Woodsongs Vodcasts

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WoodSongs 953: Gaelynn Lea and Aubrey Logan Apr 25, 2019

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GAELYNN LEA has been bewitching scores of fans with her haunting original songs and experimental takes on traditional fiddle music. Lea performs from her electric wheelchair and holds her instrument like a tiny cello and loops her classically trained rhythms and melodies. She recently won NPR Music’s 2016 Tiny Desk Contest. In addition to performing and recording, Lea also loves to do speaking engagements about disability awareness, the power music, and leading an enriching life. AUBREY LOGAN is known as “The Queen of Sass.” Her concerts are a mix of excellent musicality, jaw-dropping vocals, expert trombone-playing, a breathtaking array of originals and original takes on cover songs and, well…fun! Her heart wrenching musical stories has audiences in tears just before her comedic relief has them in stiches. Her appearances on Jimmy Kimmel and The Grammy Awards and a PBS special and London Live have kept her in the public eye and millions of fans have watched her head-spinning videos on YouTube and Facebook. WoodSongs Kid: Elle Hack is a ten-year-old singer from Benton, Kentucky.

WoodSongs 952: Smithsonian Folkways Celebration Apr 19, 2019

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On this Special Event Broadcast of WoodSongs, we’re honoring one of the most important legacy’s in all of recorded music… Smithsonian Folkways in celebration of their 70th anniversary. As Michael Johnathon notes, “Smithsonian Folkways is the musical treasure box of America's roots music. It is Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly and Big Bill Broonzy. It's what WoodSongs aspires to be. Our show was even based on Pete's old TV series Rainbow Quest. It's like WoodSongs is coming full circle as we present the great work of Smithsonian Folkways to a worldwide audience.” Appearing on the broadcast will be three incredible Folkways artists that continue the tradition that Moses Asch, who founded Folkways Records in 1948 to document the "people's music”, carry forward. Artists appearing on the broadcast include: Dom Flemons co-founding member of the GRAMMY-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, Grenadian-Canadian songwriter and tradition bearer Kaia Kater and Iraqi-American oud player Rahim AlHaj. Folkways’ Huib Schippers, (Curator and Director) and Jeff Place (Curator and Senior Archivist) will join Michael to share the label’s mission, story and cultural heritage with WoodSongs’ global audience. WoodSongs Kid: Mya Hunt is a thirteen-year-old vocalist from the Appalachian community in Mt. Vernon, Kentucky.

WoodSongs 951: Vanessa Collier and Tlen Huicani Apr 19, 2019

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VANESSA COLLIER is a master musician and multi-instrumentalist whose head-turning, fiery, and passionate performances recently got the attention of Buddy Guy. With soulful vocals, searing saxophone, and witty songwriting, Collier is blazing a trail, racking up an impressive arsenal of honours, and has already singled herself out as an artist of distinction and one we would all do well to watch. She was recently nominated for TWO 2018 Blues Music Awards and released her new album ‘Honey Up’ this summer. TLEN HUICANI (pronounced wee-KAH-nee) takes you on a journey of Mexico’s music, time and place with their traditional costumes and native instruments. Meaning “the singers” in their indigenous Indian language of Nahuatl, the band makes the beautiful “harpa jarocha” or folk harp, the centerpiece of their music. Since 1973, their music and international achievements have earned the honor of ‘Best Folk Group in Mexico’ by the Union of Music and Theater Critics. WoodSongs Kid: Alexis Radhakrishnan is a sixteen-year-old ukulele player and singer from Lexington, Kentucky.

