Sylvia Tyson – AcousticMusicScene.com

FAI Folk Radio Charts – November 2023

Michael Kornfeld — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 14:53:51 +0000

More Than A Whisper: Celebrating the Music of Nanci Griffith, a compilation album featuring various artists performing songs written or recorded by the late singer-songwriter, was the most-played album on folk radio during November 2023. One of its tracks, “Listen to the Radio” performed by Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle, was the top song — edging out songs by Erik Balkey and Laura Zucker. Veteran Canadian singer-songwriter Sylvia Tyson was the month’s most-played artist. So say charts compiled by Folk Alliance International based on radio playlists submitted to FOLKDJ-L, an electronic discussion group for DJs and others interested in folk-based music on the radio.

The November 2023 top albums, songs and artists charts are based on 11,413 airplays reported on 385 playlists submitted by 109 different folk DJs. The number of reported spins is shown below in parentheses.

Folk Alliance International (folk.org) is a nonprofit organization that aims to serve, strengthen, and engage the global folk music community through preservation, presentation and promotion.

Top Albums of November 2023

1.More Than a Whisper: Celebrating the Music of Nanci Griffith by Various Artists (114)
2. At the End of the Day by Sylvia Tyson (99)
3. The Lonesome Chronicles by Kathy Kallick Band (87)
4. Together by Tom Paxton and John McCutcheon (83)
5. Ozark Symphony by Kelly Hunt (60)
6. Under a Cathedral Sky by Ynana Rose (59)
7. Lavender Moonshine by Tret Fure (55)
8. Imaginary People by Viv and Riley (50)
9. A Great Wild Mercy by Carrie Newcomer (49)
10. Folktown by Mark Leggett (48)
11. The Breath Between by David Francey (47)
12. Two Singing Songs by Ben Gage (44)
13. Tarwater by Colin Cutler (40)
13. Fear of Falling Stars by Kristen Grainger and True North (40)
15. Try to Make It Fly by Lonesome Ace Stringband (39)
16. Keep Going by Connie Kaldor (38)
17. Sun to Sun by Alice Gerrard (37)
17. Ancestor Song by Janice Jo Lee (37)
19. Homecoming by Folk Legacy Trio (34)
20. Old Cane Back Rocker by Darrell Scott String Band (33)
21. On the Blind Side by Ray Bonneville (31)
21. Love and Rain by Annie and Rod Capps (31)
23. Endless Turn of Day Into Night by Last Birds (30)
24. Headwinds by The Kennedys (29)
25. Cherchez La Femme by Karyn Oliver (28)
26. Battle Cry Mercy by Jared Dustin Griffin (26)
26. Gently as I Go by Caroline Cotter (26)
26. City of Gold by Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway (26)
26. You’re the One by Rhiannon Giddens (26)
30. Ever Onward by Bob and Sarah Amos (24)
31. Queen of Time by Lindsay Lou (23)
32. Leave the Light On by Terry Klein (21)
32. Jubilee by Old Crow Medicine Show (21)
32. Center of the Universe by Sofia Talvik (21)
35. No Help Coming by The Fugitives (20)
35. Highways, Gamblers, Devils and Dreams by Hank Woji (20)
35. Heat Comes Down by John R. Miller (20)
38. Sweethearts: A Tribute to the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo by Christian Parker (19)
38. Dogs Without a Home by E.G. Cooper (19)
40. I Kept These Old Blues by Muireann Bradley (18)
40. Colors and Covers by Brittany Jean (18)
40. Dandelion Breeze by The Clements Brothers (18)
40. New Dawn by Tricia Eaves (18)
44. Big Red Gibson by Jim Patton and Sherry Brokus (17)
45. My Father Loved Me by Rachael Kilgour (16)
45. By the Refinery Lights by Laura Zucker (16)
45. 55 by Ellis Paul (16)
48. Valley of Heart’s Delight by Margo Cilker (15)
48. Timepiece by Matthew Morgan (15)
48. Thank God We Left the Garden by Jeffrey Martin (15)
48. Traveling Wildfire by Dom Flemons (15)
48. Hackney Diamonds by The Rolling Stones (15)

