Paper Wings Interview: Wilhelmina Frankzerda and Emily Mann
In May of this year the Paper Wings' duo – Wilhelmina Frankzerda and Emily Mann – released their second album Clementine. Thirteen original tracks deeply influenced by the women's experience in oldtime, we knew this...
Fiddle Noir: African American Fiddlers on Early Phonograph Records 1925-1949
Fiddle Noir represents an incredibly important contribution to the discography of traditional music. The vast majority of exploration into the acoustic music of Black people has focused on the guitar and the banjo. Documentary evidence...
Laurel Premo and “The Iron Trios”: An Interview
“When I interact with American fiddle music, it’s hard to distinguish between the sounds that I’m actually hearing and the music that is happening inside of me. From the rhythms of my body reacting...
Gap Civil String Band “Cut the Pigeon Wing” – CD review and interview
Gap Civil is an old time band based in Sparta, North Carolina, that plays hard-driving fiddle tunes, but also knows how to slow it down for waltzes and traditional country songs. Lucas Pasley plays...
“The Completely Lost Mississippi Fiddle Tunes” by Harry Bolick & Friends
The album "The Completely Lost Mississippi Fiddle Tunes" by Harry Bolick & Friends is an album filled with Harry's own tunes, written in the Mississippi style that he has studied for so long. The...
Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves
In Washington, North Carolina in 1974, a 20-year-old Black woman named Joan Little was arrested for shoplifting and breaking-and-entering. Sentenced to 7-10 years and unable to make a $15,000 bond, she was incarcerated at...
“Goin’ Down to ‘Leven Point” The Ozark Highballers
Let me get straight to the point. The Ozark Highballers’ latest release "Goin’ Down to ‘Leven Point" puts a huge smile on my face every time I listen to it. And I’ve listened to...
Hog-Eyed Man: Old World Music of the Southern Appalachians
There is something inherently magical about being invited into someone’s parlor only to be inundated with sound, spectacle and joy. One may walk in, grab a hot drink and sit nearby inadvertently tapping a...
Stony Run: An interview with Ken and Brad Kolodner
The following is an interview with Ken and Brad Kolodner, the father-son duo based in Baltimore, Maryland, about their new album "Stony Run." Aside from their touring duo, Ken and Brad are the hosts...
We Came for the Fiddle Tunes, but Stayed for the Yodeling Cowboys: A Review...
In his 1962 travelogue Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck reverently ascribes a religious mystique to the Lone Star State. “And this is true,” Steinbeck writes, “to the extent that people either passionately love Texas...