Basic Folk

A founding member of the beloved North Carolina bluegrass-ish band Mipso, Jacob Sharp has always loved a team. He attributes this to being a middle child, which is the basis for his debut solo album, Middle Kid. Born and raised in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Jacob not only loved being on a team but also radiated towards musical collaboration on guitar and mandolin. He studied at UNC Chapel Hill where he met his bandmates and formed Mipso in 2012. He ended up moving to Brooklyn after school where he fell into a musical community with folks like...

It's Lizzie No speaking to you from Dublin, Ireland, where I recently moved! It's fall here which makes my mind wander back to my home state of origin, New Jersey, where leaves are undoubtedly changing and cider donuts are being consumed. I hope you're enjoying autumn wherever you are.

This summer I said goodbye to Nashville, Tennessee, where I had been living for the past three years. I also worked on a bunch of projects, rehomed my beloved foster dog Dino, and prepared myself logistically to move to a new country. I don't think it was possible...

Michaela Anne grew up in a military family that moved a lot: Washington, Michigan, California, Virginia, and Italy. She and her family are currently in the middle of a huge, long move. It seems like there are always SO MANY THINGS going on with Michaela in her family and career.

One of the constants growing up was listening to music and learning to play. In the mid-2000s, she studied at the New School in New York City, where she met her future husband, musical partner and co-host of their show The Other 22 Hours, Aaron Shafer-Haiss. They...

Jimbo Mathus grew up in a house full of musicians, and by the time he was 8 years old, he was sitting in on family jam sessions. He dropped out of college, joined the Merchant Marines and eventually settled in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He formed The Squirrel Nut Zippers in 1993, which experienced massive success in the mid- to late ‘90s. The band was swept into the short-lived swing music revival, alongside The Brian Setzer Orchestra, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and movies like The Mask and Swingers.

It was a short-lived revival, but the Zippers offered fans something de...

For 17 years, Rachel McCartney had set aside a music career and all the anxiety and uncertainty that came along with it. She was in her mid-30s and wanted a family and some stability. Once she started a new life as an ICU nurse and mother to two young children, her musical career and the momentum she had created over the past three decades in New England and Western Pennsylvania didn't much cross her mind.

I met Rachel when I was 18 years old while at Emerson College. It was the year 2000 and the folk scene in Boston...

We are so honored to welcome Keb' Mo' (aka Kevin Moore) on the show for our 350th episode! After many decades of incredible music, his new solo acoustic album, The Breakdown, was written and recorded at his home studio near Nashville following open-heart surgery and personal life changes. He's also recently released his second collaborative album with the legendary Taj Mahal.

We were blown away by Keb' Mo's definition of the blues: "honesty music." There's a lot of debate nowadays whether the blues is something that includes a formal set of requirements. Is it a genre? Is...

If you have been paying attention to music circles for the past 25+ years, you will be familiar with Hrishikesh Hirway. He formerly released music under the moniker The One AM Radio and has also produced and hosted THE premiere music podcast of the 21st century (the only century with podcasts so far, so clearly we feel strongly): Song Exploder. Until recently, his name had not been front and center on any of his projects until his newest album, 'In the Last Hour of Light.' Hrishi grew up in Massachusetts the son of Indian immigrants, immersed and in love...

Lancaster, Pennsylvania-born, Nashville-based songwriter Maya de Vitry has been on Basic Folk a half dozen times (she's only second to our fave man-bestie Mark Erelli), because we are so obsessed with her songwriting perspective, from her time in the Stray Birds to her solo work. Every time she's on the show, we try and do something special. She's been on with her siblings (Nina & Lyle), her partner (Ethan Jodziewicz), and her musical besties (Shelby Means & Joel Timmons). When we heard about her fifth studio album, 'All My Faith,' we knew we had to raise the Basic Folk bar...