WoodSongs 950: Amy Helm and Seth Walker Apr 17, 2019

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AMY HELM’s ’This Too Shall Light’,on Yep Roc Records, is marked by streaks of Americana, country, blues, and gospel, and the kinds of four-part harmonies that can burst open a melody and close the loop of an octave. The daughter of The Band’s legendary drummer and singer Levon Helm and singer/songwriter Libby Titus, Helm began her musical career as a founding member of the alt-country collective Ollabelle and later served as a backing musician in her father's Midnight Ramble Band. While ‘This Too Shall Light’ is only Helm’s second album under her own name, it serves as a comprehensive portrait covering her life's journeys and recoveries; They’re the stories that, no matter where they take her, seem to end and begin in the same place like a circle. SETH WALKER has become recognized as one of the most revered modern roots artists in the United States; a three dimensional talent who combines a gift for melody and lyric alongside a rich, Gospel-drenched, Southern-inflected voice with a true blue knack for getting around on the guitar. His latest studio album is 'Gotta Get Back'. WoodSongs Kids: The Wallace Sisters have been harmonizing together since they could talk. The siblings from Lexington, Kentucky enjoy singing for their schools and church choir but a year ago began singing officially as a trio at local events.

WoodSongs 949: Arvel Bird, Cicada Rhythm and Zhou Family Band Apr 17, 2019

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ARVEL BIRD is a classically trained as a violinist compositions whose performances encompass an extraordinary love of diversity—from traditional Celtic tunes and bluegrass standards to his contemporary Native American and Celtic rock orchestrations. His performances have been called “Braveheart Meets Last of the Mohicans ... at Woodstock.” Arvel toured worldwide with Glen Campbell for six years and also worked with Loretta Lynn, Tom T. Hall, Ray Price, Louise Mandrell, and Clay Walker. His newest and most vibrant instrumental release ‘Animal Totems’ is a tribute to the endangered species of the world. CICADA RHYTHM is the sound of Juilliard-trained bassist Andrea DeMarcus and rootsy guitarist Dave Kirslis. Born and raised in Georgia, the duo merges both traditional and contemporary Americana sounds along with topical lyrics, which often touched upon modern issues like environmentalism. On their latest album ‘Everywhere I Go’ out on New West Records, upsized their sound considerably with new members filling their lineup and a louder set of influences propelling their sound forward. Special Guests: ZHOU FAMILY BAND ( 周家班 ) plays traditional wind and percussion music which accompany birth and death celebrations of the people of Central-Eastern China for more than 600 years. Coming from Lingbi, Anhui Province, part of the Central Plain area which formed the cradle of Chinese civilization, the Zhou family have been musicians for seven generations, and are bearers of a tradition that represents the finest of Chinese folk music.

WoodSongs 948: Hiroya Tsukamoto and Youssra El Hawary Apr 17, 2019

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HIROYA TSUKAMOTO is a one-of-a-kind composer, guitarist and singer-songwriter from Kyoto, Japan. He began playing the five-string banjo when he was thirteen, and took up the guitar shortly after. In 2000, Hiroya received a scholarship to Berklee College of Music and came to the United States. Hiroya has been leading concerts internationally including several appearances at Blue Note in New York City with his group and Japanese National Television(NHK). Hiroya performed, recorded and shared stage with Esperanza Spalding, The Kennedys, Joe Jencks(Brother Sun), Michael League (Snarky Puppy), Brooks Williams and Jim Kweskin. He’s released two solo albums and three with his acclaimed group Interoceanico. YOUSSRA EL HAWARY became a slyly defiant sensation in the aftermath of the Egyptian revolution capturing the stories of Cairo, and the charged alchemy of the Mediterranean basin that fuels her distinctive and soulful sound. Now a fixture of Egypt’s independent music scene, El Hawary and her five-piece band meld the sounds of Cairo’s underground with quirky acoustic charm, led by the sway and swagger of El Hawary’s accordion. Her songs entwine French chanson, indie rock, and jazz to underscore an idiosyncratic artistic world. She is currently on her debut US tour as part of Center Stage, a cultural exchange program that invites performing artists from abroad to the United States to perform, meet, and share their experiences with communities around the country. WoodSongs Kid: Eddy Wan is a sixteen-year-old cello player from Lexington, Kentucky.

