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GRAMMYs

Todd Snider At Newport Folk 2019

Photo: Nate Hertweck/Recording Academy

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Todd Snider On Singing About Songs & Dreams todd-snider-songs-about-songs-storytelling-his-dreamlike-return-folk-newport-folk-2019

Todd Snider On Songs About Songs, Storytelling & His Dreamlike Return To Folk | Newport Folk 2019

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We sat down with the man Aaron Lee Tasjan called "a Mark Twain of our time" to talk songwriting, storytelling and the spirits behind his triumphant folk return, 'Cash Cabin Sessions Vol. 3'
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 29, 2019 - 4:44 pm

Todd Snider's latest album, Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3, marks a return to his acoustic storytelling roots—but true to his track record, it's anything but unimaginative. After creatively experimental and successful stints with a garage band (on the raucous Eastside Bulldog) and an Americana jam band (the psychedelic supergroup Hard Working Americans), Snider began to dream up his new album, literally.

Todd Snider Talks Songwriting, Storytelling & More

It all started with Snider's recurring dream of Johnny Cash standing over him after vising Cash's cabin studio for the first time. The ensuing aptly titled album was recorded there by Cash's son, John Carter Cash, after Loretta Lynn invited Snider to the cabin to record some songs they'd written together.

But these musical giants' influence on Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3 are more cosmic than musical. Musically, Snider is in rare form with his stripped-down sound, poking and sauntering with irreverent candor and hilarious wit of Woody Guthrie, Ramblin' Jack Elliott and, of course, John Prine. In fact, Snider is an intriguing twist in the road paved by Guthrie, Elliott, and Prine. Part sharp left turn, part missing link, he occupies a musical gap between these storied folk heroes and a new generation of songwriters plagued by a new era of political, social and technological issues to sing about.

Perhaps Snider's special songwriting and storytelling abilities are best described by one such artist, his friend, mentee and fellow East Nashville counter-culture song rebel Aaron Lee Tasjan.

"I see Todd as being the full amalgam of an incredible, all-encompassing show as one guy with a guitar on stage," Tasjan said. "My other hero growing up was Mitch Hedberg. And for me, Todd kind of had this sort of way, it was almost like he would fall into punchlines on accident, and his lyrics felt that way to me too."

Tasjan, like many folk hopefuls, was under the influence of Prine from a young age. But he points out how disorienting it can be to find yourself born a generation (or more) after your idols.

"As an artist, when you love, when you have that kind of reverence for music like that, and you're a young person, sometimes it can make you feel a little out of touch with your own generation. Well, all of a sudden, along comes this guy named Todd Snider, with this album called East Nashville Skyline. And it was like, he took all of that tradition and all of that history that I loved about Prine's music and made it for right now, for right then. And it totally blew me away," Tasjan said, adding, "He's a Mark Twain of our time."

During his set at Newport Folk this weekend, Todd Snider didn't blow the audience away in the traditional sense with vocal acrobatics or maudlin folk ballads. Instead, he told his stories and played his songs with a kind of loveable truth that had the Newport audience chuckling with respect. We sat down with Snider before his set to talk about his unique craft and style, his triumphant return to folk on Cash Cabin…, what he remembers from marrying his friends Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires and more.

There's a dreamlike quality to Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3. What does the album mean to you, to have these songs touched by a sort of divine intervention?

I guess at my age ... when I was young I wanted to stay driven by the muse or artsy-fartsy stuff, and I felt like to me, that's what I'm always trying to do, is stay interested or follow a muse rather than try to figure out how to make a living. Just chasing the muse all the time. The older you get, the more attempt there is to make wiser decisions, but I like to just chase songs around and that. This record that you're asking about, it felt like at a certain point I went to the studio and I started having dreams about it, and I thought maybe there's something there. Maybe there's some songs there, and there was.

You know you are out of ideas when you get down to your thoughts and prayers. 'Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3' // OUT NOW: https://t.co/lU5Lne3Oas pic.twitter.com/JTVOz8Qw4i

— Todd Snider (@ToddSnider) March 15, 2019

Yeah, I believe Keith Richards used to say, "incoming," like the idea is coming from somewhere else and passing through him, and he just tries to capture it before it gets away. Do you feel that way about songwriting?

I do. I feel like it happens a lot of ways, but that particular way is the one that is like an addiction to me. I think a lot of singers, that one, the song that feels like it wrote itself is the one you're driving around looking for constantly.

What's interesting about that is one thing you do, I think, as good or better than anybody, is the sort of songs about songs.

On this record too, yeah. Lots of that on this record.

This kind of meta-songwriting. Where were you first exposed to that kind of songwriting?

