#folk-music

#folk-music

It's Sunday evening and dozens of people are ping-ponging around the room at Berkeley's Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center. It's the end of a three-day traveling music festival called " Dare to Be Square West," and folks are whirling, stomping and otherwise having a ball. A man who's perched like a shepherd eyeing his flock calls out instructions from the stage. "Take your partner and promenade!" he hollers, as people form lines, part and reintegrate.

Raised in Scotland's remote and sparsely populated Outer Hebrides, folk singer Jule Fowlis was immersed in Scottish Gaelic language and traditions.

There are some variations. So we know yodeling with text. But we have also - mostly we have yodeling without text, and this yodel we call naturjodel. And this kind of yodel works like dialects. So it depends on the region you grow up. So if you grew up in eastern part, it sounds very melancholic. When you grow up in middle part, center part of Switzerland, it's quite loud and sometimes also a little bit fast.

David's a musicologist, even if he might not apply that word, which had only been coined a couple of decades prior. More colloquially, he's a song collector, making regular treks into rural America to record, on wax cylinders, the traditional airs that European immigrants brought with them and made their own, and which would go on to form one of the major support beams in the American musical edifice.

In "The History of Sound," a new romantic drama set during and after the First World War, passion is an intensely private thing, and in more ways than you might expect. Love and desire are not simply expressed in the sweaty vigor of bodies in bed; the two central characters are turned on, and brought together, by moments of quietly harmonious convergence, rooted in shared qualities of heightened perception, cultivated taste, and specialized knowledge.

The two actors met during the pandemic, on Zoom, after O'Connor watched "Normal People" and like many of us, believed he was discovering an exciting young talent. He emailed his American agent: "You have to see this kid. He's amazing." His agent had already signed him. It turns out Mescal had been watching O'Connor, as well. The two got on famously, and have been chums ever since. (Check out their hilarious recent appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.")

Connie Converse's music, tucked away and forgotten for decades, features intimate songs that felt advanced for their time and captivated listeners once rediscovered.

Ed Silberman, a beloved storyteller and folk singer with a rich bass voice, known for his humor and generosity, died on January 23 after battling health issues.

Ichiko Aoba's music is incredibly delicate yet steadfast, with an otherworldly folk sound heavily inspired by nature, spanning a 15-year career.

Tuvas Blodklubb has opened up folk music experiences to a broader audience, notably the LGBTQ+ community, distinguishing it as a modern, inclusive venue for young people.

The McGarrigle sisters' music is infused with the rich tapestry of their upbringing, blending folk tradition with the influences of iconic artists, crafting a poignant sound.

It feels like magic getting to do this together, there's a special bond embedded within these lyrics.

"The place Frank was living in was populated by drug addicts and hookers... It's very hard to weird me out, Abbott said. This did."