Tag: roots music

The Stories and the Storyteller Behind ‘Stelth Ulvang and the Tigernips’

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Stelth Ulvang is a storyteller, but as he shares in our conversation, if it hadn’t been for a broken mast on a famous sailboat years ago, his stories might have found a different outlet than music.

Since then, his musical life has unfolded from one wave to the next. From playing with established bands like The Lumineers or his own projects like Heavy Gus to finding pick-up bands in different towns, he is fast and prolific. His latest effort, Stelth Ulvang and the Tigernips, is a ten-song opus, cut in New Orleans by The Deslondes (a band he indeed met through a friend). A self-declared autumnal record, Ulvang grapples with death with a lilting cover of Echo & the Bunnymen’s “Killing Moon” and guides the listener along his travels in “What Three Dogs.” The (mostly) live recordings lend themselves to the raw emotion of the storytelling.

BGS spoke to Stelth Ulvang over Zoom from his home in Bishop, California.

How’s your life?

Stelth Ulvang: Well, we just got back from a family vacation, and our 3-year-old hates us for trying to explain jet lag to him.

It sounds like you were on a real adventure. Where all did you go?

Greece, Turkey, and the Republic of Georgia. We have a friend there that is a wild, wild, Wild West woman.

She won this great horse race, and she’s really into cooking over big fires. She won the Iron Chef competition there. She’s a pretty versatile human, but pretty wild. So it was fun to have a friend in these places. We had friends in Greece and we had friends in Turkey. But we didn’t have instruments. My wife and I play a lot of music together, so we’ve always traveled with instruments, and this time we refused to.

I’ve just been recording all last year. I’m sitting on three records of recordings and trying to just put out one of them right now.

Nice. That’s awesome. Do you write alone, or do you and your wife write together sometimes?

I normally write alone. I have a hard time writing with others. I just haven’t had enough practice with it. With our other project, Heavy Gus, we will bring songs to the table and then we’ll intermingle and edit them together. But for the most part, it always comes from one voice or another. We haven’t sat down and said, ”Let’s write a song.” I find it harder. It’s more vulnerable than the other parts of a relationship, I find. After like sexual or intimate vulnerabilities, I found writing music together was like by far the last tier.

Well, not to make it about me. But I write music with my husband. Co-writing and the kitchen are the only places we fight.

Oh, yeah, totally. It can get really impassioned. You are just opening yourself up on the table in this way, and it can just go so quickly to feeling under attack about this very personal thing.

You’re very prolific. Sounds like you got a lot of stuff in the pipeline to release.

When The Lumineers stopped touring, I kind of just rallied and tried to get everything done. I did a lot of the writing on the road with the band. There was a lot of downtime in hotels. For a long time, I was recording in hotel rooms with my phone on voice memos and stuff like that. But then I got into using Garageband on my cell phone and making more produced tracks. I released a record like that.

Ultimately, I found that my favorite thing to do was to find a band. If we have a few days off in a town, I find a band and go into a studio somewhere and see if we can just record five tracks. So that’s what I kept doing around the States during this Lumineers tour for the past three years. I had written all these songs over COVID. So we’d be in Cincinnati for three days and I’d find a band and record five songs.

When you say “find a band,” what do you mean?

I mean whip a band up. Ideally, find a band that plays together and they’re down to just like learn a song of mine.

Are you meeting them at a show or are these people that you’re like friends of friends with online?

Yeah, sometimes friends of friends, people that I’ve never played with. But for this record, Stelth Ulvang and the Tigernips, this is all people that I had never met. A friend who was going to be on the record but then left for a tour was like, “Well, they’re good people, you’re in good hands.”

It was fun to just use real old gear, old vintage mics and run it all through tape. We recorded everything live. Singing it live, that’s something I’m not as used to. But with this band from New Orleans, the magic was quick to come.

Did you know you wanted to cut it to tape before you headed down there? Or was that circumstantial?

That was circumstantial. It’s funny with tape right now, because obviously, everything just gets digitized. I was trying to think, “Is there a way that we can keep this off of ever touching digital?” And it’s almost impossible. You know it’s possible, but it feels impossible.

With the record I made on my cell phone, I only released it on cassette tape for a while, which was the reverse. So I should have tried to be true to form and release it just on vinyl and tape in analog form. But it’s 2024.

Well, tell me about self-releasing music. What does that feel like in 2024?

It’s like I finally figured out the releasing stuff. I’ve had help through Emily Smith, with the Alt-Country Show. There was a lot of logistical stuff that I was getting new anxieties about – a lot of social media.

You think you have it all figured out and then it’s just all about being a content creator. I feel like an old man. It’s so complex, but it’s true. I finally kind of figured out how to self-release and self-book shows and now that almost feels like an obsolete skill set. I’m doing a whole tour around the Northeast on this record for a few weeks and booked everything myself. Amazing that it like came naturally, just writing people and asking for help. But yeah, the content is a skill set that I forgot to put my 10,000 hours in on.

I feel that. For the tour, is the band that played with you on this album from New Orleans going?

No, they’re all gonna be in Spain at a sick residency that they do every year. The band goes to Spain once a year. They’ve done it for 3 years. Now this will be, I think, their fourth year. And there’s a huge following in Seville of American country and folk.

It’s interesting that country music is getting big. But in Europe right now, it’s getting huge and friends who do country tours in the States are having much more success in Europe right now.

It also feels like the genre is broadening. There’s obviously the stuff at the top of the pyramid that, depending on your ears, can be exhausting. But there’s more room for more kinds of country.

In that realm, I don’t know that I like the song for what it is, but “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X – to have a gay Black man put out a track at the top of the country charts, I think opened up the the floodgates to be like, “Anything goes.” I think that is an extraordinary gift to any realm of music, to do something so left field and find success for it. So bless Lil Nas X for that and maybe only that.

What’s a Tigernip?

What is a tigernip? I don’t know. I forgot. … I was just trying to think of something that wasn’t a Google trope. But I wanted the combination of very quick, ferocious, and sweet. We recorded half of the album in the space called the Tigerman Den so I was starting to call it “the Tiger Men.” But there were women in the project. I think I said “Tiger Dicks” at some point, and everyone was like, “What the hell is wrong with you?”

But then, something about a tigernip kind of sounded like a tiger lily or catnip.

I wanted it to be clear that the band that recorded on this record was actually a band and it wasn’t me just doing like solo songs. And how much the album was influenced by these relationships that we had over a very short few days. So, that’s why I was really set on trying to find a band name for us.

There’s a frequent revisiting in the songs on this album to the theme of water. And I read that at one point you sailed from Hawaii to Seattle. Since you have this connection to water, I’d like to know about that sail and if you have an everyday connection to water?

It’s funny, I don’t necessarily buy into astrology, but being an Aquarius, I am appalled that it’s not a water sign. I feel completely more watery than airy. [My birthday is] the very last day of Aquarius before Pisces, which is a water sign. So maybe that’s why I’m compelled to lean into the water sign. And my Chinese zodiac is the tiger.

Back to the sailing trip! I did not want to play music before this time in 2008. I met this musician who invited me on this sailing trip and I just wanted to go on an adventure.

Meaning you didn’t want to play music in your life, or you needed a break from it?

I was playing in high school and I tried to go to college for it. I didn’t like it and I dropped out. I just wanted to travel. I had gone on a bike trip, I was hitchhiking a lot, and I was riding trains everywhere. If music could help me travel, I was open to it.

I traveled to Hawaii to pick up this boat that was famous in National Geographic because of this teenager, Robin Lee Graham, trying to sail it around the world in one go. He left his boat in California and it got moved to Hawaii. I had somehow signed up with a buddy that I barely knew to travel with this boat from Hawaii up to Bellingham, Washington, where it was going to sit in a boat museum for its historical significance.

