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Gordon Lightfoot, who died on May 1, and John Prine, who died in 2020, are among the artists in the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame’s (FARHOF) inaugural class of inductees. The first induction ceremony for recipients and their families will take place in April 2024. Living and deceased artists, songwriters, record executives, managers and concert promoters tied to elevating folk, Americana and roots music were all eligible.
The inaugural class of 29 was selected by a designated nomination committee that includes industry experts as well as FARHOF’s board of directors. The class consists of 10 solo living artists, 11 solo legacy artists (all of whom are deceased, though the rules don’t stipulate that), four groups or duos, three non-performers and one recipient of the Paul Robeson Artist/Activist Award.
“When we created the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame, identifying the inaugural class and those after was going to be a big part of our initiative with focus on preserving these important genres and the history they created,” Joe Spaulding, president and CEO of the Boch Center and founder of FARHOF, said in a statement. “The diverse inaugural class reflects activism and social justice that shaped our world today, and we look forward to inducting these national treasures into the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame.”
The Weavers were inducted, while two members of that legendary group were also honored on their own. Pete Seeger, who left the group in 1957 and died in 2014, was inducted as a solo legacy artist. Frank Hamilton, who joined the group after Seeger’s departure and remained with it until it disbanded in 1964, received the Paul Robeson Artist/Activist Award. Hamilton is still living at 89.
The Folk America Roots Hall of Fame, which launched in 2019, is a cultural and education initiative of the Boch Center, which is located inside the Wang Theatre in Boston. For updates, information about tours and upcoming events and exhibits, visit the website at FARHOF.org.
Here are the 29 inductees in the inaugural class, by category.
Solo Living Artist
A contemporary performer whose initial impact on the genre was at least 25 years prior to the year of induction.
Joni Mitchell
Bob Dylan
Joan Baez
Mavis Staples
Willie Nelson
Emmylou Harris
James Taylor
Taj Mahal
Bonnie Raitt
Ramblin’ Jack Elliot
Solo Legacy Artist
A performer whose initial impact on the genre was at least 45 years prior to the year of induction.
Odetta
Pete Seeger
Woody Guthrie
Lead Belly
Richie Havens
Josh White
Oscar Brand
Johnny Cash
John Prine
Jean Ritchie
Gordon Lightfoot
Duo or Group of Musicians
Duos or groups whose initial impact on the genre was at least 25 years prior to the year of induction.
Peter, Paul & Mary
The Band
The Byrds
The Weavers
Non-Performer
This category includes supporting musicians, songwriters, managers, publishers, historians and producers.
Albert Grossman (former manager to many musicians in the folk music scene)
George Wein (jazz promoter, pianist and producer as well as founder of Newport Jazz Festival and co-founder of the Newport Folk Festival. Also instrumental in the founding of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.)
Betsy Siggins (founding member of the Club 47 venue now Passin in Boston; assisted in creating the Festival of American Folklife and founder of the New England Folk Music Archives/Folk New England.)
Paul Robeson Artist/Activist Award
Non-performing industry professionals who have had a major influence on the social justice that has impacted culture.
Frank Hamilton – (American folk musician, member of The Weavers and co-founder of Old Town School of Folk Music)
During the week of the winter solstice last December, Allison Russell stood in a large circle of “goddesses,” chanting and singing together to conjure communal joy out of thin air. Drums, guitars and strings joined her and her circle of “chosen sisters” as they celebrated “being back in our bodies.”
If that sounds more like a new-age spiritual exercise than a recording session, Russell will be the first one to tell you that two things can be true at the same time. “It ended up being very witchy and woo-woo and wonderful,” she tells Billboard. “We just got to be so present and say ‘F–k oppressors telling us we’re not gorgeous and perfect as we are.’”
That sentiment was the leading ethos behind the creation of The Returner, Russell’s spellbinding sophomore LP (out Friday, Sept. 8 via Fantasy Records). The folk star wanted to create an album that didn’t look back on the pain of the past — she had already done that on her outstanding 2021 debut album Outside Child — but rather firmly planted itself in the present and called for a much-needed celebration. Or, as she more poetically puts it, The Returner is about “stealing joy from the teeth of turmoil.”
To accomplish that goal, Russell ventured outside of the world of Americana music that made her one of the fastest-rising folk stars of the last few years. Taking a “rhythm-first” approach to creating the new sound, the singer-songwriter and Dim Star — the production duo of Russell’s partner JT Nero and Drew Lindsay — employed elements of funk, rock, disco and pop to further bolster her folk roots and give The Returner a fresh new sound.
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Russell says that this approach came about in part because she spent the last few years getting to tour internationally for the first time. “We toured in a lot of places where English isn’t the first language,” she said. “We realized that there’s a transcendence that comes when you allow yourself to feel music with your whole body. A lot of the demos started with us hearing the polyrhythmic layers of groove within some of the things that JT [Nero] and I were writing. That informs melody, that informs even the syllables, the words that are chosen.”
After spending three months working with Dim Star to create demos that achieved something close to the sound they were looking for, Russell recounts being contacted by her label in late 2022 and told that, in order to release an album in 2023, they would need her master by the end of the year thanks to ongoing delays in vinyl production.