Maybe this guy named Ken Finlay who lives in Austin, Texas, and teaches people to write. Then I think on this particular record too going back to a feeling in my 50s, and for some reason I'm feeling ... my dad died at 54, so I did a lot of reflecting on my own job in this record. I didn't see that coming but, so it's a lot of, like you said, songs about songs.

"Working On A Song" specifically traces your time in Nashville. Obviously you've seen the city change in the course of time that song covers. How was it trying to finish a song that started that long ago?

When I first got to Nashville, I was working on a song called "Where Will I Go (Now That I'm Gone)." I still haven't technically finished it, but on this record, I have a song about that song, that you could call that song. It's a tribute really to my friends in Nashville. A lot of them are here, Aaron Lee, Jason, Amanda, a lot of singer/songwriters live in Nashville. We spend our life looking for a song, and eventually there's almost no reason. It's usually about a girl or something, and the next thing you know, it turns into an album. Then you have to figure out, are you going to still sing for real girls, or are you just going to sing for the crowd? That's been my experience anyway.

Jason joined you on "Just Like Overnight." You and he go way back.

Yeah, I married them, Jason and Amanda, and they both sing on there.

What do you remember about the wedding ceremony?

That it was hilarious, and I did a prayer written by John Hartford that was very funny. They both looked really beautiful, and it was the beginning of a sea change in our town and our genre. Those two are connecting our town in a way. There's an east side and a Music Row side, and those two have really ... and the guy that was just here [in the interview room], Lukas Nelson, there's a lot of young people right now that are connecting two sides of this Nashville thing that have been separate for a long time. It's fun to watch.

Yeah, it is. It seems like a new era for the city, more united…

Right. I've always wanted to see that happen. That's what it was like when Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson and Billy Joe [Shaver were active]... so I'm excited to see that happening, Chris Stapleton, Kacey Musgraves, Margo Price, that lot.

Storytelling is such an integral part of your live show and your live albums. Where did the urge come to do more than just play songs?

It started right off the bat, mostly because I only had my own songs, and you had to cover a certain amount of time. So I would just talk to try to cover it, to bullsh*t my way through the gig. But then, really quickly, I learned through trailing back ... somebody pointed out Arlo Guthrie to me, and that led to Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Then pretty early in my life, I started studying that guy. He's played here. He played here the night they landed on the moon, and he's here today. But Ramblin' Jack Elliott, if you look into him, he is the first person that really did that. There's others that do it, but I probably copy him more than most people. Arlo did too. He did "912 Greens." "912 Greens" is the song that starts that stuff, I think.

"Talking Reality Television Blues," pulls from that same well, right?

For sure, and Woody Guthrie, I was listening to a lot of Woody Guthrie at the time.

How did Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3 become a "Vol 3"?

It was a record I worked on for a long time. I found this studio I liked, and then I started making songs and recording them. I went through the process three times before I was certain I had this record I wanted, but made two others in the process. They're okay too, they might even be better, they just didn't feel finished, but I'm going to put them all out. So Vol. 2 comes out in January. It's got different songs, same session though. Then Vol. 1 is a bunch of spoken-word stuff. I just started hanging out at the studio for a long time until there was a record, but there was tons of stuff building up to it.

And is that what's going on next for Hard Working Americans?

Right, the Vol. 2 is them, is Hard Working Americans… We're sort of a jam Americana group.

You seem like you're an adept observer of the world, creating a compelling interpretation somehow without casting a lot of judgment or a lot of negativity on it. You have an incredible knowledge of the music history and what's going on in our culture. What's inspiring you now as you move towards the next phase of writing?

Thank you. Next year I'm going to do a tour with a band, and I'd like to try to ... I don't know if this is [possible]... before I die, I would like to do some music that's really original, which is really hard to do and not even necessarily... It'd be fun to come up with a sound like ... even Waylon Jennings did it or Bo Diddley did it. I can't imagine why I would do it, but why not try?

[Waylon Jennings] came up with his own groove, too. Like there is a mathematical way that you can show that he did something that hadn't been done. Bo Diddley did it, rap did it. If a 50, 52-year-old guy came up with a new music, I don't think it would matter, but I would have done it and I would be able to play it for my friends. When 20-year-olds, like when somebody young does something, that's when I think music is really powerful.

You're playing here at Newport later today, how you put a set together for something like this? Are you a set list guy or you just go with it?

I usually will pick a song and then start. I haven't thought of that yet. No, I stopped doing set lists a couple of years ago. Yeah, I haven't decided what to play yet, I don't know what I'll do.

