Song of the Year honors went to Dan Navarro and Janiva Magness’ recording of “$20 Bill (for George Floyd) by the late singer-songwriter Tom Prasada-Rao. In accepting the award, Navarro (a singer-songwriter and voice actor perhaps best known for co-writing the hit song “We Belong”) noted that more than 100 artists recorded a version of Prasada-Rao’s song in 2020 “but because of the impact and the challenges of the pandemic, it never really had a proper release and we decided we would do something about that.“ Dedicating the award to Prasado-Rao, who died last year, Navarro said: “This is not just the song of the year; it’s the song of the century and the song of a lifetime.”

Here’s a link to view a video of Dan Navarro and Janiva Magness performing “$20 Bill (for George Floyd)”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeHdq817B7Y

Susan Werner’s Halfway to Houston was named Album of the Year. A prolific and versatile singer-songwriter who accompanies herself on both guitar and piano and is known for her sassy wit and classy Midwest charm, Werner was unable to be in Montreal to accept the award and sent a short video, while fellow singer-songwriter Dar Williams picked up the award on her behalf.

In addition to these FAI member-voted awards – which were open to recordings released between October 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024 – a number of special awards and honors were presented.

The People’s Voice Award recognizing an artist who embraces social and political commentary in his/her songs was presented to Gina Chavez, an Austin, Texas-based singer-songwriter who has helped to amplify the voices of the marginalized.

The River Roads Festival received The Clearwater Award, honoring a festival that — like its Pete Seeger-founded namesake –- exhibits sound leadership in environmental stewardship and sustainable event production. A one-day event presented by Dar Williams and held in Easthampton, Massachusetts for the past two years, the next River Roads Festival is set for July 5 at Heuser Park in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Williams said that she was “so excited” to accept the award. She noted that, like Seeger was, she is a resident of New York’s Hudson Valley and recalled being on Conan O’Brien’s late-night TV talk show with him in 1998. Said Williams: “Music is an incredible force … The culture around the music can be a powerful vehicle for justice.”

The Rising tide Award, which is bestowed on an emerging artist/act of an age, went to OKAN, a female-led, Afro-Cuban roots and jazz duo.

Spirit of Folk Awards recognizing people and organizations actively engaged in the promotion and preservation of folk music were presented to Annie Capps, Innu Nikamu festival, Tom Power, and Alice Randall. Capps is a Michigan-based singer-songwriter and a longtime leader with Folk Alliance Region Midwest (FARM), who has served as both its board president and conference director. Innu Nikamu is a Quebec-based festival of Indigenous music and culture that has taken place for more than 30 years. Power, best known as the host of CBC Radio One’s Q program, is also a musician who performs and records with The Dardanelles, a Canadian folk band. Randall is a hit-making country music songwriter who has been a trailblazer in folk and country music. She’s also a college lecturer and the author of My Black Country, which she describes as both a memoir and a history.

“I owe my sanity to folk music,” said Randall in accepting the award. “In My Black Country, I tell the story of climbing out of the hell of being raped by holding on to the sound of John Prine singing “Angel From Montgomery.” Prine’s label, Oh Boy! Records, also released a collection of songs entitled My Black Country. Randall noted that her book “is about the Black folk, including Black folk musicians, who made country country.”

2025 Lifetime Achievement Award recipients included the folk-rock duo Indigo Girls (whose eponymous debut album won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Recording 35 years ago), the late Black Appalachian musician Lesley Riddle, and the global roots magazine Songlines. During the awards show, singer-songwriters Rose Cousins and Mary Bragg performed “Galileo,” one of the Indigo Girls’ hit songs, in tribute to the duo, while Black indigenous Canadian singer-songwriter Julian Taylor performed “Red River Blues” in tribute to Riddle.

Accepting the Legacy Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of Riddle, who died in 1980 at age 75, Randall referred to him as a founder of country music and a practitioner of folk who collected and taught the Carter Family a lot of songs. “Tonight, Folk Alliance corrects an almost 100 year-old wrong” by recognizing him.