Where most artists would panic, Russell felt relief — booking six days at L.A.’s Henson Recording Studios (a space “presided over by my hero, Kermit the Frog,” Russell quips), the multi-hyphenate embraced the do-or-die nature of the sessions. “We recorded Outside Child in four days, so we were like, ‘Oh, we have six whole days in the studio? That’s great,’” she recalls. “It actually felt magical — Joni [Mitchell] recorded Blue there, Joni recorded Court and Spark there, Carole King recorded Tapestry there, Tina Turner and Cyndi Lauper blew everything off the top of ‘We Are the World’ there. There were all of these good ghosts in the walls.”
In order to bring the expansive new sound of The Returner to life, Russell brought together a 16-person band of women to the week-long studio session. Featuring artists like SistaStrings, Joy Clark, Elenna Canlas, Elizabeth Pupo-Walker and a dozen others, the group became the engine through which Russell and Dim Star engineered their creative vision.
“The magic of this circle is that everybody is such a high-level, multifaceted artist; everybody’s a lead singer, everybody’s a writer, everybody’s a composer, everybody’s a multi-instrumentalist,” she said. “So when we go in the studio, it’s with this level of trust — and because of that, the album ends up being a musical conversation in real time with these brilliant artists that I feel so privileged to be working with.”
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Throughout her conversation with Billboard, Russell refers to the femme-focused troupe as the “Rainbow Coalition,” a name she also interchangeably uses for the community of artists she surrounds herself with and her fans. While the name may evoke a sense of LGBTQ-centric idealism that Russell shares with those she accepts as her chosen family, the singer points to the term’s long history for context.
Before the name was adopted into a larger cultural context, the original Rainbow Coalition was formed in 1969 Chicago by Fred Hampton, the deputy chairman of the Black Panther Party. Hampton helped bring together the Young Patriots (made up of poor Southern whites), the Young Lords (made up of Puerto Rican migrants) and street gangs throughout the city to work together towards social change.
While the original coalition fell apart after Hampton’s assassination in December 1969, Russell says that the core organizing principle of the original Rainbow Coalition remains a cornerstone of her own worldview today. “Any of us, globally, who are interested in the business of harm reduction, and of pushing for equality versus inequality — that’s the Rainbow Coalition,” she says. “There’s so few places where we can gather people from all different kinds of beliefs, histories, ethnicities and heritages in joyful assembly — but we have that in playing and listening to live music together.”
It certainly helps Russell’s righteous cause that she finds herself in storied company — in the years since she began working as a solo artist, the Montreal-born artist has become a contemporary of superstars like Brandi Carlile, Annie Lennox, Chaka Khan, and even Joni Mitchell, who brought her onstage earlier this year for her Joni Jam concert at The Gorge.
“Community is vital [in the music industry], both in terms of sharing resources and also just artistically,” Russell offers. “Getting to be a part of that event, where we were all there in service of Joni and in reverence and celebration of our elder was the most inspiring, transcendent, beautiful thing to get to witness and to be a part of.”
After being welcomed with open arms by artists like Carlile and Mitchell into the industry, Russell is now laser-focused on doing her part to leave the world a better place than she found it. One way she intends to do that is by fighting back against the ongoing wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation sweeping through the U.S., targeting healthcare and privacy rights for the transgender community, as well as First Amendment rights for drag performers.
Even broaching the subject of anti-LGBTQ legislation immediately prompts Russell’s indignant fury. “It is domestic legislative terrorism,” she says, her friendly smile dropping into a grimace. “It’s so serious, and we sleepwalk through it at our peril, right? This is some Third Reich s–t, and we cannot allow it to continue; we must fight back. And that’s what I’m talking about when it comes to the Rainbow Coalition — it’s all of us who stand at any intersections of the margin, anyone who loves us, and anyone who stands with us.”
Russell, believing in the power of live music to bring people together, decided to channel her anger into action. Teaming up with Jason Isbell and number of LGBTQ non-profit organizations in Tennessee, Russell co-organized Love Rising, the star-studded benefit concert that took place just weeks after the state passed laws banning gender-affirming care for minors and banning drag shows in public spaces. Featuring performances from superstars like Maren Morris, Sheryl Crow, the Brothers Osborne, Hozier and plenty more, the event was a runaway success — especially considering they raised over $500,000 for LGBTQ charities in the area.
Looking at all the artists who came out to support Love Rising — especially many of the straight artists who chose to speak up for the LGBTQ community — gives Russell a sense of hope for the future. “It’s exactly what we need,” she says. “It’s people like Hayley [Williams] taking a red eye flight to come back from opening for Taylor Swift, because she said she’d rather die than not be there to support the trans and drag community in Tennessee. These incredible allies are so important.”
But the work is far from over — Russell says she plans to use her upcoming tour for The Returner as on opportunity to work with organizations like the Human Rights Campaign and Headcount to register concert-goers to vote in the 2024 election and learn more about the attacks against the LGBTQ community. “It’s all hands on deck,” she resolves.
She’s also not taking her eyes off the music industry at large — amid the rising tide of harmful rhetoric, Russell says that a number of fellow artists in the industry have remained “deafeningly silent” on the topic, specifically in the mainstream country space. Russell doesn’t name anyone in particular, in part because she doesn’t want to add to “the algorithm of problematic artists,” but also because, as she says, she’s not trying to rehabilitate the “empathy deficit” she sees in the genre.
“I’m not interested in fixing the toxic white supremacy and masculinity of the mainstream. I think it’s a waste of energy,” she says. “I’m much more interested in building the beloved community of people that are ready to show up and do this work together, that believe in equality. The others will come along eventually.”