John Prine On The Tree Of Forgivenesi, Protest Music & More At Newport Folk

GRAMMYs

Judah & The Lion

Photo by Daniel Mendoza / The Recording Academy

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Judah & The Lion On Choosing Hope In Tough Times: "Just Talk About It, And You'll Feel Less Alone"

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"Choosing hope and choosing a way forward is something that we all have the power to do," the Nashville trio told the Recording Academy at Lollapalooza 2019
Rachel Brodsky
GRAMMYs
Aug 7, 2019 - 11:23 am

Nashville trio Judah & The Lion, a.k.a. singer/guitarist Judah Akers, singer/mandolinist Brian Macdonald and banjoist/singer Nate Zuercher, recently released a powerful third LP called Pep Talks.

Dealing with tough themes like death and divorce, Pep Talks covers some deeply difficult subjects, but it is also the band's way of connecting with audiences, who might be going through their own hard times.

Judah & The Lion On Spreading Hope Through Music

"It's really wild what people are going through in life. People struggle, whether or not they admit it," lead singer Judah Akers tells the Recording Academy at Lollapalooza 2019. "People are going through stuff. And I think that music is such a beautiful way for us to express that. What we like to share is, 'You're not alone in this.'" 

Akers went on, describing the way fans approach him to tell him how the band's music has helped them get through some difficult times: 

"We had somebody the other day who came up to us and say, 'Your song really helped me out. I was wanting to commit suicide, and I listened to it, and I didn't want to anymore.' And I'm like, 'Oh no, dude, it's OK that you're having those thoughts, but go and talk to someone. Express the way that you feel. Somebody that you trust. If you can go to counseling, talk to a friend, talk to a sibling, someone that you love and trust.'

"Nine times out of 10, or 10 times out of 10, in my experience, that person is going to meet you with so much empathy and solidarity. And then you can just talk about it, and you feel less alone in the world. That's what we're trying to do as humans, is figure this sh*t out. Nobody's got it all together. Nobody's perfect. We're just going for it. Choosing hope and choosing a way foward is something that we all have the power to do."

Check out Judah & The Lion's interview in full above. 

Take A Look Back At Lollapalooza 2019, With Alesso, Loud Luxury, SHAED And More | On The Road

GRAMMYs

Our Native Daughters

(L-R) Rhiannon GIddens,Allison Russell, Leyla McCalla, Amythyst Kiah
Photo: Daniel Mendoza/Recording Academy

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American Roots Music Supergroup Our Native Daughters Look Back To Move Forward | Newport Folk 2019

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The banjo-based quartet discuss how their new album drives the conversation of race in America forward. "We're looking back at the past, but the music is for today"
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 30, 2019 - 3:34 pm

Newport Folk has always hosted historic musical and cutural moments, but when the roots music supergroup of Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla, Allison Russell, Amythyst Kiah know as Our Native Daughters close out their debut run of shows, history took center stage. 

Best described by Smithsonian Folkways, the album Songs Of Our Native Daughters "shines new light on African-American women’s stories of struggle, resistance, and hope. Pulling from and inspired by 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century sources, including slave narratives and early minstrelsy, [Giddens, McCalla, Russell and Kiah] reinterpret and create new works from old ones." 

"Black women have been makers and markers of social change in the United States for centuries, at this point," McCalla said. "I think this album is a part of that," adding, "We're looking back at the past, but the music is for today."

Just after their landmark first-ever set on the Newport Folk Quad Stage, the Recording Academy sat down with the quartet to hear how the project came together, what tools they used to create it, how they hope it will affect the narrative of history and more.

Why was Newport Folk the right place for Our Native Daughters perform in this brief initial tour?

Giddens: Well it just seemed like the right thing, because Newport folk festival has such a history to it and I know that they've been really trying especially recently to really build on that legacy. In a way, even more than they have in the past. You know, just really make it about the folk music and about what folk music can do. And so when the offer came in, it just made so much sense. If we could build a tour around it and let this be the sort of finale to this part of the tour, it's really amazing.

Obviously, this is a and very historical and research-heavy concept for an album, but the music rings out fresh and very alive. How did you approach the daunting task of balancing the historical elements with the musical elements?

Russell: Well I think we really approached it song by song. I would say Rhiannon was struck with the idea to do something like this when she was given a private tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture with her daughter. And that's a painful experience for anyone, let alone a descendant of some of the people who were enslaved. And a quote, a William Cowper quote really sparked the idea, and it was a quote to the effect of, "slavery is terrible, but how could we do without our sugar and our rum?" And the correlation to our modern day dependence on technologies that are being supplied by slave labor… that connection really resonated in her mind and she invited all of us to come and join her and sort of explore some of that history.