“We need folk music now more than ever,” said the Indigo Girls’ Emily Saliers in a pre-recorded video. “This Folk Alliance is a group that honors diversity, equity, inclusion, and access for all. Folk music is the music of truth telling. Amy [Ray] and I are, especially in this time, particularly honored to accept this award.” Echoing her sentiments, Ray urged folks to “Please stand up with us and make your voices heard in these times … Day by day, song by song, we can make this world a better place.”

Accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of Songlines, James Anderson-Hanney, its publisher, said: “I think we’re the last world music magazine on the planet.” The UK-based, glossy bimonthly that comes with CD is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary.Leading Quebecois folk ensemble Le Vent Du Nord, a 2023 Songlines award recipient, performed in honor of the magazine.

Five Inducted Into Folk Radio Hall of Fame

Eight years ago, Folk Alliance International established a Folk Radio Hall of Fame in order to recognize folk DJs and music directors for the vital role that they play by sharing the music with their listeners. Wanda Fischer, Longtime host of The Hudson River Sampler on WAMC Radio in Albany, New York and herself an inductee in the Hall of Fame, recognized this year’s inductees, while a video featuring visuals and information about them was also screened. The 2025 inductees include Taylor Caffery, Matthew Finch, Archie Fisher, MarySue Twohy, and Chuck Wentworth.

Taylor Caffery, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, has been the host Hootenanny Power of WRKF Public Radio in Baton Rouge, LA since it began airing in 1981. He’s also been recognized with WRKF’s Founder’s Award (2022) and with the Kari Estrin Founding President’s Award during the 2024 Southeast Regional Folk Alliance (SERFA) Conference.

Matthew Finch, who left our world unexpectedly in July 2024, was a beloved figure in New Mexico’s music scene, who devoted more than 20 years to KUNM in Albuquerque as its music director, and as a tireless advocate for local musicians. Through the programs Ear to the Ground and Studio 55, he created platforms for regional artists to share their music, showcasing live performances and celebrating the diversity of the state’s music community.

Archie Fisher hosted BBC Radio Scotland’s award-winning Traveling Folk program for 27 years – promoting artists and musicians of the folksong revival throughout the British Isles. A talented artist in his own right, he also hosted studio sessions and interviews with such notable American and Canadian artists as Joan Baez, Judy Collins, David Francey, and James Keelaghan. Queen Elizabeth II presented him with a MBE in 2006 for his services to music.

MarySue Twohy is a program director at SiriusXM, who currently manages The Village, its folk channel, among others. She conducts artist interviews and produces a wide array of radio programs. Formerly an artist herself, she moved into broadcasting by hosting a two-hour program 20 years ago and quickly rose to PD. She also served on the FAI board of directors for seven years and continues to serve on national music committees, and to participate in conference panels and as a songwriting contest judge.

Chuck Wentworth, who passed away last year, was a revered figure on the New England music scene – best known for his long-standing contributions as both a radio show host and a festival producer. He began hosting a folk radio show on WRIU-FM, the college radio station at the University of Rhode Island, while he was a student and Traditions aired for 38 years. He also served as the station’s folk and roots music director and expanded its folk programming from one show to five nights a week. Wentworth was also the founder and producer of the Rhythm & Roots Festival, a three-day music and dance festival in Rhode Island.

[Here’s a link to view the International Folk Music Awards Show, which also was livestreamed via YouTube and was available for viewing via Folk Alley and NPR Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVE29BZ6fBg

The International Folk Music Awards was just one part, albeit an important one, of the 37th annual Folk Alliance International Conference that extended from February 19-23 and drew nearly 2,500 attendees. In addition to more than 2,700 showcases featuring more than 700 acts (including 183 juried official showcases plus many more showcases extending into the early morning hours), the conference included a keynote conversation with Allison Russell and Ann Powers [see below], Black American Music and International Indigenous Music Summits, a one-day legal summit, 45 panel discussions and workshops, a number of affinity and peer group sessions, six film screenings and discussions, lobby jams, meetings of FAI’s regional affiliates, a town hall meeting on P2 Visas – Working Through Parity at the Canada/US Border, a popular Meet the Folk DJs session, morning yoga, an exhibit hall, agent-presenter speed networking sessions, and lots of other networking opportunities.

