their best around their band and it is a true collaboration on stage. Shoutout to the whole crew for leaving such a remarkable impression on me and my wife and for assembling some baby furniture while they were staying at our house.

In our conversation for Basic Folk, Olive takes us on a journey through their musical upbringing, exploring their childhood influences, including their father’s eclectic taste in ’60s and ’70s rock and folk. Olive discusses their love for Joni Mitchell and Taylor Swift, which inspired them to learn guitar and develop their own musical tastes. They provide insights into their early internet presence on platforms like YouTube and Tumblr, and how these shaped their creative expression and online identity.

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Olive also touches on their experience of transitioning to a music career, going viral on TikTok, and the emotional and practical challenges that come with it. Additionally, they delve into how their psychology background and neurodiversity inform their songwriting, live performances, and day-to-day life. Our conversation wraps up with thoughts on the productive chaos of touring, the importance of community in the folk world, and their aspirations for long-term, sustainable growth in the music industry. Everyone belongs at the Olive Klug show. They leave their glow wherever their travels take them.

 

@oliveklugThe gay cowboys keep leaving nashvillea title=”♬ original sound – Olive Klug” href=”https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7519310944065817375?refer=embed” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>♬ original sound – Olive Klug

Photo Credit: Alex Steed

The Road Home: A Documentary Short About Fiddle, Family, and Kentucky

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Bluegrass and country fans may recognize Kentucky-born, San Francisco-based fiddler Brandon Godman from touring, recording, and performing with folks like Dale Ann Bradley, Laurie Lewis, Jon Pardi, the Band Perry, the Music City Doughboys, and many more. He’s also an accomplished business owner and luthier, helming two fiddle repair and retail shops based in Nashville (The Violin Shop) and the Bay Area (The Fiddle Mercantile.) In addition, Godman helped found Bluegrass Pride and was instrumental in organizing the non-profit association’s float and marching contingent that won the coveted “Best Overall” ribbon from the 2017 SF Pride Parade.

Godman has played fiddle his entire life, beginning on the instrument as a young child in Northern Kentucky. His skills span old-time, bluegrass, western swing, country, contest fiddle, and beyond, and his career, by necessity often, has been remarkably varied, boasting stories of success, trials, tribulations, and highs and lows beyond his years. Now, filmmaker Bria Light has crafted a remarkable, heartfelt, and stunning documentary short all about Godman and his journey on and with the fiddle.

Shot and crafted in 2022 and 2023 as Light’s thesis film at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, The Road Home is an intimate and gorgeous look at Godman and his relationship with his instrument, his career path, and his rural home in Kentucky. The film includes lovely original music – much drawn from Godman’s acclaimed 2024 solo album, I Heard the Morgan Bell – that offers many varied samples of his expansive skillset on fiddle throughout, a perfect score and soundtrack for the 20 minute-plus documentary. Together, Light and Godman travel from California to Kentucky, visit with Godman’s family, share old memories and stories, and examine the complications and intricacies of family and community, the transient, intangible nature of “home,” and the pains and reliefs of leaving and returning.

Now, for the first time, The Road Home is available to screen online, right here on BGS and on YouTube. (Watch below.)

Light has a deft and artful touch as a filmmaker and director, utilizing the fiddle and Godman’s original compositions as an enormous character in these narratives, propelling the story forward and entrancing viewers with the sights, sounds, textures, and mythos of Northern Kentucky – as could only be delivered by a musician and creative like Godman. The end result is moving and illuminating, subverting expectations of the region, the instrument, the genres we associate with the fiddle, and the communities we expect – or don’t expect – to love these traditions and the people who keep them alive.

We spoke to Light via email about the film, its conception and making, and the twists and turns along the way that led Light and Godman to this stellar piece of visual, aural, and narrative storytelling.

Let’s begin by going back to the beginning. Can you tell us a bit of the story of how this film project came to be? What inspired you and how did you get connected with Brandon?

Bria Light: I made this film for my thesis film in the documentary film program at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and when it came time to look for a story that I would be spending all year working on, I knew I wanted a story that was music-related. But I also wanted to find a story that revealed something deeper about how music can help us find our way through the sometimes fraught path of being human. I eventually got connected with Brandon, who agreed to let me into his life and tell me this slice of his story.

This film tells such an expansive story in a relatively short amount of time. What was it like trying to condense such an interesting and often complicated narrative into this short film “package”?

I’ve sometimes used the metaphor that making a film feels like having the vast expanse and depth of the ocean stretching out before you and your job is to chart the best course from continent to continent. It can feel overwhelming! At every turn there are not only creative decisions to be made (What part of this person’s complex life do I focus on? Do I shoot this scene? Do I interview that person?), but also ethical ones (Who is affected by telling this story and how? Should I or should I not reveal someone’s identity? What impact am I hoping for this film to have and how is that best served?).

