Folk Alley Sessions

by Kim Ruehl (@kimruehl), Folk Alley Sunny War came of age hopping trains and busking around Los Angeles. She played in a punk band even as she was a fan of folk-blues artists from a century ago. All of these elements swirl together in her songwriting, which is unpretentiously poetic, clear and concise, catchy but remarkably simple. Across her handful of albums, her songwriting has depicted the remarkable growth and evolution of a songwriter with impeccable instincts, and her latest effort, Simple Syrup, is another impressive step on that journey. When we spoke for the Why We Write podcast, Sunny War was in the process of recording the album, happy to ruminate on her unfolding career, her experiences with ayahuasca, and the way a year of quarantine was impacting her creative process.

by Kim Ruehl (@kimruehl), Folk Alley There is much that could be said about Rosanne Cash’s number-one hits and Grammy awards, her family legacy and her celebrity. But whether she’s writing songs, articles, essays, or books, Cash is always a writer’s writer.She has a knack for catchy, chorus-worthy turn of phrase, sure, but she also has a generally superb literary sensibility. Thus, the opportunity to discuss writing with her for this episode of Why We Write was a bit of a no-brainer.One of the things that strikes me most about Cash’s songwriting is the way she sets her songs and stories very strongly in a specific place. So, we began our conversation with the relationship between story and place. Press play and come along for the ride

by Kim Ruehl (@kimruehl), Folk Alley Ani DiFranco has released almost two dozen studio albums since her 1990 self-titled debut. That doesn’t count her many live and official bootleg recordings, her collaborations with Utah Phillips, and a couple of “greatest hits”-style recordings. Indeed, she has proven to be one of her generation’s most prolific and influential songwriters. So, when it came time to launch a podcast for Folk Alley called Why We Write — where we’ll talk to great songwriters about songwriting — Ani DiFranco seemed like the perfect person with whom to start. When we spoke, she was on the precipice of releasing her latest project, Revolutionary Love, where she goes deeper and further with the concept of “love” than most songwriters are willing to go. But going deeper and unpacking further—always via her life-and-emotion-nailing poetic lyricism—is one of the things DiFranco does best. Exactly why she feels called to write this way, is where we started our conversation. Of course, you’re never

(This Folk Alley Sessions was originally published in July, 2017.)L.A. born John Craigie discovered beauty in storytelling through music, diving into the folk scene in the grunge-driven '90s. For him, it's about the relationship between singer and audience (so much so that he added a group of friends to his latest studio sessions - creating a house concert vibe). He's something of a neo-hippie, in-name-only Math major who found his true self touring the country with a guitar as his calling card.John stopped by BeeHive Studios in Saranac Lake, NY, in May 2017 to record a few songs from his recent 'No Rain, No Rose' album exclusively for Folk Alley.

(Session first published April 2016) by Kelly McCartney (@theKELword) for Folk AlleyOver the course of her more than 25 years of making music, Ani DiFranco has been widely celebrated and often emulated. The trouble is, DiFranco's work is a moving target which words and imitation fail miserably in hitting. She would argue -- and has -- that hers is a living, breathing body of performance art that makes its most comfortable home on stage. "I am a work in progress," she concedes in "The Slant," off her 1990 self-titled debut, adding some years later on the title track to 'Evolve,' "I don't take good pictures 'cause I have the kind of beauty that moves."In an interview with Cuepoint about her last release, 'Allergic to Water,' Ani upped the ante even more:"This is my problem making albums, to begin with, is that they do not move. There's a stagnant... I may as well write my words down on paper while I'm at it, if I want them to just fucking sit there. ... I've made incredible mistakes along the way in my recordi

by Kim Ruehl, (@kimruehl), Folk AlleyWhen the Indigo Girls dropped by the Folk Alley house during this year’s 30A Songwriters Festival, the duo was gearing up for the release of its 15th album, Look Long. (A review is available here.)The disc, which released on May 22, saw the IGs backed once again by the same group of musicians who played on their 1999 album Come on Now Social - a reunion they both relished, which was a long time in the making. As they played an intimate set that included two new songs and one old fan favorite, the duo had much to say between songs about the new album, their decades of collaboration, their most requested classic, and much more.

by Kim Ruehl (@kimruehl), Folk AlleyGlimmer was Kim Richey’s third album, released in 1999, but it contained so many fan-favorites that it has become one of her most beloved. To celebrate its 20th year, Richey revisited these old songs with new eyes and ears, and the result—Long Way Back—is a stirring emotional tribute to the way songs can grow and evolve over time, right along with their singer.Indeed, at this year’s 30A Songwriter Festival in Florida, Richey dropped by the Folk Alley house to wrap her smooth vocals around some solo, acoustic versions of these old favorites that never get old. She also talked about the way the songs felt to her then and how they feel now, with 20 more years of life to them.