At the time, this was the youngest boy ever to sail around the world alone. The record has since been broken by a young woman. [The boat] had so much repair work that had to be done on it. So we’re in Hawaii for like five weeks, during which I got arrested for shoplifting some food at Sam’s Club, because we’d run out of all of our money that we had saved up to do this journey. I decided, “Screw it. We’re we’re just gonna skip the court date, I’m gonna get on this boat and we’re gonna sail.” So we bail on this court date, establishing a nice bench warrant that I had to deal with much later on. We make it a week out and the mast busts, and we had to get rescued. And I have never sailed extensively since then.

While we’re at sea my buddy had this mandolin. We sit there, and we’re just trading verses back and forth, writing this kind of silly song as this joke idea that we’re these stranded pirates. We’re just coming up with lyrics. We get towed back to Hawaii; I was really nervous about going to jail. We go to the airport and beg these flight attendants to basically put us on standby to get us back to the States. The only flight that they could put us on was one that went up to Seattle. We’re like, well, “We can hitchhike home from there.”

So, we go up to Seattle and we have no money, not even bus fare, to get to my friend’s house that lived in North Seattle. So we sit in the airport and we play this song, making up words on this mandolin with a little hat out [for tips], just for bus fare. As soon as we get the bus fare, we leave and we’re at our friend’s house. We tell him the story and he’s like, “You know, we’re having a show tomorrow night. You guys should play your song at this show that we’re having in our basement.”

That was the first show essentially that I ever played. By the end of the trip, we traveled for another couple of weeks back to Colorado, we’d written an entire album’s worth of stuff. As soon as we got back to Colorado we already had a band name. We had all the songs ready to record and all of a sudden I was a musician again.

Wow! All because of a broken mast. That’s wild.

SU: The boat was called the Dove. And the book that was about the boat is called Dove. So we called our band Dovekins. Never looked back.

Photo Credit: Rachel Deeb

BGS 5+5: David Berkeley

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: David Berkeley
Hometown: Santa Fe, New Mexico
Latest Album: A Pail Full of Fire
Personal Nicknames (or rejected band names): The only time I really had a nickname was when I was teaching in a public middle school in Bushwick. The kids called me Shaggy.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

I gave up on my song “This Be Dear to Me” probably a dozen times. I began writing it as an exercise in positivity after Trump got elected. Instead of lamenting all the things I feared would be ruined, I decided to try to write a list of what I loved. That’s where it started. Pages and pages of places I found beautiful, people I cared about, lists of what I valued. I guess I wanted to unite people who were behaving like they had nothing in common by reminding them (us) that there are lots of things we all love. Like, here are some things we all must hold dear, right? Rivers and trees, the autumn, the moon, our children. If we remember that then maybe we stop fighting about less important things?

But I didn’t want it to be heavy-handed or preachy. And I didn’t want it to be too syrupy. Eventually, I had the list and I shaped it into maybe forty verses. That felt like a few too many, though, so I spent a long time whittling. I got it down to three. At first the chorus was just an extended Amen. “Ah ah ah ah… men.” But that seemed like a cop out. So I ultimately added a lyric, which wasn’t easy to write. It appeals to Adonai to help remind us what is worth fighting for. That also felt like a risk. I’m Jewish, but I rarely reference my Judaism in my music. Finally, I had this idea that the song should lift and modulate as it progresses, so the lyric would feel more urgent and the music could soar. But I also knew that I wanted it to feel cyclical and to come back home at the end. So then it became almost like a puzzle. Could I move through several keys and return to where we began? That’s ultimately where the song landed. It’s the hardest I ever worked on a song, but it’s also probably the most powerful to sing live.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I never had a dog growing up. In fact, I never really liked dogs. I pretended to like your dog if we met. But really I was a little afraid of her/him. And I never understood dog people. I’m a father of two boys. And when people talked about their dog like a child, I bristled. But we got a puppy during COVID. Her name is Mali, and I love her. Like I really love her. She’s changed my whole world. Don’t tell my boys, but I often miss Mali more than my kids when I’m on tour. She certainly seems happier to see me when I come home than they do.

This all to say, I spend a lot of my time hiking with her in the Sangre de Cristo mountains above Santa Fe. You’re far more likely to run into me hiking up Picacho or on the backside of Sun Mountain than anywhere else in town. You can see a hundred miles from up there. And I normally bring a blank book with me. I start a lot of songs on those hikes. And I try my melodies out on Mali. She has better ears than humans do, so I think it’s fair to trust her reaction.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

I wouldn’t call it hiding, but I use characters more and more in my writing to express certain ideas or emotions that might be clearer through the eyes or mouth of someone else. My song “Omaha,” for example, is a song about a guy trying to reunite with a lost love. That’s not autobiographical at all, but it’s honest.

And of course in my duo project, Sons of Town Hall. My partner and I have created a whole mythic backstory. My name in that project is Josiah and every song is sung from within that fictitious world. We’re now rolling out a comedy-fiction podcast series called Madmen Cross the Water that tells the stories behind the songs on our new album. But just like in my solo work, even though there is a character I’m writing for it doesn’t compromise the honesty. In fact, sometimes I think we can be more honest and open when we are wearing a kind of mask.

If you didn’t work in music, what would you do instead?

I’d go back to the Salmon River in Idaho and try to get my old job back as a river guide. I love playing music, but it isn’t an easy career and there’s a lot of it I don’t like – promoting myself, for example, or sound checking, or all the travel. But I liked every bit of being a river guide back in the day.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

I’d like to travel back with Anthony Bourdain on a food tour of Italy. And after eating our way through the country for a few weeks, we end up in Rome. We head to the Pantheon one night under a big moon. It’s all barricaded off, but we’re ushered in. It turns out that Neil Young is there (but it’s 1971 Neil). He’s got a pipe organ in there and a few guitars. They serve us plates of cacio e pepe and glasses of cold Frascati and he basically plays the Massey Hall set for maybe fifty of us.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

On ‘Pathways,’ Julian Taylor Looks Inward Rather Than Outward

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Much like the songs on his latest album Pathways, the sounds swirling around Canadian singer-songwriter Julian Taylor on our recent phone call for BGS were also filled with curiosity, emotion, and the subtle, intrinsic tones of a modern world unfolding.

Walking the streets of his native Toronto, the introspective depths of Taylor’s voice and pure sentiments radiated in conversation were only complemented by the organized chaos of an international city in motion. Honking of taxi cabs at clustered intersections; the thrust of train cars on the underground subway; other conversations of varying degrees of volume in passing. And Taylor himself.

“Don’t the grass look greener on the other side/ but be careful of what you wish for could get left behind,” Taylor weaves through “Ain’t Life Strange.” “I see where I went wrong and all I could have done. There’s a fine line between a broken and beautiful mind.”

Those lyrics in particular speak to the long, arduous, yet bountiful road for Taylor. At 46, he’s spent his entire adult life in pursuit of creative fulfillment and stability in an often haphazard industry. In his tenure, Taylor’s seen the high-water mark and complete collapse of the music business – and then some.

Co-founder of 1990s Canadian alt-rock act Staggered Crossing, Taylor found himself in big meetings with even bigger record label executives. The band was signed by Warner Music Canada and earned some limited success before being dropped by the label not long after their debut album hit the streets.

From there, it became a DIY ethos at the heart of Staggered Crossing. But, after a handful of albums and plateauing popularity, the group split in 2007, ultimately leaving Taylor out on his own. But, he trudged ahead, even if he was unsure of his next move, whether personally or professionally.

Frustrated and burned out by the music industry, Taylor circled back to a beloved bar of his, the Dora Keogh Irish Pub in the Danforth neighborhood of Toronto. There he summoned the courage and energy to start an open mic night. With a stripped-down set of simply Taylor and his guitar, he quickly found this new path of intent and purpose for the music within him.

From there, it’s been this ongoing journey of self and of song for Julian Taylor. What has resulted is this soothing voice of determination and compassion pushing steadfast into this latest chapter of his sound and scope.

I was recently in Toronto for the first time and it felt like one of the most culturally and sonically diverse cities I’ve ever come across.

