Folk songs, craft talk, and lived histories.
Basic Folk treats folk music as a living conversation, not a museum case. Its interviews move from albums and instruments into family history, creative process, community, bias, place, and the strange practical details that make songs possible.
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Basic Folk is a music interview show for people who care how songs get made and what kind of life gathers around them. It focuses on folk musicians, but its definition of folk is wide enough to include bluegrass, family memory, old instruments, inherited stories, and the unsettled question of who gets recognized as a storyteller. The tone is warm and conversational. It does not rush guests toward a tidy thesis. Instead, it lets them explain the room they write in, the instrument they reach for, the records that shaped them, and the assumptions they have had to push through. A Julian Taylor conversation moves from racialized gatekeeping in folk and country spaces into his attic writing den, where family artifacts sit close to the songwriting process. An episode with The Mammals happily spends time on high guitar action, open E tuning, repair work, and why a patched-together old guitar can still have a song inside it. Joe Henry and Mark Erelli use the interview space to think through discovery, autobiography, community, and the voice a songwriter writes toward. Laurie Lewis’s appearance frames California bluegrass through collaboration, ensemble playing, and songs about the natural world and human connection. Naomi Westwater’s conversation makes room for ritual, Cape Cod nature walks, Barbados family history, and storytelling as honesty. The Watchhouse bonus episode shows the program’s comfort with musician-to-musician exchange, especially around albums, identity, awareness, and evolution. Basic Folk also has a loose backstage quality. Parenthood, social media nerves, newsletter reminders, cruise jokes, old farm equipment, and oddball share-this-with-a-friend riffs all sit beside the serious craft talk. That informality matters. It makes the show feel less like a publicity stop and more like a continuing record of how working musicians talk when someone gives them time. The result is thoughtful without becoming stiff. It is funny in small ways. It is sincere in larger ones. Above all, Basic Folk treats folk music as something made by real people with histories, habits, doubts, tools, rooms, families, and communities behind every song.
Made for: For listeners who like folk and bluegrass interviews that take songwriting seriously without draining the warmth from the room. It especially suits people drawn to process, lineage, instruments, identity, and musician-to-musician context.
What sets it apart: Basic Folk stands apart by letting technical craft and personal history share the same space. A tuning, a family artifact, a regional scene, or a passing joke can become the path into a deeper story.
Basic Folk features honest conversations with folk musicians hosted by Cindy Howes and Lizzie No. We approach interviews with warmth, humor and insightful questions. Since 2018, this podcast has dignified under the radar roots musicians by providing a platform that they might not otherwise have. You’ll hear interviews from Three-time Grammy-winning guitar gods like Molly Tuttle, Haitian American folk legends like Leyla McCalla and deep feelers like songwriter John Hiatt.Basic Folk is dedicated to showcasing the best in folk, bluegrass, acoustic and americana including Black, Brown and Queer folx who have been excluded, or felt like they did not belong, in the folk world. Cindy & Lizzie each…
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Basic Folk connects songwriting craft to family history, artistic doubt, identity, and the practical behavior of instruments.
Basic Folk lets musicians describe the working ideas behind their songs, with Cindy Howes and Lizzie No steering interviews toward craft, identity, and the lives surrounding the music.
An old guitar needs a neck reset; you get the whole detour into open E.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A funny, candid Dawes conversation about parenting, career doubt, and the small toys that can test adult patience.
Basic Folk finds Dawes in a reflective place, with the long view of a music career brushing up against the daily scramble of raising three children.
Julian Taylor links folk belonging to the attic where songs and family history stay close.
Julian Taylor's Basic Folk appearance turns musical belonging into a larger question of who is allowed to be heard as a folk or country storyteller.
A reconstructed old guitar sparks a warm conversation about repair, open tuning and the character of an imperfect instrument.
An old guitar with high action, a reconstructed body and an open tuning gives The Mammals plenty to talk about. Cindy Howes keeps the conversation anchored to the instrument while the musicians describe its syrupy, slack sound and the effort it takes to play.
Joe Henry and Mark Arelli consider how private experience becomes songwriting that can reach beyond the self.
Joe Henry and Mark Arelli make a thoughtful pairing around a question that sits at the heart of songwriting: whether a song begins as self-expression or as a search.
A thoughtful conversation about honest songwriting, ritual, nature, family history, and the feelings that are hardest to share.
The guest traces her songwriting back to ritual, nature, and family memory. An only child, she spent long stretches outdoors, walking the dog near a Cape Cod cranberry bog and finding comfort beside water, woods, and open land.
A reflective pre-Broadway Anais Mitchell interview about Hadestown, feminist labels, and the pressures around music theater.
This 2019 conversation with Anais Mitchell meets Hadestown just before Broadway and uses that moment to open up a broader discussion about feminist labels, authorship, and the habit of defining artists by gender before craft.
Julian Taylor's songwriting emerges through family artifacts, nature, and a steady commitment to getting the truth right.
Julian Taylor's conversation with Lizzie Ngo draws out the emotional architecture behind his songwriting, rooting it in the rooms, objects, and landscapes that carry his history.
Bagpiping news from inside the circle.
Italian family history, told through memory.
Chicago critics DeRogatis and Kot pair new-album reviews with deep dives into records like Rumours.
Billboard's Keith Caulfield and Katie Atkinson break down the week's Hot 100 and 200 charts.
This reissued 2019 Basic Folk interview features Anaïs Mitchell just before her musical Hadestown debuted on Broadway.
Julian Taylor joins Basic Folk to discuss his musical evolution and storytelling.
Jacob Sharp of Mipso interviews Watchhouse about their new album 'Rituals' in a bonus episode of Basic Folk.
Mark Erelli guest hosts an interview with Chuck Prophet about music, surfing, and storytelling on the Basic Folk podcast.
Host Cindy Howes introduces a live interview with Dawes recorded on the Kayamo Cruise, a floating music festival.
An interview with Julian Taylor on Basic Folk, focusing on his relationship with truth and fact-checking in conversation.
Cindy Howes introduces The Mammals on Basic Folk, shares personal updates, and promotes the podcast's newsletter and donation options.
Joe Henry and Mark Erelli join Basic Folk to discuss their friendship and collaboration in folk music.
Laurie Lewis discusses her new album 'O California' and her career in bluegrass music.
Naomi Westwater says doctors are experts in medicine, but they are the expert on their own body.
Jacob Sharp of Mipso interviews Watchhouse about their new album 'Rituals' in a bonus episode of Basic Folk.
A reissued interview with folk musician Anaïs Mitchell discussing her pre-Broadway experience with Hadestown, lamb rearing, and third wave feminism.
Sara Watkins discusses I'm With Her's new album on the Basic Folk podcast.