Lizzie No, Kaïa Kater, Nathan Evans Fox, Olivia Ellen Lloyd, Tray Wellington, A.J. Haynes, and more are featured on the new compilation album 'Outlaws’ Almanac,' a response to the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. Led by executive producer Lizzie No, the project features a diverse range of songwriters and storytellers working in broadly-defined folk, Americana, and roots traditions. Lizzie envisioned the compilation as an opportunity to be in conversation with the American project, taking an oft-overlooked perspective. Their curation centers Black, brown, Indigenous, queer, rural, and women’s voices, with traditional and contemporary music...

Back in the mid 2000's Alela Diane's Gospel Pirate album was ringing my bell and apparently, it was ringing a lot of other people's bells, too, especially Europeans. Alela's debut album went gold in France and she's been able to maintain a pretty decent audience and career across the Atlantic. Meanwhile, at home in The States (she's based in Portland, OR), after 2013, she remained relatively unknown and undiscovered and that was just fine with her. She worked on her music, occasionally flew over to Europe to tour, played local gigs and raised her two daughters with her husband in...

Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan, the Milk Carton Kids, are calling their latest album, 'Lost Cause Lover Fool,' "the one." They have finally figured out how to feel and sound like themselves with a broader sonic palette. They attribute that to sharing one mic when they sing with each other. The songs on the album enlarge small feelings and moments, working to turn them all into eternity. Moments that “usually pass too quickly to notice.” The guys have spent their careers making a case for staying small, staying present, and listening closely.

We loved our conversation with...

Matt Smith is a living legend with his unbelievable 30-year run at Club Passim, the historic folk venue nestled in a Harvard Square basement. Currently Managing Director at Passim, Matt is the most passionate music lover I know. He has used his platform at Passim to help establish artists like Lori McKenna, Anaïs Mitchell, Lake Street Dive, and so many more. I met Matt while working as a student at WERS 88.9FM, where he brought fantastic shows to a listening room filled with people who were clambering for honest music in an intimate space. He's been a very g...

Well, is this not an excuse to get the girlies together if we've ever heard one!? For our final live interview aboard Cayamo, we arranged a check-in with some of our favorite folks to talk about the state of Folk Music (and folk-adjacent music). Our panel included country artist and host of Apple Music's Color Me Country Radio Rissi Palmer, Canadian sweethearts Rose Cousins (CEO of emotions) and Kaïa Kater (Dean of Sad Songs), and Jobi Riccio, a self-proclaimed "rizzler." We spoke about the function of folk songwriting, the hope and confidence of Gen Z, the inspiration taken f...

We are live at sea aboard Cayamo 2026 with Abraham Alexander & Kashus Culpepper! The pair had not met prior, but we found a couple of very cool parallels between them, so we decided to interview them together. Plus, we knew it would be more fun to have them both up on stage in front of an audience. Abraham, based in Ft. Worth and originally from Greece, has had an impressive rise in profile thanks to opportunities from friends like Leon Bridges, Gary Clark, Jr., and Adrian Quesada (Black Pumas). Quesada actually worked with Abe on the song "Like a Bird,"...

We are so excited to kick off our Interviews at Sea series with DAWES! We had the chance to talk to brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith aboard Cayamo: A Journey Through Song during their 18th voyage in March 2026 in front of a packed audience. The guys have been performing as Dawes since 2009, but the band has been a duo since their 2024 album, 'Oh Brother.' The Goldsmiths have been singing and playing together their whole lives inspired by their musician father, Lenny Goldsmith, who toured as the lead singer of Tower of Power in the 1980s. Taylor was never...

One of the things I [lizzie] really enjoyed about interviewing Toronto-born singer-songwriter Julian Taylor is his relationship with the truth. He has a really peaceful attitude towards learning and sharing new information. For example, at the beginning and the end of our interview, there were biographical facts about him that I had gotten wrong in my research. Gently and matter of fact he fact-checked me and we just moved on. It was such a cool example of, "Oh, you've got this a bit wrong and it matters that we get it right," but nothing about that is personal. In...