Julian Taylor: Yeah, definitely. It’s been that way ever since I was a kid. It was a real small town when I was born, but it’s just grown exponentially. The music thing has been extremely positive. People really do support each other and everything. Like, it doesn’t really matter where you’re coming from.

What does it mean to be a songwriter from Ontario and greater Canada? I mean, you have some of the best of the best. Gordon Lightfoot, Gord Downie, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen. The list goes on.

It’s an honor. I’m happy to be from here. You have the rich heritage that I have and the rich musical landscape that we grew up with. A lot of people don’t really know that so many of these artists, like the people that you’ve mentioned, are Canadian. We’ve had such an incredible influence on the world. I think a lot of that has to do with the cultural mosaic and landscape we live in. I mean, it is not easy to tour this country. And we sort of grind our teeth here a lot of the time. So, when you do that, it makes you a little bit more appreciative of any sort of accolades or any sort of impact that you may have on the world.

When I was reading your backstory, you must have been a teenager when you started Staggered Crossing.

Yeah, I was pretty young. When we first got signed, it was at the tail end of, I guess, what you would want to call the high-water mark. We didn’t get to really experience that. We experienced the very last little bit of it. And then the entire industry changed. I’ve seen it change so many times in my career. And I started when I was 16.

What was it that kept you going after Staggered Crossing broke up? Was it just this idea that, “Hell or high water, this is what I’m going to, no matter what”?

Part of that was it. The other part of it was encouragement. The fact that any of my songs resonated with anybody really was the main point. You’re like, “I’m going to do this no matter what, because this is my calling and this is my passion, this is my purpose.” But, when you have those things validated by other people? That’s just a huge gift. The fact that people would continue to book me and play my stuff on the radio or people would come to shows and tell me that my music meant something to them. With that kind of encouragement, it’s really hard to stop going.

With Staggered Crossing being signed and going through the motions of very large corporations, what were some of the things you took away from that experience you applied to your solo career?

I think it all happened afterwards, really. Not during that period of time, because afterwards we had to fend for ourselves. But, it was the first time that the do-it-yourself mentality was put into place. We didn’t even know what DIY was. I just ended up doing it because I wanted to get my music out there. I wanted to keep touring, to continue to create records. So, I did anything and everything I could to keep that happening. I learned a lot about the business, about promotions, marketing, and distribution. Basically, everything a label would do for an artist, I learned how to do it alongside my friends and we kept on pushing ahead. It was hard and also easy at the same time, because it was something I wanted to do. It certainly tired me out at one point in time. I was so disenchanted with music that I stopped and then I came back with a brand-new sort of outlook on it.

What does it mean to be at this juncture of your career and still be just as curious, and always mining for the next song, as ever?

That’s a good question, man. It’s really about the job and the task at hand. And the job is to document the human condition through my experiences. World domination is still on the back burner. [Laughs] As an artist, it’s about putting in the work and that work is really hard to do. It’s emotionally exhausting. It’s physically exhausting. But, at the end of the day, when you look at yourself in the mirror and think about it, “I’ve written these beautiful songs and they’ve brought beauty to people’s lives.” And these performances have brought beauty to both of our lives – not just theirs, but to mine. It’s a two-way street.

Where does that work ethic come from within you?

Maybe it’s the Jamaican side of me. [Laughs] It’s definitely a family thing. My family on both sides have worked so hard. My mom’s side of the family has sacrificed and worked so hard. And my dad’s side, who migrated [to Canada]. On my mom’s side, we were here to begin with. And my dad’s side, they came here with not a lot to go on, and discrimination and things like that. They worked their asses off and always told me I would have to work 150 percent harder than anybody else because of my background.

And have you?

From a very young age.

Do you find they were correct with that assessment?

Yeah, they’re still correct about that. And, I don’t really know how and when that’s going to change. There are more opportunities reported to people now that are minorities, but the reality of having to work that much harder is still a truism. That’s unfortunate. But, you know what? I dare to ask anybody from the minority to say that something hasn’t benefited them from that work ethic.

As you were trying to move forward after Staggered Crossing, you started this open mic at a bar in Danforth. Were you kind of circling back to where it all began and recalibrating things?

Yeah. I used to work at that same Irish pub in the Danforth. I was a bus boy and also a server. One day, some old guy came in and he was just so rude to me, so racist. And I thought to myself, “What am I doing? I’ve got to do something about this.” That was the catalyst that got me back into performing music. The proprietors of that establishment offered the open stage to me on that Monday to help me get going again. They’re some of the greatest friends I’ve got in this world. And it was funny because, after Staggered Crossing, I just couldn’t go on. I had tried so hard to “make it” and it was such an uphill battle. Pushing a boulder up a hill. I gave up and needed some time. And then when the open stage came back, it was a community thing. I rallied around people and they rallied around me. And it’s still a musical community out here in the city. It all comes down to community.

Why did you title the album Pathways?

Pathways felt like a journey. It’s been so long getting here, you know? I’ve got 12 studio records in my name and a couple of live records. I’ve toured extensively for the last 20 years. And this felt like a record that I needed to go inward, rather than outward. Some of my records are very contemplative of the outside world. And this one, I was contemplating my inside world – what was in my head, my heart and soul. Trying to battle through some of the things that go on in everyday life decisions and choices I’ve made. The pressure of the last two records and creating a new record was on me. I was feeling that and decided Pathways was a really good metaphor for where I was headed, where I’ve gone, where I’ve been. I’m not sure where it’s going to take me next, but it just felt like a nice walk in a cool breeze.

Since the 2020 shutdown, there’s been, thankfully, a lot more conversation in the music industry about mental health and physical wellness. Does that play into where you’re at right now?

It does, yeah. I think about it every day. It’s really hard to make it as a musician. And it’s really hard to be a human in this world. I’ll be the first to admit that I go through a lot of stuff in my head. I’ve never been diagnosed with a mental illness, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I have something. I feel it a lot, the pressure to keep making a living, so that I can keep a roof over my head and my family fed. I could walk away from music if I had to, but I don’t want to. I don’t know if that would make me happy or not.

But, when it comes to fiscal responsibility, that’s a lot of stress. And then, there’s the stress social media puts on us, where you get attacked for no reason by people who don’t even know you. Sure, there’s a lot of praise going on, but there’s a lot of the other stuff, too. And now everything’s sort of been put into the musician’s hands. It’s a bit of a mental dilemma. I’ve lost a lot of people this year and that was part of that as well. You know, it’s life. People think people in the public eye or musicians putting themselves out there have rhino skin and they’re superhuman — but we’re not.

Photo Credit: Robert Georgeff

You Gotta Hear This: New Music From Darin & Brooke Aldridge, Adam Chaffins, and more

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

We’re excited to kick off October with a mighty New Music Friday and our first edition of You Gotta Hear This for the month.

You’ve simply gotta check out new music videos from folks like Darin & Brooke Aldridge (who pay tribute to Byron Berline with a track featuring Vince Gill), Buffalo Wabs & the Price Hill Hustle (who’ve brought us a charming animated music video), Claire Hawkins (who wrote her selection, “Oh Daisy,” while living in France), and Rachel McIntyre Smith teams up with Janelle Arthur to premiere her Honeysuckle Friend Sessions with a live cover of “Strawberry Wine.”

Plus, Darren Nicholson premieres his bluegrass track, “Windows Have Pains,” and singer-songwriter, vocalist, and bassist Adam Chaffins feels capable of anything on “Little Bit At A Time.” Our longtime friends Jamie Drake and Justin Wade Tam have teamed up on a brand new single as well, entitled “Free.”

To wrap up, don’t miss our final Yamaha Session in our latest series with the brand. It features Jack Schneider performing his original song, “Don’t Look Down.”

It’s all right here on BGS and You’ve Gotta Hear This!

