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Basic Folk — Music
Basic Folk

Basic Folk features honest conversations with folk musicians hosted by Cindy Howes and Lizzie No. We approach interviews with warmth, humor and insightful questions. Since 2018, this podcast has dignified under the radar roots musicians by providing a platform that they might not otherwise have. You’ll hear interviews from Three-time Grammy-winning guitar gods like Molly Tuttle, Haitian American folk legends like Leyla McCalla and deep feelers like songwriter John Hiatt.

Basic Folk is dedicated to showcasing the best in folk, bluegrass, acoustic and americana including Black, Brown and Queer folx who have been excluded, or felt like they did not belong, in the folk world. Cindy & Lizzie each bring a unique perspective to these honest conversations with folk musicians. We are equally dedicated to repainting the broad landscape of folk music as we are to tearing down the ivory towers of the music industry. What would Bruce Springsteen do if he ever got the keys to that mansion on the hill? Let's find out together on Basic Folk.

Basic is an official production of The Bluegrass Situation. Thanks for listening.

Welcome to Basic Folk.

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Copyright: © All rights reserved.

Latest Episodes:

Almeta Ingram-Miller of The Legendary Ingramettes, , ep. 97 Dec 10, 2020

Show notes

Gospel musician Almeta Ingram-Miller of The Legendary Ingramettes is working to preserve the legacy of her mother, Maggie. Maggie was born in 1930 in Georgia. She taught herself piano in order to nurture her gift of singing. She would sing while working in the cornfields as a young girl. She moved to Florida after marrying at 16 and having three children. Alemta's father left the family, which led Maggie to pursuing music as a way to provide for her children. She actually got all her kids to sing because there were no childcare options. After moving to Richmond, VA, Maggie, who was always trying to do the right thing, got involved in a lot of social justice issues. She opened her home as a halfway house for women just out of prison, she would provide transportation to families visiting incarcerated relatives and delivered free food to the needy. In our interview, Almeta reflects on what it was like to grow up with such an amazing woman not only as a mother, but as a musical partner. Singing with her mother was unlike anything else, Almeta would sing backup and acted as a sparring partner. Almeta talks about what it's like to keep mother’s story and mission alive through music as well as including her own identity in that work. This was an absolute pleasure and honor to speak to the very inspiring Almeta!
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Kevin Morby, ep. 96 Dec 03, 2020

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The music of Kevin Morby has colorful textural layers much like the human who creates it. On his newest album, Sundowner, Morby is embracing a mellow, yet dramatic sound that runs parallel to his current surroundings of his hometown, Kansas City. He moved back to a house he purchased in 2015 recently and has been working on music relentlessly since then, which is what produced the songs on the new record. He recorded the album in Texas with Brad Cook in order to capture the essence of the midwest. After living and making music on both coasts, he wanted to create something that was entirely landlocked. On Basic Folk, we talk about the process of writing and creating this new album. Morby also talks about his experience with panic attacks as a young man and his current relationship with fear and anxiety. He talks about the death of musician Jamie Ewing, who was his best friend. Jamie died of an overdose 12 years ago, but has had a huge impact on shaping Kevin's life.

Morby also talks about how his partner, Katie Crutchfield, who is known as Waxahatchee. This is the first record that Katie's been in Kevin's life for the entire creation of an album. It's interesting to hear the effect they both have on the other's music! I also got him to talk about his painting, which you can find at KevinMorbyArtsnFarts on Instagram. Kevin's a friendly, insightful and sensitive person, which is reflected in everything he creates. I am grateful he found time for the interview! This is a good one!!!