While you’re finding and crafting the story, it’s not always self-evident what the best, most meaningful storyline is and you want to explore a million different possible paths. You end up with hours and hours of footage (the ocean) that you have to fully explore to find the best course. And the thing is, you have to try things out to see if they work in a movie and until that golden moment where something works, it, well, doesn’t work. So it is a process of months – or years for feature docs – of trial and error, during much of which you suspect you might be terribly lost at sea and had no business becoming a sailor in the first place, to follow the metaphor… until one fine day you’re like, “Land ho!” and things start coming together and you can sleep again at night. [Laughs]

I feel like you let the music itself, and the tradition of fiddle music and roots music, do a lot of the storytelling here. What is it like translating music to a visual media like film in this way and leveraging it to help advance your narrative?

Absolutely. One of the key elements of my vision of the film from the beginning was to leverage the richness of this musical tradition and Brandon’s music within that to assist in telling his personal story. In fact, I pictured the music almost as a character itself. Music, of course, is a storyteller, even when it doesn’t have lyrics. So thinking of the music almost like the narrator of the story felt very natural.

Of course, Brandon creating his album of original tunes, I Heard The Morgan Bell, is part of the film’s narrative as well, so it all tied together organically. Additionally, since part of the film delves into the past and the creation of the album was the part of the story that was unfolding in the present, it helped provide a narrative thread to follow and to tie Brandon’s musical and personal evolution together from his past to his present.

Can you tell us a bit about what it was like traveling to Kentucky with Brandon?

It was very, very cold! Our trip to Kentucky took place over Christmas week and it just so happened to be during a cold snap that swept the entire country. It was in the single digits temperature-wise, in the negatives with wind chill, and the roads were covered in thick ice. I had envisioned going there and shooting scenes on the family farm with golden winter light sparkling in the crisp air, etc., and instead there was roaring wind so bitterly cold that you could barely be outside for two minutes before your fingers were completely numb. At one point, my camera was having some issues because it was so cold! But of course we filmed mostly inside and Brandon’s family was so warm and welcoming. I ate a copious amount of Mamaw’s famous chocolate peanut butter squares!

The music of the film is so stunning, and some of the selections went on to be included on Brandon’s 2024 album, which you mentioned already, I Heard the Morgan Bell – it was one of our favorite bluegrass albums of last year. Was there a “music supervision” process for the film? Did you leave it up to Brandon? What was it like collaborating on what would become the soundtrack and soundbed for your visuals?

Brandon was so generous in granting me permission to select music from his album, which was still in process, to use for the film. Through the course of our many hours of conversation over the year, he told me many of the stories behind the songs, of the inspiration and ideas that led to their creation. So I used that, along with the general feel and mood of the tune, to inform my choices as to which pieces to include where. Normally, you’re right, there would be a music supervision process, but in this case I had the privilege of working directly with Brandon, who was essentially also the film’s composer!

Do you have a favorite moment in the film? Or from the process of crafting it?

Hmm, there are so many memories attached to the creation of this film! I loved filming and editing the “Morgan Bell” scene in the church. The music is so gorgeous and I knew I would love filming in low light with stained glass church windows as the container for that wordless song that expresses so much emotion.

I also loved the moment in the editing process where I found the old footage of Brandon as a young teen on a local TV show. In Kentucky, his parents had given me a paper bag full of photo albums and old VHS tapes of Brandon at fiddling contests and other things to go through and see what I could use. Late one night, after a full day on campus, I headed back to the edit rooms in the journalism school to continue digitizing and going through the old VHS tapes. I got to one tape, began watching it, and it seemed to be all recorded re-runs of Days of Our Lives. After fast-fowarding through so many episodes of Days of Our Lives, I was wondering if that tape had been mistakenly included. I was about to stop when suddenly it cut to the footage of Brandon on the local TV station. It ended up becoming of my favorite scenes in the film, thanks to the very enthusiastic TV show host and a young, guileless Brandon.

Another favorite part of making the film was simply working with Brandon and getting to know him throughout our many conversations together. He’s such an old soul was a joy to work with, which is of course not always the case when making a film about someone’s real life. He was always open and willing to go along for the ride, despite the vulnerability required.

Filmmaker Bria Light, creator and director of ‘The Road Home.’

Maybe it’s an obvious question to ask, but what’s your goal? Making such an incredible and involved piece of art is goal enough, but where do you hope to take this film? How are you thinking about getting it in front of audiences? What’s next for the project?

I had several goals: I hoped some people might see a bit of themselves in the story and feel that they, too – despite having been made to feel othered in the past – belong in bluegrass and country music, that this music can be a home for everyone.