In large part, that is the message of The Returner — it takes a village to make deep, meaningful change in the world around you, and Russell is ready to build that village from the ground up.
This fall, Irish singer-songwriter Hozier is hitting the road for a full U.S. tour — his first outing post-pandemic. Following a handful of warmup dates at smaller venues stateside and overseas, his Unreal Unearth tour (in support of his long-awaited third album, of the same name, released Aug. 18) will bring him and his new backing […]
Barack Obama may not be the president anymore, but he’ll always be the commander-in-chief of summer music recommendations.
The former POTUS shared his annual summer playlist Thursday (July 20), with everyone from Ice Spice to Leonard Cohen making the 2023 roundup. “Like I do every year, here are some songs I’ve been listening to this summer — a mix of old and new,” Obama tweeted. “Look forward to hearing what I’ve missed.”
Among the songs featured: SZA’s “Snooze,” J Hus and Drake’s “Who Told You,” Rosalía and Rauw Alejandro’s “Vampiros,” Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj’s “Princess Diana” and Janelle Monáe’s spicy ode to threesomes, “Only Have Eyes 42.” Obama also included a taste of country with Luke Combs’ chart-topping take on Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” along with a splash of indie rock via Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker’s Boygenius single “Not Strong Enough.”
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Classics from Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Otis Redding and Ella Fitzgerald also made the cut.
The A Promised Land author is no novice when it comes to curating seasonal song recommendations, spending the past few years treating followers to at least two playlists — one in the summer and one at the end of each year — every year. At the end of 2022, Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, Rema, Lizzo, Ari Lennox, Omar Appollo and more were honored with Obama’s stamp of approval.
Last summer, Obama was bumping to Harry Styles, Lil Yachty, Maggie Rogers, Burna Boy, Wet Leg, Jack White and Maren Morris, amongst others.
See Obama’s full 2023 summer playlist below:
Like I do every year, here are some songs I’ve been listening to this summer — a mix of old and new. Look forward to hearing what I’ve missed. pic.twitter.com/H2Do2iaD1p— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 20, 2023
It’s been 25 years since the world was introduced to Rufus Wainwright with his debut self-titled album, which featured songs like “April Fools,” “In My Arms” and many more. To celebrate, the singer-songwriter sat down with Billboard‘s Tetris Kelly to reflect on his career. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, […]
Country music in 2023 means the stadium-filling sound of Luke Combs, the lonesome midtempos of Morgan Wallen and the vulnerable twang of Lainey Wilson.
But country also means stories. When non-country acts, such as Lionel Richie or John Legend, reference the genre on TV’s music competitions, they frequently cite the life narratives that are prominent in country as the primary element that separates it from other formats. That foundational storytelling thread is a direct result of country’s overlapping folk roots, still evident in the sound of at least two current singles: Jordan Davis‘ “Next Thing You Know,” at No. 15 on Country Airplay, and Ashley McBryde‘s “Light on in the Kitchen,” No. 37.
“They’re so reflective,” says singer-songwriter Lori McKenna. “They give you space to find yourself in them.”
McKenna, whose composition “Humble and Kind” likewise belongs to both folk and country, is one of the talents performing at the 35th annual MerleFest, a three-day event set for April 28-30 in Wilkesboro, N.C., with historic overtones. March 3 marked 100 years since the birth of the festival’s co-founder, singer-guitarist Doc Watson, who was one of the key figures in the folk boom of the 1960s.
The interplay between folk and country is a subtle part of both MerleFest — which features Maren Morris and Tanya Tucker among its multigenre participants -— and a tribute album, I Am a Pilgrim: Doc Watson at 100, arriving April 28 on FLi Records/Budde Music. Pilgrim enlists Dolly Parton, Rosanne Cash and Steve Earle, artists who have all mixed folk and country in some manner during their careers.
“They’re sisters of one another, or family members,” McKenna says of the genres. “It’s like Maren’s song ‘Good Friends,’ and Kelsea Ballerini has a new song now, ‘If You Go Down (I’m Going Down Too).’ Those sound like John Prine songs to me, just great songs that anybody can sing along to and anybody can [appreciate] the normalness, the ordinariness, in this well-crafted song.”
Watson, who resisted attempts to lure him into mainstream country, is likely unknown to most country fans, though his core talents and persona are a good road map for the elements of folk that have historically informed the genre. He played guitar with a fluid simplicity, sang with a natural — almost spoken — tone and viewed his public personality with extraordinary humility. He was also not a traditionalist.
Watson defined his repertoire as “Appalachian-plus,” a phrase that pinpointed its origins but left it room to grow.
“His music was mountain music, Appalachian Mountain region from Deep Gap, North Carolina,” says B Townes, the now retired co-founder of MerleFest, named after Watson’s son when it was established as a fundraiser for the Wilkes Community College Foundation. “The primary influences there, of course, were the fiddle, square dances and that type of thing.”
But the “plus” was quite expansive. It meant “anything I want to add to it,” Townes recalls Watson saying.
The 2023 MerleFest lineup reflects that wide-ranging ideal, boasting Americana acts Jim Lauderdale and Nickel Creek, bluegrass figures Jerry Douglas and Sam Bush, guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel, banjoists Alison Brown and Don Flemons, and country artists Morris and Tucker.