Initially the project, the idea was to kind of explore some early slave songs and minstrel music and we did a little bit of that with, with her adaptation of 'Better Get Your Learnin'." But we really realized we had a lot, we're all songwriters and we had a lot of feelings to process around all of this painful history, which is so much in evidence that these ghosts have not been laid to rest. Clearly the divisiveness in our country, the kind of outright racist and fascist rhetoric that's coming from the highest offices in our land is indicative of the fact that this history is not sleeping easy. It is affecting our present on all of us directly and all of you, directly. And so we, we felt like we had some things to say.

Giddens: I think it's also just the recognition of the lack of reckoning around the effects of slavery in the United States and the Atlantic Slave Trade. And even though we come from this place of a lot of research and reading and engaging with like academic material, I think that we've been living in our skin our whole life and that's a part of our experience. We've inherited some of this trauma in different ways and we represent different parts of the African diaspora. And so it made sense for us to come together and try to process this together. And honestly we didn't really know what exactly that was going to land us. And, like Alli said, I really think it was song by song. It was like; 'I have this musical idea, I have this musical idea, I have this phrase that has been turning in my mind,' 'Well, oh, I just came up with something that plays off of that.' And it was very collaborative.

2019 ARTIST ANNOUNCEMENT: Please welcome Our Native Daughters (@RhiannonGiddens @jtandalli @LeylaMcCalla @amythystkiah) to this year's Sunday lineup. @newportfestsorg has made a donation on their behalf to @kidz_notes. Learn more: https://t.co/9IjxshNW2W pic.twitter.com/5JCaqe6Qr8

— Newport Folk Fest (@Newportfolkfest) April 10, 2019

Can you tell us more about the instrumentation and the instruments you used?

Kiah: The banjo was the centerpiece, all of the songs in some capacity needed to revolve around the banjo because the banjo is a descendant of the West African loot family. And historically, at least in contemporary music times, it has been very long associated with white male, three finger style bluegrass players. And that history has been sort of muddled and lost because of the segregation of the commercial music industry. There were black banjo players, black fiddlers and once the record executives wanted to market music, they assumed that, 'well only white people are going to listen to string band music,' so black people had to put down their banjos and fiddles and pick up a guitar and play the blues or play jazz if they wanted to make a living making music.

So this was obviously spun from Rhiannon's Inspiration, but her idea to take the banjo and to reclaim it as something that is also part of black culture because all of us in some capacity have lived like on the in-between of you know, not being black enough or not being white enough because of our interests and, even though by default, if someone is moved by music or move by something, they should be able to like it. There shouldn't have to be a birthright to be able to enjoy your love something, but just in case here is the historical backstory this instrument. And so that was really important to have that because that more or less blasts away the myth of like, 'what is blackness?' You know, what it means to be black, it goes to show that we're not a monolith and there's all sorts of ways to express yourself regardless of what your race is. So the banjo was really important. And then we had fiddle, we had drums and really just song by song, we kind of pieced together what instruments would make sense to serve the song. I think that's kind of kind of how we pieced arrangements together.

Giddens: Yeah, we were in Louisiana, we worked with Dirk Powell, who's a got a lovely, very small studio and it's kind of a built out of a very old, one room house that was once owned by a Creole family nearby. And it's just got all this history to it and he was great to work with, in that he was really very much setting up the sounds and then we just got in there and just did our thing… It was a very much a kind of fostering of like; 'I want what you want.' You know? 'I just wanna make it sound really good,' And so that it became a very safe space and it was a space where we all just felt very comfortable to, "oh and let me try this banjo or that or do that." And we weren't afraid to put electric guitar on and we weren't afraid to put modern instruments on it because it's not a historical record. It's something inspired by histories and inspired by these instruments and we wanted to use those sounds just because that's what we play.

Russell: We're all multi-instrumentalists, as well. We all do play banjo, different banjos, each of us. Rhiannon plays a fretless minstrel banjo, I play a five string, gut-string banjo, Leyla plays a tenor banjo, Amythyst plays a steal string. So we all have different banjos, but we also play other things. Amythyst is an incredible guitarist, Leyla is a classically trained phenomenal cellist. I tootle along on the clarinet and plink on the Ukulele [laughs humbly] and Rhiannon plays like eight to 25 instruments as far as I can tell-

Giddens: I play also fiddle [laughs humbly].

Russell: So we all, you know, we were kind of bringing all our little babies into the project as well.

McCalla: I think it's also that the banjo, like despite how much research we've done on the history of the Banjo, the Banjo is a modern instrument and it is relevant to the conversation of, 'what is folk music and what is American music?' I think the banjo is essential to that conversation. We're looking back at the past, but the music is for today.

What types of conversations are you hoping listeners will have from experiencing this album?

