Basic Folk

Erin McKeown has been queering the folk world for over two decades with her unpredictable and relentlessly unwavering superhuman musical gifts. Erin gets real in our conversation. She talks about (my favorite) summer camp, being super into drugs and sports in high school, her relationship with her gender (she thinks she's an alien), spirituality and her friendship with Rachel Maddow.

Bill Deasy is one of Pittsburgh's big 90s success stories due to his band The Gathering Field scoring a record deal in 1996 with Atlantic Records. While they only released one album on a major label, the band and Bill have remained a mainstay in the Pittsburgh region and beyond. Bill is calm, real and pretty open about his upbringing, including the trauma of losing a sibling at a very young age. He touches on his struggle with addiction, gentle masculinity and the weirdness of songwriting.

Ready to ugly cry? No? Ok, I will give you a moment to prepare... Because tuning into the most vulnerable, intimate and secret human feelings is what songwriter Edie Carey is all about. Born and raised in Suburban Boston, Edie was raised by a poet, a therapist and and English teacher. Her wistful writing definitely takes influence from all three. Hope you enjoy my interview with the "aggressively friendly" Edie Carey! Please subscribe and review!

Amy Ray, one half of the legendary folk rock band Indigo Girls, is known for her strong Southern roots, fierce devotion to all types of music, her activism and (unbeknownst to her) her image as a gay fashion icon (and how she uses her clothes as an activist)... or should I say institution. We talk about all this during our interview, which took place at Brandi Carlile's Girls Just Wanna Weekend in the Riviera Maya in Mexico.

KT Tunstall is an open-hearted Scottish dreamboat. She is a master at the art of conversation and makes a person feel heard, understand and smart. We get right into it: talking about her relationship with her father, death, sexuality, of course, her roots in folk music. Her latest album Wax is the second in a trilogy of records that will focus on the soul, body and mind as she has entered this very interesting stage in her life. Enjoy and don't forget to review & subscribe!

Emily Saliers of Indigo Girls graciously joins me on Basic Folk this week. An iconic figure in modern folk rock, Emily gets into it about the history of her guitar playing, expanding her horizons on her first solo album (Murmuration Nation), her dedication to hip-hop and reflections on Indigo Girls, which was released 30 years ago this week (February 28, 1989). This was an extremely enjoyable interview! I hope you like it and share it with anyone else who might be interested. 

Peter Mulvey's music is emotional, rousing, gritty and real. The Milwaukee singer-songwriter has been at it since the late 1980's playing in the streets of Dublin and Boston before starting his career proper in the early 1990's. Mulvey's upbringing was with liberal parents who are in love with science and activism and fully supported their son's early interest in acting and then in music. His latest album, There Is Another World, was born out of giant life changes and upheavals.

California native and Boston resident Rachel Sumner had an early interest in classical music that lead her to pursuing a career in film orchestration. After switching gears at Berklee College of Music, Rachel became interested in bluegrass thanks to discovery the music of Hazel Dickens And Alice Gerrard. Eventually, she met her future bandmates of Twisted Pine at the Cantab Lounge's bluegrass night.

This week I have Irish singer/songwriter, Mark Dignam, on the podcast! Mark grew up in the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. It was in Dublin where he gained experience as a performer by busking around town with well-known folk singer, Glen Hansard. Since then, Dignam has brought his love of music to Pittsburgh, PA where he continues to write and perform. In our conversation, we discuss the Catholic Church and the transcendent release he feels when performing on stage.

Singer/Songwriter Maya de Vitry is on the podcast this week! Maya was a former member of the string trio The Stray Birds, but now she has stepped out on her own with her first solo album, Adaptations.  de Vitry grew up on 7 acres of rolling green in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Even from a small age her musical talent and intelligence were evident. We discuss her singing Iris Dement’s “Our Town” at six-years-old for show and tell, and teaching other kindergarten kids multiplication.

Originally from a rural Farmington, Maine, Eleanor Buckland of Lula Wiles grew up playing fiddle in her family’s jams. This week on Basic Folk, Buckland talks being a fourth generation musician, her rock guitar father, and the basements tapes she has from her grandma, legendary bluegrass player, Betty Buckland.  As a kid, Buckland’s violin took her to fiddle camp where she cultivated her love of folk music and met the future members of her band Lula Wiles.

Alex Stanton is a Pittsburgh born singer/songwriter who heads up the indie folk band townsppl. Growing up Stanton spent a lot of time hanging out on the set of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. His mom worked in the art department for the show and that actually ties in with how he got his first guitar. Also Stanton discusses opening his own music school, Sunburst School of Music in Squirrel Hill. We talk about the community of musicians that he has found and fostered since opening the doors.

Anais Mitchell is about to hit Broadway with Hadestown! But first! The Vermont songwriter is on Basic Folk. Her folk opera, Hadestown, set to open at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway March 2019. Anais tells me about her childhood on a sheep farm in Vermont. She unpacks her love and loyalty in her collaborations and the mystical way she found her visual artist for Hadestown. Lastly, we talk about 3rd and 4th wave feminism and where she fits as a feminist and boundary shattering musician.

Before becoming a fulltime performer/songwriter Dawn Landes worked as a sound engineer for many years. After studying for a bit at NYU she left school to pursue an internship at Phillip Glass' studio. Dawn tells me of the impact that Fast Folk had on her career and the role Suzanne Vega played in her life as Dawn’s mentor. We also get into the musical she is working on called "Row" about the very inspiring and fellow Kentuckian and rower, Tori Murden McClure, who aspired to row across the Atlantic Ocean.

On Basic Folk this week I sit down with Mark Erelli, a singer-songwriter out of the New England area. Growing up Erelli did a little of everything: tennis, musicals, science, and then... he found rock music. This was all thanks to his high school science teacher who would play bootleg Grateful Dead tapes during exams. Once Erelli had discovered The Dead he said it was like all American music was waiting for him.