Artist & Activist Allison Russell Engages in Keynote Conversation with Music Journalist Anne Powers

Allison Russell — a widely acclaimed singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and activist –- returned to her hometown to engage in an hour-long keynote conversation with Anne Powers, a critic and correspondent for NPR Music. A soulful, Nashville, Tennessee-based, Montreal-born Scottish Grenadian Canadian, Russell is the recipient of more than a dozen awards. These include a Grammy Award for Best American Roots Music Performance for Eve Was Black,” a single off of her sophomore solo recording, Returner released in September 2023), Juno Awards for Contemporary Album of the Year (for her solo debut, Outside Child – 2022) and Music Video of the Year (for “Demons,” 2024), six UK Americana Music Awards, four Canadian Folk Music Awards, and two Americana Music Honors & Awards. In 2022, Folk Alliance International members voted Russell’s solo debut as Album of the Year and her as Artist of the Year. Outside Child was also named Contemporary album of the Year in the 2022 Canadian Folk Music Awards, while she was named Songwriter of the Year and New/Emerging Artist of the Year in recognition of the emotion-laden album featuring 11 original songs “about resilience and survival, transcendence and the redemptive power of art, community, connection, and chosen family.”

Russell has previously spoken of the abuse and trauma that she faced in her youth and the major role that music has played in helping her to overcome it .In her conversation with Powers, she recalled how, at age 15, while unhoused, she slept in the pews at a church just a few blocks from Le Sheraton Centre.

Asked about her latest album, 2023’s The Returner, she noted how she had been a challenged, broken yet brave girl. “”We come from long, broken lines of survivors. We’re all miracles. We’re all returners. We are all overcoming things.”

Much of her on-stage conversation with Powers focused on her recent portrayal of Persephone in Anais Mitchell’s award-winning Broadway musical, Hadestown. Russell noted that it was her first professional acting role and that she had not acted since performing in a Shakespearean play while in high school.

Sharing her reflections on Hadestown just days after she concluded her 50-week run as Persephone and in keeping with the “Illuminate” theme of the conference, she said: Persephone is Hades’ only source of light, of illumination in the underworld. She was the light in his life.”

Playing a mythic goddess in this time took on new connotations, she acknowledged, citing “the current fear-mongering administration in Washington” and “the bigotry and bias that can really harm communities.”

Referring to herself as “a geriatric millennial,” Russell said: “When I came up 24 years ago, there weren’t too many others who looked liked me.” Acknowledging that “our [folk] community is growing more diverse,” she spoke of being a curator during the 2021 Newport Folk Festival tasked with featuring Black and Black & queer women and their allies in the center of a 90-minute set focused on roots and revolution. ”What could be more beautiful than to be conscious, to be mindful [woke],” said Russell, noting that she’s “a queer woman who somehow married a white man with a guitar.”

Prior to embarking on her solo career, Russell was a co-founder of Our Native Daughters and Birds of Chicago and was part of Po’ Girl.

[Here’s a link to view a video recording of the keynote conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_ne2-baY8g.]

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.

Your newest recording, Ordinary Cats, features you on electric guitar. When you wrote the songs, did they just scream for a more electric sound?

Originally, when I started the CD, I was thinking of a really stripped down guitar and vocal sound. But these things have a way of developing organically, and one added instrument sound often begets another. When we added the drums to a few of the tunes, it just pushed the music in a direction that I decided to embrace instead of fighting. I’ve always played the electric guitar on the side — more in the last 15 years or so — on other people’s recordings and shows than on my own, so it was pretty easy to add it to this recording. I have a whole set of electric guitar influences that don’t really have to do with my acoustic guitar influences, so I think it works fine to have “two” of me on some of the songs.

Was it your intention from the beginning to make this a more rootsier album than your past recording ventures?

Well, we started working on two projects at the same time — the live album with my group — which became The Kress Sessions [released in 2011] and the beginnings of Ordinary Cats [just released]. I decided to put the more ragtime, swing-influenced songs on the live one and make that one sound different from the studio album. Probably, if anything, it is the lyrics that set the songs apart. They both sound pretty rootsy, in my opinion — I just indulged my classic rock background a bit more on Ordinary Cats. It was a conscious decision not to use the exact same instrumentation on it as in the last few albums. So a different backing vocal sound was key to that. And not using as much dobro and harmonica gave us room to experiment with more keyboards and multiple guitars, and with mandolin tracks.

