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Folk

(Contemporary) Folk music refers to a wide variety of genres that emerged in the mid 20th century and afterward which were associated with traditional folk. Starting in the mid-20th century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk. This process and period is called the (second) folk revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. The most common name for this new form of music is also “folk,” but is often called “contemporary folk” or “folk revival music” to make the distinction. The transition was somewhat centered in the US and is also called the American folk music revival. Fusion genres such as folk rock, folktronica, and others also evolved within this phenomenon. While contemporary folk is a genre generally distinct from traditional folk, it often shares the same English name, performers and venues as traditional folk; even individual songs may be a blend of the two.
– Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia

Thinking about releasing an album? Wait. Read this first.

by Ken Newman


There is an overwhelming flood of music being released every day now. Thousands of songs hit streaming platforms constantly, and even strong records can vanish under that weight. You can spend years writing and recording an album, only to discover that the release window lasts about two weeks before the internet moves on.

That realization hit me while I was standing in my storage area, looking at shelves sagging beneath boxes of vinyl.

Two released albums. A lot of records. Not nearly enough buyers.

Like many musicians, I had taken the album approach. I had even taken the vinyl step. I co-produced Blanket the Homeless, a project I remain deeply proud of, which helped support the San Francisco charity I founded by the same name. After that, I released my solo album, What Am I Afraid Of?

Both albums meant a great deal to me. Both required significant time, money, faith, and energy. People connected with certain songs. We sold some copies. And then, like so much independent music now, they disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived.

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Honest Thoughts on the Past that had Lead to Now and Never.

by A.J. Kaufmann



My first solo cassette was recorded in 1998. It was awful. I had some good ideas for a kid, but no talent at all, maybe except a knack for lyrics, and a bit of a gift for classical guitar and bass, definitely not for singing. I was also interested in much different music than most people my age in Poland back then. That’s why it took 4 years to form my first band in 2002. To take the shortcut, it took 9 more years to release my studio debut album “Second Hand Man”. In 2012, I started Sauer Adler, my second real band. And to take the shortcut again, in 2022, I formed Psychedelic Mayhem, and in 2024, I formed Bezkwit. Along the way, I also jammed, recorded, played, composed, and improvised whenever and wherever possible, with whoever was available at the time. That, through many shortcuts, takes us directly into the once-very-futuristic year 2026 (certainly around 1998).

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The importance of magic –
Creating space for the extraordinary is an art form

by France de Griessen

Photo by Catherine James


“There is a place in the heart that/ will never be filled / a space / and even during / the best moments / and / the greatest times.” Charles Bukowski (You get so alone at times that it just makes sense)

The universe is full of magical things and insightful signs.

However, like the sun is sometimes completely out of sight, hidden behind the thickest winter fog and grey skies, it can be hard to connect with it when going through certain moments or chapters of our lives. Magic can seem out of reach or, worse, forever gone.

How I experience the world and everyday life is a rare and precious gift I am very grateful for. It also comes with frequently struggling with finding balance and peace.

I have so much joy to share and so much darkness in me that I still wonder how can these two coexist with such intensity within the same person? And what to do with such parameters?

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One True Song

by Anna Karney

credit: Tanja Nixx

After my previous album, Creatures In The Garden, I didn’t think I had another one in me.  But suddenly this chorus just popped out, lyrics, chords, and melody all at once,  “We will all come out together for love, love, love.” And I really needed to hear these hopeful words, because of the daily barrage of sad news. It was enough to start me off on my next album journey.

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An ode to true friendship

by Brittany Bexton

Brittany Bexton


When I wrote I REMEMBER YOU, I had been watching a friend go through a really rough time. They had been going through the kind of difficulties that challenge your identity and your ability to show up for life in a healthy way. They had pretty much shut down and tried to hide it from the world, but they were not themselves, and anyone who really knew them could see how much they were struggling.

In moments like that, you have two choices: show up and love the person where they are, and remind them who they are and that they are loved, regardless of whether they can give anything back to you, or check out and leave. I choose to show up.

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The Birth of “Don’t Mean to Hurt You”

by Poli Nika

POLI NIKA


I look into his eyes and remain silent. I know my silence wounds him, but I can’t utter a single word. My throat tightens, my head spins with the darkest thoughts I’d never dare say out loud. “What would he think of me then?” These are the monsters inside me, and I’ll never let them destroy what we have. I’ll never let them out, because then…

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For Each Song I Create a New Character

by Ben Richel


During my childhood in Savoie, France, most of my free time was devoted to one activity: imagination. I imagine grandiose destinies but also standard and common stories: From fishermen in the Philippines to Western rockstars, from 19th-century wars to post-collapse scenarios, from my Star Wars spin-offs to projecting myself on stage later… I could imagine revolutionary flying machines, and the same day imagine the realistic routine of the today’s French middle class (I am myself in the middle, like Malcolm!)

For me, everything is interesting.

My life has been built by imagining and connecting lives. It was obvious that one day I would invent characters, partly because expressing my whole personality cannot be done by simply embodying a predefined, cliché role given by society.

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30 Years’ Worth Of Music Making… And Beyond

by Jamie Hutchings

Jamie Hutchings
Photo by Jared Harrison


Hi, my name’s Jamie Hutchings; I’m a singer, songwriter, guitarist, percussionist, and sometime improviser and producer. I’m based in Sydney, Australia.

Music was a given in my family household as my dad was a woodwind session cat. He’s 83 now, but he still gigs here and there, but as kids, it was his bread and butter. So all of us inherited his musicality in some form, but still (particularly with my brother and I), we found ourselves gravitating more and more towards rawness and originality over professionalism and technique. I was looking through my mum and dad’s record collection the other night, and it’s almost exclusively Frank Sinatra records. Sinatra is amazing, but the overexposure to music in a show-biz format perhaps contributed to us going in a different direction!

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Vita=Life, Beats=Music – The whole story of the Vitabeats 1980-2023

by Andrew Barnum

Andrew Barnum with Lissa, aka Vitrabeats


Lissa and I began performing and recording together in Los Angeles in 1980. Our first band was called ‘Live Nude Girl’ formed during the post-punk era. Angular, with arcane drum-machines, synths, guitars, and theatrical graphic visuals. I am an American-born Australian, who grew up in Sydney, went to design school in Melbourne, then after starting my career in visual communication design, relocated to the USA to freelance in design and get serious about song writing. To find collaborators, starting bands, and doing solo singer-songwriter spots around LA, while designing in the daytime.

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About a Musician

by Gerrit Walter a.k.a. The Song & Dance Brigade

Gerrit Walter


I am kindly asked to write something about my musical life, which has now spanned several decades. No one had ever asked me that before. Well, I have been making music since I was 13 years old. My mother taught me how to play the guitar, at least the rudimentary playing she mastered. That was when I was thirteen.

Since then, I’ve been playing the guitar. It’s the instrument I desire in terms of beauty, sound, and challenge. In school, they told me I couldn’t sing. I did it anyway.

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