Darin & Brooke Aldridge, “A Million Memories (A Song For Byron)”

Artist: Darin & Brooke Aldridge
Hometown: Cherryville, North Carolina
Song: “A Million Memories (A Song For Byron)”
Album: Talk of The Town
Release Date: October 4, 2024 (video)
Label: Billy Blue Records

In Their Words: “We’ve all had people in our lives who have believed in us, loved us, taught us, and guided us, hoping that we could see in ourselves what they have always seen. It isn’t just about teaching and shaping someone, it’s about helping them discover what they can do from within themselves. For us, it is one of our greatest joys to invest time and encouragement to those who come behind us. It is one way to pay forward the gifts given to us from our own heroes and mentors, to help bring out the best in younger people in the same ways someone did for us.

“We were reminded of these truths the first time we heard ‘A Million Memories (A Song for Byron).’ It was written by our friend Vince Gill in honor of fiddler extraordinaire Byron Berline, who was one of Vince’s closest mentors and dearest friends. Byron invited a young Vince to play banjo and guitar in his band, Byron Berline and Sundance, in the late ’70s, and took the clearly talented Gill under his wing. They remained close until Byron’s death in 2021.

“We’re incredibly honored to share the music video for ‘A Million Memories (A Song for Byron).’ As the song is extra special to us, for the meaning behind it and having the chance to sing it with a special mentor and friend. We will always treasure this opportunity to make ‘A Million Memories.’ We hope the video brings back cherished memories to those that watch the video and hear this incredible song.” – Darin & Brooke Aldridge

Track Credits:
Darin Aldridge – Vocal, mandolin, guitar
Vince Gill – Vocal
Brooke Aldridge – Vocal
Mark Fain – Acoustic Bass
Stuart Duncan – Fiddle
Brent Rader – Percussion, piano

Video Credit: Produced and directed by Jenny Gill.

Buffalo Wabs & the Price Hill Hustle, “Vagabond’s Lament”

Artist: Buffalo Wabs & The Price Hill Hustle
Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio
Song: “Vagabond’s Lament”
Album: Buffalo Wabs & The Price Hill Hustle
Release Date: October 24, 2024

In Their Words: “‘Vagabond’s Lament’ is an homage to so many places we know so well. The personification of each location lets the song read as a lost-love song in a way, which is a fun take on the visuals the tune lays out for the audience. It’s also a fun one to play; upbeat rhythm and driving solos get the crowds moving.

“One thing this ‘Vagabond’s’ showcases for the group is our affinity for harmony. It’s a real throwback to the sounds I personally grew up with – rich, churchy voices, the breathy ritardando at the end of the tune followed by a four-part harmonic crescendo into the final phrase, and that driving stomp of a beat. This tune really wraps up so much of what we do into three and a half minutes.

“The song fits perfectly with the overall mood and atmosphere of the album; old-time influence with modern flair. It’s a toe-tapping number that could be a hundred years old if you heard it on AM radio, which fits our style nicely. It’s something that will appeal to folkies and bluegrassers alike.” – Casey Campbell, drummer, vocalist

Track Credits:
Produced and engineered by Alex Lusht at Mind Ignition Studios in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Mixed and mastered by Alex Lusht.
Bill Baldock – Bass, guitar, vocals, banjo
Scott Risner – Mandolin, vocals, banjo
Matt Wabnitz – Guitar, vocals
Casey Campbell – Drums, vocals

Video Credits: Animation by Evan Hand; Fiddle and final image by Alex Hand.

Adam Chaffins, “Little Bit At A Time”

Artist: Adam Chaffins
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee via Louisa, Kentucky
Song: “Little Bit At A Time”
Release Date: October 4, 2024

In Their Words: “I started writing ‘Little Bit at A Time’ with Adam Wright in the fall of 2020, socially distanced on my front porch on a chilly, rain-drizzled day. The song was pretty much finished, but we both felt it was missing some more truth. The next summer, I went on a trip to the Colorado Rockies with some new friends, and, on a whim, we decided to hike a 14,000-foot mountain before the sun came up. I still remember the surreal feeling of standing on that peak after scrambling over boulders and hiking for hours to get to the top. The air was so thin above the treeline and the surroundings felt otherworldly. It was one of the most emotionally jarring events of my life. On the steep hike back down, I felt as if I were leaving a trail of lies behind me with each step. I had just totally surpassed any physical feat I ever thought I was ever capable of, making a monumental truth out of a lifetime of lies I had told myself. I felt capable of anything. In the fall of 2021, I got married and found the truth in love. I now have some new perspectives in life and, perhaps, the missing pieces to that song about delayed gratification.” – Adam Chaffins

Jamie Drake & Justin Wade Tam, “Free”

Artist: Jamie Drake & Justin Wade Tam
Hometown: Los Angeles, California (Jamie Drake); Nashville, Tennessee (Justin Wade Tam)
Song: “Free”
Album: So Many Melodies
Release Date: October 4, 2024
Label: Soundly Music

In Their Words: “‘Free’ was written over a Zoom session in 2021 as pandemic restrictions were beginning to lift. We talked about how this historical time had affected us — how the idea of ‘connection’ had taken on a whole new meaning and how we as humans had become more disconnected from ourselves and from nature in the process. For most, the need to stay connected to technology had become imperative as well as required; a reality that continues today. Maintaining a healthy relationship with our screens is an extremely difficult balancing act. ‘Free’ is a bit of a wake up call to remind us to take a break when we feel the call, to get back into nature and live in a more balanced way, connected to each other in the present moment instead of the narrative on our screen.” – Jamie Drake & Justin Wade Tam

Track Credits:
Written by Jamie Drake and Justin Wade Tam.
Justin Wade Tam – Vocal, acoustic guitar
Jamie Drake – Vocals, acoustic guitar
Juan Solorzano – Electric guitars
Ross McReynolds – Drums
Alec Newnam – Bass
Produced, engineered, and mixed by Jordan Lehning.
Mastered by Casey Wood.
Additional engineering by Reid Sorel.

Claire Hawkins, “Oh Daisy”

Artist: Claire Hawkins
Hometown: New York City, New York
Song: “Oh Daisy”
Release Date: October 4, 2024 (video)

In Their Words: “‘Oh Daisy’ was one of the first songs I wrote during my time as an artist-in-residence in France. That time abroad really inspired me to think about my own hometown and what it means to identify as a New Yorker. In writing ‘Oh Daisy,’ I thought back to my earliest memories of wanderlust as a child growing up in New York City. Children see the world through such a different lens and it was interesting to explore how much my worldview has evolved, thanks to the time I’ve gotten to spend with different cultures around the world. When it came time to shoot the music video, I really wanted to capture a certain light-hearted free-spiritedness, but balance it with a feeling of internal conflict. Working with Meg, I think we were able to reflect the challenge of the comforts of home fighting against the curiosity that pulls us away from what we know.” – Claire Hawkins

Track Credits:
Written and performed by Claire Hawkins.
Produced by Hana Elion.

Video Credit: Directed and edited by Meg Mann.

Rachel McIntyre Smith & Janelle Arthur, “Strawberry Wine” (Honeysuckle Friend Sessions)

Artist: Rachel McIntyre Smith & Janelle Arthur
Hometown: Oliver Springs, Tennessee (both Rachel and Janelle)
Song: “Strawberry Wine” (Deana Carter cover)
Release Date: October 5, 2024

In Their Words: “The Honeysuckle Friend Sessions are a companion video series to go along with my latest EP, ‘Honeysuckle Friend.‘ In this series, I invite my friends who are talented musicians to cover a song with me. I was over the moon when Janelle Arthur said that she would join me for this series! Having the opportunity to sing with Janelle was such a cool experience because we are both from the same hometown (Oliver Springs, TN) and I have admired her and her artistry since I was really young. I grew up watching her perform, voting for her on ‘American Idol,‘ and listening to all her music. Her voice is incredible, and so is she. I love ‘Strawberry Wine’ by Deana Carter, so I was very happy when Janelle suggested it. I especially love the incredible riff that Janelle so effortlessly sings at the end of the song!“ – Rachel McIntyre Smith

“Rachel is so talented and dedicated to her craft. I was excited to collaborate and finally get to sing with my hometown girl! ‘Strawberry Wine‘ is such a classic and just felt like the right song to sing for this series.“ – Janelle Arthur

(Editor’s Note: Follow the Honeysuckle Friend Sessions series on Rachel McIntyre Smith’s YouTube Channel.)

