Basic Folk

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Editor's note: Lizzie No interviews Valerie June on Basic Folk! Be sure to got back and listen to Lizzie's previous guest host spots on the pod and subscribe, so you never miss Lizzie!

Today’s guest, Valerie June, grew up as country as country gets in Jackson, Tennessee. She remembers writing songs at an early age with frogs and rainbows as her inspiration. Her musical world was divided between the church, where the voice was a tool for worship and instruments were forbidden, and the secular world where she helped out with her father’s side hustle as a promoter in the local music scene. 

After a stint in a band, June struck out on her own as a solo artist, influenced by the thriving Memphis musical community she found herself in. Her solo work is shaped by blues, folk, rock, and spiritual influences, and it was fascinating to talk to her about the role of intuition in her writing. Her latest album, The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers, is a powerful step on her path as a one-of-a-kind creator who shapes new worlds with each track. The album features a range of emotions, from meditation to celebration, not to mention a guest appearance from the one and only Carla Thomas.

I also took this interview as an opportunity to get a little personal about my own journey as a folk artist. Valerie June has had an enormous impact on my musical path and it was a privilege to hear the stories behind some of the songs that made me who I am as a songwriter, in particular, working woman blues from the album Pushin Against a Stone.

Welcome to the second preview of Basic Folk: Backstage! 

For this episode, I wanted to share a very special interview I did with my favorite person to talk to: KT Tunstall. We discuss 2013's Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon, which is one of my favorite LPs. Born out of two difficult personal shifts, the death of her father and the end of her first marriage, IE // CM was recorded in Tucson and sonically reflects the desert landscape. KT is candid and open about this incredible record and basically makes it very easy for me to ask these difficult questions. It was not easy for me to ask them.

To hear the full episode, join us Backstage by donating to Basic Folk today.

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at basicfolk.com/donate

Ok I think that Erin McKeown was really into this conversation solely because it allowed her/them to dig deep into the new record Kiss Off Kiss. Halfway through the interview, Erin proclaimed how fun it was to get to address each track... I concur! It was very fun. KoK was funded through a generous gift from a friend of Erin's, who gave away the money with no stipulations about how it should be used. Erin decided to make a record AND pay it forward with microgrants for individuals serving their community with proceeds from digital sales of the album that she'll be distributing at the end of 2021. The subject matter of the new album stems from a breakup Erin experienced a couple of years ago. They thought they were done with all that, but sneaky feelings of heartbreak found their way into her mindset when she found herself settling into the pandemic. Erin decided to challenge themself by writing as many songs as they could about the topic and bam! We got a whole dang Erin McKeown album … and she thought she was done making records!

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Mary Gauthier's book, Saved By A Song, is a must-read for all humans with feelings that need feeling. Gauthier has been writing and recording songs since the the early 90's, but she actually started her music career relatively late at age 30. She had grown up as an adopted child in Thibodaux, Louisiana, which was something that she didn't realize had greatly impacted her until she was in her 40's. She created a concept album, The Foundling, out of that realization. Some people find that album hard to listen to, but it was deeply healing for her and for other grown-up adopted children. She found herself in the Boston area as a chef in her late 20's. She was arrested for drunk driving the night of her restaurant opening, The Dixie Kitchen. She spent a hard night in jail, got sober and started taking an interest in songwriting. Thanks to encouragement she found at open mics in the area, including at Club Passim, Mary discovered her true passion was writing songs. 

She stepped away from her stable career in the restaurant business and started pursued music full time. She's toured, released albums and co-written songs with music professionals for the past 30+ years now. For the past several years, she's been working with soldiers and their families on writing songs together. The process has been rewarding and challenging for her, culminating in her latest studio album Rifles and Rosary Beads. She has continued her writing with professionals and soldiers as well as teaching songwriting classes. Most recently, she's been working with health care workers to write songs in reaction to their Covid-19 experience. Her work is a gift not only to us, her listeners, but it has actually been life-changing to countless individuals and their families. She is brilliant at bringing people to their most frightening and vulnerable places because she is living proof that life is better on the other side of trauma. Thank you for you wonderful work, Mary Gauthier!

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Carl Nichols (aka Buffalo Nichols) found out that he liked playing guitar way more than anything else when he was around 12 years old. He took his older sister's guitar (what? she wasn't using it) and started obsessively learning to play. He'd listen to songs 200 times in a row to get it right. Very soon, he was out performing his peers as a young teen. He started playing gigs around town in many different bands and many different styles, over extending himself. He was perhaps best known for being in the folk duo, Nickel & Rose, who released music from 2017 - 2019. He eventually got burnt out and realized he wanted to play music that resonated with him. He gave himself a break and went overseas to West Africa and Europe. There he discovered there was a way to connect tradition in music with modernism.

Carl uses the blues on his self-titled debut album to tell and express Black stories and the Black experience. He chose the stage name Buffalo Nichols because he was fascinated with the Buffalo Soldiers. He actually learned his grandfather was part of an all-Black infantry in the Korean War also called the Buffalo Soldiers. The writing process for the album was a new venture for Carl. Normally, he works on songs slowly and takes his time (he is more of a cat friend, even though he's allergic to them). For this album, he just let the songs flow out of him without overthinking or over editing himself. The end result is a raw record from someone who's pushing himself outside of his comfort zone. However, don't be surprised if he abandons that free flowing process in the future!