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Shirley Collins, ep. 95 Nov 19, 2020

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WOW. Shirley Collins has led a wild full life! The British Folk singer, who helped bring about the 60's folk revival in Great Britain, is on Basic Folk talking about her new album Heart's Ease and her entire extraordinary career. Shirley also talks about her childhood, which occurred during World War II and started her love and connection with traditional folk songs. Her grandparents would sing to her and her sister Dolly during air raids to try and keep the girls calm. This watershed moment would define her love of sharing these songs and how it feels for Shirley to sing. She talks about her late sister Dolly, a brilliant musical arranger and frequent collaborator, and how her compositions matched up perfectly with Shirley's singing. Shirley was a part of the historical Alan Lomax Southern Journey recordings, where she assisted the folklorist in collecting recordings of traditional folk songs in the American South. A lot of those songs were familiar to Shirley as they came over to America from England hundreds of years ago. She talks about the musicians she met along the way including Mississippi Fred McDowell. After she returned, she sang and recorded music from about 1955 - 1979 and then stopped when she went through a terribly traumatic event and developed dysphonia. Recently, Shirley has returned to making albums, starting in 2016 with Lodestar and now with her latest just released. She is generous with her answers and is good natured about my ridiculous questions. Also, a very fun lightning round! I can't wait to have Shirley on again.
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Lizzie No, ep. 94 Nov 12, 2020

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Around age 10, Lizzie No was getting tired of the violin. The Princeton-born No picked the harp after seeing it being wheeled into an elevator on 'Diff’rent Strokes.' It was the weirdest instrument that she could have imagined. While attending Stanford, she took on a job as a research assistant where she could listen to music for hours at a time while at work. Over time, she started to realize that she was far more interested in the music that she was listening to than the research that was being conducted. Music kept calling and gnawing at her to a degree where she finally allowed herself to give music a chance. As a songwriter, she works to evoke writers with important messages, particularly Bob Dylan, who became a true north after she learned a whole set of his songs on the harp and became in awe of the writing and morality tales in his political songs.

Lizzie shares her experience of being a Black folk singer in that she thought if she were to play country and folk that she would be taking someone else's music as her own. She didn't yet know that folk and country came from African musical forms that came to America because of slavery. She felt like she was fighting her way into something that she didn't have a right to. Once she started getting to know the Black artists that are in folk right now, she realized that she did belong and began to learn the history. Lizzie is whip-smart and her perspective on this topic could unsurprisingly fill an entire podcast episode on it's own. AND we talk about EGO and narcissism, which encompasses her latest album Vanity. Her insight on the different sides of the ego is fascinating. Literally could talk to Lizzie No everyday. 10/10! Please enjoy!

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Lori McKenna, ep. 93 Nov 05, 2020

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Lori McKenna is on Basic Folk talking about her new album The Balladeer. Lori's been a huge part of the New England folk circuit for over two decades and for the last ten years has been a much in-demand songwriting in Nashville thanks to Faith Hill, Tim McGraw and Mary Gauthier. Lori grew up (and still lives) in Stoughton, Mass (where the Ikea is!) and she talks about her complicated relationship with her hometown and discovering how her home life are the secret ingredient to her incredible writing. Lori's a great storyteller and we get a lot of stories about her brothers and sister, her dad, her husband, her kids and of course, Mandy Moore.

Lori talks about developing her confidence in songwriting. She didn't leave the house with her music until she was in her late twenties, even though she had been writing since she was a young teen. She talks about the first song she wrote and played for her brother about a rodeo. It was the late 70's and she had never been exposed to rodeos and still has no idea where that came from. I did the math to even make sure she couldn't have absorbed it from any Garth Brooks' rodeo songs. From there, Lori just wrote to express herself. The new album is filled with personal songs as well as one character song, which happens to be the title track. Lori McKenna is a songwriting giant who has been hugely historical in my life, so it was an absolute honor to have her on the podcast.

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Stella Schindler of Kentucky Avenue, ep. 92 Oct 29, 2020

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Stella Schindler is one half of the DC area Americana band Kentucky Avenue, who's been (safely) working on their sophomore album throughout the pandemic. Stella, an English teacher at an all-girls Catholic School, has led a transient path throughout her life, but music was always constant. She lived in a number of different places growing up; not living anywhere for more than two years and it wasn't until she started teaching that she remained in one place (DC). Because of all the moving around, she initially felt pretty shy about singing in front of her family. She tells a story about how her mom was surprised when she first heard her perform publicly. Despite that, she is actually really connected to her family, particularly with her name. She's the fourth Stella in a row and talked about that connection and what it was like growing up having the name "Stella."

