Folk
This section gathers album stories, birthdays, and anniversaries from folk artists and songwriters, along with vinyl reissue news as titles return to print. Folk has a long history of careful preservation on record: archival labels such as Smithsonian Folkways have spent decades documenting traditional and singer-songwriter recordings specifically for release on LP, treating the format as a way to keep field recordings and acoustic albums in circulation rather than letting them disappear. Expect stories about the people behind specific songs and albums, and why a reissue of an older folk record still matters to listeners.
124 STORIES
Ani DiFranco Is Her Own Label
Ani DiFranco, born in Buffalo in 1970, built a career on independence by starting her own label at nineteen and releasing over twenty albums on it.
· 3 min read
Farm Aid: Why a Dylan aside built a 40-year movement
A throwaway aside by Bob Dylan at Live Aid in 1985 became a four-decade movement. Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young turned it into Farm Aid.
· 4 min read
The Band: How Five Sidemen Invented a New American Sound
In 1969, The Band released their self-titled second album, turning rural American history into an urgent sound. It corrected everything psychedelic rock had become.
· 4 min read
How Nick Cave turned a Victorian childhood into gothic rock
Nick Cave was born on September 22, 1957, in Warracknabeal, Victoria, and grew from a rural Anglican childhood into the baritone voice behind gothic rock.
· 4 min read
Why Faith Hill's Breathe still defines country crossover
Faith Hill's album Breathe turned her into a global crossover star, with the title track becoming the top-selling U.S. single of that year.
· 4 min read
Why Did the Stills-Young Band Only Make One Album?
The Stills–Young Band released only one album, Long May You Run, in 1976. Despite gold certification and a Billboard 200 placement, the partnership collapsed.
· 3 min read
Jim Croce: Why His Final Flight Ended an Unfinished Story
Jim Croce's final flight ended a life that had already outgrown the music business. He left behind a catalog of songs about the people he met on the road.
· 5 min read
Trisha Yearwood: How a Georgia Banker's Daughter Conquered Country
Trisha Yearwood, born in Monticello, Georgia, in 1964, turned a Nashville internship into a double-platinum debut. Her first record rewrote what labels believed a female country artist could achieve.
· 4 min read
Skeeter Davis: The End of the World and a Haunted Hit
Glencoe, Kentucky, a farming town, and a toddler with so much frantic energy her grandfather reached for the only word that fit: Skeeter, after the mosquito. Th…
· 4 min read
How Trisha Yearwood Became Country Royalty
Trisha Yearwood, born September 19, 1964, in Monticello, Georgia, went from museum guide to Grammy-winning artist. Her 1991 debut single "She's in Love with the Boy" topped Billboard's country chart.
· 5 min read
Gram Parsons: Why His Body Was Stolen After He Died
Phil Kaufman stole Gram Parsons' body after his 1973 death in Joshua Tree, fulfilling a cremation promise. It turned a country-rock tragedy into one of music's strangest postscripts.
· 5 min read
José Feliciano: A Tin of Crackers and a National Anthem
José Feliciano, born blind in rural Puerto Rico and now turning 81, recorded both a global Christmas ritual and a national anthem that sparked a backlash. He never saw the reactions either provoked.
· 4 min read
Johnny Cash's Last Nashville Morning
The lights inside a Nashville hospital room stayed low on September 12, 2003, as the city outside went about its ordinary business. Johnny Cash, the Arkansas-bo…
· 4 min read
The Iguana Squeak in Lila Downs' Sonic Tapestry
A cabaret singer's daughter and a Minnesota film professor's kid walk into a Oaxacan folk scene — and out comes an artist who can pivot from a Grammy-winning ra…
· 4 min read
Aimee Mann: The Grammy She Won Was Called 'Mental Illness'
A major label once shelved an entire album, and the artist simply bought it back. That quiet act of defiance reshaped Aimee Mann’s career and, in a way, predict…
· 4 min read
Jethro Tull's Minstrel in the Gallery: A Studio on Wheels
A band with a decade of road-worn muscle retreated not to some pastoral English manor, but to a Mediterranean tax haven, hauling a custom-built recording truck …
· 4 min read
Joe South: The Guitarist Who Wrote Everyone Else's Hits
Joe South died fourteen years ago today, leaving a Grammy for Song of the Year and a catalog of hits made famous by other voices. His own name stayed in the background.
· 4 min read
Dado Topić: When a Voice Outlives Its Band Twice
Born Adolf Topić on September 4, 1949, he became Dado — the voice of Korni Grupa and Time. He later represented Croatia at Eurovision 2007, turning 77 with a 57-year career behind him.
· 4 min read
What Made Dottie West Testify Against Her Own Father?
Dottie West testified against her father at 17, sending him to prison for 40 years—and later became the first female country artist to win a Grammy.
· 4 min read
Janis Martin: Who Told RCA She Could Out-Sing Their King?
When RCA signed Janis Martin in the mid-1950s, the label already had Elvis Presley. But a Virginia teenager who wrote her own songs and led her own band forced them to pay attention anyway.
· 4 min read
Who Was Johnny Rebel Behind the Racist Songs?
A twelve-year-old boy unwraps a guitar in Moss Bluff, Louisiana, and no one in the room could have guessed that this gift would one day provide the soundtrack f…
· 3 min read
57 Years Since Nick Drake Sat in a Half-Circle of Strings
In 1968, Nick Drake climbed onto a stool inside Sound Techniques studio and recorded his debut live. Fifty-seven years later, Five Leaves Left still sounds like a secret someone forgot to lock away.
· 4 min read
Van Morrison: The 81-Year-Old Knight Who Won't Rehearse
George Ivan Morrison was born in Belfast on August 31, 1945. He grew up to fuse raw garage rock with complex jazz improvisation, creating a body of work that resists easy categorization.
· 5 min read
Dylan in a White Suit: The 57-Year-Old Comeback
On August 31, 1969, Bob Dylan returned to the stage at the Isle of Wight Festival in a white suit, ending three years of silence before 150,000 people.
· 5 min read