Track Credits:
Written by Matraca Berg and Gary Harrison.

Video Credit: Filmed and edited by Rachel McIntyre Smith.

Darren Nicholson, “Windows Have Pains”

Artist: Darren Nicholson
Hometown: Haywood County, North Carolina
Song: “Windows Have Pains”
Release Date: October 4, 2024
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “What can I say? I love sad songs. I have since I was a small child. In an odd way, sad songs bring me comfort and happiness. I’m drawn to things that evoke emotion. When I first heard these words as a kid, I loved them. I never forgot how the hook and spirit of the song impacted me as a listener. The song was originally written by Wes Buchanan and all these years later, Mark Bumgarner and myself got down and dirty and wrote an additional verse to complete the song for us. I love this one. If you like ole timey music and enjoy your hurtin’ – this one’s for you.” – Darren Nicholson

Track Credits:
Darren Nicholson – Mandolin, octave mandolin, lead vocal, harmony vocal
Tony Creasman – Drums
Kristin Scott Benson – Banjo
Zach Smith – Upright Bass
Deanie Richardson – Fiddle
David Johnson – Acoustic guitar, Dobro
Jennifer Nicholson – Harmony vocal

Yamaha Sessions: Jack Schneider, “Don’t Look Down”

Our latest series of Yamaha Sessions concludes with a final performance from guitarist, songwriter, and producer Jack Schneider. (Watch the full series of videos, which include performances by Trey Hensley as well, here.)

For his second Yamaha Session, Schneider picks up his Yamaha FS9 R acoustic guitar to perform “Don’t Look Down,” an original song from his 2022 album, Best Be On My Way. While the studio version features Schneider’s longtime friend, Liv Greene, the track certainly shines solo in this context, as well.

Gentle fingerstyle picking gives way to tender vocals, text painting a long-suffering image with an ultimately hopeful tinge. It’s a song about keeping your chin up, literally and figuratively. Written during the turmoil of the pandemic, the message in the lyrics is certainly not one of toxic positivity, making the moral within them even more resonant. It’s easy to tell Schneider is not just speaking to his listeners, but also to himself.

More here.

Photo Credit: Darin & Brooke Aldridge by Kim Brantley; Adam Chaffins by Natia Cinco.

MIXTAPE: Theo Kandel’s Dinner Party Playlist

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Welcome to my dinner party. It’s a potluck, of course, and because I can’t cook so well, I picked up a few cases of Miller High Life. Maybe a couple bottles of chilled red: delicious! Someone cooked an orzo salad, someone else made Ina Garten’s Engagement Chicken, maybe some tomato/mozz/basil type of dish – I don’t know. That’s up to you!

All my friends are here; some people even flew in from out of town. It’s the kind of night that you don’t want to make a big deal out of, but somehow someone’s crying happy tears over dessert and saying, “I can’t believe it’s been so long, why don’t we do this more often?” It’s the nights you took for granted in those early years after college, the ones that seemed to come together so easily, like a puzzle for children where all the pieces fit in such an obvious way. We fall into friendships; the hard part is keeping those friendships strong as we get older and move to different cities.

That tension exists at the heart of Eating & Drinking & Being in Love, my debut album that came out on September 20. It’s the tension of life, man! And that’s what makes it so beautiful. I hope you enjoy my Dinner Party Playlist – I’ve organized it into courses of a meal, highlighted as such for your digestion. – Theo Kandel

Appetizers:

“Sky Blue Sky” – Wilco

This is the easiest song of all time – you can listen to it when you’re sad, happy, angry, whatever. Breezy drums, melancholic lyrics. Welcome in!

“Honeydew Moon” – Theo Kandel

The first song on the album (not counting the intro), “Honeydew Moon” is for sunset cocktails, tasteful hors d’oeuvres, and saying, “How the hell are ya?” to friends you haven’t seen in a while.

“Fool” – Adrianne Lenker

Man, I love Adrianne Lenker. She is making beautiful music with thoughtful lyricism and melodies that float, but somehow still dig deep to scratch whatever itch you’ve got.

“Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” – Paul Simon

Okay, things are ramping up here. People are getting loose – people are drinking – people are starting to think to themselves, “Jeez, I hope we get to eat the real food soon.”

Entrees:

“Magnet” – NRBQ

Uh oh! We’ve sat down at the table and this funky ass jam pops on. People are cheersing, laughing, digging in.

“Tall Boy” – Abby Webster

Country alert! We’re cracking fresh beers, and they’re ice cold, baby.

“The Dress” – Dijon

Somehow, this wistful song still bangs hard at a dinner party. Dijon makes you think about your past, but also the awesome night you’re about to have.

“One More Night (With My Friends in the City)” – Theo Kandel

This song is really my ode to this kind of dinner party. Who brought the pizza? Who brought the beer? In this crazy universe, we all did.

“All Right” – Christopher Cross

Did you know that Billie Eilish was the first person to sweep the “Big Four” categories at the GRAMMYs since Christopher Cross in 1981? Of course, his best song (in my opinion), “All Right,” was not on Sailing, but still. This guy rips.

“Rosanna” – Toto

I put on “Rosanna” at every party I’m at. It’s a song that requires no introduction – quite literally, the drum intro speaks for itself.

“Dancing Queen” – ABBA

Okay now! Someone put ABBA on the speakers and people are getting out of their seats to dance. Everyone has finished eating, and it took only that iconic piano sweep to get everyone up and at ’em.

Desserts:

“April Come She Will” – Simon & Garfunkel

Everyone’s sitting on the patio/balcony/fire escape, sipping on the rest of the red wine and smoking cigarettes. It’s winding down, but not in a sad way, just in the way that a beautiful night with friends does.

“Perdido de Amor [Lost in Love]” – Luis Bonfá

I wish I knew any Portuguese, but luckily you don’t need to know any to understand this song. It’s so viscerally romantic, with Bonfá’s gorgeous guitar playing supporting his voice. Yes.

“I Must Be in a Good Place Now – Live at Spacebomb Studios” – Fruit Bats, Vetiver

This live cover of Bobby Charles’ original song makes me feel like I could cry tears of joy every time I hear it (secret: I have). Everyone is sitting comfortably at the end of the night, just happy to be here. Hope you enjoyed the party.

Photo Credit: Kate Stephenson

You Gotta Hear This: New Music From Nefesh Mountain, Juliet Lloyd, and More

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Quality over quantity is sometimes what it’s all about. This week’s edition of our premiere round-up is small but mighty, with brand new tracks and videos from a stellar collection of roots musicians.

To kick us off, singer-songwriter Juliet Lloyd brings us a properly spooky video for her track, “Call Your Wife,” which was filmed at an abandoned amusement park in West Virginia. The song is about anger and shame, growth and change, running away and getting caught back up in it again, too. It’s an excellent lead in to spooky and scary season, that’s for sure.

Next, our friends Nefesh Mountain have a gorgeous new fall-tinged video for an original song, “Regrets In The Rearview,” that features an all-star lineup of bluegrass legends. It’s a paean to gratitude, to living life for the moment, and celebrates finding peace – and a home – in movement and change. We think it’s the perfect song to put on for your drive to the pumpkin patch or apple orchard.

To wrap us up, California roots duo Two Runner – made up of Paige Anderson and Emilie Rose – perform “Late Dinner” live from a cozy front porch. They combine old-time, bluegrass, Americana, folk, and more into their own exemplary sound, which highlights the slightly melancholy story just perfectly.

It’s an apropos musical triptych for fall, for golden hour, for sipping some hot cider or cozying up beneath a blanket as the autumn rain falls outside. And, you know what we think… You Gotta Hear This!

