Episode 215 - Folkin' Up (ft. Elijah @KlezmerRouge)

Jack and Geraint are joined by musician and hardline poster Elijah @KlezmerRouge to discuss banjoist Winston Marshall's recent departure from pop-folk juggernaut Mumford & Sons after he praised an anti-antifascist book by far-right activist Andy Ngo. We talk about folk signifiers as marketing strategy, the cases for and against "going electric" and singing in a British vs. transatlantic/faux-American brogue, and the malign influence of the Mumfords on an older generation of musician. Marshall's rarefied social background and his financier dad's recent history of right-wing provocations are also interrogated, and the word "rarefied" itself used about 500 times. We also get quite excited about pedal steel guitar.