Basic Folk

Raised outside of Austin, Texas, Katy Kirby grew up homeschool, enamored with Jesus and was rocking out to Christian Contemporary Music from the late 90's and early 2000's. BUT THEN: she went to college in Nashville and her world opened up. She started questioning everything she believed about God and the church. She fell in with a crowd of musicians who were going through similar situations. She had a lot to let go of when it came to her high school education. Her parents sent her to a private conservative Christian high school. Once she was out of it, she realized how backwards her education was: how racist and close-minded the experience had been. She began writing her way to an understanding. She calls that time “the weirdest and one of the darkest experiences that I’ve had – trying to rewire my brain to not have a loving God that’s ever-present in it.”

She fondly looks back on her experience of learning how to play music in the church. She was 13 years old and playing bass for the first time in the church band where she was the youngest person by 25 years. The relationships formed with the adults in the band were fundamental, especially in introducing Katy to the world of secular rock and pop music. The music of Peter Gabriel, Led Zeppelin, Sufjan Stevens all came to her through the other members of the band. Her debut album Cool Dry Place really relied on her intuition to figure out what worked best for the songs, she talks about how that experience impacted her confidence. The record is rad and I think her intuition is spot on. Keep following it, Katy!

Allison Russell's story is unreal and it's hard to know where to begin. Unfathomable childhood abuse: sexual, physical and emotional abuse (at the hands of her white supremacist step-father) is chronicled in searing detail for the very first time on her debut solo album Outside Child. Up until now she was not able to honestly address this story in her other projects: Birds of Chicago (with husband JT Nero), Our Native Daughters (with Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla and Amythyst Kiah) and Po' Girl (with Trish Klein and Awna Teixeira). These days, Allison recognizes that she needed the support system in her life in order to process and use her gift to share her story through music. That support system, which she calls "The Magic Circle," includes her partner JT and her daughter Ida, her chosen family of musicians, her newly found biological father and extended Grenadian family and her ancestors. Mainly learning about her many times great-grandmother, Quasheba, and the extreme hardships she faced as a stolen slave in Grenada. Quasheba's survival allowed Allison to realize that she also had the strength to reclaim agency over her story and break the cycle of abuse.

We talk about her learning where her abuser came from, a sundown town in Indiana, where being Black was basically illegal. Her abuser also made life difficult for Alli's mom, who was struggling with schizophrenia, but loved music. The song "Kathy" talks about her mother putting the music away and she talks about the impact that had on her and on Allison. She ran away at 15 and started living on the streets on Montreal, until she made her way to Vancouver to connect with an uncle and an aunt who supported her interest in music. She began performing on the folk circuit, formed Po'Girl, met JT and started Birds of Chicago, had her daughter, Ida, and joined Our Native Daughters. She talks about how being a mom to Ida really was the catalyst of wanting to end the cycle of abuse and face her trauma. She actually ended up charging her abuser, facing him in court and seeing him sentenced. It was a light sentence, but it validated that what happened to her was wrong. The new album is joyful, which is intentional, everything about the new record is very intentional. Alli thrives in community and has chosen to remain positive and filled with light through this music. Thank you, Alli!

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Tom Rush's career is a wonder. After stepping away from record labels and major tours in the 70's, he's managed to cultivate a dedicated audience that has loyally shown up for decades. His relationship to music had a rocky start with a dozen years of unenjoyable piano lessons. Tom talks about his cousins, Beau Beals, who taught him ukulele and how to find joy and fun in music. Rush started college at Harvard as a marine biology major, but switched to English lit and kept his love of music and writing strong throughout school. In fact, he did struggle with focusing on studying due to his very frequent trips to The Club 47, which is right around the corner from the Harvard Square campus in Cambridge, MA. Tom actually was able to start playing around town and soon recorded an album, which was a novelty at the time. He became known as "the guy with the record."

