Last week, the Newport Folk Festival added Nashville instrumental duo Steelism (Jeremy Fetzer & Spencer Cullum Jr.) to its lineup and announced that Ruby Amanfu and Nicole Atkins would join their set. Steelism’s country twang/vintage […]
The Deep, Deep South Blues of C.W. Stoneking
When tickets for the 2017 Newport Folk Festival went on sale in November, weekend passes sold out in a few hours. At that point, no bands had been announced. Since then, the Festival has slowly […]
Show of The Week: Noam Pikelny at The Bowery Ballroom
Photo by Justin Camerer Punch Brother banjoist Noam Pikelny has released multiple records under his own name, but this year he released his first true solo record, Universal Favorite. Unlike his previous albums, he’s the only […]
Show of The Week: New Jamgrass Supergroup Makes Their Debut at Brooklyn Bowl
Photo: Jacob Jolliff by Tom Wickstrom Bluegrass has many sects. And tonight is a big one for the hazier end of the spectrum: the jam band crowd. Metropolitan Jamgrass Alliance, a new supergroup of musicians […]
Brooklyn & Nashville Folk Communities Fight Climate Change With Benefit Concerts
Haas Kowert Tice – Photo by Michael George Of the 17 hottest years ever recorded, 16 have occurred since 2000, and the Earth’s hottest year ever was 2016. While El Niño weather patterns have intensified temperatures, […]
The Twin Harmonies of The Brother Brothers
Photos by Justin Camerer Growing up in Peoria, IL, Adam and David Moss say they were the kind of identical twins that were “best friends, but separable.” The Moss brothers both started playing music at a […]
VIDEO PREMIERE: Kelley McRae -‘Hard Night’
Photo by Darin Back Earlier this year, Kelley McRae released The Wayside, an album inspired by the extended time she and guitarist Matt Castelein spent on tour in a VW camper after years living in Brooklyn. […]
The Resurgence of Activist Folk in The Era of Donald Trump
“A good song reminds us what we’re fighting for.” – Pete Seeger From labor rights to civil rights to the peace movement to environmental causes, folk legends like the late Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, […]
The Forgotten Scream of Big Henry Johnson
When Archie Brownlee, the legendary founding leader of The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, died of pneumonia while on tour in New Orleans in 1960, the group that had formed in the mid-1930s was coming […]
Who Was That Random Man Glen Hansard Invited Onstage at Newport?
Earlier this week, I posted a few of my favorite moments from this year’s Newport Folk Festival. But there’s one more that I thought deserved a little extra attention. Unannounced performances in Newport aren’t unusual. […]
Kaitlin Chow’s Newport Sketch Book
After seven straight years of covering the Newport Folk Fest, I’ve gotten to know a bunch of folks that also make it every year. One of those fine festivarians is the fantastic illustrator, designer and photographer Kaitlin […]
RECAP: Perpetual FOMO at the 2016 Newport Folk Festival
Margo Price at Newport – Photo by Jamie Reiley of our friends at Music Savage The anxiety that comes with navigating the Newport Folk Festival’s overlapping sets is something that gets worse for me every […]
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