Top Albums, Songs and Artists – April 2019 (FOLKDJ-L)

As Smithsonian Folkways Recordings states on its website, “Songs of Our Native Daughters shines new light on African-American women’s stories of struggle, resistance, and hope. Pulling from and inspired by 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century sources, including slave narratives and early minstrelsy, kindred banjo players Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell reinterpret and create new works from old ones. With unflinching, razor-sharp honesty, they confront sanitized views about America’s history of slavery, racism, and misogyny from a powerful, black female perspective. These songs call on the persistent spirits of the daughters, mothers, and grandmothers who have fought for justice – in large, public ways – only now being recognized, and in countless domestic ways that will most likely never be acknowledged.”

Giddens, who co-produced the album with Dirk Powell, was formerly with Carolina Chocolate Drops – as was McCalla. Russell, a multi-instrumentalist, is also known as part of Birds of Chicago and Po’ Girl, while Kiah is an alt-country and blues singer-songwriter.

Molsky’s Mountain Drifters’ tagline is “tradition steeped in possibility, and that aptly describes the old-time and American roots music trio. The bad is fronted by Bruce Molsky, a Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist (fiddle, guitar and banjo) and a visiting scholar at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. It also features genre-bending guitarist Stash Wyslouch (of The Deadly Gentlemen) on guitar and vocals and master of the clawhammer banjo Allison de Groot (of The Goodbye Girls and Oh My Darling) – whose self-entitled album with Tatiana Hargreaves was the third most-played album on folk radio in April.

Molsky maintains that the trio is creating a new sound within the traditional music genre through its audacious approach. “I was looking for a new voice,” says Molsky, “a new avenue of expression using old time mountain music as the jumping-off point, but not being constrained by hard core traditionalism. Allison and Stash are showing me the way, just where the music is headed, in directions I never would have imagined when I started my own journey into the mountains a long time ago.” “There’s a Bright Side Somewhere” appears on Molsky’s Mountain Drifters’ new album, Closing the Gap.

John McCutcheon, April’s most-played artist on folk radio, is a much-revered folksinger-songwriter and a multi-instrumentalist. He was also the most-played artist and had both the top album (To Everyone in All the World: A Celebration of Pete Seeger) and the top song (“Sailing Down My Golden River”) on folk radio during February 2019. On his 40h album, he pays tribute to the music of his friend and mentor — the late folk icon Pete Seeger.

Of his friend, Seeger had said: “John McCutcheon is not only one of the best musicians in the USA, but also a great singer, songwriter, and song leader. And not just incidentally, he is committed to helping hard-working people everywhere to organize and push this world in a better direction.”

McCutcheon, a performing and recording artist since the mid-1970s, is a longtime labor and social activist. He is a founder and former president of Local 1000, the traveling acoustic musicians’ local of the American Federation of Musicians. He has keynoted conferences for several regional affiliates of Folk Alliance International. His previous release, Ghost Light, was the #2 album on folk radio in 2018 and also features three of last year’s 25 most-played songs (“This Road,” “She Just Dances,” and “The Machine”). McCutcheon’s classic “Christmas in the Trenches” tied for the most-played song on folk radio last December and has been among the most-played songs during the holiday season for years.

The April 2019 Top Albums, Songs and Artists charts are based on 14,198 airplays reported on 526 playlists submitted by 130 different DJs. The number of reported spins is shown below in parentheses. The charts are compiled by Folk Alliance International (www.folk.org), a nonprofit organization that aims to serve, strengthen, and engage the global folk music community through preservation, presentation and promotion.

The monthly top albums and songs charts are posted on AcousticMusicScene.com, with permission.