His sound started off very traditional, recording versions of Lowland Scots and Appalachian folk songs. After a few albums in, he started looking for new material to record and came across a few unknown songwriters for his 1968 album, The Circle Game. Tom Rush was the first person to record songs by unknowns Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Jackson Browne. After a few albums into the 70's, Rush was burnt out, his label dropped him and he needed a well deserved break. In the 80's, Tom reinvented his career and laid the foundation for what it could look like for an independent musician to thrive. He established The Club 47 Concerts at Boston Symphony Hall, an upscale event that allowed his fans to enjoy folk rock in style. He became a champion of up and coming musicians like Nanci Griffith and Shawn Colvin. That nimbleness has followed him throughout the years and has proven most useful during the pandemic. Tom quickly created Rockport Sundays, his weekly video series where fans can support him via Patreon. Tom Rush! Still doing the damn thing in 2021!!

Chris Pierce was raised by a white mother and a Black father, who impressed the importance of music in terms of finding peace and love within. While Chris was growing up, interracial marriage had only just become legal countrywide in 1967 and his family was not always accepted. At 5 years old, a burning cross was placed on his front yard and the way his parents calmly reacted to this horrible act left a profound impact on young Chris. He references that moment on his song “Sound All The Bells,” from his new record American Silence, and said “it forced an emotional intelligence in me as a young kid.” Chris openly discusses his incredible life story in our conversation, which also includes him speaking to his rare hearing disorder: Otosclerosis. He explains what hearing and playing music is like for someone with only 30% hearing in one ear. We also talk about his experience touring with mentors like B.B. King and Seal, his relationship with his wife, actor Tara Buck and his dog Seña.

Of the songs on American Silence, Chris has said “It’s important to not give up on reaching out to those who have stayed silent for too long about the issues that affect those around us all. Complacency is an addiction that plagues our society. If you smile and applaud for those different than you, be willing to fight for those folks too” and “what are you actually doing for people who don’t look like you?” Listen to the music of Chris Peirce, a Black man who is telling us about his experience and reflections of his America. Murdered Black Americans' names like George Floyd, Adam Toledo and Daunte Wright are filling headlines and social media feeds. It's tragic and makes you feel helpless and the solutions are hard work. Fight that complacency in any way you can.

The Brother Brothers are rooted in sibling harmony provided by twin brothers Adam and David Moss. Adam Moss would prefer if you didn't get really weird about twin stuff: “We sometimes find being twins a barrier to conversing and getting to know people quickly. It’s an easy thing for people to fixate on," he says. Truthfully there is PLENTY to discuss with Adam, who plays several instruments, but started on the violin. His focus was on classical, but he studied Klezmer and sometimes incorporates it into his music. Adam talks about what it means to include his Jewish heritage into his songs. While attending the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Adam and David started to realize that the classical world was not for them. Adam joined a bluegrass band and eventually moved to Austin, Texas to be closer to the community that surrounded the Kerrville Folk Fest, which was an integral part in his development as a roots player. David also moved to Austin, but the brothers didn't start their project together until they relocated to Brooklyn. There, they discovered they were ready, musically and personally ready, to be in a band together.

Originally, The Brother Brothers did not write together, but this is something that has changed with their new record, Calle Lily. Adam talks about writing with David has impacted his process. The album is filled with comfort, warm sincerity and an earnestness that comes off in a very cool and authentic way. I'd definitely describe Adam's temperament as such and get his opinion on that observation as well. If we're not gonna talk about twin stuff, the second most awkward thing you could discuss is how you are as cool as you are. Adam pulls it off great.

Mark Kilianski (of Golden Shoals) had the unfortunate experience of coming of age in a time where mainstream rock was just terrible (late 90's - specifically 1999 was pretty bad). He was really getting into bands like Korn and Limp Bizket, and his first guitar was a BC Rich Warlock (a heavy metal style guitar). Lucky for him, he had a cool guitar teacher that introduced him to bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Around high school, he started getting into jazz pretty seriously. He ended up going to school for jazz at Berklee College of Music in Boston. All the while, he was harboring a secret love of roots music which began after watching "Oh Brother Where Art Thou." He started venturing out into the trad and folk scene in Boston and through that met Amy Alvey at school. The two were at the same starting point in their experiment with roots music. Both eventually decided that their academic musical paths of jazz for Mark and classical for Amy were actually not what they wanted to pursue professionally.

