Karen Impola

Beth Wood is a modern-day troubadour and believer in the power of song. Her exceptional musicianship, crafty songwriting, and commanding stage presence have been winning over American audiences for eighteen years. Beth’s music is soulful, organic, intelligent, barefoot, high-energy communication of joy.

David Stoddard is a songwriter and teacher living in the snowy wilds of Western Minnesota. He tours sporadically throughout North America and plays mostly concert venues, living rooms, and other dedicated listening environments.

During the 4:00 hour of The Folk Tree on Sunday, April 17, Iris DeMent talks with IPR's Karen Impola about her roots in the Arkansas Delta, her emergence as a songwriter, and her most recent album, The Trackless Woods, on which she put music to the poems of Russian writer Anna Akhmatova. Iris will be performing on Thursday, April 21 at the Temple for Performing Arts in Des Moines; opening the show will be her daughter-in-law, Pieta Brown.

Click here to hear a song from The Trackless Woods.

When it comes to compiling a Halloween playlist, there are the staples like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” and “The Monster Mash” sung by the theatrical Bobby Boris Pickett. Oddly enough the 60s and 80s created a lot of the music that has ended up being played at nearly every Halloween event, but then every decade has produced some uncanny tracks. And for inspiration we’ve brewed up a short list of some of our favorites to spice up your Halloween festivities.

Scarlett Cerna, host of Studio One:

The band Scythian (pronounced SITH-ee-unn - they’re named after a nomadic Eurasian tribe) has an unlikely combination of influences.  Three of the members are siblings: fiddler Alexander, guitarist Danylo and cellist Larissa Fedoryka are from a family of Ukrainian immigrant, and were classically trained.  Bassist Josef Crosby, who also doubles on fiddle, was classically trained as well. Drummer Tim Hepburn started out in jazz, and banjo player Ben-David Warner grew up on a diet of Celtic music via NPR’s Thistle and Shamrock.

Lily Henley’s “Words Like Yours” is the latest CD to arrive in my mailbox, seemingly out of nowhere, and knock my socks off.  It actually arrived from New York, by way of a promoter in Seattle, but its roots span continents. 

This Sunday, April 20, during the 3:00 hour, The Folk Tree presents live music from Jon Hogan and Maria Moss.   Based in Austin, Texas, Hogan and Moss are purveyors of rollicking roots music and trad-inspired originals, which they describe as “primitive-modernist music that will break your heart and blow the doors off your Ford.”

Join us in IPR’s Cedar Falls studios, on the third floor of UNI’s Communication Arts Center (map here), or tune in and listen for some high-energy music.

Every once in a while, folk music pokes its way out of obscurity and gets noticed by a wider public. Filmmaking brothers Joel and Ethan Coen shone a spotlight on music of the American south in their 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou, and they’ve done it again with this year’s Inside Llewyn Davis.  The movie is a fictionalized account of the Greenwich Village folk music scene of the early 1960s, when baby boomers discovered traditional music, and the oxymoronic concept of the “professional folk singer” took root.

Winter keeps dragging on, and here at Studio One we've got Cabin Fever! While we wait out these last few weeks of cold and snow, here are the top songs and bands keeping us warm and thinking about summer!

The world lost a great treasure on Tuesday, when Pete Seeger passed away.  From the early 1940’s until just last year, Pete inspired audiences with his singing, his enthusiasm, and his conviction that the world can become a better place.  Mark Moss of Sing Out! Magazine had this to say about him:

Every Sunday afternoon from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., The Folk Tree examines the various roots and branches of traditional and acoustic music.  Join us this Sunday, October 13, when the show includes exclusive Iowa Public Radio recordings of earthy singer-songwriter William Elliott Whitmore and bluegrass from Mr. Baber's Neighbors.  You'll also hear from new releases by the Vinegar Creek Constituency and Robin and Linda Williams, and old favorites Dave Van Ronk and the Bothy Band.

