Two years into starting his band Mandolin Orange, Andrew Marlin and his partner Emily Franz were having second thoughts about their band name. Nine years later, they announced their new name: Watchhouse. It’s easy to understand why it took so long: they were putting out records, gaining momentum and quickly establishing themselves with this funny … Read more
Ok, so yes I cried when I interviewed Rachel Baiman. Her writing is stirring and brutal and then when you read about the inspiration behind the songs on her new album Cycles, it’s like automatic water works for me. From frank observations of her grandparent’s loss of agency to women reckoning the heaviness and grief … Read more
John Hiatt‘s latest is a collab with bluegrass great Jerry Douglas, with Jerry as producer and his band as backup for Hiatt. John’s digging into some serious past memories for these songs, which include a song about his older brother Michael. Michael died by suicide when John was only 9 and it’s only until now … Read more
Kaoru Ishibashi who is known as Kishi Bashi, is a violinist, guitarist, multi instrumentalist, singer and songwriter from WA state and VA. He got a really interesting start in music because he went to Cornell to study engineering, ended up flunking out, and kind of realizing his true path in music. He went to Berklee … Read more
Editor’s note: Basic Folk is pleased to introduce our listeners to one of our favorite podcasts by sharing an episode in our feed! Get Up in the Cool is a sweet old-time/bluegrass podcast hosted by Cameron DeWhitt. What’s amazing about this podcast is that Cameron has taken “the hang” at the jam and turned it … Read more
Alex Cuba grew up 50 minutes west of Havana immersed in the music of his town Artemisa. His father, the musician Valentin Puentes, is a household name in the country and prioritized Cuban music in the house growing up. When Alex was six years old, Valentin told his son not to sing, leading Alex to … Read more
Mali Obomsawin is the mighty bassist/songwriter/singer from Lula Wiles, whose musical talents run tandem to her activist spirit. She really had no choice in the matter, seeing that her parents met through their advocacy for Abenaki and First Nations sovereignty battles. Mali’s dad is a member of the Odanak Abenaki Nation and her mom at … Read more
Joe Pug explains that the venn diagram of his fans and the people he’d like to have a beer with is almost exactly a single circle. The prolific troubadour has been organically gaining admirers one by one throughout his entire musical history. When he began, the Maryland songwriter would not only give away copies of … Read more
Editor’s note: we’re pleased to welcome guest host Lizzie No to Basic Folk for her debut episode with Amythyst Kiah! Lizzie will be on the podcast interviewing folk musicians once a month. We’re thrilled to bring her perspective and insight to our listeners. Enjoy! Amythyst Kiah is a star rising so quickly in the roots … Read more
Denison Witmer‘s music is gentle and kind, he’s a skilled woodworker, an avid birdwatcher and until 2020 hadn’t made a record for 7 years. Growing up in Lancaster, Denison was lucky enough to get some guitar lessons from Don Peris of The Innocence Mission, a well loved indie-folk band. This led to one of many … Read more