Top Songs of November 2023

1. “Listen to the Radio” by Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle (17)
2. “Thanksgiving Prayer” by Laura Zucker (16)
2. “Born in the USA” by Erik Balkey (16)
4. “Sun to Sun” by Alice Gerrard (15)
5. “Just Lonesome Ol’ Me & the Radio” by Kathy Kallick Band (14)
5. “Folktown” by Mark Leggett (14)
7. “Lavender Moonshine” by Tret Fure (13)
7. “Redwood Holler” by Ynana Rose (13)
7. “Now Tell Me That You’ve Got the Blues” by Sylvia Tyson (13)
7. “Love at the Five and Dime” by John Prine and Kelsey Waldon (13)
11. “Thanksgiving Song” by Mary Chapin Carpenter (12)
11. “Home for the Harvest” by Craig Bickhardt (12)
11. “Company” by Ben Gage (12)
11. “Long Chain of Love” by Sylvia Tyson (12)
11. “I Called It Love” by David Francey (12)
11. “Kygers Hill” by Viv and Riley (12)
17. “At the End of the Day” by Sylvia Tyson (11)
17. “Letters From Joe” by Tom Paxton and John McCutcheon (11)
17. “Run to the River” by Colin Cutler (11)
17. “Midlife Walkin’ Blues” by Ynana Rose (11)
17. “In America” by Tom Paxton and John McCutcheon (11)
17. “Gulf Coast Highway” by Brandy Clark (11)
17. “November” by Bob and Sarah Amos (11)
17. “Ford Econoline” by Todd Snider (11)
25. “People Get Ready” by The Sherpas (10)
25. “Angels in Troubled Times” by Sylvia Tyson (10)
25. “It’s a Hard Life Wherever You Go” by Steve Earle (10)
25. “Not Quite Rain” by Sylvia Tyson (10)
25. “Mama Don’t Know Where Heaven Is” by Colin Cutler (10)
25. “No Place Like Home” by Tret Fure (10)
25. “Sweet Agony” by Sylvia Tyson (10)

Top Artists of November 2023

1. Sylvia Tyson (108)
2. Kathy Kallick Band (87)
3. Tom Paxton and John McCutcheon (83)
4. Joni Mitchell (71)
5. Kelly Hunt (61)
6. Tret Fure (60)
7. Ynana Rose (59)
7. Carrie Newcomer (59)
9. Viv and Riley (50)
10. David Francey (49)
11. Bob Dylan (48)
11. Mark Leggett (48)
13. Connie Kaldor (45)
14. Ben Gage (44)
15. Lonesome Ace Stringband (42)
16. Kristen Grainger and True North (41)
17. Darrell Scott String Band (40)
17. Colin Cutler (40)
19. Alice Gerrard (39)
20. John McCutcheon (38)
21. Janice Jo Lee (37)
22. Folk Legacy Trio (34)
22. Rhiannon Giddens (34)
24. Ray Bonneville (33)
25. The Kennedys (31)
25. Annie and Rod Capps (31)
25. Brittany Jean (31)
25. Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway (31)
29. Last Birds (30)
30. Willie Nelson (29)
31. Karyn Oliver (28)
32. Eliza Gilkyson (27)
33. Jared Dustin Griffin (26)
33. Caroline Cotter (26)
33. The Fugitives (26)
36. Arlo Guthrie (25)
37. Bob and Sarah Amos (24)
37. Old Crow Medicine Show (24)
37. Gordon Lightfoot (24)
40. Ellis Paul (23)
40. John R. Miller (23)
40. John Prine (23)
40. Mary Gauthier (23)
40. Lindsay Lou (23)

Remembering Ian Tyson, 1933-2022

Michael Kornfeld — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 16:48:05 +0000

Ian Tyson

Ian Tyson, an influential Canadian troubadour best known for having penned the hit songs “Four Strong Winds” and “Someday Soon” as half of the internationally acclaimed folk duo Ian & Sylvia, died on December 29, 2022 at his ranch in southern Alberta at age 89. Folk DJ Charlie Backfish will pay tribute to him and his music during a special edition of his long-running weekly radio show Sunday Street that airs January 8 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET on WUSB 90.1 FM on Long Island, NY and online at wusb.fm or https://tunein.com/radio/WUSB-901-s2324/.

