Folk Music

The Lower 48

Bob Dylan's debut album released 50 years ago today

​For all of the profound mythologizing that is done over the illustrious music career of Bob Dylan, he began the process just like any other musician with the bold but tentative first steps of a debut record. While very few Dylan enthusiasts will list Bob Dylan as among their favorite (or even ... More >>

Marrow

​For all of the profound mythologizing that is done over the illustrious music career of Bob Dylan, he began the process just like any other musician with the bold but tentative first steps of a debut record. While very few Dylan enthusiasts will list Bob Dylan as among their favorite (or even ... More >>

David Hanners, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, brings folk music to Ginkgo Coffeehouse Saturday

David HannersDavid Hanners sings for the doomed and the thoughtful​"It's kind of a joke amongst my songwriter friends that I kill off a lot of characters in my songs," says David Hanners, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and folk singer. He produces his latest CD, "The Traveler's Burden," to ... More >>

17 ways to celebrate Bob Dylan's 70th birthday in Minnesota

​Minnesota's most famous expatriate and one of the most respected songwriters of our time, Bob Dylan, is celebrating his 70th birthday today. How do you honor the man who has received every honor in the world? We thought of a few ways you could pay your respects today.

Sharon Van Etten at the Cedar, 4/6/11

Photos by Tony Nelson​ Sharon Van Etten April 6, 2010 Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis Brooklyn-based Sharon Van Etten is a force to be reckoned with. Her show last night at the Cedar saw the audience moved and silenced by the folk artist whose talent and capacity for music is far greater ... More >>

Bob Dylan applies to play China tour dates

Is this man too controversial for China?​Bob Dylan hasn't given up on China. A year after refusing Dylan permission to play tour dates in Shanghai and Beijing, China's Ministry of Culture is reviewing an application for the Minnesota-born folk singer to schedule two shows in the country this ... More >>

Spider John Koerner documentary screens at the Trylon

Daniel Corrigan​Whatever revolutions Minnesota has seen in rock and folk music for the last five decades, guitarist and blues shouter Spider John Koerner has witnessed them all and, more than likely, helped bring them about. A major influence not only on Minnesota's most famous musical son Bob Dyl ... More >>

Dar Williams

Daniel Corrigan​Whatever revolutions Minnesota has seen in rock and folk music for the last five decades, guitarist and blues shouter Spider John Koerner has witnessed them all and, more than likely, helped bring them about. A major influence not only on Minnesota's most famous musical son Bob Dyl ... More >>

Joan Baez at the Minnesota Zoo, 7/13/10

Photos by Steve Cohen​Joan Baez has been performing for over 50 years, and her voice is just as lovely as ever. "I've had to drop my songs down a few notches to match my voice now," she noted apologetically during her show at the Minnesota Zoo last night. But aside from a few key changes her old c ... More >>

Ramblin' Jack Elliott

Photos by Steve Cohen​Joan Baez has been performing for over 50 years, and her voice is just as lovely as ever. "I've had to drop my songs down a few notches to match my voice now," she noted apologetically during her show at the Minnesota Zoo last night. But aside from a few key changes her old c ... More >>

Luke Redfield, Aria Souder

Photos by Steve Cohen​Joan Baez has been performing for over 50 years, and her voice is just as lovely as ever. "I've had to drop my songs down a few notches to match my voice now," she noted apologetically during her show at the Minnesota Zoo last night. But aside from a few key changes her old c ... More >>

Dylan's Drummer Boy video drops

Because nothing says Christmas like an aging misanthropic wizened folk antihero.

Bob Dylan to release Christmas album on October 13

"Christmas in the Heart" will feature a collection of holiday standards.

Tallest Man on Earth

"Christmas in the Heart" will feature a collection of holiday standards.

Judy Collins

"Christmas in the Heart" will feature a collection of holiday standards.

Joan Baez

"Christmas in the Heart" will feature a collection of holiday standards.

Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet

"Christmas in the Heart" will feature a collection of holiday standards.

Travis and Jonny

"Christmas in the Heart" will feature a collection of holiday standards.

Toby Thompson

"Christmas in the Heart" will feature a collection of holiday standards.

Consolation Champ

"Christmas in the Heart" will feature a collection of holiday standards.

Cat Power Comes Back

The melodrama behind her, Cat Power goes on tour with a set of classic cover songs

The Klezmatics Hanukkah Party

The melodrama behind her, Cat Power goes on tour with a set of classic cover songs

The Old, Weird America Marches Onward

Another great folk-music box targets everyday people who might even still be alive

Turn On the Basement Lights

Rock writer/Dylan freak Sid Griffin attempts to crack one of music's great mysteries

The elusive Bob Dylan, masterfully considered, in I'm Not There

Rock writer/Dylan freak Sid Griffin attempts to crack one of music's great mysteries

Ramblin' Man

Anti-techie Bob Dylan makes a great chill-out album

A Beautiful Mind

Minnesota-born Paul Nelson was a '60s folk revival pioneer and a founding father of rock writing

Songs That Fall from the Sky

Meet the Handsome Family: The story of the band that forgot time

"Something about that song haunts you"

Meet the Handsome Family: The story of the band that forgot time

In Da Club: Kevin Bowe and High on Stress at the Terminal Bar

Meet the Handsome Family: The story of the band that forgot time

Strib: Protest doc "tainted" by lack of conservative voices

Meet the Handsome Family: The story of the band that forgot time

A Complete Unknown

Scorsese takes 200 minutes to preserve the mystery of Dylan

Three Tracks, Echo, and a Bunch of Hungry Teenagers

A short tour of some of the Twin Cities' historic recording studios

Faraway, So Close

Doc-Maker Don McGlynn Draws the reclusive 'Spider' out of his web

Pearls Before Swine: Wizard of Is, and Patty Waters: You Thrill Me

Doc-Maker Don McGlynn Draws the reclusive 'Spider' out of his web

Heaven Is In The Details

Haynes fakes it so real, he is beyond fake

Aural History

Larry Long overturns the "great man" theory of traditional music, one folk at a time

The Mekons' Folk Revival

Larry Long overturns the "great man" theory of traditional music, one folk at a time

Woody Guthrie: The Asch Recordings

Larry Long overturns the "great man" theory of traditional music, one folk at a time

One True Folkie

Bill Staines gives us more songs for "kids, cars, and campfires"

Gillian Welch: Hell Among the Yearlings

Bill Staines gives us more songs for "kids, cars, and campfires"

Man Out of Time

Two albums devoted to Woody Guthrie discover new notes in the people's music. Does the song remain the same?

House of the Rising Sun

Next week Red House Records issues a momentous tribute album of Pete Seeger's songs. But after 15 years at the margins of American music, this St. Paul label proudly aims to stay there.

Year of the Vulture

A Record Year: Our 13 favorite albums for 1997.

Southern Culture on the Skids

A new autobiography tells how Johnny Cash has walked the line for a disappearing country--and how that line may end with him.

Bourgeois Blues by Lead Belly & This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie

A new autobiography tells how Johnny Cash has walked the line for a disappearing country--and how that line may end with him.

Ballads of a Thin Man

An excerpt from: Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes

Youth Against Fascism

In his new book on America's folk revival, Robert Cantwell looks at our post-war romance with the "real."

Record Roundup

In his new book on America's folk revival, Robert Cantwell looks at our post-war romance with the "real."