Country is equally wide-ranging, though there’s almost always one or more songs or artists keeping the folk flame lit. Songwriter Bob McDill, named alongside Tucker on April 3 as a 2023 Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, originally moved to Nashville to become a folk artist. That interest influenced the sound of country in the 1980s as he contributed such folk-tinged stories as Don Williams‘ “Good Ole Boys Like Me” and Alabama‘s “Song of the South.”
Miranda Lambert‘s “The House That Built Me” and Kathy Mattea‘s “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses” followed in the same tradition, while folk played a heavy role in shaping the music of Emmylou Harris, John Denver, The Carter Family, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Suzy Bogguss, Bobby Bare and Tom T. Hall, whose elaborate tales earned him the nickname “The Storyteller.”
Davis’ “Next Thing You Know,” in fact, unfolds much like one of Hall’s compositions.
“There’s definitely some Tom T. Hall in there,” Davis allows. “Not that I’m anywhere near Tom T. Hall, but I can see the comparison.”
One of the features common to both Davis’ and Hall’s work is a focus on blue-collar people. “Next Thing You Know” recounts a successful relationship with working-class familiarity. Hall invariably wrote about the same kinds of individuals: bartenders, dry cleaners, parents, soldiers and Sunday school teachers.
“Somebody said that folk music is just songs about folks,” McKenna notes. “It’s just story songs. It’s people’s lives. And that’s what I love most about songs is just these ordinary lives that we get to write about.”
Folk music doesn’t require its artists to become social activists, but that embrace of the middle and lower class makes the music and politics compatible. Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Earle, Prine and Joan Baez are all examples of folky acts who used their music to take a stance on specific issues or defend embattled populations.
That spirit was evident when two Tennessee state legislators -— Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, ousted from the statehouse floor for protesting inaction on guns — were reinstated April 11 in Downtown Nashville. Outside the capitol, Harris, Bush and Margo Price led a contingent of singers in a cover of Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released.” Subsequently, Old Crow Medicine Show issued a song, “Louder Than Guns,” on April 27 that echoes the fight for public safety.
The artists were all doing what folk singers have done historically: stand up for the underdog. Country singers have done that, too, be it Johnny Cash supporting anti-war demonstrators in “What Is Truth” or Brad Paisley flying to Ukraine to sing for an embattled nation.
“It’s about the people and their problems,” says John Lomax III, a music entrepreneur-manager-journalist who, deep in his career, has begun performing historic, rough-edged folk songs. “Pete Seeger, he made his whole career out of that sort of thing. And I guess, to a lesser extent, Woody and Dylan, they kind of blazed a trail, so to speak, that others follow.”
One of folk’s original missions was to pass music and information from generation to generation, and the Lomax family embodies that character. Lomax is a third-generation descendent of a prominent folk family. His father, John Lomax Jr., managed Lightnin’ Hopkins and founded the Houston Folklore Society, which provided a forum for the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark and Lucinda Williams, all of whom would see some of their folk/Americana works covered as country hits.
Lomax III’s grandfather, John A. Lomax, and uncle, Alan Lomax, discovered Black folk/blues singer Lead Belly and worked with the Library of Congress. The senior Lomax collected Western songs, publishing his first book of folk lyrics, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, in 1910.
“It originated with him as he lay in bed at night and heard the cowboys singing to soothe the cattle,” Lomax III notes. “When he was about 8 or 9 years old — 1875 or 1876, somewhere along in there — he started writing the words down because the Chisholm Trail practically ran through the back yard.”
The trail from those early folk songs continues to modern folk and country, even if the roots are a little less obvious. That idea of heritage is key to both Davis’ “Next Thing You Know” and McBryde’s “Light on in the Kitchen,” as each of them embraces the passing of a torch to the next generation.
“I thought of my daughter,” “Kitchen” co-writer Jessi Alexander says. “If you could give your daughter an instruction manual of any kind, what would you want to say in a song?”
Even now that country is a stadium-level attraction, folk developments in the genre are increasingly essential, if for no other reason than to remind the artists and decision-makers of its primary base.
“This is what country music is supposed to be about,” Lomax III says. “Telling about the lives of normal people.”
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Kelly Clarkson kicked off the Wednesday (April 5) episode of her talk show with a lovely, lilting cover of Joni Mitchell‘s “A Case of You.”
Accompanied by a lone Appalachian dulcimer, much like the original recording, the American Idol winner rolled out the story Mitchell first told on her landmark 1971 album Blue, singing, “Just before our love got lost you said/ ‘I am as constant as a northern star’/ And I said, ‘Constantly in the darkness/ Where’s that at?/ If you want me I’ll be in the bar’/ On the back of a cartoon coaster/ In the blue TV screen light/ I drew a map of Canada/ Oh, Canada/ With your face sketched on it twice.”
The ballad was originally released as the B-side to Blue‘s sophomore single “California,” which failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 following the modest success of lead single “Carey.” Mitchell later re-recorded “A Case of You” for her 1974 live album Miles of Aisles and another version of the song also reappeared on her 2000 orchestral full-length Both Sides Now.
Other tracks Clarkson has selected for a Kellyoke spin as of late include Lenny Kravitz’s cover of “American Woman,” GAYLE’s Grammy-nominated breakout “abcdefu” — complete with tweaked lyrics to allude to her divorce from Brandon Blackstock — and Janet Jackson’s “When I Think of You.”
Meanwhile, the talk show host is also prepping the long-awaited release of Chemistry, her first new album of original, non-holiday music since 2017’s Meaning of Life. The studio set’s lead single “Mine” is set to arrive April 14 via Atlantic Records.