Mike and Ruth Merenda have been making music together as the Mammals since 2001, with a little break in 2008 to play as Mike & Ruthy. They've been back as the Mammals since 2017 with a couple of great albums, most recently 'Touch Grass' Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Mike, born and raised in New Hampshire, picked up the banjo after he met fiddler Ruth Ungar. Ruth is the daughter of Jay Ungar, a much loved folk musician who is best known for his composition, "Ashokan Farewell," used as the theme tune to the Ken Burns 1990 documentary 'The Civil War,' which you now have...

Joe Henry has released 15 studio albums, apprenticed for legendary producer T Bone Burnett and, in turn, has produced many other musicians' albums on his own, including three GRAMMY Award-winning albums – for Solomon Burke, Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Ramblin' Jack Elliott. He's co-written a few songs as well, including a couple with his sister-in-law, who happens to be the one and only legendary pop icon, Madonna. His latest album is 'Life and Time,' a collaboration with songwriter Mike Reid, who has written many wonderful songs like "I Can't Make You Love Me," one of Bonnie Raitt's most successful and be...

A foundational participant in the '70s Bay Area bluegrass scene, Laurie Lewis knows the power of collaboration. She's been a part of an ensemble in recent years that's called "Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands" with Laurie on fiddle, guitar, and vocals, Brandon Godman on fiddle, George Guthrie on banjo, and Hasee Ciaccio on bass. That group plays a huge part in her new album, 'Oh California!,' a collection of songs that explore our own places in the natural world and in each other’s hearts. It also serves as a love letter to her home state. One st...

Something you might notice about Boston musician Naomi Westwater is that they have both sides of the brain on lock. They are very good at community organizing, grant applying, advocating, and other "left-brained" activities. However, they are also a creative, deeply spiritual, open-hearted person, traits typically associated with the right brain. That’s not always something that goes hand-in-hand, but it is a beautiful thing when it does! 

Westwater, who identifies as queer and Black-multiracial, grew up on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, where they never felt like they fit in. Thanks to their parents, there was a lot...

Accidental bandleader and beloved Canadian Tony Dekker joins us to talk about Great Lake Swimmers' new album, 'Caught Light.' Tony is up to old tricks again, like recording in a remote and weird place (in a century-old farmhouse in the middle of the woods) and working with his merry band of rotating musician friends, including producer Darcy Yates (Bahamas). The album was recorded in three days, the shortest amount of time he's ever spent on a record. In that very fast process, he had to learn to let go of control. In our Basic Folk conversation, he shares...

Mary Chapin Carpenter's latest album, 'Personal History,' is as lush in production and color as the beautiful farmland she calls home in Virginia. Carpenter will often wake up early for sunrise walks with her dog, Angus, and one of several daily cups of coffee (of course) to start the day. In our Basic Folk conversation, she reflects on how living in this serene farmhouse has brought her peace, drawing parallels to Carl Sandberg's "creative hush." Mary Chapin also discusses her method of "song walking" as a tool to overcome writer's block, often accompanied by her pets.

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To send 2025 off into the great abyss, we have a sensational year-end Basic Folk roundtable featuring Lizzie's group chat: Kaïa Kater, Olivia Ellen Lloyd, and Isa Burke. It can feel so challenging to know which media you can trust and whose takes you can really take to the bank. There is no one we trust more to wrap-up this wild and wacky year than these gals. We turned to them at the end of 2025 to hear their hot takes, what they're grateful for, what they've learned, and what four poppin' folk musicians were up to in this crazy y...

Our episode with Madison Cunningham was one of those all-time Basic Folk moments where a guest gets really deep really quickly. I'm so grateful to have had the chance to speak with this brilliant young torchbearer of the folk tradition to celebrate the release of her new album, 'Ace.' Cunningham grew up in the church, an environment which shaped her earliest memories of music. From the very beginning she had a sense of togetherness and transcendence in music which remains today and is represented throughout her catalogue. It was fascinating to hear Madison describe how she developed into...

