Folk
Top 50 Albums of 2020
As we return from Thanksgiving and head into December, our Annual Report will spend the next few weeks looking back upon the strange year that was 2020 and the music, film, and television that came with it. We begin today with our Top 50 Albums of 2020. You’ve heard it from me dozens of times already: 2020 has not been a normal year. And by that, I mean absolutely nothing has been normal. The music world hasn’t been immune, of course. I’ve spent more time cancelling flights and accommodations and trying to get tickets refunded than I actually did watching live music this year. Instragram became a concert venue, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions had no performances, and livestreams (which are pre-taped) seem to be the often-underwhelming future of live music at least for the forseea...
This Is the Kit on the Need for Empathy and Solitude
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS This Is The Kit returns with a new album, Off Off On, and Kate Stables catches up with Kyle Meredith to talk about finding new sounds and playing against the folk genre. Stables also discusses the themes of empathy and the human condition, the… Please click the link below to read the full article. This Is the Kit on the Need for Empathy and Solitude CoS Staff You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
Tracy Chapman Makes Rare TV Appearance to Perform “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution” on Seth Meyers: Watch
Tracy Chapman very rarely makes TV appearances, but she did so Monday night to remind viewers to vote on Election Day. The 56-year-old songwriter delivered her urgent message via a stirring performance of “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution” on Seth Meyers. Watch below. “This is the most important election of our lifetime. It is imperative that everyone vote to restore our democracy,” Chapman remarked prior to the televised broadcast, her first since 2015. In his own statement about Chapman’s performance, Meyers said, “I’ve always thought Tracy Chapman’s music skips your ears and goes straight to your heart. I’m so honored and excited to have her on the show. She’s living proof you can be a great artist while also speaking out for what you believe in.” Editors’ Picks Although Chap...
Feist Covers Cat Stevens’ “Trouble” for Justin Vernon’s For Wisconsin GOTV Campaign: Watch
Leslie Feist has returned with a new live cover of Cat Stevens’ “Trouble”. The performance supports Justin Vernon’s For Wisconsin GOTV initiative. Feist takes a lot of time between projects and has never seemed entirely comfortable in the spotlight. But America’s election is alarming even to reclusive Canadians, and her choice of “Trouble” almost speaks for itself. The track first appeared on Cat Stevens’ third album Mona Bona Jakone (1970), after Stevens had recovered from tuberculosis and a collapsed lung. Lyrics like, “Trouble/ Oh trouble move away/ I have seen your face/ And it’s too much for me today,” speak to that feeling when the slings and arrows of life become overwhelming. It’s a natural fit for the ongoing hell-year of 2020. Feist’s celestial voice is welcom...
Fleet Foxes on Plans for a 24-Hour Song Album
Kyle Meredith With… Fleet Foxes Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Fleet Foxes mastermind Robin Pecknold speaks with Kyle Meredith about his surprise new record, Shore. Pecknold maps out the LP, revisits the long quarantine drives that aided his songwriting, and reflects on the protests in NYC. The singer-songwriter also talks controlling a person’s perception of time through his music, seeing the past without rose-colored glasses, how his grandfather’s stroke and recovery leant a focus to memory and mortality, and his plan for a 24-hour song album. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Every Monday, Wedne...
Austin City Limits TV Season 46 Premieres with John Prine Tribute Episode: Watch
Season 46 of Austin City Limits TV premiered over the weekend with a tribute to John Prine, who died in April after contracting COVID-19. The special hour-long episode compiled highlights from the late singer-songwriter’s eight appearances on the long-running series over a span of 40 years. Entitled “The Best of John Prine”, the episode opened with a message from a modern torchbearer of Prine’s songwriting style, Jason Isbell. “If the artist’s job is to hold up a mirror to society, John Prine had the cleanest and the clearest of anyone I’ve ever known,” said Isbell, who previously participated in a livestream tribute to Prine over the summer. “Sometimes it seemed he had a window, and he would climb right through.” From there, the performances proceeded chronologically, starting with a 1978...