Tell us about the other players on Ordinary Cats.

FJ Ventre played upright bass and electric bass and co-produced the album with me. He engineered the whole project and did a great job. The main male backing vocalist was Greg Humphreys, a buddy of mine and talented singer-songwriter who has a very cool husky but high vocal style. The female backing vocalist was Lizzy Ross, who is a great young talent also from North Carolina. Pete Connolly, from the alt-folk group Birds and Arrows, played the drums on several tracks; his sound helped define our arrangement decisions going forward from there. Danny Gotham played mandolin and mandola, adding nice textures to the guitar parts. The keyboards were added by Wes Lachot and Lindsay Rosebrock, with Jim Kremidas adding pedal steel to one track also. Our mix engineer was the great Chris Stamey — and he always adds a few little musical doo-dads along the way.

You have cited Neil Young and Stephen Stills as inspirations for the sound on this latest record. What is it about their style that makes its way onto your record?

I have been a big fan of Neil Young, Stephen Stills, CSN (& Y), and Buffalo Springfield since I was a kid. I think it was those fringe suede leather jackets that piqued my interest. I used to always ask my parents to stop at Deerskin Trading Post on Rt. 1 in Danvers, when we were on our way to Boston for things, just so I could look at those coats. I finally did get a used one when I was in my 20s in a shop in Asheville, NC. Now I can’t wear it because you need a certain amount of hair to pull off that look. I’m hoping my daughter will discover that jacket someday and make it her own . . . but I digress. . . . Anyway, Stills and Young both did a lot with Drop D tuning and drone strings, and with certain musical modes. Not to get too music-geeky, but I use the mixolydian and dorian modes a lot in my playing, and I’m sure that’s influenced by those guys. When you cross in the blues- pentatonic style influence, it’s like a weird cross between Celtic folk music and American blues. I am interested in exploring that mesh.

One of your career highlights is that you were an International Blues Challenge finalist. Please tell us more about that competition and what you played when you became a finalist.

The International Blues Challenge thing was fun. FJ Ventre and I decided to enter the local competition here in the Triangle. I never entered it before because I’m not crazy about the idea of music as a competition. But we thought it might be fun to try and see if we could get a free trip to Memphis out of it. We won our local contest and then went to Memphis to compete against the winners of all the regions — people who had won their contests in California, Mississippi, countries in Europe, Australia — you name it. There were 60 acts competing in our division (the solo/duo division) and we were divided into 6 venues of 10 acts each, playing two nights in front of two different sets of judges. We won our venue and then went to the finals on the third night in the Orpheum Theater — the last six acts remaining — quite an honor. We played my original songs — “Ten Days,” “Full Bloom” (an anti-war song), an Elvis song that FJ sang as our tip of the hat to Memphis, and probably something else that I can’t remember right now. We didn’t win. The emcee said to us as we left the stage “You were my personal favorite act.” But we probably didn’t win because we were too “folky.” I think I’m considered a folk musician by the Blues crowd and the Folk Alliance people think I’m the blues player in the room.

You’re so well known for being such a great fingerstyle guitar player. How does it feel to be up on stage and have so many people staring at your hands?

I always thought they were checking out my legs! It’s fun — I like to ask if there are other guitar players in the room — because I use a lot of open tunings and play slide, etc. And being a teacher, I enjoy sharing the information and letting people in on what I’m doing.

I love asking traveling musicians about life on the road. If you had to write one of those Reader’s Digest essays about the most memorable person you met while touring, who would it be about?

I think it would end up being a novel instead of a Reader’s Digest piece… We have met so many memorable people on the road over the years, both onstage and off — people who I love to see every time I visit a town and people I’m hoping never to run into again. Lots of people have been kind to me and my musical compadres — putting us up in their homes, feeding us, and sustaining us. And there have been real evil shits out there, too, though I don’t run into them as much in the folk world as when I was playing rock clubs in my youth. Rather than naming any of the shits, I will tip my hat to some of my favorite people. As far as other musicians I’ve had the pleasure to meet and play with, some folks who have really been gracious and supportive to me have been Roy Book Binder, John Hammond, Jorma Kaukonen, Amy Ray. . . . The list of generous hosts, venue owners, friends, and family is far too enormous to elaborate on, so at the risk of leaving anyone out in print, I’ll suffice it to say that I am in great debt to many!