Giddens: Well, I'd like to think that maybe people that are possibly on the fence with the whole... I think this will really be helpful for the people that are like, "Well, isn't racism over? We elected a black president. Isn't racism done?" I think this is a record for people that are asking that question and these subjects are difficult to talk about just face to face. You can talk about it academically with other academics but when you talk to a person that doesn't know the history... A lot of people don't necessarily understand it or people get too upset and don't want to talk about it. Like they kind of go into like a bit of an emotional crisis of either not wanting to hear about it or being defensive.

And so music has a way of disarming people. It's like sugar for the medicine, if you will. You know, these are these harsh realities of things that happened. Because these things happened, this is why things have evolved the way they have, socially, in our culture. This is a way to to disarm people and allow them to think and realize, "oh, this is why we still need to talk about this," you know? Because we're all sort of wrapped in this trauma of that part of our history that still affects how we interact with each other and the kind of legislative policies that we make and all those kinds of things that affects that, whether people see it or not. And hopefully with this record, people can maybe start thinking about it and having that conversation.

The album's liner notes serves as an emotional, historical and contextual companion to the album, and the song by song information is very insightful Can you talk about how they support the music?

Giddens: Well, the liners were collaboration. I wrote the essay.

Russell: It's a great essay.

Giddens: I got together the bibliography, I really wanted people- I mean the problem is that people forget that something always comes from something else. So knowledge is always coming from a place and I have such a respect and such a debt to the scholars who really found such amazing, you know, facts and figures and put them all together. And especially nowadays, these incredibly sensitive, like really, really just well done books. And so I wanted people to know where to go, you know and also to say this is where I got my information from, because I'm not making any of it up and I don't want credit for that.

And then I asked the ladies to give what they would want people to know most about each song, and Dirk wrote something. I just think it's important also to acknowledge him, all of the folks at the Smithsonian Folkways, most of which are white dudes. There is a relationship with allies going on here and I think that that's really important because, in this day and age, there's a lot of kind of, us versus them and I'm like, the only way forward really is to accept the platform that's given to you and the help that comes along with that and then you say your thing. It was like we weren't in any way needing anybody to help us say what we wanted to say, we just needed the space to do it.

So it's really important, I think, to acknowledge that, and to say, "This is how we can work together and not by you guys writing our story, but by you guys letting us have the space to write our story." And in this day and age, that's what it takes, and that's okay. You know what I mean? That's the way to turn it around. It's not like, "No, we don't need your help." It's like, "No, actually, because of the behemoth that we're shifting, it's going to take that." It's going to take the handout and then, "thank you. I got it now." You know what I mean? "Thanks for giving us the space." So I just think that's really important to say, and I'm glad that the Smithsonian has the budget to put liner notes in [laughs].

Russell: And I think, something that you said, this idea of allyship and moving forward and we move forward together. It's a family, it might be a dysfunctional, broken family, but it's a family. This country is still very young and its strength is also where the fault lines can, you know, when there's fear-mongering going on, those fault lines can crack and break and people can have the illusion of some sort of inseparable gulf between themselves and someone they perceive as other. But as Rhiannon's other album posits, there is no other and it's a we, you know, it's a we, and we have to figure out how to talk to each other.

And you know, we were talking about so many of these songs, the reason we wrote them and the way that we connect with them emotionally ourselves, it's a lot of them are trying to make things personal. It's personal, it's not academic, it's not dusty, it's not ancient, dead history, it's personal, it's present. Empathy comes from being able to imagine yourself, your child, your family in that situation, in a given situation. And that's what our hope is, that we're building empathy and sharing empathy and being more empathetic ourselves and I think that is the only way forward.

McCalla: I think it's also so important to talk about the strength of black women in this country and worldwide, really. Because a lot of the time we talk about the victimization of black people, and I think that that's certainly part of the story, but it's not the whole story. And black women have been makers and markers of social change in the United States for centuries, at this point. So, I just think this album is a part of that. And I don't see any other completely black groups at the Newport Folk Festival, for example, you know? And so, it's a step forward. You have to start with one foot in front of the other.

Yola Ascends To 'Walk Through Fire' & Become The Queen Of Country Soul | Newport Folk 2019

GRAMMYs

Judy Collins

Photo by: Daniel Mendoza / The Recording Academy

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Judy Collins On Gender Equality In Music: "Whatever You Say, Whatever You Do, We Are Not Going Away" | Newport Folk 2019

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The GRAMMY-winning folk icon stopped by to chat with the Recording Academy about the first time she attended Newport Folk in 1963, rubbing shoulders with Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, what the fest means to her and more
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 30, 2019 - 11:53 am

Folk hero Judy Collins has seen it all. At a thriving 80 years old, the beloved GRAMMY-winning performer, who is arguably best known for singing the Joni Mitchell-penned "Both Sides Now" and being the subject of Crosby, Stills & Nash's "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," Collins remembers attending Newport Folk Festival all the way back in 1963, back when major music stars like Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary, Leonard Cohen and Pete Seeger were rising, and relatively unknown voices. 