Born to British immigrants in Victoria, British Columbia on September 25, 1933, Tyson grew up in Duncan, BC. He was a rough-stock rodeo rider in his late teens and early 20s and took up the guitar as “the means by which to pass the time” during a two-week hospital stay while recovering from a shattered ankle — an injury he sustained in a bad fall while competing in the Dog Pound Rodeo in Alberta.

Tyson hitchhiked from Vancouver to Toronto in 1958 after graduating from the Vancouver School of Art and became part of the city’s nascent folk scene centered around the coffee houses of its bohemian Yorkville neighborhood. There he met a young singer named Sylvia Fricker, who would become his musical and life partner for a while. They moved to New York, where noted manager Albert Grossman (Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary, Pozo Seco Singers, etc.) signed Ian & Sylvia to Vanguard Records and they became an important part of the early 1960s folk revival.

The duo released its eponymously titled debut album in 1962 before getting hitched two years later. They would go on to record and release nearly a dozen albums. Although Ian and Sylvia’s 1964 sophomore release, Four Strong Winds, featured primarily covers of songs by others, its original title track became one of Canada’s best-loved songs and, along with “Someday Soon” and Sylvia’s “You Were on My Mind,” has been covered by numerous other artists — a number of whom will be featured on Sunday Street.

Here’s a link to view a video of Ian and Sylvia performing Four Strong Winds for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3m7ckGhnsc

As the folk boom began to wane later in the 1960s, spurred in part by the British Invasion, Ian & Sylvia moved to Nashville and began incorporating elements of country and rock into their music. They formed the band Great Speckled Bird in 1969 and becoming pioneers of country-rock, along with the Byrds and others.

After hosting a national Canadian television music show from 1970 to 1975, Tyson realized his dream of returning to the Canadian West. His marriage to Sylvia had ended in divorce in 1975 and Tyson, disillusioned with the Canadian country music scene, opted to return to his first love – training horses in the ranch country of southern Alberta.

Tyson Turns to Cowboy Songs and Western Music

His songwriting was greatly affected by his change in lifestyle – most notably on his third solo album, 1983’s Old Corrals & Sagebrush, comprised solely of traditional and new cowboy songs that he recorded after spending three idyllic years cowboying in the Rockies at Pincher Creek. Although Tyson didn’t know it at the time, a cowboy renaissance was about to find expression at the first Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering that year in a small cow town in northern Nevada. Invited to perform his ‘new western music” at it, Tyson was a regular attendee at the gatherings for more than 30 years. Tyson’s 1987 album Cowboyography also helped to re-launch his touring career across Canada and the U.S.

Tyson seriously damaged his voice following a particularly tough performance at an outdoor country music festival in 2006. “I fought the sound system and I lost,” he said afterwards. With a virus that took months to pass, his smooth voice was now hoarse, grainy, and had lost much of its resonant bottom end. After briefly entertaining thoughts that he would never sing again, he began relearning and reworking his songs to accommodate his ‘new voice.’ To his surprise, audiences now paid rapt attention as he half-spoke, half-sung familiar words, which seemed to reveal new depths for his listeners, according to publicist Eric Alper. Although a heart attack, followed by open heart surgery in 2015, further damaged his voice, Tyson continued to release music well into his senior years – including the 2015 album Carnero Vaquero and his last single, “You Should Have Known.” Released in September 2017 on Stony Plains Records, the Canadian label on which he released 15 albums since the 1980s, that song unapologetically celebrates the hard living, hard drinking, hard loving cowboy life.

Tyson was a Much-Honored Artist During His Lifetime

Tyson earned numerous awards and accolades over the years. A Juno Award recipient for country male vocalist of the year in 1987 and a Canadian Country Music Hall of Famer since 1989, Tyson was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame – along with his former wife and singing partner, Sylvia, three years later. He became a member of the Order of Canada in 1994, received a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award in 2003, and was inducted into the Alberta Order of Excellence in 2006. ASCAP paid tribute to him during the 20th annual Folk Alliance International Conference in 2008, while he was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019.