Frazey Ford has always loved soul music. She fell in love with Otis Redding at age 11 and discovered people like Ann Peebles along the way, but it was Al Green that really knocked her out. She loved the layers, the expression, and especially his voice. She completely dove in and even started an Al Green cover band. Although she had been perfecting her soul sound, the band that took off for Ford was, of course, The Be Good Tanyas. She talks in our Basic Folk interview about how the trio really worked to perfect quiet, beautiful country music rooted...

In the eight years since The Barr Brothers last released an album, Andrew has been drumming with people like Feist, Mumford & Sons, and Broken Social Scene while Brad released a solo record and underwent incredible personal change. Brad made the huge decision to get sober, which he talks about candidly in our Basic Folk interview. Anything you read about the new record, 'Let it Hiss,' might allude to his newfound sobriety while not mentioning it directly. The band made a conscious decision not to include it in any press releases, specifically so that their audience could have their...

Asheville-based songwriter David Wilcox has been through some s-h-i-t. A difficult childhood in Northeast Ohio sent him seeking answers – mostly on his bicycle – in an attempt to get away. He has spent his lifetime leaning into his problems and digging into their roots at the source: his own heart. He decided to see what lessons his heart had been trying to teach him and, at 67 years old, he's still listening and learning. He claims to have the answer of how to heal your heart and how to do it in two minutes; he lays it out in our conversation.

Kathleen Edwards claims that she's now a pretty frequent crier after not crying for the first 30 years of her life. One reason for this change is the connectedness she has been feeling since leaving music and starting her coffee shop, Quitters. In our Basic Folk conversation, Edwards tears up talking about the cover of her new album 'Billionaire,' which was shot by a former Quitters employee, Riley. Riley – along with a fellow employee Amanda – traveled to Nashville in 2019 to watch Kathleen perform. The event was a pinnacle moment in her adult life, especially since, sadly, Amanda has since pass...

Legendary Massachusetts-born, California-based musician Peter Rowan is best known for his bluegrass roots. A practicing Buddhist, he did time in Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys as well as in the short-lived and epically important Old & In the Way with Jerry Garcia and David Grisman. However, his latest album 'Tales of the Free Mexican Airforce' celebrates the music of the Southwest and draws a throughline from Tex-Mex to bluegrass. Rowan has a long history with this music from his very first solo record, which includes the original recording of "The Free Mexican Airforce" as well as "Midnight-Moonlight." Both of those...

This time on Basic Folk, we are checking in with country singer-songwriter and Color Me Country radio host Rissi Palmer and Americana country artist Miko Marks. The two close friends both came up as Black women in country music in the early part of the 21st century where they experienced gatekeepers and discrimination in the industry, but undeniable love from listeners. Both stepped away from music for several years, but have since come back and found their audiences, artistic grooves, and industry independence. We last spoke with the pair in 2023 (you gotta go listen to that convo if ya...

Maya de Vitry, Ethan Jodziewicz, Joel Timmons, and Shelby Means are on Basic Folk today talking about their new collaborations. Maya produced both Shelby and Joel's debut solo albums this year; Joel and Ethan play in Maya's band; and the two couples (Joel & Shelby are married and Ethan & Maya are partners) are all very close friends. They met in Nashville, where Maya & Ethan still live, while Joel & Shelby live in Charleston. Joel talks about the huge gesture Shelby made in leaving Nashville behind for his hometown of Charleston. He also talks about the elated feeling they both got when...

Bob Dylan once called Paul Brady a "secret hero" and meant it as a compliment. The Irish songwriting legend has not been bothered by the fact that his profile has not risen as high as some of his peers. Starting off in the world of traditional Irish music, Brady spent time in the hugely influential Irish group Planxty until they disbanded in 1975. After that, he and bandmate Andy Irvine recorded a record of trad music together. In 1981, he released an album of original songs titled 'Hard Station,' that was based on his experience of growing up during The...