Juliet Lloyd, “Call Your Wife”

Artist: Juliet Lloyd
Hometown: Washington, D.C.
Song: “Call Your Wife”
Album: Carnival
Release Date: October 25, 2024

In Their Words: “It’s funny to me that the most carnival-sounding song on the entire album is not the title track – it’s this one. ‘Call Your Wife’ was inspired by an anonymous text message that I got in the middle of the night. I had released another single from the album, ‘Pretty,’ a few weeks before, and it was a really personal song that parsed through my complicated feelings about an old relationship that I’ve mostly run from in the 20 years since. The text message said I wasn’t being fair to the guy in the song– and all of a sudden I was 18 again, feeling afraid and ashamed. And then I got angry.

“Todd Wright (who co-wrote and produced) and I managed to channel those feelings into a track that goes to a really unexpected place. It starts sweetly threatening and builds to a really satisfying, vengeful final chorus. I love the unhinged banjo and bass lines that kick in in the second verse. After we finished the track, I knew I wanted a video to match the vibe. The song and video for me are really about using art to process, to heal, and to connect with anyone else who has ever felt like they couldn’t speak up and confront their gaslighters and abusers.” – Juliet Lloyd

Track Credits:
Written by Juliet Lloyd & Todd Wright.

Video Credits: Produced by Mind in Motion.
Directed by Joshua Land and Victor Fink.
Featuring Todd Wright and Steve Quintilian.
Colleen Laffey, Zachary Buckley, Abigail Sussman – Production assistants
Shot at Lake Shawnee Abandoned Amusement Park in Rock, West Virginia.

Nefesh Mountain, “Regrets In The Rearview”

Artist: Nefesh Mountain
Hometown: New York, New York
Song: “Regrets In The Rearview”
Album: Beacons
Release Date: September 25, 2024 (single); January 2025 (album)
Label: Eden Sky Records

In Their Words: “We’ve spent the last number of years on the road, getting the band out there as much as possible, all with our now 3-year-old daughter, Willow! Needless to say, it can be hard to balance touring with writing sometimes, but when we finally sat down in early 2024 to write new material, dozens of songs just poured out of us. We spent those early months feverishly creating, composing, and refining our vision and voice for this next iteration of the band. The result of this musical alchemy is Beacons; our new double LP containing eight Americana songs with our electric band on disc one, and 10 more on the bluegrass-oriented disc two.

“We feel eternally grateful and beyond lucky to have become close with our heroes over the years and while our own band makes up much of the two discs, we also called on our friends Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Rob McCoury and Mark Schatz to bring this song to life! This particular song also marks an incredibly special first for us – our older daughter Millie is on it, beautifully singing the third part in the chorus and duetting with mom on verse four.” – Eric Lindberg

“‘Regrets In The Rearview’ kicks off the bluegrass half of Beacons and is a tune all about gratitude and living in the moment. It’s our own personal reminder to stay present and keep moving forward instead of dwelling too much on the past. It’s about finding some peace with the struggles we have, and we wanted to channel the blissful freedom we feel when we’re out there hitting the road.” – Doni Zasloff

Track Credits:
Written by Eric Lindberg and Doni Zasloff.
Doni Zasloff – Vocals
Eric Lindberg – Vocals, guitar
Stuart Duncan – Fiddle
Jerry Douglas – Dobro
Sam Bush – Mandolin
Rob McCoury – Banjo
Mark Schatz – Bass

Video Credits:
Shot in and around the communities surrounding Woodstock, New York.
Directed and conceptualized by Lindberg and Zasloff along with Rafael Roy & Kelin Verrette with All Solid Things.

Two Runner, “Late Dinner”

Artist: Two Runner
Hometown: Nevada City, California
Song: “Late Dinner”
Album: Late Dinner
Release Date: September 13, 2024
Label: Gar Hole Records

In Their Words: “‘Late Dinner’ is a song for all the people who have been ghosted and let down. That feeling of yearning for the perfect relationship dinner where everything feels glowy-warm amongst the candle light. I was cheated on/ghosted in a somewhat new relationship and cooked dinner that night yearning for the person to be there and wishing things were different. This song is a reminiscence about that time and hopefully relates to those who have made the ‘late dinner’ without the person ever showing up.” – Two Runner, Paige Anderson and Emilie Rose

Track Credits: Written by Paige Anderson.
Performed by Paige Anderson and Emilie Rose.
Video Credits: Filmed, recorded, mixed, and edited by Nick Futch.

Photo Credit: Nefesh Mountain by Rafael Roy & Kelin Verrette; Juliet Lloyd by Anna Haas.

BGS 5+5: Wayne Graham

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Wayne Graham
Hometown: Whitesburg, Kentucky
Latest Album: Bastion

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

The enemy of creation, for me, is judgment. I often superimpose other peoples’ suspected judgments onto something I’m working on, before I’ve written anything down. The true work is in letting go of that fear. When I am in a good flow, I am like a child. I am totally swept up in imagining the possibilities and that ride feels like communion with something much bigger than myself. I hope that doesn’t sound grandiose, I am just left feeling very grateful.

What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?

Dave Prince – or Laid Back Country Picker – told me once that, “The world is real big, and real cool.” Trusting this to be true leaves a lot of room for pretty much everything to be OK. Not that there aren’t horrendous things happening everyday, but maybe most people are on the side of wanting things to be good and they’re just doing the best they know how at any given point. Maybe it’s naive, but it’s definitely not cynical.

Genre is dead (long live genre!), but how would you describe the genres and styles your music inhabits?

Genres are great if we’re looking to make broad categories that point to a recognizable aspect of a piece of work, but they start to lose their meaning when they come with their own dogmas. In other words, a genre should be used to contextualize a work, not as a frame to create a work within. That being said, we don’t discriminate along genre lines in what we listen to and draw from. We also hope our music is infused with the best parts of what we listen to, so hopefully we end up in a place we couldn’t have planned to go.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

I think the songs that make the cut for us are the songs where we’re not hiding. But that doesn’t mean the “you” or “I” is always used in a first person way. Oftentimes the “you” in my songs is “me” and the narrator is someone with a helpful perspective. Sometimes we put on characters to inhabit a lesser known part of ourselves that may have something cool to say, sometimes we just write what’s on our mind without needing it to mean anything.

If you didn’t work in music, what would you do instead?

Our mom retired a few years ago from teaching at a public school. It’s a job that has so much impact, and is so thankless, and I have so much respect for the people who do it for the right reasons. Our mom took the job very seriously, and so I saw what a struggle it could be at times, but it is really the only other job I’ve ever considered.

Photo Credit: Hunter Way, Impact Media

Roots Music Festival Hires New Director of Diversity

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

DAVENPORT, IOWA – The Quad Cities Roots Festival announced today that it has hired its first-ever Director of Diversity, 55-year-old Karen Van der Sloot.

“I’m absolutely over the moon,” Van der Sloot said, stirring a pot of her famous chili in her suburban kitchen. “Diversity needs a facelift. Because every face is beautiful, especially when it’s smiling!”

While many DEI programs across the country have seen funding cut or been permanently shuttered, the Quad Cities Roots Music Festival is doubling down on its commitment to diversity with this groundbreaking hire.

“Karen is someone who makes everyone feel included. Even people who were already included feel more included because of Karen’s relentless inclusivity,” said a festival spokesperson.

Despite having no background in roots music or diversity initiatives, Van der Sloot believes her experience as a mother of four will offer a fresh perspective to a festival often criticized for its homogeneity.

“Listen, if you’ve ever tried to get a teenager to put down their phone and eat the same thing as the rest of the family, you know that’s the real diversity work,” she smiled. “I always say, ‘We tried democracy, but I’m not gonna make a whole new meal for one person who suddenly says they’re vegan. Mama bear don’t play that game!’”

Her vision for diversity in roots music? “Instead of diversity, I’ve been saying we need melange-ity – a little mix of everything. Like a good chili. Melange-ity means more than just one flavor. We need the full ‘thang’ – beans, hamburger, chili powder, maybe even a little corn if you’re feeling wild!”