To learn more about Jon Shain, visit his website.

I’m a big fan of an amazing three-part harmony folk-pop trio called Girlyman, who are now based in Atlanta but started out in Brooklyn. Its members — Ty Greenstein, Doris Muramatsu and Nate Borofsky — used to play in the same kind of small local NYC clubs and coffeehouses as I played before starting to tour and getting a deal to re-release their first album with Amy Ray’s (of the Indigo Girls) label, Daemon Records. Back on the indie scene, they’ve put out a couple of new records, including the recent Everything’s Easy — they tour all the time, so check them out in your town!

The first song I ever wrote was for an assignment in my ninth grade English class. We had just read Of Mice and Men and had to do some kind of creative project about it. I just gave it a shot, not having any idea what I was doing. The song I came up with, with hindsight, was actually not bad — it had a real structure, three verses, and three choruses, but the choruses had different words each time. (I think I still tend to write choruses with parts that change each time through.) Doris sang harmony (we grew up together) and we recorded it onto a cassette tape using my little boom box and just me playing acoustic guitar. My teacher went nuts and said it was the best project she had ever received, and so from that point on I completely froze and couldn’t write another song for four years!

What is your typical songwriting routine?

The one constant has been a short period first thing in the morning for what I call “blurts” – little free-writes that I record onto my iPod. Basically I pick up the guitar, put the capo somewhere or change the tuning somehow, hit record, and start singing a song. Whatever happens, happens. Sometimes I’ll explore an idea for a minute, and sometimes I’ll keep going for 15 minutes or more. I have probably thousands of these little blurts lying around, and there among all the boring melodies, crappy chord progressions, and weird lyrics, occasionally something rises to the surface that has a ring of truth or a feeling that moves me in some way. That’s the material I come back to and try to craft into songs, which I do on my computer. The more often I sit down to write, the lower the stakes are – if nothing happens today, so what? I know there’s tomorrow and the next day.

What are your biggest songwriting inspirations these days?

My biggest songwriting inspirations have always been my peers – the other musicians I play shows with or hear at festivals. In particular, right now I’m really inspired by our new friend, Lucy Wainwright Roche – she has an original style, unexpected rhyme schemes, and a quality of truthfulness about her writing. Brian Gundersdorf from We’re About 9 always blows me away with his ability to go deeply into wildly original subject matter. Antje Duvekot’s songs also have that deep feeling of truth about them. {Editor’s note, Sharon’s Q & A with with Antje Duvekot was posted here on Aug. 5 and is archived in the Features section]. I think all the writers I love share the quality of writing songs that are channeled more than thought out – songs that are written from a place deeper than thinking. Dar Williams is another example – her songs have a wildness and a free association that is hard to achieve by trying. You get the feeling she really lets go. Of course all these people are masters of craft as well and have internalized form to the point that their brilliance seems effortless. Recently we’ve been touring with the Canadian band Po’ Girl and I’ve been really inspired by their originality, especially in their arrangements. There are so many examples!

Do you get competitive (in a good way) with Doris and Nate about songwriting?

I think when Doris and Nate start writing batches of songs, it motivates me to get going on mine. My fatal flaw has definitely been leaving songs in the oven FOREVER, whereas those two tend to write quickly and be done with it. I can be a big editor, sometimes to a fault. Sometimes I’ll write a billion verses before I’ll realize what’s essential. I think this is actually part of what makes co-writing with Nate or Doris so great – they are good at getting down that first draft with a lot of energy and I’m good at pinpointing an exact word or phrase. I think in the past we’ve been more competitive or threatened if one person’s writing a lot more than the others, whereas now we just use it as motivation, or else we jump right in and co-write.

How do you keep songwriting on your plate when you are touring/recording? Seems like it would be so hard to keep writing front and center.

