Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" has long been offered as an "alternative national anthem," performed by musicians from Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger to Chicano Batman and Sharon Jones. Its message seems fairly simple — we are all equally entitled to the rights of this country, including the land we stand on. But Native Americans will just as soon point out Read More
Since his first American concert, Zakir Hussain has become perhaps the most famous tabla player in the world. He now lives in California, and he says it was this performance 50 years ago that showed him that Indian classical music could be played in the West in its purest form. "It really set the tone of how I would present myself to my fellow musicians — whoever I was Read More
Thirty feet below the surface in Brooklyn, 10th grader Nora Brown brings incredible, surprising depth to the Appalachian music she plays. Over the course of her Tiny Desk Meets globalFEST concert, surrounded by innumerable globes and instruments, she infuses new life and energy into the traditional songs of Addie Graham, Virgil Anderson and Fred Cockerham.Read More
One of the first artists to introduce North American audiences to her style of Latin American music, the folk singer was named a 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow.Read More
On this special edition of All Songs Considered, NPR Music's Ann Powers and Bob Boilen explore early works of Joni Mitchell and play selections from the new box set from RhinoRead More
The symbols of America's racist past have been under intense scrutiny since the protests against police brutality erupted nationwide. Now, the traditional music community is having its own reckoning.Read More
Smithsonian Folkways is beloved for its historic collection of recordings and ephemera from folk and roots traditions — but the label's archive of electronic music is just as formidable.Read More
Veteran songwriters prove that it's possible to release poignant and powerful work late in an artist's career.Read More
Hear the cellist talk about the purpose of music in the face of racial tension and health crises, plus his new album, Not Our First Goat Rodeo, which reunites him with old bluegrass buddies. Read More
Each a virtuoso in their own right, longtime friends and Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn team up for a tradition-blending debut album of folk music.Read More
The Atlanta-based band came to NPR in a van packed with a bodhrán (Irish drum), an ngoni (West African harp) a huge gourd, a cello, a baritone guitar and more.Read More
Fiddler Jenee Fleenor is the first woman ever to win the Country Music Association's Musician of the Year Award. Her work is partly responsible for the instrument's resurgence.Read More
In his second visit to the Tiny Desk, Josh Ritter had America on his mind. "We all have to fight against this notion that we're not all human beings."Read More
Smithsonian Folkways archivist and Pete Seeger expert Jeff Place talks about Pete Seeger: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection, due out on what would have been Seeger's 100th birthday.Read More
One of the three gorgeous voices at the heart of Mountain Man, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig releases her first solo album, Dawnbreaker, on June 28. Hear the title track.Read More
Woody Guthrie was born into the Dust Bowl's devastation and displacement. His signature song, taught in classrooms and sung at protests, offers an expansive, inclusive idea of what home can be.Read More
Bob Dylan has called Izzy Young's Folklore Center "the citadel of Americana folk music." It was at the center of the folk music revival in New York City in the 1950s and '60s. Young died Feb. 4 at 90.Read More
Together, the women of Lula Wiles are giving folk music a new reputation with band's sophomore album, What Will We Do. Read More
The Bob Dylan classic came out in 1963 and was embraced by the civil rights and anti-war movements. Decades later, young people are finding it vibrates with new meaning.Read More