Collins, who still writes, records and tours extensively, remembers hanging with the aforementioned names like it was yesterday. "We'd get drunk and stay up all night and sit out listening to Son House and Mississippi John Hurt," she tells the Recording Academy. "It was very different in those days. It was very exciting, but simpler. There were often stages where the stage was filled with great singers, Dylan and Pete and Odetta. Just so many, many, many, many, many artists been here."

The living legend attended this year's Newport Folk Festival, where she had quite a lively experience, teaming up with Brandi Carlile, The Highwomen and Dolly Parton onstage for multiple duets. The Recording Academy sat down with Collins to chat more about her long, storied history with the fest, how she keeps up the creativity decade after decade and what we have left to do in terms of achieving equal pay and equal rights for women in the music industry. 

Judy Collins Recalls Her First Newport Folk Fest

What has this festival meant for you and your career, and why is Newport special?

The first time I was at Newport was 1963, I think. From after that I've been on I was here with Peter, Paul and Mary, with [Bob] Dylan before the electric. One of the first big festivals and times when I saw Dylan and Joni [Mitchell], I think, it was '63 and there's lots of footage of that. We'd get drunk and stay up all night and sit out listening to Son House and Mississippi John Hurt. And the tents, the workshops were just incredible full of all kinds. The staples were here, the family. Pete was here, Pete Seeger was always here. John Cohen and Ramblin' Jack Elliott are still here today. They're doing shows at the museum, I think, today, again. So I've been here with so many people. In '67 I put together a show with Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, who were here for the first time that afternoon.

It was an afternoon singer/songwriter on one of the lawns. I mean, I still think I'm old school, but it was very different in those days. It was very exciting, but simpler. There were often stages where the stage was filled with great singers, Dylan and Pete and Odetta. Just so many, many, many, many, many artists have been here. I was on the board of directors with George Wein in the '60s in 1963, '64, '65. Pete was on that board and you would talk about the shows every summer, what they were going to be, who was going to be on them. And I just saw George Wein when I came in the other day. Of course, he's still around. He's still kicking. He's a wonderful man. And it was his genius that put this whole thing together for us. He started with the jazz festival, of course, and then something piqued his interest. I don't know who it was. Maybe it was Pete.

Joan was on that first one in 1959 and she and I are still friends. 2009, which was my last until today, my last appearance here, we sang together, Joan and I in the rain, we sang one of her songs, "Diamonds And Rust." So it's part of my history. I've been here. I've sung here. I've had workshops here. I've introduced artists who were unknown to the public, like Joni Mitchell, and Leonard Cohen and others. And today I'm here with a young artist that I discovered a few years ago with Ari Hest. He's going to be part of my set at the museum today, and we'll sing together. He'll sing alone and we'll do some things. We had an album that we put out two years ago, which was nominated for a GRAMMY. And it was my first GRAMMY nomination in 40 years. I now hold the record for the time between GRAMMY nominations. The runner-up was Gloria Gaynor who had 23 years between her nominations for a GRAMMY.

You shattered the record. Wow. Well, I think that's one thing that strikes everybody about you. It's been 10 years since you've been here and you've been extremely active. For a lot of artists as they get older they lose the fire. What has kept you so productive and creative in this stage of your career?

I landed in the right career when I was 19, and I was 19 when I started doing this, so I've had 60 years to figure out why I love it. I love it because it provides me with an avenue to write songs, to choose songs. I've just made an album with a wonderful bluegrass group called the Chatham County Line, which is coming out in November. In the last five or six years I've had a duets album where I sang with Jackson Browne, and Michael McDonald, and Willie Nelson and done albums with [Stephen] Sondheim, the Sondheim songs I love. Duets where I took Ari's song, which we're going to sing today, "Strangers Again," and added to it other great singers and songwriters. It excites me. What I do is fantastic for me and for my audiences. Imagine being able to do 120 shows a year. Last year I did 115 of those shows with Stephen Stills. I was out with him on the road all over the country, and next year we're going to tour with Arlo Guthrie. It never stops.

In your career you've chosen incredible songs to interpret and sing by other people. What do you look for in a song to make it your own?

It has to be something that I fall in love with immediately, or else I never want to hear it again. So the first six years of my recordings in '61 when I began, first I sang traditional songs, one of which I'm going to sing today, "John Riley." Then I didn't write any songs in that first few years.

I was brought up on all kinds of music. My father was in the radio business. He sang Rodgers And Hart. I knew all those songs. I knew the traditional songs like "Danny Boy." Then when I started to learn folk music, I learned all the traditional songs there, but I never thought about writing songs. There was no reason to. There were so many great songs that I learned from other singers.

