Basic Folk

Jesse Dee is a painter and a singer who takes influence from classic soul and R&B. The eldest fo 5 children raised in Arlington, MA, just outside Boston, Jesse was obsessed with oldies on the radio from a young age. He turned to theatre as a teen and started writing songs and learning guitar in high school. He attended Mass Art (Massachusetts College of Art and Design) while the intention of become a professional artist, but a stint in a touring act in college pointed him towards music and performance as a life calling.

Jesse's released a couple of brilliant albums that encapsulate that incredible R&B and soul sound that he originally fell in love with. We talk about what drew him to that sound originally and what he enjoys about the writing of soul and R&B classics. Also, his dad was totally on the PBS show, This Old House, sooooo COME ON!

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Nora Jane Struthers is back! We go track by track on her new album Bright Lights, Long Drives, First Words! The record was recorded while she was 8 months pregnant after a long struggle with infertility (see Basic Folk episode 4 for the whole incredible story). This album addresses the dichotomy between realizing her hard-earned dream and the tough realities of keeping her musical career alive (touring and all) in the wake of new motherhood. There are songs about finding home in your family, being too far away from friends and the song that Nora Jane claims is the best song she's ever wrote.

On this episode, she is kind enough to go through the album song by song and address different themes and styles. My favorite song on the album is an amazing track called "To Catch a Phoenix," which is super dramatic and very Game of Thrones, Hunger Games, Harry Potter. She actually breaks that metaphor down line by line and I'm sitting there listening to her with my jaw on the floor. It's cool.
 

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Taylor Ashton! Clawhammer banjo! Illustrations! Canada! He started his career in the alt-folk band Fish & Bird and has collaborated with musical friends like Courtney Hartmann (formerly of Della Mae). Taylor's debut solo album, The Romantic, is out now and filled with sweet banjo grooves and emotional feelings. We talk about his growing up in Canada: flying solo on an airplane at a very young age. He would draw on the barf bags to impress the flight attendants, which led him to a life-long love of illustrating. We talk about moving to New York and first connecting with the massive city and then finding his people there. He connected with Courtney at a Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge show, so we get the story there.

Taylor is a warm and funny person to talk to and I really enjoyed getting to spend time with him. I love his new record beyond words and really recommend you catching a live show of his sometime soon! He'll be touring with Aoife O'Donovan soon, including March 12 at Sanders Theater in Cambridge. Hope you love this one!

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Kora Feder came from a musical family. Her mother is the well regarded singer/songwriter, Rita Hosking. Growing up, she was surrounded by music, so it's not a surprise that she naturally gravitated toward performing and singing with her musical mom and dad. Her vacations were spent going on tour around the west coast and in the UK. When she headed off for college, she knew she wanted to travel while staying in school. She spent her college years living immersed in places like Thailand and China studying and observing cultures that are far different from her native Davis, CA.

Kora is an incredibly gifted songwriter in that she is able to write about challenging subjects like poverty and gun control, with unshakeable grace. We talked about the challenges faced with wanted to address global, political issues, while being fully aware that, at 25 years old, she doesn't have answers and is still learning so much about the world and herself. Her debut full length album In Sevens, was released last year. The songs are striking, as is her very interesting phrasing. It's like she's able to jam all these thoughts, feelings and words in beautifully without sounding pretentious. Enjoy Kora! She is an exciting up and coming talent.

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Business or performance? According to Dave Godowsky, you don't have to choose, guys. As a professional music fan for nearly 3 decades, Dave has been an artist manager, A&R rep and several other kinds of music industry types. All the while, he's weaved in and out the singer/songwriter/performer, for which he has a great talent for. Dave's genuine good hearted nature has gotten him the trust, talent and time of many impressive well known musicians like Bon Iver, Gene Ween (of Ween), Adam Duritz and Lianne La Havas. He's also well connected to many smaller music communities. One of those communities was essential to his songwriting in the last ten or so years: The Subrosa Songwriting Retreat that takes place on Three Mile Island in Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. Dave talks about how this retreat has allowed him to piece together enough songs for his last few album.

His newest album, Cuts (out Feb 28), is this beautiful calming album dotted with lovely harp and woodwinds. During production, he was concentrating on keeping the band zen and working to create a" musical Xanax." He said" “if people were having a panic attack, they could put this on and it would calm them.” It's a great album and hope you go listen to it when it's out on Feb 28!