I find it hard to write on the road because we usually share hotel rooms and there’s just no privacy. So my home time is really the only time I get and often we have rehearsals or recording sessions going on, too. I just do the best I can. Even an hour in my studio is better than nothing, and it’s hard to find a valid excuse not to put in an hour in the morning. Sometimes I’ll get a lot of lyrics while I’m driving and then I try to remember them and write them down at the next rest stop. Several of the songs on our latest album were written in hotel rooms or in the van, which goes to show that writing can happen anywhere.

Do you have any goals these days when it comes to your songwriting?

I’d like to finish more of the songs that I start, and I’d like to finish them faster so that they contain more of the original energy of the idea. Beyond that, I’m interested in co-writing with other people, writing on other instruments besides the guitar and in exploring different tunings and song structures. And I’d like to maybe take a songwriting workshop or go to Rocky Mountain Song School or something like that. I’ve never taken any kind of songwriting workshop for fear it would just add more voices to the chorus of editors already in my head, but I think it might be a good experience.

How has being in Girlyman changed (or not changed) your songwriting?

I pretty much write what I want to write, although not all of it is suitable for the band. There have been songs that I’ve been really excited about that just didn’t work with the three of us. That’s happened for all of us at various times, and it’s always a real bummer! But the fact is, not every song is appropriate for three voices or for the instruments we happen to play. Someday I’d love to release a solo album to give those songs a home, but I can’t say when I’ll have the time. I actually included one such song on our last album (Hudson), and just sang it by myself with one guitar. I thought it was actually nice to have a break from our vocal blend for one song out of fifteen. Sometimes I think my songs are too weird for Girlyman, but then I included one of the so-called weird ones (“Easy Bake Ovens”) on the new album and that’s the song everyone keeps talking to me about now. So I’m letting myself write a little weirder, because it’s interesting to me when my ideas of what images or what chords belong together gets played with a little. I like not knowing what’s gonna happen next.

How do you feel about the songs on your newest album, Everything’s Easy? Similar? Different? Better? And what was it like recording at Nate’s instead of in a big studio?

I really love the new album. It was a totally grassroots project that felt incredibly natural even when the learning curve was steep and we had no idea what we were doing. Recording it at Nate’s house made a huge difference because we could really take our time developing it, slowly layering sound, adding exactly what we wanted to hear. In the past, we booked two weeks of studio time and whatever happened in that time, that was it – we had one or two days for overdubs, total. On “Everything’s Easy” we had time to sit with the songs and develop a vision for them. We had time to experiment, to bring in drummers and cello players, to have friends drop by and sing a harmony part. We had time to change lyrics and to re-do vocal takes that we knew we could sing better. We played most of the instruments ourselves and we played things that weren’t even instruments, like a colander I hit in lieu of a hi hat. We even had the freedom to change our minds about what was going on the album – for example, one of my songs wasn’t even 100% written until the very last day of recording. I remember I called Nate early that morning and said “I know what the second verse should be, and I’ll die if I don’t get to change it!” It was great to be able to do that.

Who were your biggest songwriting influences growing up?

My biggest hero from age thirteen until I first heard the Indigo Girls was Paul Simon. Back then Doris and I learned every single Simon and Garfunkel song on guitar and every single harmony part and we’d sing late into the night in her parents’ kitchen – I guess that probably served us well, actually! I remember the first time I heard “Closer To Fine” on the radio I was stunned. I was really amazed, in particular, by Emily Saliers’ writing back then – she and Amy both wrote these raw songs and sang with such intensity, and especially in 1989 in suburban New Jersey it was just so different from anything else I had heard. In college I listened to The Story a lot – Jonatha wrote these songs that kind of hurt, with oblique lyrics and dissonant harmonies and strange time signatures. Then Ani DiFranco came to campus. There were maybe 30 people at the show and she blew us all away by just saying things as they were. I had never heard that before, either.

To hear a few of Girlyman’s songs, visit www.myspace.com/girlymanband.

Sharon Goldman is a New York-based singer-songwriter and member of Sweet Bitters, a female folk pop duo. She recently launched Songwriting Scene, a blog for songwriters about songwriting, from which this column is republished with permission.