Folk
Brandi Carlile Covers Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You” on Colbert: Watch
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-07T17:27:24+00:00“>April 7, 2021 | 1:27pm ET On Tuesday night, Brandi Carlile virtually stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to promote her new memoir, Broken Horses. The musician and the host primarily talked about her “stream of consciousness” writing approach for the book and her “faith journey as a queer person”. Right before the segment’s end, though, Colbert asked Carlile if she would treat him to a cover of Joni Mitchell, and Carlile happily obliged with an acoustic rendition of “A Case of You”. In a way, this cover song was a multiple-year-long dream for Colbert. Back in 2019, Carlile performed the entirety of Mitchell’s iconic 1971 album Blue at the Disney ...
John Prine and Friends Live at Newport Folk Festival 2017 Vinyl Announced
John Prine’s headlining set at the 2017 Newport Folk Festival is receiving a special vinyl release. Full of whit and grace, Prine’s set at the 2017 Newport Folk Fest was a guest-heavy affair. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon (making his first appearance at the Fest with the Bill Withers tribute Grandma’s Hands Band) came out for “Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)”, followed by My Morning Jacket’s Jim James on “All the Best”, Margo Price for the duet “In Spite of Ourselves”, and Nathaniel Rateliff on “Sam Stone”. The biggest surprise of all, however, was when Roger Waters and Lucius appeared for “Hello in There”. Waters, who had headlined the fest two years prior, was in the middle of his “Us + Them Tour”, but he and his collaborators flew in from the Midwest to sing with Prine on “Hello in There”. ...
Grammys 2021: John Prine Posthumously Wins Two Awards for “I Remember Everything”
The late John Prine posthumously won Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song at the 2021 Grammy Awards. Prine’s final song “I Remember Everything” claimed the prize in both categories, beating out fellow nominees including Brittany Howard, Black Pumas, Lucinda Williams, Norah Jones, and Mavis Staples. These Grammys mark the third and fourth ones of Prine’s legendary career. He previously won Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1991 and again in 2005. Additionally, last year he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Prine passed away on April 7th, 2020 from complications of COVID-19. “I Remember Everything” was released two months later on June 12th, and was later name one of Consequence of Sound’s favorite songs of 2020. In the corresponding writeup, Matt Melis had ...
Song of the Week: Lucy Dacus Delivers a Wrenching Ballad with “Thumbs”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Lucy Dacus delivered a wrenching ballad that left all of us speechless. Some songs end and sit in the pit of your stomach for the rest of the day, so visceral and affecting that they can’t be shaken. Lucy Dacus’ raw, devastating new release, “Thumbs”, is such a song, offering a gothic revenge fantasy that lingers long after the four and a half minutes have passed. Extremely minimal in production, “Thumbs” is also nearly formless, unfolding more like a whispered secret, twilight confession, or piece of local mythos than traditional...
Skullcrusher Announces New Storm in Summer EP, Shares Title Track: Stream
Helen Ballentine has announced the next project under her Skullcrusher banner. The Storm in Summer EP drops April 9th via Secretly Canadian, and has released the title track as an early preview. The five-track follow-up to her 2020 Skullcrusher EP finds Ballentine reeling from the spotlight after experiencing some unexpected success. As she explained in a statement, “I wrote ‘Storm in Summer’ after releasing the first Skullcrusher EP. Over that summer I thought a lot about what it means to really put myself out there and share something personal. I felt so vulnerable and overwhelmed by the fact that these songs I had written in private were exposed and likely being misinterpreted or disliked. I think the song really tries to communicate these anxieties in a cathartic way whi...
Song of the Week: boygenius Reunite on Julien Baker’s Confessional “Favor”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. While several stories over the past few weeks have reminded us that the entertainment world can still be very much a boys’ club in the worst ways imaginable, on the artistic side of matters, we’ve seen an undeniable shift in the recognition women are finally beginning to receive within the music industry, especially in the rock genre. Studies have shown that young women are not only picking up guitars at the highest rates ever, but they’re actually learning to play them in larger numbers than their male counterparts. No doubt it’s been partl...