Watch Clarkson pay homage to Mitchell with her take on “A Case of You” below.
The tribute concert for the Gershwin Prize, designated each year by the Library of Congress to fete an artist’s lifetime contribution to popular music, is by its very nature a love fest. The fact that this year’s event ratcheted up the heartstrings even more than usual is a testament to its 2023 honoree, Joni Mitchell.
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The show, which took place earlier this month in Washington, D.C., and airs Friday (March 31) on PBS, brought out a cavalcade of well-wishers, musical talent and friends. That included Brandi Carlile (who, besides performing, acted as an intermittent MC), James Taylor, Annie Lennox, Cyndi Lauper, Marcus Mumford, Graham Nash, Angélique Kidjo, Ledisi, Diana Krall and Herbie Hancock.
Mitchell, 79, was an obvious choice for this year’s Gershwin. She’s received a host of recent accolades since she made a remarkable recovery after suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015 that left her hospitalized. She received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2021, was celebrated as MusiCares’ 2022 Person of the Year and received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music the same year.
Seated front and center in DAR Constitution Hall, which added rows of chairs in front of the stage to accommodate a full house of invitation-only fans and Capitol Hill luminaries, Mitchell swayed and smiled throughout the night, clearly relishing the celebration.
Carlile, who performed her professed favorite Mitchell song, the title track from her 2007 album Shine, sprinkled in stories of spending time with Mitchell during her convalescence and Mitchell’s triumphant return to the Newport Folk Festival last year, where she performed 13 songs.
“The songs of Joni Mitchell, like the woman, speak to innocence and experience, success and failure, overcoming odds, falling short,” Carlile told the crowd. “[Last summer] she showed the world that it was not done with Joni Mitchell, and she showed the world that she was not done with us. All of us on stage here tonight just couldn’t let anything pass without recognition of Joni’s courage, her determination, her spirit, will and grit.”
The performances were strong across the board, all delivered with reverence on a stage that was adorned with images of some of Mitchell’s paintings. And the band comprised musicians who are longtime collaborators and friends of Mitchell, including music director Greg Phillinganes.
Mumford got things started with “Carey,” from Mitchell’s cherished 1971 album Blue. Lennox soared with power and passion on the timeless “Both Sides Now.” Kidjo got creative with her time in the spotlight: while performing Mitchell’s Billboard Adult Contemporary No. 1 “Help Me,” she hopped off the stage and delivered a portion of the song directly to Mitchell, who obliged by dancing along in her seat.
Describing her contribution “Big Yellow Taxi,” Ledisi said Mitchell wanted listeners to understand the importance of maintaining the balance of the natural world, “but she did it in an almost subversive way, wrapping the message in a universally easy-to-sing chorus that sneaks up on you and then hits you in the face with the importance of taking action.”
Nash, who shared a long-resonating love affair with Mitchell between 1968-70, recalled meeting her in 1967. “She took me to her room and played me probably over a dozen of the most incredible songs I’ve ever heard in my life,” he said, before launching into “A Case of You,” which was highlighted by photos of the two in their younger years.
Lauper gave a lilting performance of title track to Blue, though she immediately had to do a second take when Ken Ehrlich of Ken Ehrlich Productions made one of a few mid-show appearances to make sure the event would be ready for its primetime debut. (When Ehrlich came out, halted Taylor’s silky, buttery performance of “California” and asked him to start over, Taylor quipped, “Is this the part where you come in?”)
Excitement was palpable leading to the finale, when a beaming Mitchell rose from her seat and took the stage.
“This is such a great honor; it’s so exciting to see all of these musicians I admire preforming my music. And I wanted to express my gratitude by singing a Gershwin song,” she said, before launching into a jaunty rendition of “Summertime,” which she followed up with her own iconic “The Circle Game,” joined by the cast of performers.
Janis Ian had a memorable night at the International Folk Music Awards, which were held at the Westin Kansas City at Crown Center in Kansas City, Mo., on Wednesday (Feb. 1). The veteran artist received a previously announced lifetime achievement award and also won in the top competitive category, artist of the year.
Crooked Tree by Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway won album of the year. The album is nominated for a Grammy for best bluegrass album. Tuttle is also nominated for best new artist. The Grammys will be presented on Sunday Feb. 5.
There was a tie for song of the year between “Bright Star,” written and performed by Anaïs Mitchell, and “B61,” written and performed by Aoife O’Donovan. Mitchell won a Tony and a Grammy for her work on the musical Hadestown.
Jake Blount and Wallis Bird performed in tribute to Ian. Blount performed Ian’s Grammy-winning coming-of-age classic “At Seventeen.” Bird sang “Better Times Will Come.”
Ian, 71, is a two-time Grammy winner. She won the 1975 award for best pop vocal performance, female for “At Seventeen” and the 2012 award for best spoken word album for Society’s Child: My Autobiography. Ian received her 10th Grammy nomination this year for best folk album for The Light at the End of the Line.
Leyla McCalla and Josh White Jr. performed in tribute to Josh White, who received this year’s lifetime achievement award for a legacy (deceased) artist. White died in 1969 at age 55. McCalla performed “I Gave My Love a Cherry (The Riddle Song).” White Jr. sang “One Meatball.”