January 7 Sunday Street Tribute to Ian Tyson will Feature Music, Stories and Reflections

On the January 7 edition of Sunday Street, Backfish will explore Tyson’s wide-ranging career. He’ll share some recently-recorded reflections from Tom Russell, a widely acclaimed folk and Americana singer-songwriter, painter and essayist who co-wrote may songs with Tyson and recorded Play One More: The Songs of Ian and Sylvia (2017), featuring some of the duo’s lesser-known songs.

A Tom Russell painting of his longtime friend, mentor and musical collaborator Ian Tyson.
“It’s hard to come forth with words about the passing of Ian Tyson, wrote Russell in a Facebook post shortly after he died. “My friend and mentor for so many years. He was the best man at our wedding in Elko. We co-wrote at least 10 songs including Navajo Rug [the 1986 Canadian country song of the year], Claude Dallas, Rose of San Joaquin, When The Wolves No Longer Sing, and Ross Knox. We had a good talk a little while ago. My thoughts go back to many great memories of co-writing songs in a cabin in the Rockies. It’s a sad day. He’ll be with me forever.”

Here are links to view videos of Russell and Tyson performing Tyson’s classic “Summer Wages” and their co-write “Navajo Rug” in Calgary in 2019:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Rk-E_spoI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGlbCQ_DjdE

The three-hour radio show will also feature stories and observations from Tyson himself, Sylvia Tyson, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, interspersed with music. “Many of Tyson’s songs, as well as his vocals on the songs of others will be part of the three-hour program, according to Backfish. Besides Tyson himself, Ian and Sylvia, The Great Speckled Bird, and Tom Russell, listeners will hear from Neil Young (who covered “Four Strong Winds” on his 1978 album Comes A Time), Gordon Lightfoot (who Ian and Sylvia mentored and whose song “Early Morning Rain” was the title track of their 1965 release), Greg Brown and Bill Morrissey, Lucy Kaplansky, Fourtold, Gretchen Peters, James Keelaghan and Jez Lowe, Marianne Faithfull, Cindy Church, Corb Lund (an Alberta-based Canadian country artist with whom Tyson performed a series of concerts in 2018 and who told CBC News in a 2019 interview “He’s kind of our Willie Nelson or Johnny Cash or Leonard Cohen. He’s a guy who’s most embodied the region in art, musically at least.”), Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, The McDades, Michael Martin Murphey, and Bob Dylan (who recorded Tyson’s song “One Single River,” along with the Band, in Woodstock, New York, in 1967).

Folk DJ Jan Hall to Receive Estelle Klein Award

Michael Kornfeld — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 21:03:52 +0000

Jan Hall in the studio
Jan Hall, host and producer of the syndicated weekly radio show, Folk Roots Radio, has been named the winner of the Estelle Klein Award that is presented by Folk Music Ontario during its annual conference in September. Established in 2000, the award honors the work of an individual or group that has made significant contributions to the Canadian province’s folk music community.

“To say I feel honoured, is an absolute understatement,” says Hall, who got her start in radio at WEFT 90.1 FM in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois in 1993, while doing graduate work at the University of Illinois. “Folk Roots Radio with Jan Hall is a labour of love and a full time hobby, and, to be honest, it has helped me through some dark days in my life, after I had to leave my veterinary career. The amazing thing is that I discovered another ‘career’ I love just as much and perhaps more. I love making radio, and now video, and I absolutely love chatting [with] artists about their music. To receive an award like this for what I love to do, makes me feel absolutely blessed.”

