Patrick Ames’ origin story as an artist begins in nondescript fashion. Having piqued an interest in songwriting as a teenager in the late 1960s, he was further influenced by the records owned by his older siblings. Come the time that…
Joy Williams is finally back on the Front Porch. Her aptly title new record chronicles the comfort generated in returning both to her Nashville home and to the acoustic, folk-driven music she would play on her own front porch. Intimacy…
In ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ Bob Dylan sings, “But even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked” and on Undress the Felice Brothers have taken that notion to heart. Ian Felice makes it…
In League With Dragons is the seventeenth album in twenty-five years from the Mountain Goats. What’s surprising is that John Darnielle, songwriter and frontman for the band, decided to give up control and let one of his old collaborators, Owen…
Craig Finn is a master of the short story. In three and half minutes he can tell you more than most people tell you in a lifetime. On I Need A New War, Finn concludes a trilogy of music that…
J.J. Cale should hopefully need no introduction to For Folk’s Sake readers. The legendary Oklahoman musician and songwriter, who died almost 6 years ago, has had songs covered by many artists including Johnny Cash, Beck and, most famously, Eric Clapton.…
Gentle graces. There is something essentially soft and tender about Carrie Tree’s latest record, The Canoe. Underneath the placid exterior are musical depths one doesn’t always associate with folk music, instruments like balafon, ronroco, ngoni, and jarana. Allow the music…
Daniel Norgren is an anomaly. If you close your eyes and listen to a song like ‘Let Love Run The Game’, you’d almost swear it was The Band, but with an unidentifiable vocalist. The music choogles along, sounding like something…
Life gets messy and Field Medic embraces the mess in all its rambunctious, unruly glory. Recorded digitally, fade into the dawn sounds nothing like your standard digital album, largely because Kevin Patrick Sullivan decided to record each song in a…
Ten years since Nick Hemming, Christian Hardy and co arrived with their award-nominated debut album The Sleeper, their fifth offering represents a rebuilding of sorts. The ending of songwriter Hemming’s relationship with Leisure Society flautist Helen Whitaker, and the folding…