I also hoped that people would see Brandon’s story and say, “Wow, I didn’t realize there were still folks facing this type of persecution in the music industry.” This wasn’t so long ago. And unfortunately, as we all know, we are seeing today the continuation and resurgence of anti-LGBTQ laws and bigotry all over the country and the world. Another hope I have for the film is that by sharing stories that elevate the depth and humanness of the characters onscreen, folks from all sides of the political spectrum might, over time, begin to think about these issues in a new light.

What’s next? Recently the film screened to lovely and engaged audiences at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival and next it will play a bit farther from home at the Sound on Screen Film Festival in South Africa. I’m also hoping to show the film at music events or conferences, to continue to share Brandon’s story with audiences around the country.

What did you learn during the making of The Road Home that was unexpected? What will you take with you into future projects – whether in a similar vein or in another space entirely?

I learned so much! I learned the importance of finding that balance of pre-planning and knowing what the story is about while at the same time going with the flow of real-life, nonfiction storytelling – that is to say, you can’t actually predict how life is going to unfold, so you have to hold your preconceived ideas in one hand, while leaving room for the story to reveal itself to you as it unfolds in real time in the other. One thing I “learned” (in quotation marks because I’m still learning it…!) is to trust the creative process, with its highs and lows, self-doubts, rewarding moments, and ultimately, you find that you have gotten to the end of your creative process and survived! There are really too many things I’ve learned that I’ll be taking with me into future projects, so I’ll just leave it there for now.

Film, poster, and images courtesy of Bria Light.

Basic Folk: Gina Chavez

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

New bestie Gina Chavez speaks about her journey in music, her deep love for connecting with people, and the influence of her mixed cultural background on Basic Folk. Her parents are of Mexican and Swiss-German descent. Her father, although second generation Mexican-American, was not raised with Spanish language or any Mexican culture. Gina discusses growing up in Austin, Texas, and the role music – or the absence of it – played in her household. She talks about being a choir kid in the ’90s before it was cool, about discovering her Latin roots later in life, and how singing in Spanish feels spiritually significant to her.

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Gina also shares her experiences studying abroad in Argentina, running a college fund for girls in El Salvador, and the moment she unlocked her true singing voice in the studio. We hear about how she met her wife, Jodi Granado, at the Catholic Student Center at the University of Texas. Then, we get into her complex relationship with Texas, her Catholic upbringing, her advocacy work, and the joy of performing on Olivia Travel cruises. Throughout the interview, Gina emphasizes the importance of being true to oneself and learning to embrace and express all parts of her identity.

Photo Credit: Ismael Quintanilla

Finding Lucinda: Episode 7

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

In the most exciting moment of the Finding Lucinda road trip thus far, Ismay hears from interviewee Wolf Stephenson that there is some archival material he wants to share from the concrete tape vault. After sitting on the shelf for 40 years, Wolf has finally brought three boxes down to review. He finds that there is something mysterious and unexpected in the third box, so Wolf and Ismay try to get to the bottom of what in the world this mystery box contains. This piece of never-before-heard material gives Ismay insight into Lucinda’s musical development and the choices she made as a creative person. But most importantly, discovering this treasure gives Ismay an opportunity to see themself in a way they never have before.

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Produced in partnership with BGS and distributed through the BGS Podcast Network, Finding Lucinda expands on the themes of Ismay’s eponymous documentary film, exploring artistic influence, creative resilience, and the impact of Williams’ music. New episodes are released twice a month. Listen right here on BGS or wherever you get podcasts.

Finding Lucinda, the documentary film that inspired and instigated the podcast, is slated for release in the fall. Both the film and podcast showcase never-before-heard archival material, intimate conversations, and a visual journey through the literal and figurative landscapes that molded Lucinda’s songwriting.

Credits:
Produced and mixed by Avery Hellman for Neanderthal Records, LLC.
Music by Ismay.
Artwork by Avery Hellman.
Jackson, MS Recording: Recorded at Malaco Studios.
Sound Recordist: Rodrigo Nino
Producer: Liz McBee
Director: Joel Fendelman
Co-Director & Cinematographer: Rose Bush
Special thanks to: Mick Hellman, Chuck Prophet, Don Fierro, Jacqueline Sabec, Rosemary Carroll, Lucinda Williams & Tom Overby

Find more information on Finding Lucinda here. Find our full Finding Lucinda episode archive here.

Kristi Grider on
Only Vans with Bri Bagwell

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Quite possibly the most talented guest we’ve had on Only Vans so far, Kristi Grider is a good friend of mine from the New Braunfels, Texas, area and we dig into topics like playing and teaching piano, being a substitute player, singing harmony, high-profile gigs, The Finishing School, therapizing your friends, and the benefits of walking.

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This is such interesting timing, having my friend Kristi Grider join me this week on the podcast. We recorded this episode right before the devastating floods in Kerrville, Texas, which happens to be Kristi’s hometown. Her heart is so big for her community, and she has encouraged everyone to go to CommunityFoundation.net to donate to this unimaginable tragedy.