John Prine Performs “Sam Stone” in Previously Unaired Austin City Limits TV Clip: Watch
Austin City Limits TV returns this weekend with the launch of its 46th season. While new episodes began filming in studio sans audience earlier this month, the season premiere will actually focus on archival footage. Specifically, the episode will be a retrospective celebration of the late John Prine, featuring selections from his impressive eight ACL appearances. Spanning five decades from Prine’s first solo acoustic set in 1978 to his final one in 2018, the footage includes one previously unaired clip from 1987. It finds the country folk great singing his classic elegy for a drug addicted veteran, “Sam Stone”. Ahead of the ACL TV season premiere on October 3rd, this rare performance is being shared today. Before going into the track from his 1971 self-titled debut, Prine did what he did ...
Kathleen Edwards on Why She Left Music for Coffee
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Kathleen Edwards speaks with Kyle Meredith about Total Freedom, her first new album since 2012’s Voyager. The two discuss her need to leave music and start a coffee shop called Quitters, her barista abilities, and making foam butt cracks. The Canadian songwriter also talks about singing about her comeback within the new songs, taking inspiration from The War On Drugs for her sound, and appreciating the work that Cracker’s David Lowery is doing for copywriting. Edwards also takes us back to her early days of touring with My Morning Jacket and tells us why she keeps a Louisville Slugger beside her bed. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in whic...
The 10 Best Covers of Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush
It’s nearly impossible to overstate the artistic influence and value of Neil Young. Born in Toronto, Ontario, in November 1945, he spent his first 20 years or so digesting as much rock ‘n’ roll, country, and doo-wop as possible in the midst of living a somewhat tumultuous life (including suffering from polio, moving around a lot, and becoming a child of divorce). As with many iconic musicians, he dedicated much of his teenage years to playing in multiple fledgling bands. That is, until fate introduced him to another singer-songwriter, Stephen Stills, with whom he’d form the beloved folk-country rock troupe Buffalo Springfield in 1966. (Of course, the two would also help start the arguably even more significant Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young a few years later.) As wonderful and enduring a...
Neil Young Releases The Times EP: Stream
Neil Young has released his new live acoustic EP The Times. To ensure the best audio experience possible (as Young is wont to do), it’s only available to stream on the Neil Young Archives website or Amazon Music HD. Sign up for AMHD here or listen via the embedded player below. The seven-track collection captures the “Porch Episode” of Young’s Fireside Sessions series from back in July. That performance introduced fans to the updated version of “Lookin’ for a Leader 2020”, which reworks the lyrics to specifically target Trump and the current US political climate in 2020. The EP takes its name from another featured track: a cover of Bob Dylan’s classic “The Times They Are A-Changin’”. The Times is rounded out by five cuts from various stages in Young’s catalog, all of which are particularly...
RNC Closes with Covers of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” as Fireworks Spell “Trump 2020”
Last night, Donald Trump accepted the Republican party’s nomination to be President of the United States. As the RNC came to a close, and as fireworks lit up the Washington Monument with the words “Trump 2020”, the norm-shattering display was soundtracked by two different covers of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” . The Canadian Cohen’s most famous song — a moving exploration of spirituality, humility, and orgasms — was first heard in a cover by Tori Kelly, in between “She’s a Grand Old Flag” and “God Bless the USA”. Minutes later, “Hallelujah” received a much-louder on-camera encore from opera singer Christopher Macchio. As Variety reports, Kelly tweeted out that she had been, “Seeing messages about my version of ‘Hallelujah,’”and added, “All i know is neither myself nor my team rec...
Neil Young Details The Times EP, Shares “The Times They Are A-Changin’” Cover: Stream
Earlier in the month, Neil Young quietly announced a new EP called The Times. Today, he’s further detailed the release, which will come exclusively to Amazon Music HD on September 18th. As predicated, The Times EP captures July’s “Porch Episode” of Young’s Fireside Sessions series. The performance featured his updated “Lookin’ for a Leader 2020”, which contains revised lyrics to match the current state of political affairs in 2020. Also included are renditions of “Ohio”, “Alabama”, “Southern Man”, “Campaigner”, and the Homegrown cut “Little Wing”. Rounding out the collection — and giving it its name — is a cover of Bob Dylan’s enduring “The Times They Are A-Changin’”. Young has released the recording via his Neil Young Archives, and you can also stream it on Amazon Music or via ...
