Sometimes Folk

Bill Wagman explores an eclectic range of music, including traditional folk of the British Isles and the U.S, contemporary singer/songwriters on both sides of the Atlantic, and American roots music and some of its lesser-known offshoots. Tune in for a great music mix!

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Replays Monday 3-4pm, Thursday 3-4pm
Live Wednesday 10-11am
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Music programs are only online for two weeks after they are broadcast.

The Folk Brothers for March 16, 2022: Whales are folks too

Brother Bill is back from Baja, where he spent a week petting baby blue whales ... awww. And he brought in a bunch of whale songs this morning from the likes of Tom Lewis, Country Joe McDonald, Tom Pacheco, and other fishy folkies. We also have Molly Tuttle singing about her grampa's farm, I Draw Slow singing about the coming apocalypse, and Black 47 with Finbar Furey singing about Father Mychal Judge, the first official fatality of 9/11.

The Folk Brothers for March 9, 2022: Transatlantic sounds old and new

On their debut album in 1968, a group of kids from the suburbs of north London covered a Richard Farina song about a city in Nevada. During the pandemic, a singer-songwriter from Edinburgh teamed up with musicians from Tucson. Sometime in between, a guitarist/mandolinist from Nashville became a founding member of a band of transatlantic musicians who play the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow every winter. Find out who they all are on today's show.

The Folk Brothers for March 2, 2022: Stand with Ukraine

This morning we featured music from DakhaBrakha (pictured), a folk quartet from Kyiv. Also on today's show: new takes on traditional ballads from Joshua Burnell, Cinder Well, and Jim Ghedi, as well as a new take on "Dublin Blues" from Mipso, plus new original tracks from Ernest Troost, Justin Farren, and Jack Sharp. And more!

The Folk Brothers for Feb. 23, 2022: Talisk rocks the folk

This multiple award-winning Scottish trio is not your grandparents' Celtic band. They bring rock 'n' roll sensibilities to their mix of concertino, fiddle, and acoustic guitar. Box player Mohsen Amini is a force of nature as he drives their instrumental tunes onwards. With the release of their second album Dawn, Talisk's first U.S. tour stops at Sacramento's Sofia Center this Saturday night, Feb. 26.

The Folk Brothers for Feb. 16, 2022: Rita Hosking's 'California' ...

... has now been included in The New York Times' list of the best 101 songs about California. "California" joins such folk icons as Dave Alvin's "King of California" and Kate Wolf's "Here In California." Congratulations to Rita! And you can see her live at The Side Door in Sacramento on March 19.

Also on today's show, we highlighted some other artists on tour and coming to our area: Scottish trio Talisk (Sophia Center on Feb. 26) and Tre Burt and Watchhouse (Grass Valley Center For The Arts, Feb. 20).

The Folk Brothers for Feb. 9, 2022: Celebrating Black History Month ...

... with Guy Davis (pictured here) singing about Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee's last train ride; with Mary Knight and Mary Lou Williams' tributes to Martin Luther King; with Corey Harris, Odetta, and more.

And tune in to find out about Lauren MacColl and Rachel Newton's new project Heal & Harrow , which honors the some 2,500 Scottish women executed under the 1563 Witchcraft Act. Also, what's the connection between the Miramichi River and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring?

The Folk Brothers for Feb. 2, 2022: Remembering Norma Waterson (1939-2012)

The Watersons -- Norma, her sister Lal, brother Mike, cousin John Harrison, and (later) Norma's husband Martin Carthy -- defined the English trad-folk revival of the 1960s. In the '90s, Norma Martin and their daughter Eliza Carthy, morphed into Waterson:Carthy. Even in ill health, Norma was recording until a few years ago. Her contributions to -- and influence on -- English folk music cannot be overstated.

The Folk Brothers for Jan. 26, 2022: Transatlantic crossings

The Folk Brothers love ballads, especially ones which have crossed the "pond" more than once. "The Golden Willow Tree," on Jake Xerxes Fussell's new album Good and Green Away, is a prime example. Originally penned in the early 1600s as "Walter Raleigh In The Lowlands,"  the warship and the title have been variously called "The Golden Vanity," "The Sweet Trinity," and "The Turkish Revelry."

This morning we also played Hannah Sander and Ben Savages' version of "(Rovin' On) A Winter's Night." They  learned their version from Doc Watson, but the ballad undoubtedy originated in England before travelling to Appalachia (and then back again to the UK!).

The Folk Brothers for Jan. 19, 2022: Who connects the musical dots from The Detectorists to Worzel Gummidge?

It's Mackenzie Crook. After The Office, Crook wrote, directed and starred in The Detectorists, the hit BBC4 series featuring a theme song by Johnny Flynn. Most recently, Crook (pictured) has revived "Worzel Gummidge" -- the scarecrow from Barbara Euphian Todd's children's books -- with music from The Unthanks.

Also on today's show, find out how Iona Fyfe rewrote Richard Thompson's "Poor Ditching Boy" in Scots Dorian, and why Jason Isbell made an album of covers by Georgian songwriters. And much more!

The Folk Brothers for Jan. 12, 2022: Live from Glasgow

That is, Kris Drever will be live from Glasgow, Scotland, joined by a band including Louis Abbott (Admiral Fallow) who has been busy rehearsing for the livestream on Monday, Jan. 17. This morning we played the title track from Drever's 2014 release Mark the Hard Earth. We followed that with The Pogues' version of "Greenland Whale Fisheries," one of the songs Kris is working up for his online concert.

Also on today's show: old timey music from Molsky's Mountain Drifters, trans-European trad Celtic from Fourth Moon, the theme music by The East Pointers from New Zealand's Under The Vines TV mini-series, and much more!

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Comments

Davis resident, Dave Nachmanoff is an award-winning singer-songwriter and renowned guitarist.  He tours nationally and internationally as a solo act, as well as valued accompanist to Al Stewart.  Over the many years he has resided in Davis, Dave has been a generous supporter of this community.  In a rare local appearance, Dave will be doing a benefit concert on December 12th for Yolo Food Trucks who are raising the funds to purchase a new refrigerated truck.   Dave will be joining the Folk Brothers live in the KDRT studio between 10 and 11 AM on Wednesday, Dec. 9th.   He’ll bring his guitar, play some songs, talk about his storied musical career, and tell us why we heard him singing in Starbucks across North America last month. Please join us!

 

 

Submitted by Peter Schiffman on Wed, 12/02/2015 - 11:13am

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