Simply Folk Interviews

Jim Leary is a public folklorist who was born and raised in Rice Lake in northwestern Wisconsin. Since the early 1970s his research has focused on the traditional songs, stories, customary practices, and handwork of indigenous and immigrant peoples and their mostly rural and working class descendants in America's Upper Midwest, resulting in numerous museum exhibits, folklife festivals, public radio programs, documentary sound recordings, films, essays, and books.

Steve Gillette and Cindy Mangsen swing by the WPR studios for music and conversation with Simply Folk's Stephanie Elkins!

The Kissers began in the 1990s on a lark. Ken Fitzsimmons and Kevin Youngs envisioned a band that played Pogues songs and drank free beer with their friends, and a now-legendary string of Monday gigs at O’Cayz Corral began. Eventually, the side project grew into a first-rate band, “a rock band that learned to play Irish music.” Today, The Kissers are a highly skilled, veteran unit playing fresh material and loving it. While their rock roots are still audible, the music is more acoustic and traditionally Irish than ever before.

Nominated for Best Band in Milwaukee 2014 (88Nine Radio Milwaukee), the Zach Pietrini Band barrels through towns on rails laid by Gram Parsons and Ryan Adams. They are spurred by stories, steam, and whiskey. Their freight bespeaks barroom-stomping Midwestern Salt-Of-The-Earth Americana. Stephanie Elkins sat down with Zach this summer to hear some tales and tunes.

Nominated for Best Band in Milwaukee 2014 (88Nine Radio Milwaukee), the Zach Pietrini Band barrels through towns on rails laid by Gram Parsons and Ryan Adams. They are spurred by stories, steam, and whiskey. Their freight bespeaks barroom-stomping Midwestern Salt-Of-The-Earth Americana. Stephanie Elkins sat down with Zach this summer to hear some tales and tunes.

Based in Colorado, schoolteacher and singer-songwriter Josh Gadbaw stopped by Simply Folk to share some stories and songs with Stephanie Elkins, including one written for his great-great-grandfather (one of the four oldest engineers on the Milwaukee Railroad back in 1918) who lost his life when his passenger train collided with a freight train outside of New Lisbon, WI.

Stephanie Elkins interviews Jerry Vandiver, who paid a visit to the Simply Folk studio this past August.

Singer, songwriter and author Carrie Newcomer stopped by the Wisconsin Public Radio studios to share music and conversation with Simply Folk host Stephanie Elkins.

Horseshoes and Hand Grenade is a progressive, high-energy string band with roots in old-time folk and bluegrass music. It’s a band filled with great musicians and song writers, all Wisconsin-born, getting some momentum going with a new recording and a tour that is also keeping them busy. They passed by WPR’s Buck studio and shared some music and conversation with Stephanie Elkins on Simply Folk.

Horseshoes and Hand Grenade is a progressive, high-energy string band with roots in old-time folk and bluegrass music. It’s a band filled with great musicians and song writers, all Wisconsin-born, getting some momentum going with a new recording and a tour that is also keeping them busy. They passed by WPR’s Buck studio and shared some music and conversation with Stephanie Elkins on Simply Folk.