Kristi is married to fellow Las Crucen (that’s where I’m from!) Josh Grider and we have gotten really close in recent years living in the same city here in Texas. In addition to her own writing, recording, and solo shows, she performs in cream-of-the-crop cover bands, plays shows with Josh, teaches piano lessons, and is a great mom. I’m so glad that she clarified that Josh is really supportive of her career; it’s the perfect example of how people can make incorrect assumptions from the outside. Kristi talks about being in my songwriting accountability group – where you force yourself to write a song every two weeks – which I stole from my producer Rachel Loy, who we give a lot of well-deserved love to on this episode.

Give Kristi a follow on Instagram and be sure to stream her new EP, All Right – and all her music – wherever you listen. She’s as beautiful as she is talented, so my joke about her being ugly is… a joke.

Photo Credit: AnneMarie Creative

You Gotta Hear This: New Music From Andy Leftwich, Vickie Vaughn, and More

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

You know what you need? You need a roundup of brand new roots music!

In this edition of our weekly collection, Andy Leftwich kicks us off with a frequent fiddle contest selection, “Tom and Jerry,” giving an appropriate Texas swing treatment to the classic tune. It draws from his childhood growing up performing and competing at contests. A couple of Leftwich’s labelmates on Mountain Home Music are included below, as well. North Carolina’s Unspoken Tradition call on Danny Paisley, Jason Carter, and Bronwyn Keith-Hynes to guest on “I’ll Break Out Again Tonight.” Below, the group’s bassist Sav Sankaran gives us some insight on who inspired their cover of the track and how they chose their special guests. Plus, bassist and singer-songwriter Vickie Vaughn, also on Mountain Home, releases her most vulnerable original track to date, “Mama Took Her Ring Off Yesterday.” Written with Deanie Richardson, who produced Vaughn’s upcoming solo debut, it’s a song about grief, loss, and how life always marches on.

In a similar sonic space to our bluegrass selections, Old Crow Medicine Show have pitched in for John McCutcheon’s upcoming album that pays tribute to the seminal 1925 Mountain City Fiddlers Convention to mark the year of its 100th anniversary. The album, Long Journey Home: a Century After the 1925 Mountain City Fiddlers Convention, was produced by McCutcheon and features an incredible varied roster of artists and pickers rendering songs that pay homage to the important East Tennessee gathering. OCMS perform “Whatcha Gonna Do with the Baby,” which McCutcheon has set to photos from the album’s star-studded recording sessions.

Also below you’ll hear Amanda Pascali combine cultures and sounds from Sicily and the American South on “Amuri,” a brand new song from her upcoming album, Roses and Basil. It’s a delightfully cross-genre track, with touches of cumbia, Latin folk, Texas, Sicily – of course – and beyond. You won’t want to miss new music from Queen Bonobo (AKA Maya Goldblum), either. “Waiting Tables” is the indie-alt-folk artist’s Saturn Return song, about manifesting success and chasing dreams.

It’s a lovely collection of new songs and videos and you know what we’re gonna say… You Gotta Hear This!

Andy Leftwich, “Tom and Jerry”

Artist: Andy Leftwich
Hometown: Carthage, Tennessee
Song: “Tom and Jerry”
Release Date: July 25, 2025
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “This song brings back so many memories for me. I grew up competing in fiddle contests all around the southern region of the United States where I met some of the best fiddlers of our day and was introduced to the style of Texas fiddling. ‘Tom and Jerry’ is an anthem and you’ll hear it played in just about every fiddling contest and Texas jam session there is. This arrangement is a development of those experiences and pays homage to my upbringing, reminding me of where I started. It’s hard to describe the feeling you get when you play these tunes with those incredible passing chords along with the Texas swing feel. It’s just so much fun!” – Andy Leftwich

Track Credits:
Andy Leftwich – Fiddle, mandolin
Byron House – Upright bass
Cody Kilby – Acoustic guitar

Old Crow Medicine Show, “Whatcha Gonna Do with the Baby”

Artist: Old Crow Medicine Show
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Whatcha Gonna Do With the Baby”
Album: Long Journey Home: a Century After the 1925 Mountain City Fiddlers Convention
Release Date: August 1, 2025 (single); September 5, 2025 (album)
Label: Appalseed

In Their Words: “Old Crow Medicine Show probably wouldn’t be a band if it weren’t for the time we spent around Johnson County, Tennessee, in the late ’90s. It was there that we learned to love the plain affairs of simple living in the hills, where country music was born. Fiddlers like JB Grayson were an early inspiration to us and the legend of the 1925 Mountain City Fiddlers Convention loomed large, even 75 years later. Now 100 years have passed since this, the first of the big national old-time music conventions, and we are mighty proud to have played a role alongside the great John McCutcheon in bringing this album to fruition.