For Van der Sloot, that even means getting a mix of ideas, like soliciting programming feedback from her assistant, Dr. Akilah Jessup-Moore. “Did you know she has a doctorate in ethnomusicology from Duke? Such a smart cookie.” Moore could not be reached for comment.

Festival Executive Director – and Karen’s husband – Kevin Van der Sloot also chimed in. “Karen’s been a real trooper. She’s thrown herself into this role 100%. Plus, I think she needed something to do after our oldest left for college.”

Though music acts are still being confirmed, festival headliners will include the Bettendorf Boys Choir, pop-reggae group UB40, and local favorites The Muddy Walters, a blues band comprised entirely of retired dentists.

Greg Hess is a comedy writer and performer in Los Angeles. His work has been featured in The American Bystander, The Onion, Shouts & Murmurs, Points in Case, and he cohosts the hit satirical podcast MEGA.

These Berklee Students Helped Create Ensembles for Women and Non-Binary Folks

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

“Bluegrass music is a truly American artform. It reflects the culture and the time in which it’s created, and as with many traditional artforms, a preservationist stance is held on a pedestal. Bluegrass music’s history is very gendered, and when this happens, the music can’t reach its full potential.”

My teacher Laura Orshaw told me this.

There has been no shortage of amazing women bluegrass musicians to come out of the roots department at Berklee College of Music. Gillian Welch, Sierra Hull, Molly Tuttle, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, and on and on. I’m going into my senior year at Berklee this fall as a mandolin principle, and one of the reasons I went to Berklee was how inspired I was by these women and their music.

Towards the end of my sophomore year, my friend Katelynn Casper – a brilliant bluegrass fiddler – came up with an idea. She wanted to start a bluegrass ensemble of all women and non-binary folks. Katelynn approached Matt Glaser, the artistic director of the American Roots Music Program, about helping us create a class in which we would study and perform in a group. Excited by the prospect, he brought in Laura Orshaw (the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys) to be our mentor. In the past few years, there had been a strong influx of women who came to Berklee and wanted to play roots music, so it didn’t take us long to find people who wanted to join the project.

The ensemble started in October of 2023 with about 12 members, enough for us to break into two ensembles. I got to be in both groups, in one as mandolinist and the other as bassist. Our focus between both groups was to play music mostly written by women who we looked up to and were maybe overlooked.

Through the course of our year together, we moved through a catalog of songs and tunes written by our heroes and then delved into original material. We wrote songs and tunes together and on our own and fleshed them out as a band. It was an empowering experience to be a part of and it was beautiful to watch my friends explore a new kind of confidence in their music.

This past April, the American Roots Music Program sent all of us down to Washington, D.C. In June of 2022, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage opened up an exhibit entitled Music HerStory: Women and Music of Social Change. Laura had caught wind of the exhibit and wanted us to visit, so we could witness its content and impact. The exhibit explored many women who were significantly overlooked in music, but yet the world would have been drastically different had their music not been a part of it.

We heard and read stories of when Loretta Lynn put out “The Pill” and how much of an uproar it caused; stories of how Elizabeth Cotten had to put her music on hold to raise her children and didn’t come back to it until she was in her 60s, putting out “Freight Train” and “Oh Babe It Ain’t No Lie” and still was not given much credit.

Walking through the exhibit, I couldn’t help but think about all the different musical influences I have and how so many of those influences were inspired by these women, but how that was never really talked about.

On the same trip, we also got the privilege of going to Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and learning about some of the history of their record label and how it came to be. When we were checking it out, both ensemble bands did a little recording in the archives to commemorate the trip. Playing our originals and covers written by powerful women was an incredible experience. We were surrounded by original recordings and records that made bluegrass and old-time what it is now and some of the music that brought each of us to the genres to begin with.

While we were down in D.C., we also got the chance to hang out with Kimber Ludiker (fiddle) and Avril Smith (guitar), two members of Della Mae. In both groups, the inspiration from Della Mae was so apparent – we all learned many of their songs. Getting to stand up and play their songs with them was a mind-blowing experience.

Taking part in this project has been such an inspiring experience. As a kid who grew up in the bluegrass and old-time world, there weren’t always a lot of women to play music with, so to get the opportunity to dedicate time each week to just sit down with a group of deeply passionate women and non-binary folks who are also such remarkable roots musicians was an indescribably moving experience.

A common conversation amongst us during that time was how freeing and comfortable it felt to play music in a setting like this. Whether or not you think about it, music as a whole is an intensely male dominated world – and bluegrass isn’t any different.

“Here’s a question that crossed our minds every week,” Laura said. “‘What would bluegrass be like without patriarchy or bias?’ The answer comes through music, not essays, and this project certainly chipped away at our goal.”

Being in this ensemble, I learned a lot about myself. Being surrounded by a community of women and non-binary folks playing music taught me a lot about my confidence as both a person and a musician. Being in that environment gave me an amazing place to explore.

“When Matt [Glaser] asked me to be the curator of this project, I couldn’t have guessed how impactful and enlightening it would be for me. Working in an all-women and non-binary band filled a void for all of us – creatively, academically, and socially,” Laura continued. “Students shared experiences of the not-so-glamorous parts of working in a male-dominated field. They studied the music and songs of their heroes, who sometimes got overlooked in other classes and ensembles. They wrote songs, arranged music, and tried on different leadership roles in the band.

“But most of all, they encouraged and inspired each other to be better musicians. The mutual dedication and enthusiasm were palpable in every rehearsal.”

It’s been an experience of a lifetime to learn the music I love with a group of women who want to push the boundaries of the genre. To sit with a group of people who understand the intricacies of being a woman or gender non-confirming person playing bluegrass – or even music in general – was a very comforting experience. We all grew so much as people and musicians.

Photos courtesy of Emma Turoff. Lead image: Ensemble, No Man’s Land. Inset image: Ensemble, Ain’t That Just Like A Man.

One to Watch: Boston-Based Alt Folk Duo Sweet Petunia

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

From the crosshairs of the Boston folk community and punk/DIY scene emerges Sweet Petunia, an innovative duo consisting of multi-instrumentalist songwriters Maddy Simpson and Mairead Guy. A synthesis of banjos, queerness, emotive lyricism, and life-affirming harmonies, the pair’s music explores the fluidity of futurity, even when anchored in centuries of tradition.

With two EPs and several singles under their belt, Sweet Petunia graces the ears of multitudes with an active touring schedule and their vigorous participation in the Boston music scene. The queer alt folk duo’s commitment to community and uplifting overlooked histories only deepen the resounding impact that their music inspires.

So, to start things off, how did the two of you first meet?

Maddy Simpson: We both went to Berklee College of Music and we got placed into the same ensemble, 21st Century String Band, taught by Greg Liszt, who is an incredible banjo player. One day we were supposed to have an additional rehearsal with another guy that was in the ensemble, but he stood us up (shoutout Rob with your Legends of Zelda beanie with a brim!) The two of us showed up for the rehearsal and he never came. So we just had 45 minutes to talk to each other. We ended up talking about our goals, the music we liked, and found out that we had a lot of similar likes and plans for the future. So we decided to get together and play some music. When we did, immediately we were like, “Okay, let’s be in a band.”

What does your musical chemistry with one another feel like?

MS: Well, we always joke that we’re related. I mean, we do sound very similar when we sing together. So it kind of feels like we’re like a family band even though we’re not related.

Mairead Guy: Yeah, I mean it just works – really well. Obviously we put in a lot of work into what we do. But a lot of it feels very easy when we’re playing and arranging together. We have similar intuitions about the way things should go, and that makes it really fun and special to play together.

What is your process like when you songwrite and arrange together? And what’s it like arranging with two banjos?

MG: Most of the time we come to each other with an almost-completed song. Sometimes we write together, but usually we come together once the song is pretty much finished and arrange it from there. And that’s just a lot of playing it over and over and over and over, trying different things and seeing what sticks and what pops out.