Originally from northern Minnesota, Joe K. Walsh grew up in Duluth and became enthralled with the mandolin (his primary focus, currently) after hearing the first David Grisman Quintet record. His dad got the young Joe his own mando. He ended up getting very serious about the instrument and found himself studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston (where he is now on faculty in the string department). Joe, in fact, was THE FIRST mandolin student at Berklee in a town that is now flooded with amazing mandolin players. His already strong sense of community and collaboration led him...

Olive Klug and I (Cindy) recorded this interview in my closet while they were in Portland, Maine to play a show. They stayed along with their band Cori, Haley, and Payton and it was a real pleasure to be around them for a few days. You can tell that Olive is at their best around their band and it is a true collaboration on stage. Shoutout to the whole crew for leaving such a remarkable impression on me and my wife and for assembling some baby furniture while they were staying at our house. In our conversation for Basic...

New bestie Gina Chavez speaks about her journey in music, her deep love for connecting with people, and the influence of her mixed cultural background on Basic Folk. Her parents are of Mexican and Swiss-German descent. Her father, although second generation Mexican-American, was not raised with Spanish language or any Mexican culture. Gina discusses growing up in Austin, Texas, and the role music – or the absence of it – played in her household. She talks about being a choir kid in the '90s before it was cool, about discovering her Latin roots later in life, and how singing in Span...

You may recognize the voice, face, and vibe of wonderful human being Tony Kamel from his acclaimed bluegrass group, Wood & Wire. But Tony is on Basic Folk today to talk about his wonderful solo albums, including his latest, 'We're All Gonna Live.' The album, which just came out, is a realist-optimist's guide to navigating a complex and often heartbreaking world. There's something remarkably encouraging about the songs, which are so humane and so empathetic. The music is rooted in bluegrass, but I found it to be really well-rounded contemporary country/folk with great singing and songwriting. It's actually...

On this episode of Basic Folk, Kora Feder talks about her new album, 'Some Kind of Truth,' as well as reflecting on the incredible changes and growth she's experienced since we last spoke in February 2020. One of the impacts of the pandemic on her music career was the necessity of exploring other artistic ventures like crafting hats and lino-cutting. She relocated from Philly to California, finally settling in Detroit. Daughter of songwriter Rita Hosking, Kora went slightly viral during the height of COVID lockdowns thanks to her song "In a Young Person's Body." In the poignant composition she...

In recent years, Tami Neilson has been learning to carry both great joy and great sorrow simultaneously. The New Zealand-based, Canada-born powerhouse's new album, 'Neon Cowgirl,' is named after the towering electric figure on a sign that's overlooked Broadway in Nashville, watching over Tami's career since she was 16 years old. The songs were born from a five-month family road trip combined with a major musical tour that would allow Tami the once-in-a-lifetime chance to really give it her all with her career. It was the chance for her children to experience what her life was like at their...

(Editor’s Note: Welcome to our Reissue series! For the past several weeks, Basic Folk has been digging back into the archives and reposting some of our favorite episodes alongside new introductions commenting on what it’s like to listen back. This is our last Reissue for now, so please enjoy!

This episode featuring separate interviews with The Indigo Girls (Amy Ray and Emily Saliers) and host Cindy Howes was originally posted winter 2019.)

Back in 2019, my now-wife and I attended the inaugural Girls Just Wanna Weekend in Cancun, Mexico, which featured an all-women lineup curated and...

(Editor’s Note: Welcome to our Reissue series! For the past several weeks, Basic Folk has been digging back into the archives and reposting some of our favorite episodes alongside new introductions commenting on what it’s like to listen back. Enjoy!

This episode featuring Lizzie No interviewing Joy Oladokun, was originally posted on February 24, 2022.)

Arizona-born Joy Oladokun grew up listening to her dad’s extensive record collection and falling in love with the wide and wondrous world of rock and roll. You can hear these diverse sonic influences, from Genesis to Tracy Chapman, in Joy’s...