Sam Robbins has created a buzz in the folk community with his appealing, James Taylor-like melodies and manner. He’s been a winner at the prestigious Kerrville and Falcon Ridge folk festivals, he’s performed on my On Your Radar series, and I declared him my top Discovery of the Year in the 2023 WFUV Listener Poll. With two solo albums behind him, he’s teamed up with Berkelee College classmate (and new fiancée) Halley Neal for a holiday album, You & Me On Christmas Eve, that’s exquisite in every way.

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Let us now praise Nanci Griffith. We lost her two years ago, a fragile creature at the time physically, because of her failing health, but spiritually strong. She was one of the country-folk pioneers of the ‘80s, along with Lyle Lovett and Mary Chapin Carpenter.

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Over the course of her three-decade career, Joan Osborne has comfortably navigated practically every genre of popular music: rock, pop, soul, R&B, blues, and country.

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Leslie Odom, Jr is now starring in “Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Thru the Cotton Patch” at the Music Box Theater. Comedy written by Ossie Davis and originally produced on Broadway in 1961 w/ his wife Ruby Dee in one of the lead roles.

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With the onset of Covid-19, Pete and Maura Kennedy found themselves stymied, while touring was precluded. Famous road warriors, The Kennedys inaugurated weekly live streams, which drew hundreds of viewers and generated a repertoire of a thousand songs. Meanwhile, the changing times inspired a wealth of original songs, which have been released on their first album of new material in five years, Headwinds, which addresses both the environment and polarization.

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Let’s put it right out there: Rhiannon Giddens is a goddess! Not just a Renaissance woman – a banjo player and a fiddler who’s won multiple Grammys, a MacArthur “Genius” grant, and a Pulitzer Prize for her opera Omar; co-founded Carolina Chocolate Drops and Our Native Daughters; succeeded Yo-Yo Ma as the Artistic Director of the Silk Road Ensemble; acted in the TV series Nashville; narrated podcasts; authored children’s books, and so much more – she’s somehow divinely ordained. On her new release, You’re the One, she channels her musical gifts into a sublimely eclectic album which may be the best of the year.

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Adam Lytle is a Cincinnati-born, Brooklyn-based artist who writes songs that explore the darker regions of the heart.

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For more than 30 years, ever since he moved from Maine to Boston (on the strength of a track scholarship at Boston College), Ellis Paul has epitomized literate song craftsmanship. Now ensconced in Charlottesville, VA, he’s continued to release a string of high-quality albums. His 22nd and most recent release, 55, reveals a mature artist at the height of his powers.

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Maryland born and raised, but now Texas-based, Karyn Oliver will be releasing her fifth album, Cherchez La Femmex in September.

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For 30 years Vance Gilbert has released albums that cover the musical landscape, with elements of folk, R&B, swing, pop standards, and Americana. On his new album, The Mother of Trouble, he seems to check off all those boxes. Add to that the lyrical content, which, per his description, includes “4 bullies, 3 deaths, 2 accidents, 2 moms, 2 Black people, 1 dog, and 1 ball,” and you’ve got a rich and deep album.

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Chris Pierce is an Americana/blues-based singer-songwriter, educator, and wine producer who's won acclaim for his work over two decades.

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On this first day of summer, the New Folk Initiative is pleased to premiere this video by Roger Street Friedman of "In the Summertime" from his masterful album, Love Hope Trust.

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The Milk Carton Kids became instant hits when they showcased at the Folk Alliance conference in 2011. The supple harmonies of Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan, the interplay of their guitars, and their hilarious stage banter seemed like a cross between Simon & Garfunkel and the Smothers Brothers. 

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I first heard Jaimee Harris’s voice on the livestream that Eliza Gilkyson arranged for the Jimmy LaFave tribute concert in Austin six years ago. Wow, I thought, who is that?

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The scene opens in the backyard of a ranch-style house in the South. A somewhat pudgy young Black man is blowing up balloons. There’s going to be a party celebrating the marriage of his mother and his father’s brother, which he feels is unseemly, considering his father’s recent death. Was his uncle responsible? If that sounds a bit like Hamlet, you get the connection with Fat Ham. But instead of being a tragedy, for the most part it’s a hilarious, albeit provocative, comedy.

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You might call Iris DeMent quirky, with a twangy voice that may be an acquired taste. Her stage presence is as unslick as her unvarnished vocals, as if she has no filter, yet her fans welcome her seeming vulnerability, because she seems so truthful.

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Since teaming up in 2014, the Philadelphia-based singer-guitarist Aaron Nathans and the Cincinnati-based cellist-vocalist Michael G. Ronstadt have managed to record four full-length albums. The latest, Hello World, contains a song that should warm the hearts of baseball fans and lovers of New York City history.

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The Nashville trio South for Winter didn't stop in Florida this winter, they went all the way Down Under to New Zealand, where Dani and Nick spent several years as a duo.

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At a time when clearly Black Lives Matter so much, music also matters more than ever. Songwriters like Crys Matthews and Reggie Harris have found a voice to express what is happening. Now I’ve encountered another Reggie, Reggie Garrett, who makes a profound impression on his fifth album,  York’s Lament & Other Stories.

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