That works! How did each of you come to the genre and/or the banjo?

MS: I came to folk music through the folk revival of the ’60s. I listened to a lot of Simon & Garfunkel growing up and then when I was a little bit older, I got into the folk revival revival, so like Mumford & Sons, The Head and the Heart, The Lumineers, and that kind of stuff. I had no idea that was just the tip of a really big iceberg – I didn’t really discover true traditional music until college, when I got really into old-time music and ’50s country blues and that kind of thing.

The reason I started playing banjo is that obviously it was pretty present in the music that I was listening to like all throughout high school and my childhood, but when I got to college I had a dorm-mate who played banjo. He was a banjo principal and he would play banjo in the lounge and the laundry room – just everywhere. One day I told him that I was interested and he said, “If you buy a banjo, I’ll give you lessons.” So over Thanksgiving break I went home, bought a banjo, came back, and started taking lessons with him. And then I started taking lessons with other people at Berklee and that was it for me – it became my primary instrument.

MG: So, I grew up in Virginia. There’s a lot of traditional, old-time bluegrass around in that area and a lot of my family is pretty musical – my uncle and aunt and my great uncle and his longtime partner. We’re are all professional musicians and my great uncle was a phenomenal clawhammer banjo player. My brother plays the banjo and I’d always wanted to play it, because it’s such a beautiful instrument. When Maddy and I first started playing together, we had a lot of songs where we would trade our instruments around. When she switched to banjo I thought it was the perfect time to finally sink my teeth in and do it. Similarly to her, once I picked one up I was like, “Oh my God, why haven’t I been doing this the whole time?” Yeah, it’s an addictive instrument to play.

I noticed that the stylization of a lot of your lyrics is super unique and you have several songs with strong narratives. Can you talk a bit about the song “Quilt Too Big to Fold”? I’ve had it on repeat for weeks.

MS: Thank you. Yeah, I wrote that song for a class. We were given this assignment to write a story song. And I was thinking a lot and sort of had this refrain in my head, “All you do is sit all day and sew.” So I did some journaling about all of the things that you can sit and sew. Fiber arts are really important to me and at the time of writing that song I was really into embroidery and I was getting really into visible mending – dabbling in this world of fiber arts.

I started thinking about all of the different fiber mediums you can have. And I started to think about quotes. And then, obviously, I’m also gay. I had already seen the AIDS Memorial Quilt, so I began to look into it more deeply. The quilt was started by a lesbian and was just one of the many forms of activism that came out of the AIDS crisis. The song sort of formed around that pretty quickly. It was easy to write given the fact that I’m queer and then just creating this work of fiction where I did a lot of thinking about what it would be like to go through that, taking my own passions and interests in sort of like translating them into a historical lens. And it was really an interesting process.

Really, really amazing stuff. I also saw that you both played an integral part in Club Passim’s inaugural Pride show? Can you talk a little bit about that and what that was like?

MG: Oh it was all Maddie! Well, we played it together, but it was all Maddie.

MS: Mairead kept me sane – I was freaking out the whole time. I was given the opportunity to curate Club Passim’s first ever truly Pride-themed show. We’ve done Pride open mics and once we had a queer festival, but that was during COVID, so it was all online. So we’ve had some queer-centered events before, but this was the first ever show specifically dedicated to Pride Month.

I was given this opportunity through The Folk Collective, which is an initiative that Passim is spearheading right now. Basically, it’s a cohort of 12 artists and cultural thought leaders that live in and around Boston. Passim has invited them into the club to synthesize what the future of folk music could be like, since folk music has, in the cultural narrative, been seen as a really white-washed and male-centric genre. So it’s 12 people of varying marginalized identities and people of all ages and races and gender identities and sexual identities coming together to talk about what the future of folk music could look like.

I was given an opportunity through the Folk Collective to bring together six queer acts who are making music either directly inspired by or within the traditional genre. We had several performers who played super traditional instruments – I mean, we both played banjo and we had somebody who plays the mountain dulcimer, which was really cool. We had somebody else who did country blues and talked about gender non-conforming people in the genre. And we also had some incredible singer-songwriters as well. It ended up being a crazy night of celebrating queer identities and also celebrating the traditional music that everybody at Club Passim loves so much. It was very, very awesome.

MG: Hell yeah. Beautiful night – Maddie put so much time and effort and care into curating all of these artists and making this happen in such an important and cognitive way, and it was just such an incredible thing to ride along the coattails of.

Hopefully there are many more! In general, what does the community feel like in Boston, within the folk scene, and how do you see Sweet Petunia fitting into it?

MG: I think that Maddie and I have a particular perspective on it just because we work at Club Passim, so we see all the musicians that pass through. But I mean, as is evidenced by the event that we just had, there is a pretty wide community of queer and trans folk musicians who are drawing inspiration from traditional roots music. And even beyond tradition, things like the pedal or lap steel are becoming super popular in different genres of music. Even the banjo people are using electric banjo to get a super sick like electric guitar tone and that sort of thing.

MS: Yeah, I was just gonna say that we sit in a really weird intersection, because we’re not quite in the traditional folk scene. We’re also really established within the DIY scene as well, which is primarily indie rock and hardcore music in Boston. But because we exist in both circles we get the best of both worlds. Sometimes we get asked to play punk shows, but we also can play listening room venues like Passim.

Outside of the folk and Americana scene, what are your biggest influences right now?

MS: I love slowcore and also the huge bootgaze thing that’s happening right now. I feel like I exist in the perfect time to be 25 and into DIY music, because most of the music being made around here at this point has some bootgaze element.

Could you define bootgaze?

MS: It’s like shoegaze-inspired country music. Or country-inspired shoegaze music. Some blur into indie rock, some are just shoegaze bands that use country instrumentation or come from a place where country music is the main genre. The band Wednesday is probably the biggest right now. They sort of pioneered the genre. MJ Lenderman, Florry – there’s lots to explore if you look up bootgaze or countrygaze.

What about you, Mariead?

MG: I mean, definitely same. I’ve also really been loving a lot of hyperpop and pop music recently. Just like the energy in songs like that is so interesting. I’ve been thinking a lot about the banjo as a similar percussion to a drum machine in a super fast hyperpop song. I’ve been trying to think about ways to incorporate that because most of the songs that I write make you feel kind of bad, but I think it’d be kind of fun to write songs that made you feel kinda good.

I think you’re onto something! Do you two have any fun projects coming up?

MG: We’re working on a Dolly Parton cover EP. Every year for Halloween since 2019 (except for 2020 because of COVID) we have done a Dolly Parton cover set. And so this will be our fifth year of Dolly Parton cover sets. So we wanted to do a little something to commemorate it.

MS: Yeah, it’s gonna be really fun. That’s coming in October. There will be a bill for a cover show. So if people are local to Boston, they can come to that.

That is so exciting! So you’re our One to Watch, but who are you watching? Are there any artists, creatives, musicians, etc. that you’re appreciating especially right now?

MS: I think that my one to watch is Roman Barten-Sherman, the person from Passim’s Pride show who does traditional country blues. She’s incredible. She’s so good. She is so smart. And so well-read and knowledgeable about early American country blues. During her shows she’ll introduce every song with so much knowledge about the genre and people who play it. She knows so much about gender-nonconforming and trans individuals and Black women who have contributed to the genre. She knows everything – it’s crazy. And then she’ll play the song and it’s the best fucking thing you’ve ever heard. She’s just so good. I think she’s going to take over the world. She’s my one to watch.

MD: I definitely second that – she’s one of the people I was thinking of. I would also say Jarsch. Just absolutely incredible, visceral songwriting. Beautiful lyricism relating to both the pain and joy of queerness and gender and life itself – religious trauma, all sorts of things. Everytime I see her play I literally just cry and cry. It’s so beautiful. She’s the only person I’ve seen able to yield a guitjo in an appropriate manner, and she just has so much love for what she’s doing and the community she’s in. I feel very lucky to know her. Definitely a one to watch.

Photo Credit: Barry Schneier