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at basicfolk.com/donate!

This special episode of Basic Folk features Allison Russell, Jake Blount, Kaïa Kater, and guest host Lizzie No in a roundtable conversation about Black artists in folk music. Black musicians are more visible than ever in the roots music space, but they continue to face unique challenges from tokenizing placements on festival lineups to outright racism in the press.

During this hour of Basic Folk we tackled questions like “under what circumstances is it useful for Black artists to self-categorize based on identity?,” “how can we respond to bigotry without wasting our time justifying our worthiness in the roots space?,” “what advice would we offer to up-and-coming Black folk musicians?,” and “how can we bring a holistic understanding of consent to our relationships in the music industry?”

Musicians talked about in this episode:
Our Native Daughters
Amythyst Kiah
Adia Victoria
Yola
Mali Obomsawin
Valerie June
Crys Matthews
The Sojourners
The Carolina Chocolate Drops
Rhiannon Giddens
Hubby Jenkins
Po’Girl
Ndidi Onukwulu
Kyshona

Non-musicians talked about:
Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds
Caroline Randall Williams
Andrea Williams

Resources:
The Black Opry
Country Queer
Country Soul Songbook

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at basicfolk.com/donate
 

You can contribute $5 a month or more and get access to Backstage, our exclusive bonus content. Here's a preview of what's happening Backstage. Hope you will join us! 

For our first Backstage ep, we are going to check out something we like to call “Field Music.” We’ll hear a recording of a traditional song from a folk musician, who from and where they heard the song originally and what they know about the song. This time around we’ll hear “Lazy John” featuring Charlie Rose (of the bluegrass band Barnstar!), Carolyn Kendrick and Chris Idell – recorded at Miles of Music Camp in New Hampshire. 

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at basicfolk.com/donate

Editor's note: Lizzie No interviews Dar Williams on Basic Folk! Be sure to got back and listen to Lizzie's previous guest host spots on the pod and subscribe, so you never miss Lizzie! Dar’s new album, ‘I’ll Meet You Here,’ is out now.

Dar Williams, originally from Mount Kisco, NY, grew up in an era and a household where everyone was tearing down the old ways of doing things, and learning new ways of expressing themselves. For Williams this meant participating in theater and learning to play instruments. She attended Wesleyan University where she studied theater and religion. A deep engagement with matters of the heart and spirit continues to permeate her work today.

After college Dar found herself in Boston, immersed in the singer-songwriter scene. She wrote and released her album ‘The Honesty Room,’ which changed everything. That album started her on a path to becoming a venerated performer in the folk space. She was on the original Lilith Fair lineup, which included too many musical legends to name here. It was a dream come true to talk with Dar about that experience, about what it might take for another Lilith Fair to happen, and about the current climate for women in the music industry.

Dar’s new album, ‘I’ll Meet You Here,’ will be released on October 1st. This beautiful collection of songs was mostly recorded pre-Covid, but then hit a number of road bumps on its way to release. It deals with time, acceptance, places, and small towns, topics about which Dar Williams is a master storyteller.

Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at basicfolk.com/donate

Amy Helm grew up surrounded by some of the most influential musicians in American roots music, including her father Levon Helm, legendary drummer and singer for The Band. That also meant that her childhood was a “very colorful” experience where she was raised by a “village of brilliant and talented people who were also wrestling with the grips of addiction.” When she was a kid, she liked kid things, just like a normal kid. Case in point, she attended the fabled 1976 concert, The Last Waltz when she was five years old. Her most prominent memory: all the candy and snacks her and the other kids were given backstage. She also didn't have a great relationship with her dad until she was a young adult. Levon took her on the road to tour with his blues band, The Barn Burners. He thought she was ready and it was trial by fire each night on the road for young Amy. She learned so much from that experience. After that, she and her dad started his much loved Rambles at The Barn in his Woodstock home. Those nights started as a rent party for Levon who had just overcome addiction, survived throat cancer and had just filed for Bankruptcy. They soon grew into a Woodstock institution, featuring artists such as Emmylou Harris, Allen Toussaint, Elvis Costello, Phil Lesh and more. After Levon died, Amy decided to record and release her first solo album at 44. Now, she's on her third album, the excellent and very personal What The Flood Leaves Behind.

Carolyn Kendrick's California childhood was filled with music: from listening to music to musicians in her family, especially her father, a professional jazz drummer. Having a well revered musician in her family meant overcoming a reputation that preceded her, but it also gave her a special relationship with the beat as a guitarist and a fiddler. She talks about her connection to rhythm and how it lives strongly in her and her songs. I first met Carolyn at The Miles of Music Camp on Three Mile island in New Hampshire, which is one of the most wonderful music communities you could find. She has found many communities in her life like at Berklee College of Music, in Austin, Nashville and very recently, in Maine.

She's been living in rural Maine throughout the pandemic with her husband, Alex Steed. The two of them started a podcast called You Are Good - a feelings podcast about movies. Alex and the writer Sarah Marshall (who also hosts You're Wrong About) dig into movies every week with a special guest. Carolyn produces and writes a song inspired by the movie or covers a song from the soundtrack. Carolyn is an exquisite editor for the pod and she gets into how that has translated into her musical life. Make sure you listen to You Are Good, right after this episode and after you listen to her EP Tear Things Apart!