John first approached me a year ago with the exciting news that he was embarking on a tribute to the Mountain City Fiddlers convention, the event that was so instrumental to the development of the Upper East Tennessee region’s identity as the national headwaters for hillbilly music. I immediately jumped in headfirst, bringing along Old Crow as the first act to sign up for the project. Many of the recordings we helped John make at our own Hartland Studio in East Nashville and now we are honored to finally be able to express our gratitude to Johnson County, Tennessee, an inspirational community for our band.” – Ketch Secor

“I first heard about Mountain City, Tennessee, as a teenager just beginning to play the banjo. I heard the Folkways album Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley’s and it changed the way I thought about the banjo and music as a whole. When I was finally lucky enough to get to Mountain City – doing a concert – I realized how important this little town and its heritage was. When the centenary of the 1925 fiddlers convention was rolling around, I called a bunch of my musical pals and invited them to join me in celebrating this event and, at the same time, benefit the fledgling arts center the town had started. My only request of the musicians was: Don’t make these museum pieces. Own them. I want to hear your fingerprints all over the music. And it turned out way cooler than I ever imagined.” – John McCutcheon

Amanda Pascali, “Amuri”

Artist: Amanda Pascali
Hometown: Houston, Texas
Song: “Amuri”
Album: Roses and Basil
Release Date: July 23, 2025 (single); September 12, 2025 (album)
Label: Amanda Pascali & the Family/Missing Piece Records

In Their Words: “‘Amuri’ is the first song off my new record, Roses and Basil. The song opens the album with a Leonard Cohen-esque guitar part and a stanza of ancient Sicilian verse: ‘Amuri, amuri, chi m’hai fattu fari? M’hai fattu fari ‘na granni pazzia.’ (‘My love, my love, what have you made me do? You’ve made me go mad.’) These centuries-old lines, interpreted by many artists over time, tell the story of someone so overtaken by love that they forget the way to the church. In my version, that sense of losing the path becomes a metaphor for drifting away from what once felt like absolute truth, all in the name of love.

“The song quickly shifts from that quiet opening into a vibrant cumbia rhythm, inspired by the Latin sounds I grew up with in Texas. A spaghetti western-style electric guitar, 1960s and ’70s Italian lounge piano and vibraphone, and the figure of the priest reimagined as a Southern preacher man all come together to bridge my two worlds: Sicily and the American South.

“Though ‘Amuri’ borrows its opening from the past, the song itself is entirely my own. It sets the tone for the album: anchored in tradition, but reimagined for today. How strange and beautiful that something so old can still feel so relatable.

“The album was recorded at Niles City Sound in Fort Worth, Texas. The day before we recorded this song, my producer Robert Ellis came over to the place where I was staying, with a second-hand nylon string guitar he had bought that very same day. He sat at the table with me at golden hour and as the sun shone through the windows, he played the song in a way that resembled Leonard Cohen’s ‘Master Song.’ The wheels started spinning at that moment.” – Amanda Pascali

Track Credits:
Amanda Pascali – Vocals, songwriter
Robert Ellis – Piano, vibraphone, guitar, prodcuer
Jordan Richardson – Drums, percussion
Aden Bubeck – Bass

Queen Bonobo, “Waiting Tables”

Artist: Queen Bonobo
Hometown: Sandpoint, Idaho
Song: “Waiting Tables”
Release Date: August 1, 2025

In Their Words: “‘Waiting Tables’ is my Saturn Return song. It’s about envisioning how I want my life to be and letting go of all that’s not serving me. I’ve been in the service industry since I was 14 years old and this song is my slightly sassy and soothing way of manifesting success in my music career. We all deserve safety, peace, and for our dreams to be actualized.” – Queen Bonobo

Track Credits:
Maya Goldblum – Guitar, vocals, producer
Joe Kaplow – Drums, percussion, engineer
Joel Ludford – Stand-up bass
Kyle Knadinger – Pedal steel
Neil Burns – Keys

Unspoken Tradition, “I’ll Break Out Again Tonight” featuring Danny Paisley

Artist: Unspoken Tradition
Hometown: Western North Carolina
Song: “I’ll Break Out Again Tonight” featuring Danny Paisley
Album: Resilience
Release Date: July 25, 2025
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “‘I’ll Break Out Again Tonight’ was one of the first bluegrass songs I ever learned, largely inspired by the captivating rendition of the song by Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass. It has long been one of my favorite old country ballads to sing and to honor my Mid-Atlantic bluegrass roots and collaborate with Danny on this song is a dream come true. Danny is my all-time favorite bluegrass vocalist, and has been an inspiration to me since I was a child. I’m so excited to have Unspoken Tradition’s version of this classic out in the world, and even more excited to share the track with my bluegrass hero!” – Sav Sankaran