McCalla also received the People’s Voice Award, which is presented to an individual who “unabashedly embraces social and political commentary in their creative work and public careers.” Past recipients include Jason Mraz (2022), Jackson Browne (2021) and Ani DiFranco (2020).
Oh Boy Records, which was founded in 1981 by John Prine, Al Bunetta and Dan Einstein, all now deceased, received the business/academic award. In tribute to Prine, the Milk Carton Kids performed “That’s the Way the World Goes ’Round,” a song from his 1978 album Bruised Orange. Iris Dement performed “Mexican Home,” a song from his 1973 album Sweet Revenge.
Sara Curruchich performed “Mujer Indígena” at the show, which was held on the opening night of the Folk Alliance International’s 35th annual conference.
The organization, based in Kansas City, Mo., was founded in 1989. Today it has more than 3,000 members — artists, agents, managers, labels, publicists, arts administrators, venues, festivals, and concert series presenters.
Alisa Amador received The Rising Tide Award, which was launched in 2021 to celebrate an artist under 30 who “inspires others by embodying the values and ideals of the folk community through their creative work, community role, and public voice.”
Shambala Festival, a four-day contemporary performing arts festival in Northamptonshire, England, received the Clearwater Award, which is presented to a festival that “prioritizes environmental stewardship and demonstrates public leadership in sustainable event production.”
Here’s a complete list of winners at the 2023 International Folk Music Awards, as well as the recipients of honorary awards:
Album of the year
Anais Mitchell, Anais MitchellWINNER: Crooked Tree, Molly Tuttle & Golden HighwayGet on Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Taj Mahal and Ry CooderMarchita, Silvana EstradaQueen Of Sheba, Angélique Kidjo & Ibrahim Maalouf
Artist of the year
Aoife O’DonovanJake BlountWINNER: Janis IanLeyla McCallaPrateek Kuhad
Song of the year
“Udhero Na,” written by Arooj Aftab, performed by Arooj Aftab and Anoushka Shankar“Vini Wè,” written and performed by Leyla McCallaWINNER: “Bright Star,” written and performed by Anais Mitchell“How,” written by Marcus Mumford and Brandi Carlile, performed by Marcus Mumford featuring Brandi CarlileWINNER: “B61,” written and performed by Aoife O’Donovan
The Elaine Weissman Lifetime Achievement Awards: Janis Ian (living), Josh White (legacy), Oh Boy Records (business/academic)
The People’s Voice Award: Leyla McCalla
The Rising Tide Award: Alisa Amador
The Clearwater Award: Shambala Festival
The Spirit of Folk Awards: Steve Edge, Amy Reitnouer Jacobs, Marcy Marxer, Adrian Sabogal, Pat Mitchell Worley
The Folk DJ Hall of Fame: Robert Resnik, Marilyn Rea Beyer, John Platt, Harry B. Soria Jr.
When two of the most singular voices in music history first came together 15 years ago, it’s not surprising that alchemized harmonies and pure, uncut vibe came as a result. Upon melding their vocals on the 2007 collaborative album Raising Sand, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss translated traditional Americana into mainstream consciousness by force of personality, expanding on Krauss’ extensive repertoire within the genre and furthering the work in the sound for Plant, whose own predilection for Americana had been a benchmark of popular music since he first lamented, “I can’t quit you baby,” 53 years ago on Led Zeppelin‘s cover of Willie Dixon’s Delta blues scorcher.
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But in a testament to Krauss and Plant’s respective popularity, as well as the delicate yet tantalizing sound they’d created, Raising Sand transcended well beyond fans of folk, bluegrass and blues, becoming a sort of blazing anomoly across popular music at large. The LP hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200 (where it spent 72 weeks), secured the pair a headlining spot at Bonnaroo, and earned them the 2009 Grammy for album of the year. “In the old days, we would have called this selling out,” Plant said in his acceptance speech, “but it’s a good way to spend a Sunday.”
Then the project went dark, disappearing in a puff of smoke as quickly as it had arrived, as Krauss returned to her longtime band Union Station and Plant worked in the studio and on the road as a solo act and with his own outfits, Band Of Joy and Sensational Shapeshifters. But just like the many listeners who considered Raising Sand a new classic, Krauss and Planet were aware the project was special, with considerations of a reunion occupying their minds during the long hiatus.
“I really wanted to get back to it. I love it,” Plant, 74, tells Billboard, calling from the United Kingdom, where he can be heard puttering around his house during what is there late afternoon.
“Harmony singing is my favorite thing to do,” Krauss, 51, dialing in from mid-morning Nashville, adds of what she and Plant do so especially well together.
So get back to it they did, with the stars realigning last year year for Raise The Roof, another collection of covers by acts as disparate as Calexico, Allen Toussaint and The Everly Brothers, all rendered in a twangy, incandescent style built around the union of Krauss and Plant’s voices. The album — which, like its predecessor, was produced by T Bone Burnett — debuted at No. 1 on the Top Rock Albums, Americana/Folk Albums and Bluegrass Albums charts, and at No. 7 on the Billboard 200. This past summer, an attendant tour included a main stage show at Glastonbury and a performance in London’s Hyde Park (“Basically we were just passing time until the Eagles came on stage,” Plant says of that opening gig), along with three dozen other dates in the U.S. and Europe.