Folk Roots Radio currently airs on ten stations: CFRU 93.3 (Guelph, Ontario), CHES 91.7 (Erin Radio, Erin, Ontario), CFBU 103.7 (St. Catherines ON), CILU 102.7 (Thunder Bay ON), Cove FM 88.7 (St. Margaret’s Bay/Hubbards/Chester Nova Scotia), CFBX 92.5 (Kamloops, British Columbia), VOBB 95.9 and 98.1 (Bonne Bay, Newfoundland), CJMP 90.1fm (Powell River, British Columbia), CIDI 99.1fm (Brome Missisquoi, Quebec), and WRAQ 92.7fm (western New York State). Hall focuses on bringing new folk and roots music and in-depth interviews of independent artists to the airwaves. An extensive archive of radio shows and artist interviews can be found online at www.folkrootsradio.com, where you also can listen to the show via your choice of streaming platforms.

Hall told AcousticMusicScene.com that Folk Roots Radio stemmed from Royal City Rag, a locally focused magazine radio show on CFRU 93.3fm that she launched in August 2005, after moving to Canada. “That show gradually morphed into Folk Roots Radio when I split off the community issue coverage and local politics into another radio show, Beyond the Ballot Box,” she said.

“We’re all about the music and the people who make it,” says Hall of her radio show that features folk, roots, Americana, Singer-songwriter, and blues music plus artist interviews. In addition to Folk Roots Radio, Hall hosts a televised music video series, Sun Parlour Coffee House Sessions, and co-hosts Dale’s Friday Coffee House, a popular monthly music event in Leamington Ontario. She is also a sought-after stage host and festival emcee.

The Estelle Klein Award is named after a long-time advocate of Canadian folk music and one of the early founders of the folk festival scene in Canada. As this year’s winner, Hall will receive registration for herself and a partner to the 33rd annual FMO Conference, Sept. 27-29, 2019 in Mississauga, ON, as well as a lifetime FMO membership. She will also be featured in the Conference Program edition of Folk Prints magazine, at an interview during the FMO Awards brunch at the conference, and in a career retrospective video. Previous award recipients have included Klein, Jackie Washington, Ian Tamblyn, The Friends of Fiddler’s Green, Sylvia Tyson, Ken Whiteley, Richard Flohil, Stan Rogers, Bernie Finkelstein, Sharon, Lois & Bram, Grit Laskin, Paul Mills, Arthur McGregor, Mike Stevens, Harvey Glatt, Sadie Buck, Anne Lederman, Magoo, and Bill Garrett.

Folk Music Ontario, launched in 1986 as the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals, is a nonprofit arts service organization and the largest folk and roots music organization in Canada. FMO aims to support the growth and development of he folk music community and industry. Is annual conference brings together hundreds of people who are actively engaged in Ontario’s (and Canada’s) folk, roots, and traditional music community for three days and two nights of music showcases, roundtable discussions, educational seminars and workshops, mentoring sessions, lots of informal networking, and fun each fall. For more information on FMO and its conference, visit www.folkmusicontario.ca.

Folk Alliance International Hosts Conference, Releases White Paper on Copyright & Royalties

Michael Kornfeld — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 14:30:06 +0000

Folk Alliance International (FAI) has released a white paper entitled Understanding Copyright, Royalties and Practical Applications in Folk Music. Prepared by the FAI board of directors’ advocacy committee and staff, and aimed at helping to foster understanding of this complex issue among the nonprofit organization’s membership, the paper will be presented on Friday, February 20, during the 27th Annual International Folk Alliance Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.

Mary Sue Twohy (SiriusXM), chair of FAI’s advocacy committee, will moderate a panel discussion on copyright and royalties at the Westin Crown Center. Panelists include Michelle Conceison (Market Monkeys), Renee Bodie (Levitt Pavillions), David Hirshland (BMG Chrysalis), Dan Navarro (artist) and Tom Neff (Grassy Hill).

Aengus Finnan is executive director of Folk Alliance International.
Aengus Finnan, FAI’s executive director, says the white paper “finally provides the clarity, guidance and comprehensive information critical for all musicians and does so in an accessible way.” He points to it as part of FAI’s ongoing “commitment to membership advocacy through education.” Echoing Finnan’s sentiments, Conceison – an artist manager, professor of Music Industry at Boston’s Northeastern University, and vice president of FAI’s board – notes: “We set out to create a central resource of practical information regarding copyright and royalties to explain how the system works.” Acknowledging that U.S. lawmakers and federal agencies in Washington, D.C. are reviewing U.S. Copyright Law and royalties, she adds: “This is the time to ensure our folk community is fully informed. We believe the foundation of advocacy is education.”