Track Credits:
Audie McGinnis – Acoustic guitar
Sav Sankaran – Bass, lead vocal, harmony vocal
Tim Gardner – Fiddle, harmony vocal
Zane McGinnis – Banjo
Ty Gilpin – Mandolin
Danny Paisley – Lead vocal, harmony vocal
Jason Carter – Fiddle
Bronwyn Keith-Hynes – Fiddle

Vickie Vaughn, “Mama Took Her Ring Off Yesterday”

Artist: Vickie Vaughn
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Mama Took Her Ring Off Yesterday”
Release Date: July 25, 2025
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “I was having lunch with Mama at a Mexican restaurant in Paducah, Kentucky, one day about three months after my father’s unexpected passing. In her charming and sneaky lil way, she wiggled the fingers of her left hand past the chips toward me. (She’s always had a soft/sweet way of breaking strange news to me and my brother.) I saw that her wedding ring was off, a final signal to me, my brother, and her that life goes on after tragedy. The whole situation struck me so much that I had to write this song with Deanie Richardson about the day we found out Mama took her ring off.” – Vickie Vaughn

Track Credits:
Vickie Vaughn – Upright bass, lead vocal
Cody Kilby – Guitar
Casey Campbell – Mandolin
Wes Corbett – Banjo
Dave Racine – Drums
Deanie Richardson – Fiddle
Frank Rische – Harmony vocal

Photo Credit: Andy Leftwich by Erick Anderson; Vickie Vaughn by Laura Schneider.

The Roots Music of
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, Explained

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

(Writer’s Note: If you haven’t seen Sinners yet, be warned – there are significant spoilers below.)

 

“There are legends of people born with the gift of making music so true it can pierce the veil between life and death, conjuring spirits from the past and the future…”

 

So begins the film Sinners, the epic Southern gothic horror film from acclaimed director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Black Panther). Sinners tells of twins Smoke and Stack Moore (both played by a fantastic Michael B. Jordan), who open a juke joint with the help of their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) in their small Mississippi hometown in 1932. Driven by a love for blues music and a desire to create a safe gathering place for other Black people, the twins establish Club Juke at a defunct sawmill, unwittingly setting into motion a sinister chain of events.

That opening narration, which points to Sammie and his prodigious musical gifts, accompanies an evocative montage of folk imagery, as the narrator outlines the importance of musical storytellers within tight-knit communities. One such folk figure is the West African griot, a protector of oral tradition who also often served as leaders in their communities. The montage is backed by haunting resonator guitar, a musical motif that will repeat throughout the film.

Coogler tapped the GRAMMY- and Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson to score Sinners, continuing the creative partnership the two began with Coogler’s 2013 film Fruitvale Station (which also stars Michael B. Jordan). Rootsy and atmospheric, the score takes blues influences and ratchets up the tension with strings and percussion to suit the horror themes that unfold midway through the story.

Artists who perform on the Sinners soundtrack include Brittany Howard, Cedric Burnside, Rhiannon Giddens, Alice Smith and Rod Wave. Players on the Sinners score include Buddy Guy, Bobby Rush, Justin Robinson, and Leyla McCalla. Roots musician and actor Lola Kirke appears in the film as Joan, a member of the KKK who becomes a vampire.

Sinners is set in Clarksdale, Mississippi, a Delta city famous for its rich blues music history and for its role in the Great Migration, which, on the whole, found over six million Black Americans leaving the Southeast for large cities in other regions – including Chicago, Detroit, New York City and Cleveland – in order to flee racial segregation, Jim Crow laws and racial violence like lynching.

Dense with musical references, Sinners incorporates blues history into the naming of its characters, too. Stack’s name likely references the classic American folk song “Stagger Lee,” also known as “Stagolee” or “Stack O’ Lee Blues.” That tune tells the story of a real-life man and professional procurer, Lee Shelton, who lived in St. Louis, Missouri, in the late 1800s. Friends called Shelton “Stag” because of his perpetual bachelorhood, and, at times, “Stag” became “Stack.” On Christmas Day, 1895, Stack shot and killed a man named Billy Lyons after Lyons stole Stack’s Stetson cowboy hat, and the rest would soon become musical history.

Michael B. Jordan as Smoke and as Stack, in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Sinners.’

The song’s original writer is unknown, and it has been recorded and performed by a bevy of artists in the intervening decades. One of the most popular recordings is performed by Mississippi John Hurt, a pioneering blues artist. In 1957, Louisiana-born R&B singer Lloyd Price rewrote the song as an upbeat rock number, scoring a number one Billboard pop hit. When Price performed the song on American Bandstand, host Dick Clark had him tone down the “violent” lyrics by giving the song a happy ending.

While Stack’s name is loaded with meaning, the name Smoke is more ambiguous, though as a pair the twins’ names could point to “Smokestack Lightning,” a 1956 song by another Mississippi blues artist, Howlin’ Wolf.