WoodSongs 947: Ukulele Night! Apr 17, 2019

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From it's humble origins in Hawaii to becoming a worldwide phenomenon, the ukulele is having a global revival. On this Special broadcast WoodSongs, we'll be exploring the many styles, sounds and stories of the uke with musicians from across the country including: "The Tennessee Ukulele Lady" Kelle Jolly, young, dynamic sister duo from Columbia, Missouri The Burney Sisters, Hawaiian ukulele virtuoso Andrew Molina, a wholly unique father-daughter musical duo The Barnkickers and 11-year-old WoodSongs Kid Ian Shaw.

WoodSongs 946: Chris Smither and Sam Morrow Apr 17, 2019

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CHRIS SMITHER is truly an American original. For over 50 years, Smiother draws deeply from the blues, American folk music, modern poets, and philosophers. He’s forged lifelong friendships with many musicians, including Bonnie Raitt who went on to record his songs, “Love You Like A Man” and “I Feel the Same. Smither recently released his eighteenth record, ‘Call Me Lucky’ on Signature Sounds/Mighty Albert. It’s arguably his best. SAM MORROW has found his footing as an artist and appears poised to join the ranks of a member of Los Angeles' country elite. He was recently named by Rolling Stone as 10 New Country Artists You Need to Know. At 27 years old, Morrow has released a confident career-defining album ‘Concrete and Mud’ on Forty Below Records. It’s rooted in Texas twang, southern stomp, and old-school funky-tonk. WoodSongs Kid: Ruby Leigh Pearson is an eleven-year-old country singer from Folley, Missouri. Listen Now

WoodSongs 945: Mandy Barnett and Gina Sicilia Oct 25, 2018

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MADNY BARNETT, one of Nashville’s enduring musical treasures, debuts song from her new album Strange Conversation. Rolling Stone Country broke the news about the project, citing that the Muscle Shoals-recorded album “bursts forth with a dynamic array of tunes from the worlds of pop, R&B and folk." Barnett has appeared on The Tonight Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS Sunday Morning, PBS’s Sessions at West 54th, and numerous other TV programs, and her music has been featured on movie and TV series soundtracks. The Chicago Tribune calls Barnett “a torch singer in the grandest sense of the word,” while the Los Angeles Times lauds her “pipes of steel. People magazine praises Barnett’s “natural musicality,” and the New York Times her “vocal finesse.” GINA SICILIA is a decorated blues vocalist whose ambition and determination has always set her apart. Since nabbing a Blues Music Award nomination for Best New Artist in 2008, Sicilia has enjoyed great success playing over 150 shows a year and opening for the likes for Joe Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Joan Osborne and Beth Hart, among others. She relocated to Nashville from Philadelphia a few years ago and those Americana influences can be heard on her eighth studio album ‘Heard The Lie’ via Blue Elan Records. Sicilia integrates these rootsier signifiers seamlessly within the album’s bluesy moments. WoodSongs Kid: Beth Davis is an award winning twelve-year-old musician from Carbondale,

WoodSongs 944: Jonathan McEuen and Troll Smashers Oct 25, 2018

Show notes

JONATHAN McEUEN has spent two decades of working with an astounding array of artists like Dwight Yoakam, Dolly Parton, Wynonna Judd, and others. He recently realized that if he was ever going to make the artistic impact he envisioned with his music, he would need to declare his independence once and for all. McEuen’s new release, ‘Through The Sun Gate’, is a symbolic illumination as he steps into a world of total artistic control with a collection of songs that chronicle his journey from Nashville to Ventura and back again. Drawing from a deep well of musical influences that range from The Flying Burrito Brothers to Buck Owens and Earl Scruggs, McEuen has crafted a true California-meets-Nashville gem. THE TROLL SMASHERS are a folk trio playing funky and fresh roots music with fiddles, mandolins, fingerstyle guitar, and decadently layered harmonies. Chalk it up to folksmash. This Austin, Texas trio has just released a debut EP. WoodSongs Kid: Georgia Turpin is a 15-year-old actress, singer and dancer from Harrodsburg, Kentucky. She performs the Edith Piaf classic “La Vie En Rose”.

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