At the end of the day, Vancouver native and banjo player Taylor Ashton says, his new album is “pretty fun.” The Romantic (Signature Sounds Recordings) is a record that was 10 years in the making, a record that forced Ashton into the solo spotlight for the very first time in his music career, and a record that is, at its heart, about change.In March of 2020, Taylor Ashton joined Folk Alley at the gorgeous and eclectic studio space at The Porches Inn in North Adams, Massachusetts to share some thoughts about the winding road his music has taken him on and to share songs from his debut release.

by Kim Ruehl (@kimruehl), Folk AlleyKyshona Armstrong was a music therapist before she shifted her focus to pursuing a career in songwriting. Drawing from her background experience of using music as a healing force in people’s lives, the songwriting on Armstrong’s latest album, Listen., is heavy on transcendence and empowerment. “Fear,” for example, digs deep into one of the emotions so many people tend to run from, encouraging folks to “call it by its name” rather than giving in to its pull. And that’s just the beginning of Armstrong’s fearless approach to intensely emotional lyricism.During this year’s 30A Songwriters Festival, we talked with Armstrong about all of this and more. Tune in and discover one of Nashville’s finest up-and-coming singer-songwriters.

by Kim Ruehl (@kimruehl), Folk AlleyThe Secret Sisters have been through a lot in the last few years, from losing major label support to welcoming new babies into their families, along with other personal and professional landmarks. It’s par for the course around one’s Saturn Return—an occurrence during the end of your 20s, when the trajectory of Saturn returns to the same position it was in when you were born. According to astrology, this is a period of great change in one’s personal life and the duo—Laura Rogers and Lydia Slagle—felt this was an appropriate phenomenon after which to name their new, emotionally stirring, Brandi Carlile-produced album. During the 2020 30A Songwriters Festival, we chatted with the sisters about all of this and more, as they performed some of the album’s finest songs at the Folk Alley beach house.

by Kim Ruehl (@kimruehl), Folk AlleyIn her first book, Blood, which released last fall, Allison Moorer dug into deep wounds from her childhood, exploring both her experience and her process of healing. To accompany the book, she originally intended to release an EP of songs that explored the same themes. That project quickly grew into a remarkably stirring full-length album, which she also titled Blood. By the time I spoke with her at the 30A Songwriters Festival in Florida this January, Moorer had been touring in support of the double project for several months and had become accustomed to the way her audiences were inclined to bond with her, across their own traumas. In this session, we discussed all of this and more, and Moorer also gifted us with some excellent performances of songs from the album.

by Kim Ruehl (@kimruehl), Folk AlleyIt’s hard not to throw around words like “prodigious” when talking about someone like Sierra Hull. At just 28 years old, she has already released five albums, worked with many of the biggest names in Nashville, taken home a half-dozen IBMA awards, and earned a Grammy nomination for her sparsely arranged mandolin-and-bass 2017 singer-songwriter album Weighted Mind. So, when one hears her sing about wanting to slow down for a bit after “25 trips around the sun” on the title track of her new album, 25 Trips, one might understand the impulse. Lucky for fans, the new album doesn’t actually slow the gifted mandolinist and songwriter down a bit. During a Folk Alley Session at the 30A Songwriters Festival, we sat down with Hull for a conversation about all of this and more.

(originally posted June, 2019)So, what does “old-time music” really mean? If you think about it, you start to realize that it’s one of those incredibly broad terms, the kind of term that could mean anything from traditional 17th century English ballads and fantasies (or, phantasies) to the kinds of music that Bob Dylan and Joan Baez made popular in the 60s and 70s. Fiddler Tatiana Hargreaves and banjo player Allison de Groot first started their collaboration over the term “old-time music” and realized, pretty quickly, that their definition of the term was very similar. We like the same kinds of music, they say, and so it was easy to become musical partners and share that love with other music fans. The duo put out a self-titled album in 2019 and they came to Beehive Productions Studios in Saranac Lake, NY to talk about it and about their musical partnership.

