Basic Folk

Fiddler Brittany Haas has an impressive resume: she started touring at 14 with Darol Anger, recorded her debut album at 17, started performing with Crooked Still before she finished college and has played on Chris Thile’s radio program Live From Here and done stints in David Rawlings and Gillian Welch’s David Rawlings Machine. Currently, she’s teaching workshops and classes in between working with her band Hawktail along with Paul Kowert, Jordan Tice and Dominick Leslie. Their latest album, Place of Growth, is a song cycle in appreciation to the natural elements, which have always intrigued Brittany.

She’s a trailblazer in fiddling and also has an acute awareness of burnout. The past few years have seen her pursuing and obtaining a masters in social work and teaching classes at East Tennessee State University as their artist-in-residence. Our conversation includes a discussion of balance and awareness when it comes to keeping her music joyful. And then there’s science: she has a degree in Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. Also, Hawktail’s latest album is a journey through the natural world. We talk about the band giving each other the space to be themselves on the record. Brittany is chill, brilliant and generous. Enjoy and then go listen to Hawktail’s new record all in one sitting.

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Amy Ray is best known for being one half of Indigo Girls with Emily Sailers, a band that’s been going strong since the late 80’s. She’s also known for her activism and love for all types of music. On her latest solo album, If It All Goes South, Amy’s bringing us songs of comfort and healing. Recorded live to tape in Nashville, this album features an incredible lineup of guests like Brandi Carlile, I’m With Her, Allison Russell, Phil Cook and Alison Brown. She’s confronting racism, homophobia, religion and mortality in her songs and we go deep into those topics.

Aside from exploring gender identity and being comfortable in your own body, I had an agenda in our interview. I’ve talked about this a little on the podcast, but recently our dog Willis suddenly and unexpectedly died. Amy’s new album features the song “Muscadine,” which was written when her oldest dog passed away. The song’s about “learning to love and receive love in the purest way, and to not be picky about life, but to stay the course with curiosity and gratitude.” I was grateful for Amy’s words of wisdom about the loss of a dog and am happy to share them with you. Actually, Amy’s full of wisdom and is always so open to whatever questions come her way. Enjoy this conversation with a very very good person.

Lizzie No interviews Ken Yates!

Ken Yates grew up in the college town of London, Ontario and he is truly Canada’s Next Top Model, by which I mean he is wonderfully talented, disarmingly nice, and from Canada, obviously. Ken is a Berklee College of Music graduate, and I took the opportunity to talk with him about that experience. Why would somebody choose to go to music school, what were you hoping to gain, and what did you actually get out of it, are questions that are fascinating to me, and Ken’s answers were super interesting. One takeaway I learned from his stories of Berklee is that even some of the most talented musicians feel like they have no idea what they’re doing. 

Ken’s breakout 2016 album, ‘Huntsville,’ earned him the Emerging Artist of the Year award at the Canadian Folk Music awards. It was not just a huge and competitive honor, but it was also a defining moment where Ken started getting categorized as a folk artist. 

Ken released a beautiful album, ‘Quiet Talkers,’ in 2020, and instead of touring in support of that album, he had to do a bunch of covid-era online shows. I was impressed with how gracious and level-headed he seemed despite the crappy circumstances. This grace, perspective, emotional openness, and flexibility, are a big part of what makes his new album, ‘Cerulean,’ so special. ‘Cerulean’ came out in 2022 and it bridges the gap between folk and indie rock, between skepticism and hope, between the pain of losing someone and the possibility of embracing what you have. ‘Cerulean’ has a distinct groove, features vocals from Americana stars like Kathleen Edwards, Liz Longley, and Katie Pruitt, AND some of the prettiest production I’ve heard all year.