The plot kicks off in earnest when Stack and Smoke return to Clarksdale from Chicago, where they hoped to escape the Jim Crow racism of their home state. Disillusioned by the racism they still encountered once there, the brothers decide to move home to establish Club Juke, recruiting their cousin Sammie to be part of the house band. Sammie is rarely seen without his guitar, a 1932 Dobro Cyclops resonator that Göransson used to record much of the film’s score.

Stack claims that the guitar he and Smoke give to Sammie once belonged to Charley Patton, the Mississippi-born singer and guitarist widely considered to be the “father of the Delta Blues.” (At the movie’s end, Smoke reveals the truth to Sammie: that the guitar actually belonged to his and Stack’s father all along.) Showing Stack his chops, Sammie performs “Travelin’,” a song original to the film.

The emotional and artistic high point of Sinners is a surreal, mid-party musical number that connects the blues to Black music traditions from past and future eras, including hip-hop and rock and roll. The scene begins at Club Juke, with Sammie performing the original song “I Lied to You.” The character Delta Slim soon delivers a short monologue, telling Sammie, “Blues wasn’t forced on us like that religion. Nah, son, we brought this with us from home. It’s magic, what we do. It’s sacred, and big.”

When the opening narration replays after Slim’s speech, things get psychedelic. An electric guitarist dressed in ‘70s rock and roll regalia appears, shredding licks while Club Juke dances around him. A DJ booth appears, with a man in ‘80s hip-hop-inspired clothing behind the boards. B-boys dance among club-goers, and a West African griot appears carrying a drum. Time dissolves as boundaries between musical traditions blur, capturing the essence of 20th-century Black music in one stunning scene.

Trouble starts when a trio of vampiric folk musicians (yes, you read that right) tries to enter Club Juke, hoping to perform. That image of a literal blood-sucking monster in no small part resembles the white colonization of Black music, particularly blues music, adding gravitas to the unexpected plot development. The trio tries to woo their way in with a folksy version of the traditional blues song “Pick Poor Robin Clean,” made popular by Virgninia-born blues artist Luke Jordan in 1927 and the artists Geeshie Wiley and Elvie Thomas – from Louisiana and Texas, respectively – in 1931.

(L to R) Peter Dreimanis as Bert, Jack O’Connell as Remmick, Hailee Steinfeld as Mary, and Lola Kirke as Joan in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Sinners.’

After being denied entry to Club Juke, the trio retreats, performing a hypnotic rendition of the Scottish/Irish folk song “Wild Mountain Thyme” outside the club grounds. The song was especially popular during the American folk music revival and has been recorded by Bonnie Dobson, Judy Collins and Joan Baez, among many other artists.

As the vampire plot unfolds, the musical story takes a bit of a backseat, though a major fight scene between the remaining Club Juke revelers and the ever-growing contingent of vampires does include another major musical number. Led by Remmick, the group performs a chilling, spirited version of the hop jig “Rocky Road to Dublin,” an Irish folk music standard with roots dating back to the mid-19th century.

The next big musical moment comes after the film’s end when, taking a cue from his MCU days, Coogler includes a post-credits scene. Set in Chicago in 1992, the scene features two familiar faces: blues legend Buddy Guy, who plays elderly Sammie, and contemporary blues star Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, a member of the elder Sammie’s band.

Guy, who also performs a version of “Travelin’” on the Sinners soundtrack, was born in 1936 to Louisiana sharecroppers and moved to Chicago to pursue music when he was 21. Shortly after relocating, Guy would meet Chicago blues legend – and Mississippi native – Muddy Waters, who would become his friend and mentor. It’s a full circle moment to close out the film, and one that reinforces the importance of lineage to the blues music tradition.

Unsurprisingly, Sinners is a movie that rewards rewatches. Coogler and his collaborators built a musical world rich with detail and allusion, and did so with what was clearly an enormous amount of love and passion. If you’re a music fan, Sinners is well worth your time – just be careful if you hear a late-night knock at your door.

Sinners is now available to stream on HBO Max and is available to rent VOD. The film is also still showing in a limited number of theaters in select markets.

All images courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Lead Image: Miles Caton as Sammie Moore in Warner Bros. Pictures’ Sinners.