And now, as a surprise to precisely no one, Raise The Roof has garnered some Grammy nominations — three total, for best country duo/group performance (for “Going Where The Lonely Go”), best American roots song (for “High And Lonesome”) and best Americana album. The nods add to Krauss’ mythology as the second-most-awarded woman in Grammys history (after Beyoncé) with 27 wins and 45 nominations. Meanwhile, Plant has eight wins and 18 nominations, the first of which came in 1969 when Zeppelin was up for best new artist. (They lost to Crosby, Stills and Nash.)
“The very fact that it’s has been recognized that we’ve had a good time,” Plant says of this latest round of nominations, “is more than I could imagine.”
Plant: Hello. Good afternoon.
Krauss : Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
Plant: Hello Alison! How are ya?
Krauss: Hey, I’m fine! How are you doing?
Plant: Okay, I think we may actually be getting into a place now here on the Welsh borders where it’s starting to get chilly. We had the longest, longest, longest beginning of an autumn, but it’s beautiful. The weather’s good. Things are good. I’m looking forward to going to have a look at this little puppy dog next week, and I’m actually living a normal life, finally.
Krauss: Wow.
Plant: I hate it.
I’m curious about this puppy!
Plant: Well, you know, when I was a kid, my mom was allergic to dog hair and stuff. We never had a fluffy pet or anything like that. So over the last so many years, I’ve always prized these beautiful running dogs. They’re a combination of Greyhound and a terrier.
And the traveling folk, the gypsies and the travelers — you always see them with them; they’re just really beautiful — they’re this kind of dog you see on all those medieval paintings and stuff. There’s always somebody standing behind the blinds with a beautiful animal.
I lost my best dog after 14 years about two or three months ago, and I said I would never have another dog, but life without a dog is difficult for me. But it’s got nothing to do with “Stairway To Heaven,” thank god!
I mean, if you don’t see a connection, there isn’t one.
Plant: No, there isn’t one there. I just had to stop talking about dogs.
Okay, let’s talk about your album then. November 19 marked the year anniversary of the release of Raise The Roof. I’m curious if your relationship to the music changed in any way over the last year, particularly as you’ve been touring it.
Plant: I think that Alison and I became — I mean, we’re partners in every sense, professionally. And we’ve shared every single element and every single part of the creation of the record from the get-go, from the song selections to creating the atmosphere, and we take it into the studio together; we use it when we’re coming up with artwork. I think we’ve just grown a lot tighter and a lot closer, and we share a lot of lighthearted humor, but at the same time I think we’re pretty, professional about how good we want it to be. Would you say so, Alison?
Krauss: I don’t think that there’s a different relationship to it. I mean, you’re always looking for things that speak to you in a truthful way, whether you’re telling someone else’s story, or you’re relaying a message or telling your own story. I don’t think that that’s changed. The fun thing was to pick this up again — like, to have something be so fun and be a total surprise, then get to come back and and get to do it again. To me, when we went back in the studio together, it was like no time had gone by, especially with T Bone. It was a lot of fun. We had some new faces in there, but the energy was very generous, which it always was. So I don’t know if there’s a different relationship to it, just happy to revisit.
Plant: We had no idea how it was going to pan out, and going back together after such a long time was, well — there was a lot riding on it. Were we still able and amenable to exchanging ideas? With material and song choices, a lot runs on how we can perform within these old songs. So yeah, it was interesting to get the ball rolling again and to blow away the cobwebs. But as I said, in that kind of oblique answer, we grew closer, if you like. We were able to take the actual songs and embellish them and develop them for a live show, which made them, I think, quite tantalizing, and there was another energy to them as well.
I saw you guys in Chicago this past June, and it seemed like the vibe onstage was often mellow, and sometimes almost contemplative. What does it feel like to perform these songs live? What mood are you in?
Plant: Well, contemplative, I don’t think so — I think it’s just the nature of the song. You weave in and out of the original form of the music as you heard it, even before you recorded it. The songs have a personality. I just think that we’re very adaptable — we just go into character and we just sing the best that we can within those character settings.
Krauss: I also think this wouldn’t be appealing to us if it wasn’t natural. So I don’t feel like there’s any headspace we have to get into. It just kind of fell into place. It was a natural friendship, and it just translated — we both have a love of history and traditional music, and all the people in the band are the same kind of historians. So it was a natural thing. It didn’t feel like we had to pump ourselves up for it, if that makes sense.
Plant: No, exactly. And I think there’s a kind of melding, a kind of a great coming together on stage, especially with the way the musicians have developed the songs with us. It’s quite a liberation. We’ve been through quite a bit in the last 12 months, with working through the United States and then into Europe. We became real rolling musicians. It was something to behold, because the group personality got more and more, I suppose, charming. And also there was sort of a little bit of a warrior feel, going from country to country to country, through Scandinavia and down into Western Europe and across even into Poland. I do believe we grew more and more into the gig.
Were you able to do things at the end of the tour that weren’t happening in the beginning?
Plant: Sure, yeah. You find a groove that works, and it’s genuine.
How do you maintain the stamina required for such a massive and far-flung tour?
Plant: I think it’s just the will, isn’t it? To want to do it.
Krauss: It helps to be fun!
Plant: Yeah. We do laugh a lot. I mean, it’s not a competitive thing. It’s just such a magnificent and unexpected surprise, to be able to be from such different worlds initially and find that we have our own world. We’ve got our own place.
I read a relatively recent article that described you two as an “odd couple,” and didn’t feel like that description was entirely accurate. How do you feel like you two fit together at this point, after this long collaboration?