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Kyshona is an artist with a literal mission statement: “To be a voice and a vessel for those who feel lost, forgotten, silenced and are hurting.” She’s found that having this tool at her disposal gives her work meaning, especially on those nights when she’s felt like she hasn’t sold enough tickets, merch or gotten enough applause. If one person comes up to her and tells her they feel seen, she walks away feeling like she’s done her work. That work also includes many years of being a music therapist with mental health patients, children and those who are experiencing incarceration. Through music, she’s found that everyone has a story to tell. It is her honor and privilege to help them tell their stories.

Growing up in South Carolina, she was surrounded by music thanks to her father and grandfather’s musical groups. She was classically trained on the piano and also the oboe, which she compares to a human voice. After receiving a music scholarship, she found her way to the field of music therapy and found so much purpose and meaning. After graduating from University of Georgia and working as a music therapist, she found her own way to her songwriting in order to keep a separation from her work. She’s released several solo albums, most notably, her 2020 album Listen, who’s title track made waves in the Americana world. Recently, she’s released three singles leading us to highly anticipate her next full length. Enjoy the wise and delightful Kyshona!

Lauren Balthrop's Mobile, AL upbringing saw her soaking in the music of The Andrews Sisters, Steve Sondheim, R.E.M., Elliott Smith and Neil Young. As a child, she was involved in activities that varied from sports, to drama, to music and beyond. She never really settled on a passion, until she found acting and theatre. She pursued that dream from fourth grade until after college, moving to New York to go after auditions and acting parts. She found a soft landing in the city by moving in with her brother, Pascal. The two would then go on to form the large band, they called it a traveling small town, Balthrop, Alabama. From 2007 to 2012 they toured the country with as many as nine band members taking to the road. In this experience, she met Dawn Landes and Annie Nero, who she joined up for the harmony centered trio, The Bandana Splits.

In 2013, she released a solo album under the name Dear Georgiana, which referred to Georgiana Starlington, the pseudonym she used in Balthrop, Alabama (everyone went by a character name). She called those "the songs her brother doesn't like," at least not for their band... After that, she wrote a bunch more songs that felt as though they were written in her own voice, which she released under her name as the album This Time Around. Her new solo album continues the sentence: Things Will Be Different. She's exploring the themes of change, upheaval and heartbreak while looking towards the future with hope. What's also cool for Lauren is that she's finding new meanings in these songs that differ from their original purpose. Lauren is a curious learner who seems like she's always got her antenna up. I love her new record: the lush sounds and humor are hitting me right. It was great to talk to Lauren in this medium! We have known each other for almost 15 years and have instigated many antics over the years. Enjoy! 

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Lizzie No interviews Molly Tuttle on Basic Folk!

Growing up in Palo Alto. California, Molly Tuttle was surrounded by music. Her dad was a teacher at Gryphon Stringed instruments, which is not-so-coincidentally where I got the pickups installed on my mini harp. Molly took to the guitar early and intensely, eventually earning a scholarship to the prestigious Berklee College of Music. But I think it was those early days growing up in California, attending bluegrass festivals with her family, basking in the glow of the jam, that set the tone for her warm and collaborative approach to playing music.

At Berklee, Molly formed a band called “the Goodbye Girls,” and cut her teeth touring in Scandinavia. Digging into The Goodbye Girls was a good launchpad for talking about what it means to be a female musician in Americana, as well as what happens when you explicitly call yourself an all-female group. As the first woman to win the IBMA Guitarist of the Year award, Molly has a unique perspective on this particular conundrum. It’s juicy.

I talked with Molly about her debut album, ‘When You’re Ready,’ and her dazzling covers album ‘…But I’d Rather Be With You’ before sifting through the many layers of her latest album, ‘Crooked Tree.’ ‘Crooked Tree’ features Molly’s brand-new band, Golden Highway. This new record is a study of bluegrass sensitively executed by one of the genre’s stars. Molly’s interpretations of bluegrass traditions like the murder ballad, shiny stacked vocal harmonies, and lightning fast guitar playing, are something to behold.