The year that I found "Both Sides Now," Joni Mitchell sang it to me on the telephone, which I said last night in front of everybody. She was hanging out with Al Kooper who started Blood, Sweat and Tears, and he put her on the phone and she sang to me "Both Sides Now," which is why this whole thing happened. It was that year in '67 also that Leonard, whom I also recorded his first songs that he ever wrote, he said to me, "I love it. I want you to always record my songs," which I have, but he said, "I don't understand why you're not writing your own songs." So I went home and wrote "Since You've Asked," and I've been writing ever since. I'm going to sing a brand-new one today called "The Grand Canyon."

It's never stopped for me. It's always creative. It's always energy going both to continue to be healthy. I mean, that's one of the things that I'm so grateful for because I have great health. I'm sober for 41 years in case anybody wants to know that there is a solution if you have that kind of a problem. We rock with 12-step programs. They're free, by the way. You don't even need health care to go to a 12-step program, and there are hundreds of them for every problem you might have. So I was lucky because by that time I could then focus on my work, on my health, on eating right, on thinking right, on what's the next creative thing to do, but there's a price for all of it, and part of it is you've got to stay healthy. And we all know that there are lots of people who don't have that good fortune. So I'm grateful for that because it allows me to be able to keep on doing it.

You've been such an activist in your career, especially through music with the songs that you've written, and I think being here at Newport we're reminded that music can create a change. Having been through decades of fighting the good fight when you look back, what do you think music can do? How powerful is it to create change? What have you seen?

A couple years ago I wrote a song called "Dreamers" and I've recorded it. It's about the immigration problem. It's become a problem since people can allow others to direct them to do the wrong thing about immigration. And when I sing "Dreamers," I've been singing it now for about a year and a half, and as I said, I do 120 shows a year, so I have an opportunity to hear and to experience what people think. I think I can hear them thinking because it gets very quiet. I'm going to sing that song today in my show at the museum with Ari.

I don't think I'm making this up. I think when I'm singing the song, I can almost hear people thinking, "Okay, so what do I do? What could be an action that I could take that one person can take?" One person can vote. One person can give money to a candidate that's doing the right thing. One person can go and march. One person can change their entire life, really, if they wish to. And I hear that going on. Of course, then when the song is finished there's a silence and then this incredible wave of people screaming and yelling, standing up, and chanting and hollering, and wanting somehow to do something right this minute.

Oh, it gives me chills and that's exactly how it happens and how it makes change. I'd also love to ask you about gender equality in music. I think this year's festival has a very strong feminine power behind it with last night's headliner, we had The Highwomen in here yesterday. In your career, what progress do you think has been made towards a level playing field for all musicians? And what do you think we still have left to do when it comes to gender equality and music?

Well, equal pay for equal work is the thing that comes to mind. I mean, we are breaking all kinds of glass ceilings. I was so impressed with Brandi [Carlile] what she did last night. She really gave her time. My husband and I were talking about she gave up her spotlight to include all these women, and to make it into something which really showed, oh, well, here we are. Whatever you say, whatever you do, we are not going away. We are here to stay. And we are going to get equal pay for equal work one of these days. It's not happened yet in all these years.

I mean, my husband and I, the first time we met we were at an equal rights amendment fundraiser in 1978. Everybody hollered and yelled. I think we were one vote short. I mean, we really came close to getting this passed, and I think that's where we are now. I think the equal rights amendment has to pass and equal equality. I mean, we've got the gender equality. We've got the financial equality to work on, but it's moving, it's happening. I think that there's every reason to believe that [women] hold up half the sky. I can't remember who it was who said that. I don't think it was a woman. [Editor's note: Mao Zedong first said "Women hold up half the sky."] 

You mentioned "Both Sides Now" and the GRAMMY. What memories do you have of finding out that you'd been nominated for a GRAMMY Award 50 years ago?

Well, I was very out of it in those days. I mean, I was very present. I never canceled a date. I always showed up on time, but I was a little foggy. I was thrilled. Well, first of all, I fell in love with Joni Mitchell's songs, many of them, because I recorded "Both Sides Now." I recorded "Michael From Mountains." I recorded "Song About The Midway." I recorded others of hers and I'm singing in concerts. I'm singing others of her songs, but she just dazzled me always. So when I heard that it was nominated, well, and then I had a GRAMMY for it that was very good news, but on the other hand I had a show to do the next night. I had places to go, luggage to pack, drinks to get, you know? It was all about keeping the whole show going. It was thrilling because I think it made it clear that I was serious about what I was doing.