They formed their band in Boston and moved down to Asheville. The pair spent the majority of their time on the road. Actually, their first experience touring was a two-week walking tour in Massachusetts. Eventually, Amy and Mark settled on the band name Golden Shoals. They released their latest album, a self-titled record, in 2020 with, of course, big plans to be on the road playing live. The pandemic up-ended their touring with Amy in California for a bit and Mark in New Jersey. We talk about all that as well as toxic masculinity, the legacy of Black musicians in country and bluegrass and allyship.

David Wax started visiting Mexico in 2001 and there he became enamored with the music of Central Mexico, particularly with styles of son music. He would spend summers going back to Mexico while studying at Harvard: Latin American History and literature. He was able to get a Harvard Fellowship which allowed him to live in Mexico for a year immersing himself in the music through attending fandangos and learning from locals. In 2007, he was introduced to Suz Slezak, an old time and Irish fiddle player who would later become his bandmate, wife and mother of their two kids. The pair lived in the Boston area until about 2015, where they moved to Suz's hometown of Charlottesville, VA.

They've toured like crazy throughout their career, even bringing their kids along and incorporating them into their on-the-road lifestyle. David says: "This band started as a DIY project where we basically said 'yes' to the universe, never turned down a gig, and happily played people's living rooms.” David and Suz have stayed fairly nimble throughout their history and have seen a lot of the industry turn on its head. David Wax Museum have been a buzz band, an NPR darling and the hottest ticket in town, and have come out the other side of that fairly unscathed and grounded. David speaks to the changes he's experienced over the years with a particular focus on how he's remained resilient during a year with no touring. Now going into year 2 of lockdown, David Wax Museum are about to release MANY things in 2021. First up, is their new record: Euphoric Ouroboric. They have been releasing new music in advance on their Patreon page, so follow and support them there to stay up to date on the latest! And fear not! Suz will certainly be getting her own episode of Basic Folk!!

Yasmin Williams is your new favorite guitarist! She plays the type of music she'd want as a soundtrack for hiking, which is funny to think when you consider her initial inspiration for picking up the guitar. When she was in junior high, she beat the video game Guitar Hero 2 (on expert level!). She was clearly very good at it and thought that she would also be good at the real thing. Her musical parents agree and she got an electric guitar in 8th grade. She dove right into learning songs by Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana, but realized that shredding was not for her. She got more interested in acoustic guitar and started watching many YouTube tutorials and began getting really good.

In our conversation, Yasmin talks about transitioning from the Guitar Hero game controller to an actual guitar and how that continues to impact the way she plays the instrument. She also talks about the differences she observed in the way a male might play versus a female. Rhythm is a big part of her sound and she explains why it's so important. Her latest album, Urban Driftwood, is filled with instrumentals that expressive themselves lyrically without using lyrics. Yasmin has found her voice in songwriting and has taken on themes of COVID, the Black Lives Matter movement and nature. I also love her reasoning for the album name: Urban Driftwood. Don't sleep on this special musician who is also my new style icon: her bright outfits are incredible.

Local Natives are not a folk band, but this is my podcast and I do what I want. They are one of my favorite bands of all time, so I was geeked to talk to founding member, guitarist and co-frontman, Taylor Rice. Torchbearers of the Southern California band sound, Local Natives are originally from Orange County, CA. The core of the band have been playing together since high school. Taylor talks about what it was like to first make music together and how they developed their ultra-collaborative writing process. In fact, the process is so democratic that it can take them a really long time to finish a song, although there is a reason for this, which we get into during our conversation.

One important piece of Local Natives' history is the house they all lived in together, which was called Gorilla Manor, also the title of their debut album. They all moved into the house after college to really go for it as a band. It's been said of the house: “It was insanely messy and there were always friends over knocking around on guitars or our thrift store piano.” Taylor gets into how that experience of Gorilla Manor continues to inform their connection as a band. We also get into feminism and how Taylor continues to recognize disparity in the world and use his platform to change the conversation. Hope the world opens up again one day and we can all dance together at a Local Natives show! They are incredible!