folk music

Early this summer, the Capital Region based Americana band Zan and the Winter Folk released their first full length album “New Morse Code.”Led by songwriter Zan Strumfeld on guitar and vocals, The Winter Folk are Michael Gregg (banjo), Will Brown (lead guitar), Sean Fortune (Upright Bass) and Brendan Tompkins (drums). In addition to the core group, “New Morse Code” features other artists from the greater-Troy music community - adding vocals and instrumentation for various of the personal, haunting, resilient songs.

In an archival interview from 2010, folk musician Happy Traum, who died this month at the age of 86, sat down with WAMC’s now retired Alan Chartock. Live at the Linda, Traum tells us how he got the name “Happy,” how he got into folk music, and relives the folk craze of the 60s.

July 14 would have been Woody Guthrie’s 112th birthday. We mark the occasion on the Roundtable this morning. Pete Seeger famously said that all folksingers who came after Woody were Woody’s children. Folksinger Doug Mishkin wrote the song, "Woody’s Children." Doug Mishkin joins us this morning to talk about Woody Guthrie and the song - Woody’s Children. Mo Guthrie, the Director of the Guthrie Center, is also here to speak about the non-music work of the Center.

Michael Eck returns with special guests to Caffe Lena on Friday night for a combined 60th birthday party/album release show. Eck debuted at Caffè Lena in 1990 and offered a sold-out solo album release show in fall 2022.For this event, Eck will be joined by an all-star ensemble featuring Rosanne Raneri, Kevin Maul, and Sten Isachsen and Bob Buckley. Together they will join in on old favorites, new songs – from “Fermata,” being released at the concert.

Lamenting the roll-back on women’s rights around the world, folk singer-songwriter Dawn Landes re-imagines The Liberated Woman’s Songbook in a new album that is available today.First published at the height of the Women’s Liberation Movement, Landes’ revision of the work is a collaboration with producer Josh Kauffman.

The new documentary film “Joan Baez: I Am A Noise” is a biography that opens with her farewell tour, and uses her journals and archival footage and photographs to stunningly depict Baez taking stock of a life lived in the public eye – in an unsparing fashion and confronts sometimes painful memories.

Judy Collins has inspired audiences with sublime vocals, boldly vulnerable songwriting, personal life triumphs, and a firm commitment to social activism. She is bringing her "Holidays & Hits" tour to Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs, New York on December 16.

Over the last half a century, the legendary Judy Collins has thrilled audiences worldwide with her unique blend of interpretive folk songs and contemporary themes – a modern day Renaissance woman who continues to create music of hope and healing that lights up the world. Judy Collins returns to The Egg in Albany, New York to perform her greatest hits on July 15, 2023.

Pianist Jacqueline Schwab will perform a concert entitled “Mothers and Children: A Mother's Day Concert of Hope and Peace” at the Guilderland Public Library this Sunday, May 14 at 2 p.m.Schwab’s signature piano playing features in over a dozen of Ken Burns’ documentaries, including his Grammy-winning “Civil War,” “Baseball,” “The War” and others. As a solo pianist, she has performed vintage American music in almost every state of the union. Her latest album is “I Life My Lamp: Illuminations from Immigrant America.”

Music journalist Will Hermes is a regular contributor to NPR, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Pitchfork. He’s the author of the upcoming “Lou Reed: The King of New York” which is scheduled to be published by FSG this fall. Hermes recently spent time exploring the music scene in Ireland and an article he’s written about what he heard and learned on the Emerald Isle will be published in The New York Times this weekend.