Tag Archives: folk music

Go back to the roots of the seminal folk LP ‘The Circle Game’

February 14, 2013 | Susan Sliwicki | 1

Then-unknowns James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne came together for Tom Rush’s 1968 folk LP ‘The Circle Game’ ►

Five contemporary folks acts you need to hear

April 4, 2012 | Susan Sliwicki | 0

With soulful melodies and thoughtful lyrics, a few contemporary folk acts are bubbling up from obscurity and capturing the attention of mainstream listeners. ►

Interview: Shawn Phillips, Contribution and Second Contribution and the unresolved trilogy

April 21, 2010 | Zach Sorscher@fwmedia.com | 0

After college, when I began to seriously collect old LPs, one record I’d always see in the used record bins was Shawn Phillips’ Second Contribution (1971). The intriguing album cover features a long-haired Phillips dressed like a folk sorcerer, in a cape with his back to the camera, playing a 12-string guitar on some stretch of dry, cracked soil. Anyone that could play — not just strum — a 12-string guitar was someone I had to hear. Or did I? ►

Appleseed Records harvests the fruits of passion and purpose

April 21, 2010 | Zach Sorscher@fwmedia.com | 0

In the business world, commercial concerns and social awareness don’t always make the best of bedfellows.

But one company that offers an example of how the two goals can succeed in sync is Appleseed Records, an independent label that brands its music with a mission.
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Otis Taylor: Pentatonic Wars And Love Songs

April 9, 2010 | Zach Sorscher@fwmedia.com | 0

Otis Taylor may release albums under the guise of a bluesman, but the veteran singer/composer/multi-instrumentalist often turns the genre on its side and even its head. His chilling songs are inspired by Appalachian folk music and brazenly reference the horrors of racism, the indignities of the healthcare crisis and the realities of heroin addiction without relying on standard blues arrangements. With such potent lyrics, musical categorization simply doesn’t matter. ►