Check out all the podcasts over on the American Songwriter Podcast Network. 

I had a lot to talk about with Leyla McCalla! The New Orleans resident has already had an impressive career with her solo work, Carolina Chocolate Drops and Our Native Daughters. However, it seems like she's just getting started. I literally had 9 pages of questions for her as we sat in my Airbnb during Folk Alliance (you can hear about 4 trolleys rolling by the windows). Leyla is smart, well spoken and so easy to get along with.

This interview felt like a barnburner (if you can label interviews like that). We covered her activist roots growing up with three very politically active adults in her life (mother, father and grandfather). She talked about her connection to Haiti and spending a summer there with her grandmother. She is known for her incredible cello playing and it's so crazy to hear that she started her cello journey by mistaking it for another instrument when she was a child. She talked about her feelings of being a black Haitian- American playing old time music that has deep roots in black America, even though it is seen as being a white genre. She talks about how The Carolina Chocolate Drops opened up that world to her: through music and conversation with her bandmates. We talked about Our Native Daughters, her band with Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah and Allison Russell. All this and more! This was an awesome interview! I hope you enjoy.

This show is part of the American Songwriter Podcast Network.

Montreal's Elisapie was born in Salluit, Quebec into the Inuit community. She grew up in the a little arctic village in The North surrounded by the sad truth of what happened to the generations before her when while settlers forced the semi-nomadic Inuit people to settle into one area. Elisapie was born to a single mother, who adopted her out other family members who could not have children. She grew up with her birth mother living right around the corner, but was not close to her until she was older. In our wonderful conversation, she talks about being inspired by her musician uncle and also the opportunity to perform with his very popular band at a young age. She also talks about leaving Salluit for Montreal and how she's always had a difficult time with the fact that she left.

Her new album Runaway Girl address those issues and more. She has a song dedicated to her birth mother, that she was able to perform live in concert with her mother in the audience. She shares that special moment as well as talking about the song she wrote about connecting with and understanding men. I hope you enjoy this conversation and learn something from this special person!

This show is part of the American Songwriter Podcast Network. 

Crys Matthews is the self-proclaimed "Poster Child for Intersectionality." While she'll say that with a smile, it's actually true: she's a black, lesbian, butch woman, formerly in an interracial marriage. Raised in North Carolina, her mother was a preacher, providing Crys with a rich backdrop of gospel music. She found music in 6th grade, first picking up the clarinet and then deciding she wanted to be a high school band director. In high school, she also came out to her mother which caused a lot of pain and friction between her and her mom who were otherwise very close. In college, Crys discovered performing and songwriting which caused her to pursue music.

In our conversation, we talk about how she actually enjoys difficult conversations with people. Also, I asked her about the joyfulness you hear in her songs even when they are hard topics. We touch upon her new EP which is filled with very vulnerable and personal songs, more than her previous work. I enjoyed hearing her talk about her relationship to her gender and how her clothing choices align with those feelings. And finally, we talk about the star of the show: her dog, Juice. Enjoy!

This show is part of the American Songwriter Podcast Network.

Singer-songwriter Amythyst Kiah joins us this week. She can be heard along side Layla McCalla, Allison Russell and Rhiannon Giddens in the Grammy nominated project Songs of Our Native Daughters. Amythyst talks about growing up an independent worker in Mississippi and how music forced her into collaboration. She recounts how writing songs helped her through some of the most difficult family strive, and she explains her effortless class with her gender non-conforming fashion sense. Enjoy!

Check out all the podcasts over on the American Songwriter Podcast Network. 

Rachel Lynne, the highly emotive songwriter, joins us for a live episode at Club Passim! Lynne was born and raised in Georgia. She spent her young life obsessed with music, especially sad and lonesome country music. Her own music cannot be described as country, but it has a certain lonesome quality to it. If you've ever experienced any serious emotions, one listen to Rachel's music and you'll feel understood and extremely connected.

Rachel shares a few songs from her catalog and talks about growing up with music, dealing with anxiety and the fascinating story of how she got her guitar. Currently living in Denver, I first met Rachel in Pittsburgh where she wowed audiences and won hearts.

This show is part of the American Songwriter Podcast Network.