Stella speaks beautifully about the freedom and delight she felt what she first sang out loud. She is a joyful performer who makes the most eye contact I've ever seen from someone on stage. She is also a devoted Catholic, who loves folk and country, but does enjoy that separation of Church and State when it comes to music during the Mass. Her dad is a theologian and philosopher who encouraged Stella to follow her passions. He told her when she was thinking about college “You can study anything but with one condition, provided that it is not useful.” She followed his advice and majored in Art History at Notre Dame. After college, she found herself in Omaha, Nebraska, moving there on a whim and working at a record store. This is where she had a chance encounter with Bob Dylan! This was also right before she relocated to DC to start a teaching job. Stella is an amazing person and I love listening to her talk and love hearing her sing. Enjoy! Also enjoy the thunderstorm rolling on in the background of this interview. Lookout for Kentucky Avenue's new album, Ballad of the Past, this fall.

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Samantha Crain, ep. 91 Oct 22, 2020

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Samantha Crain had a hell of a time in the summer of 2017. She had just released her album You Had Me at Goodbye earlier in the year and was ready to roll out for a busy schedule of touring the new music. By the end of the summer, she was laid up after experiencing three car accidents, where she was hit all three times. A combination of those crashes and life-long tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome led to her hands literally not working. She was not able to play guitar or tour. A major depression and a very dark time set in from being homebound and not able to play guitar or write songs. Through physical and emotional therapy, she slowly started to heal. She also took this time to document some past trauma by recording herself talking on a tape player. This led to a lot of self-reflection and shedding of old life-long anxieties. When she was well enough, she began to write songs based on what she had been documenting and processing. This resulted in her new album, A Small Death.

We talked about the new album as well as Samantha's very interesting life. A member of the Choctaw First Nation, she values using her native language to modernize the indigenous experience for herself and other young native people. We talk about her dad, a Southern Baptist Evangelical Preacher, who would perform music as well as feats of strength at religious tent revivals. She also shared a little about her experience as a weight lifter. Samantha Crain is one of a kind! I wish her the best in her healing journey and with the new album.

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Izzy Heltai's “Father” Track by Track, ep. 90 Oct 15, 2020

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We got to know Izzy Heltai on episode 27 of Basic Folk where he talked about his supportive family, Western Mass community and for the first time spoke in an interview about being a trans man. He's released his debut album, Father, and is kind enough to return to the podcast to give us a track by track breakdown of the record. Izzy's new album centers around songs he wrote from ages 19 - 23, where he spent a lot of time on the road, so there are plenty of road themes. The opening track is the only song to directly address his experience as a trans person. He is still trying to figure out how to talk about himself without wrapping his entire identity in being trans, but it is an important part of his writing.

Izzy is really easy to talk to and is very open about his life-long struggle with depression. His joyful personality and positive energy wouldn't make you think he would have to deal with such frequent sadness, but he talks about how writing and honestly addressing it allows him to channel it through music. I take Izzy down some weird winding theories on this record and he does really well to answer all my ridiculous questions. Enjoy the conversation and then go buy Izzy's new album!

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Brittney Spencer, ep. 89 Oct 08, 2020

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Brittney Spencer's making her way in Nashville. Her presence in Music City is radical not only because she's a woman, but also Brittany is a young Black country artist. Spencer has been enamored with country music ever since she fell in love with The Chicks as a 15 year old. Even though she did not see people that look like her represented in country music, she connected with the sound enough to realize that she needed to be a part of it with her own music. Originally from Baltimore, Brittney grew up with strong roots in the church and credits that experience as the basis for her musical foundation. In Nashville, she joined the Christian songwriting collective Common Hymnal. Through their supportive network, she's been able to write songs that give an authentic depiction of human struggle. In the pod, we discuss the disenchantment that a lot of people feel towards Christian music. I am very stumbly when I broach this subject, but I was relieved when she understood where I was coming from. Certain Christian music and thinking about the genre as a whole can make people feel uncomfortable. Brittney aims to be a country artist that happens to make songs that are Christian. She also is consciously working on how to make her music something that the Black community would like and she shares how she works the Black experience into country music. Aaaaand she used to be a radio DJ at the local NPR Music station, so THAT'S AWESOME.
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Jonatha Brooke's "The Sweetwater Sessions" Track by Track, ep. 88 Oct 01, 2020

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American Songwriter Podcast Network

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