(Session originally published April 2019)If you had to choose just one word to describe the duo Dead Horses, it might well be “personal”; nothing is off-limits when it comes to what inspires their sound and, maybe even more importantly, the stories they tell in their music. Based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the duo, Sarah Vos and Daniel Wolff, first started making music together in 2010; they cut their musical teeth playing at every opportunity that presented itself: farmers’ markets, the sides of busy roads, bars – so many bars – and any other place that would have them. And through it all, they remain dedicated to what Sarah describes as “the most worthy of pursuits for musicians” – songwriting. From breakups to childhood memories, romantic entanglements and friends in trouble, Dead Horses tackle anything and everything that comes their way. Recently, they let us in to see how they think about music and musicianship when they stopped by Saranac Lake, NY for a Folk Alley Session at Beehive Productions' studio.

(This Session was first posted on January 25, 2019.)In a world increasingly filled with uncertainty, tension, fear, and anger, how in the world are you supposed to get through each day, doing the best that you can do? That’s the conundrum the trio Lula Wiles ponders, analyzes, argues about, and tries to answer on their new album, What Will We Do. Mali Obomsawin, Ellie Buckland, and Isa Burke, friends for years in their native Maine before coming together, officially, in 2016 in Boston, are three musicians who believe that music has the power to bring out the humanity in all of us. They gathered together at the Upper Jay Arts Center’s Recovery Lounge in Upper Jay, New York to talk about their new album (and their first one, too, on the Smithsonian Folkways label), how they approach making music, and, of course, how they came up with their name.

(Originally posted May 2019)Anna Tivel started making music when she was just a kid; it was her grandfather, she says, who first inspired her. He was a violinist and she started out on that instrument, too, playing it all the way through high school and college. It was only then that Tivel switched to the guitar and started thinking about writing songs, something she has been thinking about – and doing – ever since. During a recent east coast tour, she joined us for a special Folk Alley Session taping at CitySpace in Easthampton, Massachusetts to share some thoughts about, and music from, her 2019 release, The Question. With Dietrich Strause joining her on backing vocals and guitar, Tivel dove into the inspiration behind a few songs on the recording…and explained why the music on this record, music from the guts, she says, feels oh so good.(Recorded by Jeff Oehler and Sue Bibeau of Beehive Production, April 21, 2019.)

(Originally posted in April 2019)Molly Tuttle knew from the time she was 4 that she wanted music to be a big part of her life. Now based in Nashville, this young, incredibly talented and much-awarded musician grew up in a musical household and tried a few different instruments, including fiddle, before realizing that guitar was the instrument that spoke most directly to her. By the time she was 11, she was making music with friends in the local pizza joint, and a few years after that, she started taking songwriting classes. That’s where she learned about Bill Monroe, Hazel Dickens, Gillian Welch, Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell and that’s also where she started discovering her own voice as a songwriter. In late March of 2019, she came by the studios of Beehive Productions in Saranac Lake, NY to share some thoughts about her musical history and also to share some music from her debut full-length album, When You’re Ready.

Sometimes even the very best laid plans go a bit awry. And singer/songwriter Maya de Vitry knows that firsthand. A talented fiddler who spent her childhood writing stories and poems, she always figured she’d participate in music in the background. As she got older, however, she realized a whole new world was wide open to her – the world of a singer and songwriter. While that discovery was truly magical, she says, she put it on the back burner for several years to participate in the renowned band The Stray Birds. But now, she’s front and center once again, ready to embrace her voice, her vision, her…SELF. Maya de Vitry joined us in the studio to share some eye-opening thoughts about what it really took to put together her debut solo album, Adaptations, during a recent session in Nashville, Tennessee.

There’s a proud troubadour tradition in the folk music world: musicians heading out to unfamiliar and sometimes unfriendly places, gathering songs and stories and music they hear, and then sharing all of it with anyone who wants to listen. Often, that tradition is combined with a collaborative energy and spirit - the brave song and story collectors teaming up with others who feel the same way to compile and share something special, something unique. Well, that troubadour tradition is something The Small Glories honored on their 2019 recording, Assiniboine & the Red. This Winnipeg based duo, made up of musical friends JD Edwards and Cara Luft, say this album kind of represents the story of…well, of them. Both have had extensive solo careers, and careers with other bands (Luft, for example, was a founding member of the Wailin' Jennys) and both have the kinds of musical contact lists you and I can only dream of. In additional, neither of these talents are originally from Winnipeg, and of course the two river

(originally recorded October 31, 2017)What happens when a group of talented musicians get together for a short period of time in a small space with a gigantic wood stove? Musical magic, according to Kris Delmhorst. She talked about this and the making of her 2017 album, 'The Wild' when she and her husband and musical partner, Jeffrey Foucault stopped by Beehive Productions studio for an exclusive Folk Alley Session.