Maren Morris, Natalie Hemby & Amanda Shires Of The Highwomen Are "Redesigning Women" | Newport Folk 2019

GRAMMYs

Dolly Parton At Newport Folk 2019

Photo: Douglas Mason/WireImage

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Newport Folk 2019: Relive The Music & Camaraderie newport-folk-2019-relive-all-surprises-highlights-exclusives

Newport Folk 2019: Relive All The Surprises, Highlights & Exclusives

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From Dolly's big surprise to Brandi's big weekend, join us at the 60th Anniversary Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island, as we round up the moments you may have missed, plus peek in on our exclusive backstage access
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 29, 2019 - 5:35 pm

It’s hard to believe the first-ever Newport Folk Festival took place 60 years ago, mainly because the vibe at this year's fest feels so future-facing, so switched-on, and so decidedly in-the-now. But in truth, Newport Folk has been a breeding ground for revolutionary change since the beginning. On-the-ground and by-the-sea at Fort Adams, you can't get far without talking to someone about Bob Dylan going electric here in 1965, or Mississippi John Hurt bringing Delta blues to a whole new audience three years earlier in 1963, or Judy Collins introducing two young songwriters to the Newport crowd a few years later who just happened to be Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, or... or...

Newport Folk 2019: Recording Academy "On The Road"

History aside, the first force of nature you notice about this year’s Newport Folk is the powerful and dynamic female-driven lineup, highlighted by Friday’s headlining debut of the Highwomen, a new supergroup featuring Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires. Saturday’s surprise headlining slot, mysteriously marked on the schedule as four female symbols, turned out to be the first all-female collaboration in the festival’s history. Also, remarkable performances by Sheryl Crow, Kacey Musgraves, Jade Bird, Maggie Rodgers, I’m With Her, Lucy Dacus and more. 

But the surprise of the year—and each year at Newport there are many—was the Saturday night “Collaboration” when none other than Dolly Parton, joined by her frequent collaborator Linda Perry, jumped up on stage with Crow, Carlile, Collins and more, providing Newport ’19’s most memorable moment. 

yeah… no big deal…..#LEGENDS https://t.co/Gca5VY6H7b

— Newport Folk Fest (@Newportfolkfest) July 28, 2019

Not to be outdone, Sunday was magical in its own way, highlighted by Hozier’s soulful set with special guest Mavis Staples and Lake Street Dive’s Rachel Price. But the most chill-producing musical moment Sunday beloved to Carlile, the same way the entire arc of Newport ’19 seemed to belong to the incredibly warm, gracious and talented GRAMMY winner. She joined Hozier on-stage for a rendition of her GRAMMY-winning song “The Joke,” trading verses with Hozier, then silencing the crowd with her vocal delivery of the songs climax before an uproar of applause. 

Brandi Carlile On Forgiveness & "The Joke"

Festivalgoers had plenty to cheer for at this year’s Newport Folk, but what they didn’t see was the action backstage. It’s not uncommon to see impromptu rehearsals, joyous reunions and excited first meetings between artists while walking through the all-access areas of the festival. The Recording Academy setup shop to speak with some of Newport’s brightest stars, one-on-one, for exclusive interviews.

For instance, we caught up with Friday’s main event, The Highwomen, to hear about their new singles and forthcoming album. We spoke with well-traveled Texas country breakout artist Charley Crockett, who also came well-dressed in a brand-new bright-red suit. We sat down with rising star and Queen of Country Soul, Yola, who ended up making guest appearances everywhere during the weekend, winning over new fans in droves.

Yola On Being The Queen Of Country Soul

We were also honored to talk with Judy Collins about her rich history at Newport dating back to the days of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. We even got to talk with Our Native Daughters, the powerful new group featuring Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, Allison Russell to hear about their moving debut album and performance.

For all of this coverage and much, much more, including interviews with Amy Ray, Molly Tuttle, Lukas Nelson and many more, visit our exclusive photo gallery and see who else stopped by to say hello and snap some pics in our portrait studio.

.@molly_tuttle, @iamyola, @lukasnelson, @adiavictoria, and many more artists came through to discuss music, life, culture what makes @Newportfolkfest feel like home. https://t.co/48X4Pm5ghW

— Recording Academy / GRAMMYs (@RecordingAcad) July 28, 2019

At the end of the day, Newport is about the music and the people, and backstage in a beautiful side room of the Fort, artist after artist tells us how attentive the audiences are and how well the staff treat everyone. This is the spirit behind the festival that — 60 years after it’s inception — continues to bring the music community together, push the boundaries of artistic conventions, give a voice to artists to fight for what they believe and build lasting friendships and connections with all those who make the journey to Newport. See you next year!

Backstage At Newport Folk Festival's 60th Anniversary

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