Basic Folk: Kora Feder

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

On this episode of Basic Folk, Kora Feder talks about her new album, Some Kind of Truth, and reflects on the incredible changes and growth she’s experienced since we last spoke in February 2020. One of the impacts of the pandemic on her music career was the necessity of exploring other artistic ventures – like crafting hats and lino-cutting. She relocated from Philly to California, finally settling in Detroit. Daughter of songwriter Rita Hosking, Kora went slightly viral during the height of COVID lockdowns thanks to her song “In a Young Person’s Body.” In the poignant composition she pays tribute to John Prine and old friends she hasn’t spoken to in years – and somehow still captured incredibly well.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • AMAZON • MP3

Elsewhere in our conversation, Kora discusses the passing of her grandparents, who she moved back to California to be with before they died. Their lives and deaths deeply influenced the new record. She opens up about the nuances of her gender identity, the importance of historical friendships that allow for unfiltered creativity, and her approach to writing both personal and political songs. We go through many of the tracks on the new project, including what I think is the best breakup song I’ve ever heard, “Paragraphs.” Kora Feder is a really incredible leave-you-breathless songwriter, particularly with her political writing. Here’s hoping that she doesn’t wait five more years to release a record, because we’re gonna need her.

Photo Credit: Anna Barber

Molly Tuttle on CBS Saturday Morning: “I’m Not Abandoning the Bluegrass Fans”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Guitarist-singer-songwriter Molly Tuttle caused bit of seismic activity in the roots music world when in the middle of May she announced a brand new band and the beginning of a brand new era, after the smashing, GRAMMY-winning run of her decidedly bluegrass outfit, Golden Highway. With several years of touring and two critically acclaimed and audience-adored albums with that group under her belt, Tuttle posted on social media that she had assembled Mary Meyer (fiddle, mandolin, keys), Vanessa McGowan (bass), Megan Jane (drums, percussion) and Ellen Angelico (guitars, Dobro) for her new backing band. Predictably, the award-amassing picker had many a bluegrass “chair snapper” run to her comment sections to decry her abandonment of bluegrass, her selling out, and her forsaking the genre that made her.

A little over a month later, Tuttle announced her upcoming album, So Long Little Miss Sunshine, due out August 15 via Nonesuch Records. With that second wave of exciting news she dropped the LP’s first single, “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark.” Last week, she and her newly-minted band appeared on CBS Saturday Morning to perform that track (watch above) as well as a burnin’ fan favorite from the Golden Highway years, “San Joaquin” (watch below). In addition, Tuttle spoke to journalist Anthony Mason about the project, her creative process, and how and why she’s ready for something fresh and different – sonically, and otherwise. (Watch Tuttle’s interview with Mason below, as well.)

“Okay, yeah, I want to set the record straight!” Tuttle laughs when asked about “abandoning bluegrass” and her more string-band-inclined fans. “I’m not abandoning the bluegrass fans. I feel like, with my music, a door will just open and then I’m walking through it.”

“With my last two records,” she continues, “I just felt so inspired to go back to my roots and write bluegrass songs. And, all of a sudden in the last year, I was like, ‘It’s time to do something different, to do something totally new, and find my own sound that’s not emulating a certain genre or style.'”

Longtime fans of Tuttle know that dabbling in genres on the fringes of more traditional bluegrass has always been a practice at the core of her creativity, songwriting, and expression. Her debut EP after moving to Nashville, 2017’s Rise, was far from straight ahead bluegrass in structure, arrangements, and production. In 2019 she released When You’re Ready. Her full-length debut, it boasted bluegrass and flatpicking bones with dashes of old-time and country, but couldn’t be easily or simply defined – or entirely contained – underneath any of those aesthetic umbrellas. “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark” is poppy, bold, and broad with dashes of Katie Gavin (of MUNA), Sheryl Crow, and Aimee Mann. But still, it’s anchored by, of all things, clawhammer guitar. Is that “abandoning” the genres that made her?

Along the way, Tuttle’s live shows have always been expansive, joyous, and fun, whatever the personnel on stage – and her shows have always been unconcerned with genre fidelity, too. (Even as she crisscrossed the country and the globe with her beloved ‘grassy Golden Highway comrades.) Now, with her new “that ain’t bluegrass” band, she continues playing with genre and expectations.

For instance, at ROMP in Owensboro, Kentucky, last month she at one point invited Del, Ronnie, and Rob McCoury onstage for a guest slot, many a Golden Highway track made the set list, and she covered both “Blue Moon of Kentucky” and a dramatic, languid version of Icona Pop and Charli XCX’s smash hyperpop hit “I Love It” for her twin encores. This sort of musical multiplicity from Tuttle isn’t anything new, it’s foundational. It’s a keystone on which she’s built her entire brand. Her incredible covers album, 2020’s pandemic-proffered …but i’d rather be with you is another excellent example of this fact.

It’s clear Tuttle, her band, and her team are knee-deep in messaging and intentionally reinforcing their brand identity for this next album and her headlining “The Highway Knows” tour, which kicks off in September. Whether on CBS Saturday Morning, social media, or a bluegrass festival stage, that task comes incredibly naturally to Tuttle, because these sounds aren’t a gimmick. This isn’t a cash grab or selling out or abandoning anything or anyone. It’s Molly Tuttle being exactly who she has always been. After all, just when you think you know her, “She’ll Change.”