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Milwaukee-born Peter Mulvey has, along with classical duo SistaStrings, made an anti-fascist record. According to Peter, “to make an anti - fascist record, you must keep kindness and compassion in the foreground.” Love is the Only Thing goes from family, to politics, to family, racism and then back to family. It's as optimistic and introspective as it is filled with "running out a burning building" type of songs. All the while, Peter is joined by powerful, thoughtful and extremely talented musicians in Monique and Chauntee Ross.

Lots has happened in Peter's life since his last album. He moved to New England, fell in love and got married, A PANDEMIC, and he's become a father. All these eek their way into songs on the new album. A particularly poignant song is the co-write with his partner about their possible future as parents (good luck not crying to all the parents out there!). Don't worry if you didn't catch all the buddhist references, we talk about each one in finite detail. Enjoy!

Editor’s note: Lizzie No interviews Adia Victoria on Basic Folk! Be sure to go back and listen to Lizzie’s previous guest host spots on the pod and subscribe, so you never miss Lizzie!

For Adia Victoria, the blues are not just a genre of music or a set of formal elements. She lives the blues. In her life and work the blues are a mode of creating, a river-tradition into which she steps with each performance, and a way back into self-acceptance. Adia has traveled the world and infused her unique songwriting with Paris and New York as much as with her home state of Tennessee.

Adia has released three studio albums, working with producers like T Bone Burnett and The National’s Aaron Dessner. In her climb to indie stardom she has remained laser focused on interpreting the blues tradition for contemporary audiences.

My conversation with Adia came shortly after we finished a whirlwind North American tour this spring, and it felt like we were back in the tour van just shooting the shit. Transparent and hilarious, Adia challenged me to go as deep in conversation as she does in her songs.

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I have been wanting to talk to Scotland-born fiddler and current New Yorker, Hannah Read on the pod, for longer than Basic Folk has existed. I met her at the very fun camp, Miles of Music in New Hampshire. We laughed our faces off all week and I was truly blown out of the water by her fiddling and singing. She’s just released a new duo album with the Scottish banjo player Michael Starkey, so it seemed like a good time to get Han on. She grew up in Edinburgh as well as on the Isle of Eigg, a remote island off the western coast of Scotland and she talks about how living simply as a younger person has impacted her adulthood. Growing up, there was a lot of music in the house: in terms of listening and playing. Her mum played cello, sister played fiddle, there was also a community of musicians on the island playing that she connected very deeply with. She started playing Scottish traditional music at the age of six and cites her biggest influences as the musicians surrounding the trad scene in Scotland. She made her way to America to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston and eventually moved to Brooklyn.

Her new album with Michael, Cross The Rolling Water is filled with old-time fiddle and banjo duets with the Edinburgh-based musician Michael Starkey. The two met at an Appalachian old time session in Edinburgh in late 2019. She talks about their musical relationship as well as how Michael only has a flip phone, which is always hilarious to hear about from someone who’s on top of technology. Hannah’s hilarious, kind and has an infectious energy that carries from her personality to her music. Enjoy!

We go track by track on Canadian-born New Zealand feminist trouble maker and country music superstar, Tami Neilson’s 5th album, Kingmaker. Recorded at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios, the songs of Kingmaker expose industry systems, exploding patriarchal structures of the industry, society, and family. It’s definitely not new territory for Tami, her previous two albums called attention to misogyny and patriarchal structures. Tami digs into these themes with sophistication, grace, emotion and humor. The way she brings these important messages to life hits you hard, but you can also dance to it.

This is Tami’s second appearance on the podcast (she was first on episode 79). Definitely check out our first conversation as we talk about her life in her family band, move to New Zealand and her relationship to fashion and appearance. She also talked about experiencing the death of her father, the musician Ron Neilson. He appears on Kingmaker in several forms. For instance, on the song “Beyond the Stars,” written with Delaney Davidson, she sings about the loss of her father and the longing to be with him again, with the legendary Willie Nelson singing the part of Tami’s dad. Tami’s one in a million! Enjoy this conversation and her brilliant new album, Kingmaker.