[During the 57th Grammy Awards telecast on Feb. 8, The Recording Academy announced the formation of a GRAMMY Creators Alliance to advocate on behalf of artists and songwriters for policies that provide for fair pay for all music creators across all platforms, while The Content Creators Coalition (c3), a membership-based, artist-run nonprofit advocacy group was launched in 2012 to press for economic justice in the digital domain and help ensure that current and future creators retain the rights needed to create and benefit from the use of their work.]

Besides issuing its white paper, FAI will further explore royalty and copyright issues during its conference, set for Feb. 18-22, with a keynote speech by David Israelite as part of its conference speakers series. Israelite is president and CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association, a trade organization representing American publishers and their songwriting partners. He will be speaking on Friday afternoon.

The FAI white paper can be viewed online at www.folkalliance.org/copyright, while the full schedule of conference panels appears at www.folk.org/schedule.

FAI is a Kansas City-based nonprofit organization that aims to nurture, engage and empower the international folk music community – traditional and contemporary, amateur and professional – through education, advocacy and performance.

Winter Music Camp and Music Fair Also Slated

Although Kansas City, Missouri may be better known for jazz, blues, barbecue chefs, football Chiefs and Baseball’s Royals, more than 3,000 people are expected to converge on this mid-western U.S. metropolis for the International Folk Alliance Conference and a Winter Music Camp and Music Fair that will run concurrently with it. The conference, which moved to Kansas City last year, attracts artists, presenters, managers, agents, and promoters, folk DJs and others engaged in folk music broadly speaking from throughout the U.S. Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. They come for the networking, professional development, a large exhibit hall, regional and peer group meetings, and hundreds of artist showcases. The international Folk Alliance Conference is ranked among the five largest music conferences in North America.

This year’s featured speakers, in addition to Israelite, include Commander Chris Hadfield (an astronaut and folksinger), two-time Grammy Award-winner Rita Coolidge, Dave Carroll (a singer and flyers’ rights advocate), and folk music legend Sylvia Tyson. Among a large array of workshops and panel discussions will be a Wisdom of the Elders session featuring veteran singer-songwriters Tom Paxton (who is celebrating his 50th year as a touring artist) and Peggy Seeger (who also will receive one of FAI’s three 2015 Elaine Weissman Lifetime Achievement Awards).

Four evenings of artist performances — including special feature shows, 200 juried music showcases and hundreds of private in-room showcases that extend late into the night and early morning hours. Some daytime private in-room showcases also are scheduled throughout the weekend, as well as jam sessions and extended song circles.

Building on the success of last year’s inaugural Winter Music Camp, held concurrently at the adjoining Sheraton Crown Center, featuring instruction geared toward all styles and levels of roots music and songwriting, FAI launches its first Music Fair (www.folkalliance.org/music-fair) this year. The Music Fair and Winter Music Camp will extend for four days and nights and will feature 99 artists, more than 100 workshops, jam sessions, film screenings, a public trade show and an art gallery. Among the instructors and performing artists are Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn, Sam Baker, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Jimmy LaFave, David Amram, Red Molly, Howard Iceberg, Betse Ellis, Bob Walkenhorst & Jeff Porter, The HillBenders present TOMMY: A Bluegrass Opry, The Elders, Alan Munde, Byron Berline, Roland White, James Hill, Pops Bayless, Redd Volkaert, Bill Kirchen, Jeff Planenhorn, Chad Graves, and Ken Perlman. Tickets priced at $25 per day/night are available to the public and may be purchased in advance online at www.faimusicfair.eventbrite.com.

Also slated is a special Saturday morning Music Fair Kids’ Show (featuring Trout Fishing in America, Dan Bern, Chad Elliott, Kim Rausch and more) and a Kids’ Music Camp on Friday-Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Editor’s Note: An elected member of FAI’s board of directors, I will be moderating a panel discussion and doing some mentoring and showcase emceeing during the conference.