Pieta Brown is a familiar voice for Iowa Public Radio listeners.  Her latest project is a duo with Australian singer-songwriter Lucie Thorne, performing under the name Love Over Gold.  Love Over Gold will play live in Iowa Public Radio's Studio One in Cedar Falls on Sunday, Sept.

Join us this Sunday between 1:00 and 5:00 p.m. for The Folk Tree, a blend of roots-based music both traditional and modern, acoustic and electric.  Each week, we share some of Iowa Public Radio's  exclusive live recordings made at various venues around the state.  This week, we'll hear the Irish band Danu, recording live in Ames, and Radoslav Lorkovic from the 2010 Iowa Arts Festival in Iowa City.  We've also got music on tap from Brooks Williams, Tim O'Brien and Darrell Scott, the Deadly Gentlemen, and Altan.

This week on The Folk Tree, join us for exclusive Iowa Public Radio recordings of Iowa native Susan Werner (now based in Chicago, and known around the world), from the Oster Regent Theater in Cedar Falls; and jazzy blues, or perhaps bluesy jazz, from The Hot Club of Davenport, recorded live at Muddy Waters in Bettendorf.

We'll also hear music from Peter Mayer, Claudia Schmidt, Jean Ritchie, and the Old Crow Medicine Show, among others.

This week on The Folk Tree, join us for exclusive Iowa Public Radio recordings of award-winning Des Moines-based singer-songwriter Mary McAdams, from the 2010 Iowa Women's Music Festival, and Iowa City acoustic roots band Red Rock Hill, recorded live last August in our own Studio One in Cedar Falls.

We'll also hear music from new releases by Tom Paxton, the Wild Ponies, and the Barn Birds, and old favorites from the Battlefied Band and Mary Flower.

This week's edition of The Folk Tree includes a very recent live recording and interview with the group Finnders and Youngberg, a Colorado-based group which includes Iowa native and award-winning songwriter Mike Finnders; a live recording of Iowa's own Jordan Sellergren; and music in honor of the summer solstice.  You'll also hear from Norman Blake, Patti Casey, and Greg Brown, among others.  Tune in between 1:00 and 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 23 for some great music!

The Howlin’ Brothers are a three-piece string band that brings heart and passion into every performance. Their upbeat shows are heavy with original and traditional music, featuring the sounds of slide banjo, harmonica and old-time fiddle.

Iowa Public Radio's Cedar Falls facilities are the home of Studio-One-the-room (as opposed to Studio-One-the-programming-stream), an excellent venue for live music.  As I write this, Studio-One-the-room is undergoing renovation and not available for use, but on April 28, The Folk Tree brings you some music that was recorded live there.

In the 2:00 hour, it's our favorite metaphysical Minnesotan singer-songwriter, Peter Mayer.  Then in the 3:00 hour, Sam Knutson, Jordan Sellegren,  and John Waite play music from their Iowa Opera House project.

Live music is important to us here at IPR.  Because of that, we regularly travel to festivals and music venues to record musicians in live performance.  Then we bring the recordings back and share them with you on the radio.

On Sunday, April 21, The Folk Tree presents a live recording of Iowa legends Greg Brown and Bo Ramsey, from the Temple for Performing Arts in Des Moines, in the 2:00 hour.  Then listen during the 3:00 hour for neo-traditionalist string band Crooked Still, recorded at the 2011 Iowa Arts Festival in Iowa City.

On Sunday, April 14, The Folk Tree takes you to one of the hippest venues in Iowa, CSPS in Cedar Rapids.  In the 2:00 hour, we'll hear upstate New York singer-songwriter and percussionist Karen Savoca, accompanied by guitarist Pete Heitzman, from a concert recorded in October 2011.  Then in the 3:00 hour, we offer the first taste of a recording made just this past January: seasoned folksinger Tom Paxton.

We'll also have some live guests stopping by for an interview.  Red Horse is a trio consisting of three great singer-songwriters: Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka, and Lucy Kaplansky