Skullcrusher Conjures Vintage Folk on New Single “Song For Nick Drake”: Stream
Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Helen Ballentine records music under the moniker Skullcrusher, but it doesn’t sound like what you might expect it to. She writes dreamy folk songs fit for Secretly Canadian — who fittingly released her debut EP last year — and today she’s back with another slice of such: a standalone single called “Song for Nick Drake”. As the title implies, “Song for Nick Drake” is an ode to the late pastoral legend and the visceral memories his music conjures. “‘Song for Nick Drake’ is about my relationship to the music of Nick Drake,” explained Ballentine in a press release. “It recalls moments in my life that are viscerally intertwined with his music, specifically times spent walking and taking the train. The song is really my homage to music and the times I felt mos...
The Decemberists’ The King Is Dead and the End of the Americana Craze
Editor’s Notes: Consequence has finally been around long enough that so many of the new albums that originally turned us on to music are now celebrating their first milestone anniversaries. As we begin to reflect on these records, you can catch our updated assessments here. The first time I heard Mumford & Sons was at the 37th Telluride Bluegrass Festival. I was 14, had just finished middle school, and was in a band that played shitty covers of Audioslave and Death Cab for Cutie in our drummer’s basement. I wasn’t exactly a music doyen, but I remember everyone around me, even my parents — Telluride had become something of a family pastime — were impressed by the set. There was something undeniably endearing about Marcus Mumford’s gravelly baritone, his black vest (soon to become a stap...
Kenny Wayne Shepherd on Hanging Out with Neil Young and Touring With Van Halen
Kyle Meredith With… Kenny Wayne Shepherd Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Kenny Wayne Shepherd talks with Kyle Meredith about his new live album and DVD, Straight To You. Shepherd discusses the TV appearance that the recording comes from, how sharing vocals affects what he plays, and how he relates to his most notable song, “Blue On Black”. The blues guitarist also relays stories about hanging out with Neil Young and Stephen Stills, touring with Van Halen, and the lasting impression of Eddie Van Halen. We’ve also included a bonus 2017 interview with Shepherd. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Every M...
Kyle Meredith’s Best of 2020 Pt. 3: Jim James, Julien Baker, David Duchovny, and More
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS For all of December, Kyle Meredith is looking back on his favorite moments in 2020. This week, we revisit Jim James discussing the murder of Breona Taylor, Julien Baker dissecting the lies sold through religion, Paul Weller chewing on systematic change, Laura Marling studying psychoanalysis, Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil explaining why he’ll never do a solo record, and actor/novelist/musician David Duchovny wrestling with an environment of perpetual politics. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Meredith digs deep into the artist’s work ...
Taylor Swift’s evermore Continues the Personal Fable Begun on folklore: Review
The Lowdown: Once again, Taylor Swift was lying when she told us there was “not a lot going on at the moment.” Once again, she’s dropped a carefully curated collection of songs unraveling both her extremely public exterior and deeply personal interior life. And once again, it’s an album that acts as a remarkable exercise in lyricism. It’s not just a worthy follow-up to July’s folklore; it’s a mirror, a companion, and a bookend. Taylor had a few more things to say. The fable wasn’t finished yet. Like folklore, evermore was announced hours before release, framed as a “sister” project to the summer album that gave us the latest reinvention of Taylor Swift and successfully cemented her, even in many previously unconvinced eyes, as one of the strongest songwriters working today. evermore picks ...
Top 50 Songs of 2020
The 2020 edition of our Annual Report continues today with our Top 50 Songs of 2020. If you haven’t already, check out our Top 50 Albums of 2020, which came out earlier in the week. Also, be sure to tune in next week as we begin handing out our annual accolades and continue looking back on the strange year that was 2020. Upon being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame some years ago, Tom Waits said, “We love music, but what we really want is for music to love us back.” Believe it or not, it felt like music did that in 2020. For me, anyway. I know that it’s easy to see the world through pandemic goggles right now or strictly through the lens of racial injustice or political turmoil. Tragedy and frustration that keeps piling on can definitely cloud our vision or color our window on t...
