folk music

Arts & Music

ReString Appalachia pairs donated instruments with musicians who lost theirs in storms

6:00am November 18, 2024

Nicholas Edward Williams, a musician and host of the roots music podcast American Songcatcher, says he worried about the potential impact the losses from Helene could have on the next generation.

Arts, Music & Culture

Organizers of NC Folk Festival's Songs of Hope & Justice concert plan songwriting program

5:24pm September 05, 2023

by Paul Garber

The North Carolina Folk Festival kicks off with the Songs of Hope and Justice Concert Wednesday at the Carolina Theatre.

Left-handed, Elizabeth Cotten turned the guitar so the bass strings were at the bottom, therefore "backwards." She used her thumb to play the melody and her fingers for the low notes.

How Elizabeth Cotten's music fueled the folk revival

6:35am June 29, 2022

by Allyson McCabe

Although inducted into the 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, her contributions haven't always been properly acknowledged.

Mazel Tov Cocktail Party's influences are global, but the sound they create is uniquely their own.

Mazel Tov Cocktail Party: Take an ounce of hip hop, dash of polka, then square dance

5:08am May 02, 2022

by Jon Kalish

Finding a thriving dance culture in the Adirondacks Mountains inspired the band to take its sound in an unexpected direction.

Norma Waterson receives the Lifetime Achievement award at the BBC Folk Awards at Royal Albert Hall on April 27, 2016, in London.

Norma Waterson of English folk royalty has died at 82

2:00pm January 31, 2022

by Elizabeth Blair

Waterson was from the renowned English folk family The Watersons. She was married to musician Martin Carthy. Her daughter, singer and fiddler Eliza Carthy, announced her mother's death.

Bill Frisell Brings 'Harmony' To Winston-Salem

3:19pm September 02, 2021

by Eddie Garcia

Bill Frisell's renowned career as a guitarist and composer has spanned decades.

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The Lincoln Center campus, presently adorned in a green carpet of synthetic grass, hosts a Juneteenth experience June 19.

In New York City, A Juneteenth Event Examines The Meaning Of Freedom

5:10pm June 19, 2021

by Jeff Lunden

Lincoln Center observes Juneteenth, now a federal holiday, with "I Dream a Dream That Dreams Back at Me," an ambulatory experience conceived by Carl Hancock Rux.

Rana Sulaiman Halo, 22, founded and leads the Ashti choir with support from the AMAR Foundation, a British charity. She has lived in the camp since 2014.

'We Will Never Break': In Iraq, A Yazidi Women's Choir Keeps Ancient Music Alive

8:56am April 04, 2021

by Alice Fordham

Women from Iraq's Yazidi minority get together to perform centuries-old sacred songs. They've survived captivity by ISIS and loved ones' deaths. "They are trying to heal," says a Yazidi politician.

Our Native Daughters is featured on this week's The Thistle & Shamrock.

Music & Culture

The Thistle & Shamrock: Banjo Roots And Branches

12:20pm September 04, 2020

Hear how the migration of the banjo from its African roots to the heart of American music crosses over to sit within the Celtic sound.

Harold Tenorio is the director of a folk music school in Tumaco, Colombia.

Afro-Colombian Music Offers Youths A Rhythmic Alternative To Drug Gangs

10:44am April 13, 2020

by John Otis

Currulao combines drums and marimbas and is popular along the country's Pacific coast where most of the population is Afro-Colombian. One verse goes: "We no longer have peace in our paradise."

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