There are hundreds and thousands of great musicians out there today, making music, giving concerts, tuning guitars and writing the lyrical poetry that becomes memorable songs. You have to wonder: how do they ever even get started with a life in music? Tennessee native Amythyst Kiah credits her parents for getting her to fall in love with music when she was just a kid. She’s got a powerhouse of a voice, guitar and banjo chops to put anyone to shame…and a unique musical worldview, informed by a love of classic rock and MTV. After getting her first instrument at 13, Kiah spent the next decade or so honing that musical worldview and coming up with a sound that defies traditional categorization – it’s bluesy, folky, country rock, and gospel soul, all mixed together.

In 2013, she was able to create her first full length studio album, Dig, and in 2018 she joined forces with Allison Russell, Rhiannon Giddens, and Leyla McCalla as part of a collaboration called Our Native Daughters. They’ve since released an album on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Songs of Our Native Daughters. Later in 2019, Kiah releases another new solo album, Weary and Strange, and she shared some of her extraordinary history with us at this year’s 30A Songwriters Festival in Florida.

There are hundreds and thousands of great musicians out there today, making music, giving concerts, tuning guitars and writing the lyrical poetry that becomes memorable songs. You have to wonder: how do they ever even get started with a life in music? Tennessee native Amythyst Kiah credits her parents for getting her to fall in love with music when she was just a kid. She’s got a powerhouse of a voice, guitar and banjo chops to put anyone to shame…and a unique musical worldview, informed by a love of classic rock and MTV. After getting her first instrument at 13, Kiah spent the next decade or so honing that musical worldview and coming up with a sound that defies traditional categorization – it’s bluesy, folky, country rock, and gospel soul, all mixed together.

In 2013, she was able to create her first full length studio album, Dig, and in 2018 she joined forces with Allison Russell, Rhiannon Giddens, and Leyla McCalla as part of a collaboration called Our Native Daughters. They’ve since released an album on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Songs of Our Native Daughters. Later in 2019, Kiah releases another new solo album, Weary and Strange, and she shared some of her extraordinary history with us at this year’s 30A Songwriters Festival in Florida.

Sometimes even the very best laid plans go a bit awry. And singer/songwriter Maya de Vitry knows that firsthand. A talented fiddler who spent her childhood writing stories and poems, she always figured she’d participate in music in the background. As she got older, however, she realized a whole new world was wide open to her – the world of a singer and songwriter. While that discovery was truly magical, she says, she put it on the back burner for several years to participate in the renowned band The Stray Birds. But now, she’s front and center once again, ready to embrace her voice, her vision, her…SELF.

Maya de Vitry joined us in the studio to share some eye-opening thoughts about what it really took to put together her debut solo album, Adaptations, during a recent session in Nashville, Tennessee.

In a world increasingly filled with uncertainty, tension, fear, and anger, how in the world are you supposed to get through each day, doing the best that you can do? That’s the conundrum the trio Lula Wiles ponders, analyzes, argues about, and tries to answer on their new album, What Will We Do. Mali Obomsawin, Ellie Buckland, and Isa Burke, friends for years in their native Maine before coming together, officially, in 2016 in Boston, are three musicians who believe that music has the power to bring out the humanity in all of us. They gathered together at the Upper Jay Arts Center’s Recovery Lounge in Upper Jay, New York to talk about their new album (and their first one, too, on the Smithsonian Folkways label), how they approach making music, and, of course, how they came up with their name.

Ruthie Foster joined Folk Alley at the 30A Songwriters Festival in Florida to share some thoughts about what making music for an audience means to her; that process, she says, lets her “channel the good stuff” in the world and it’s an experience she never wants to give up.

Ruthie Foster is an extraordinary musician who has lived an extraordinary life. She started making music when she was just a kid, singing in Baptist churches around her home in Texas. It was gospel music all the time…until Ruthie Foster discovered the blues. But then, her life took a turn. She enlisted in the military and ended up in San Diego where she worked as a helicopter mechanic. Foster was destined for a life in music, however, and eventually made her way to New York City where she honed the craft of songwriting.

She joined us in Florida at the 30A Songwriter’s Festival to share some thoughts about what making music for an audience means to her; that process, she says, lets her “channel the good stuff” in the world and it’s an experience she never wants to give up.

Ruthie Foster is an extraordinary musician who has lived an extraordinary life. She started making music when she was just a kid, singing in Baptist churches around her home in Texas. It was gospel music all the time…until Ruthie Foster discovered the blues. But then, her life took a turn. She enlisted in the military and ended up in San Diego where she worked as a helicopter mechanic. Foster was destined for a life in music, however, and eventually made her way to New York City where she honed the craft of songwriting.

She joined us in Florida at the 30A Songwriter’s Festival to share some thoughts about what making music for an audience means to her; that process, she says, lets her “channel the good stuff” in the world and it’s an experience she never wants to give up.

From the fears and concerns of a young girl, to the hopelessness of unrelenting poverty, to the laissez-faire attitude of a woman in the twilight of her life, Gretchen Peters creates characters that everyone can relate to. That’s a gift and it’s one displayed most prominently on her new album, Dancing with the Beast. She shared thoughts about the record and music from it during her exclusive session at this year’s 30A Songwriters Festival in Florida.

For Gretchen Peters, good music is all about creating compelling characters and telling a good story. That’s how she approaches her music and that’s how, she says, she was finally able to take on some of her chaotic and confusing feelings from the past couple of years and translate them into new songs.

By focusing on creating and then giving voices to compelling characters, mostly women, Peters is able to tackle challenging and often heartbreaking subjects and ideas – political frustrations, concerns about the environment, dismay with and distrust of public power figures – and turn them into personal and meaningful reflections, reflections that we can all, somehow, understand and appreciate.

From the fears and concerns of a young girl, to the hopelessness of unrelenting poverty, to the laissez-faire attitude of a woman in the twilight of her life, Gretchen Peters creates characters that everyone can relate to. That’s a gift and it’s one displayed most prominently on her new album, Dancing with the Beast. She shared thoughts about the record and music from it during her exclusive session at this year’s 30A Songwriters Festival in Florida.

For Gretchen Peters, good music is all about creating compelling characters and telling a good story. That’s how she approaches her music and that’s how, she says, she was finally able to take on some of her chaotic and confusing feelings from the past couple of years and translate them into new songs.

By focusing on creating and then giving voices to compelling characters, mostly women, Peters is able to tackle challenging and often heartbreaking subjects and ideas – political frustrations, concerns about the environment, dismay with and distrust of public power figures – and turn them into personal and meaningful reflections, reflections that we can all, somehow, understand and appreciate.

From the fears and concerns of a young girl, to the hopelessness of unrelenting poverty, to the laissez-faire attitude of a woman in the twilight of her life, Gretchen Peters creates characters that everyone can relate to. That’s a gift and it’s one displayed most prominently on her new album, Dancing with the Beast. She shared thoughts about the record and music from it during her exclusive session at this year’s 30A Songwriters Festival in Florida.