Plant: I just think that we’re really, really firm friends. And we confer and listen to each other when we have options. It’s really good, because we don’t tangle. Obviously life off the road is — we’re so far away from each other that these moments of hanging out or telephone conversations, or we’ll be coming back to Nashville in April — all those sort of things is all stuff to look forward to. So we’re never around each other long enough to get tired of anything. It’s just a growing condition, really.
Krauss: Yeah, I mean, it’s a really nice cast of characters in that band, and we enjoy them, and it’s a pleasure. We were happy to get to do it and happy to be going back. It’s something we talked about putting back together for years. It was a really nice idea, and sometimes those things are just a nice idea, but this one [did some back together]. I just feel really grateful. It was a surprise, from start to finish.
Why was last year the right time to come back to the project, after releasing your first album together in 2007?
Plant: I’m not in control of my own time, I just find the momentum in a project and go with it. There’s only a particular lifespan from record to record. In the old days, that was how it worked — if you’re really buying into this as a life, which we are — then as it used to be that there was a cycle of events where you would write or create a record, and you’d follow it through with the usual rigmarole of touring and stuff like that. It always used to be something like a three-and-a-half or four-year thing, from start to finish.
So when we left Raising Sand and said a tearful farewell, we went on to do other projects. And if I’d finish something and I was really looking forward to doing something fresh, maybe Alison was in the middle of one of her projects, and that’s how it was. It was no negotiation except for with the calendar and with time. I also had been on the road a lot with with my friends Sensational Spaceshifters, and this [project with Alison] was just promising to be — offering to be — a totally different experience, or a different feel. I really wanted to get back to it. I love it.
And every night when we sing, two or three of the songs where Alison takes the lead, I always find it such an adventure to join and contribute to her personality as a lead singer. I love that. I didn’t have that for several years. So once the opportunity arose, and we were both free and ready — and free to fail actually, I think would be the term — it’s quite tenuous really to go back in after such a long time, but it worked. These are different days as far as the music biz is concerned, but they’re not different days for us. We’ve got it down, and we know what we’re doing, and we like it.
Krauss: Harmony singing is my favorite thing to do. And he is a…
Plant: Steady. Be careful.
Krauss: [laughs] He always changes in those tunes, night to night, and it keeps me on my toes. I was listening to a show we did in Red Rocks, and the differences and changes in the tunes night to night — the show sounds so good, Robert. It’s just fun, because they really evolve, and it’s a much different environment than what I grew up doing, which is very regimented harmony singing where the whole gig is perfecting it. Like, you don’t go to prom because you’re working on your harmony. This is just a totally different animal, and I just love the way the tunes have changed, even throughout this past summer.
Plant: And all I did was go to prom. I still am! Life could be a dream sh-boom! That’s what happened to me. When I used to open the show for people, you know, stars in the early and mid-60s, I used to go, “Wow, this is so exotic. It’s just amazing.” When those big old stage lights came on in the proscenium arch theater, my whole heart leapt. I couldn’t wait to get to the next place to see somebody else do the same thing. And so I didn’t study anything, except for trying to be as good as Terry Reid, or Steve Marriott, or Steve Winwood, or so many people who are extraordinary singers.
Krauss: One big prom! [laughs]
Plant: But I think that’s part of the really big thing about you and I, Alison, is that we’ve leapt into each other, and it’s given me a great departure from finding myself typecast and in being challenged, which, despite its changes from time to time within the shows, just makes for a really good ride, I think.
Krauss: It’s never dull. [laughs]
Plant: I could be sort of far too serious about myself and sit in my dressing room with a star on the door, but that’s not why I do this. I do this because I only work with people who’ve got a big heart, and this is it. So it’s never dull. But if it’s dull, I’m not sticking around anyway.
You both have many previous Grammy wins and nominations. Do these awards matter to you? Does getting nominated enhance the project itself or make it more meaningful in any way?
Plant: I’ll leave that to you, Alison.
Krauss: I just think it’s always unexpected. You don’t figure it’s going to happen, that you get nominated. Like I always say, every record you make is like the only one you’re going to.
Plant: Yeah.
Krauss: And so it’s really nice to get that acknowledgement that people have heard it and like it. It’s always a relief.
Plant: And also the idea of us being considered to be a country duet is fascinating. The thing is, a nomination is a nomination — the very fact that it’s been recognized that we’ve had a good time is more than I could imagine. I didn’t get many Grammys… so to be nominated as a country duet is out of my normal radar. It’s great. I love it, and I also know that we did a pretty good job. I learned a lot, and continue to learn, which is what I want to do. I do think that’s pretty cool.
In 2009, Raising Sand won the Grammy for album of the year. Nominated in that category this year are artists like Lizzo, Beyoncé, Coldplay. Do you feel connected to those kinds of acts, or are you more at home in the country category? What’s your relationship to mainstream pop stars?
Plant: Not a lot. [laughs] It’s different worlds, isn’t it? That’s all it is. It’s just like, do you like this, or do you only appreciate stuff that come out of the Mississippi Delta or New Orleans? We’re all musicians; we all do what we do. You have to appreciate everything from where it stands in its own world.
Is there any chance of a third album from you two?
Plant: I can’t see any reason why not. I suppose if we wait another 14 years it could be a bit dicey for me, to be honest. I might find it a little bit difficult hitting a top C. But we can say it really works well, and we enjoy each other and that’s a great thing — so it seems like a great idea.