Top Albums of April 2019

1. Songs of Our Native Daughters by Our Native Daughters (87)
2. Standard Deviation by Danny Schmidt (77)
3. Allison De Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves by Allison De Groot and
Tatiana Hargreaves (72)
4. To Everyone in All the World by John McCutcheon (70)
5. Tim O’Brien Band by Tim O’Brien (68)
6. When You’re Ready by Molly Tuttle (67)
6. Patty Griffin by Patty Griffin (67)
8. Closing the Gap by Molsky’s Mountain Drifters (66)
9. The Great Irish Songbook by Dervish (64)
10. What Will We Do by Lula Wiles (57)
11. The Bull Moose Party by Jackson Grimm (56)
12. In Sevens by Kora Feder (51)
13. Once a Day by April Verch (50)
14. The Hard Way by Dale Ann Bradley (49)
15. It’s a Hard Life by Ruby Lovett (48)
15. Hummingbird by John Smith (48)
17. I Walked in Them Shoes by Adam Carroll (46)
17. The Butcher Shoppe EP by Della Mae (46)
19. What if This Is All There Is by Rj Cowdery (45)
20. Ten: The Errant Night by Runa (43)
21. The Point of Arrival by Carrie Newcomer (41)
22. Dirigo Attitude by Sara Trunzo (40)
22. Who I Am by Andrew Adkins (40)
24. Better by Now by Benjamin Dakota Rogers (39)
24. The Songs of Mother Jones in Heaven by Vivian Nesbitt and John Dillon
(39)
26. Heartache Town by Eric Lee (38)
26. Hide and Hair by Trials of Cato (38)
28. Monroe Bus by Andy Statman (35)
29. Facets of Folk by Mara Levine (34)
30. Rise Sun by Infamous Stringdusters (33)
30. Smoke and Ashes by Lonely Heartstring Band (33)
32. Driver by Michael Braunfeld (30)
32. Nola: Susan Werner Goes to New Orleans by Susan Werner (30)
34. Up Against the Sky by Dave Gunning (28)
34. Time and Truth by Joel Mabus (28)
34. October in the Railroad Earth by Tom Russell (28)
34. Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3 by Todd Snider (28)
38. Guy by Steve Earle and the Dukes (27)
39. Valley of the Bones by Jane Kramer (26)
39. Master Key by Elizabeth Lockhart (26)
41. Pack Up the Moon by D.C. Bloom (24)
41. Avalanche by Imar (24)
41. Tides of a Teardrop by Mandolin Orange (24)
44. Unfortunate Point of View by Katherine Rondeau (23)
44. Black Horse Motel by CC Railroad (23)
44. Pseudomyopia by Rachael Sage (23)
47. Please Don’t Tell Me How to Dance by Cindy Ruenes (22)
47. Off to Here Land by Ashley and Simpson (22)
47. Roll On, Clouds by Frank Lee and Allie Burbrink (22)
50. Love and Revelation by Over the Rhine (20)
50. Sparks by Rachel Hair and Ron Jappy (20)
50. Worthy Cause by Chad Richard (20)
50. The Smithsonian Folkways Collection by Pete Seeger (20)
50. Common Chords by Robert Jones and Matt Watroba (20)
50. The Sky in Between by Ky Burt (20)
50. Baked Not Fried by Paul Chet and the Whiskey Chickens (20)
50. Tentation by Yves Lambert Trio (20)
58. The Best of Live by Livingston Taylor (19)
58. Pictures of Us by Braden Gates (19)
58. Caffeine and Nicotine by David Glaser (19)
58. A List of Names by Karyn Oliver (19)
62. The Long Road by Beth Wood (18)
62. Lucky Lucky by Safe as Houses (18)
62. Tex by Terry Klein (18)
62. The Question by Anna Tivel (18)
62. The Tree of Forgiveness by John Prine (18)
67. Steel Blossoms by Steel Blossoms (17)
67. What It Is by Hayes Carll (17)
67. Anyone Can See by Honey Dewdrops (17)
67. We Will Sing by Lizzy Plotkin (17)

Top Songs of April 2019

Molsky’s Mountain Drifters (Photo: Kate Orne)

Top Artists of April 2019

John McCutcheon (Photo: Irene Young)