Kate MacLeod and Art Podell are Best of the West Honorees

Kate MacLeod and Art Podell were honored as the recipients of the 2019 Best of the West Awards during an Oct. 12 luncheon as part of the 16th annual Folk Alliance Region-West (FAR-West) Conference in Woodland Hills, California.

The Best of the West awards were established in 2005 by FAR-West, a regional affiliate of Folk Alliance International serving the western U.S. and Canada, to honor individuals who have maintained an enduring presence in the folk and acoustic music scene in the West and who continue to inspire others by embodying folk values and traditions. Awards are generally presented in recognition of an artist and of an ambassador, while this year’s winners “have demonstrated overlapping accomplishments [and] both have strong credentials as artists and as ambassadors,” according to the nonprofit organization.

Kate MacLeod, recipient of the Best of the West Award (Performer), is a vocalist, instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, producer, activist, explorer, and advocate. A native of the Washington, DC area, she has resided in the West since 1979, and its beauty and hardy spirit are reflected in her music. MacLeod’s musical roots are firmly planted in Americana folk and further nurtured by her expertise in Celtic, bluegrass, classical, and Eastern European genres. In the span of more than 50 years playing the violin, MacLeod has gradually built an impressive performing career that also features her evocative vocals, guitar and harmonica playing.

Prior to recording her first CD, Trying to Get It Right, in 1995, MacLeod’s original songs were being shared and recorded by other musicians throughout her region. Since then, her songs have been covered by artists from California to the Czech Republic and beyond – including by such notables as Mollie O’Brien and previous Best of the West honoree Laurie Lewis. Her songs have been featured on NPR’s song showcase, What’s in a Song, and on nationally syndicated radio shows, while her musical artistry has been featured in a number of documentaries aired on PBS television stations. Whether in a song or on her violin, she captures the West’s history and landscapes, as well as people’s lives, in the varied music that she creates – music that appeals to fans ad other artists of many genres.

Twice named an artist-in-residence for the Entrada Institute, a southern Utah-based environmental and arts organization, she created a large repertoire of music based on the western desert and history. An artist-in-residence scholarship from Pendle Hill Quaker Study and Retreat Center last year resulted in her composing a collection of peace-motivating and inspirational music entitled A Harmonious Sound.

For three years, MacLeod volunteered her services to the Innocence Project. Some of the musicians whom she aided in playing and performing music had spent nearly three decades in prison due to wrongful convictions. She also regularly donates her time and music to activist organizations working for peace and social justice concerns.

In addition to performing, MacLeod teaches songwriting workshops at schools, summer camps and music festivals.

Over the course of many decades in the folk music world, Art Podelll, recipient of the Best of the West Award (Ambassador) has had a deep and wide array of experiences that have helped him to become both a historian and a supporter of other artists.

Along with friend and fellow musician Paul Potash, he began his musical journey in New York’s Greenwich Village. The two released two albums on Columbia Records in the early 1960s; The duo’s debut release, Songs of Earth and Sky, is considered a folk classic and may have influenced the early recordings of an other Art and Paul (Garfunkel and Simon). Sony Music recently re-released both their debut album and its follow-up, Hangin’, Drinkin’, and Stuff. It was also Art and Paul who first recorded their friend Peter Yarrow’s song “Puff, the Magic Dragon” well over a year before Peter, Paul and Mary’s hit version came out.

Along with Potash, Podell soon headed to Los Angeles, where he immersed himself in its burgeoning folk scene and eventually turned to songwriting. Among those who recorded his songs were Bud and Travis, Rod McKuen, The Smothers Brothers, Glen Yarbrough, and The New Christy Minstrels – whom he joined as one of its original members and arrangers.

For a number of years, Podell has shared and written about his experiences so that others can better understand the history and evolution of the folk element in popular music. While he continues to write and perform, Podell also hosts a bi-monthly segment of Roots Music and Beyond on KPFK 90.7 FM – Los Angeles and writes a column for Folkworks. His newest CD, From The Village to The Canyon, was recently included in an exhibit at the Grammy Museum In LA featuring the music of Laurel Canyon.

Podell continues to perform and to play the recordings of others because he still loves to communicate with audiences, large or small. Playing and sharing his music remains the source of his greatest joy.

As previously noted, FAR-West (www.far-west.org) is the western regional affiliate of Folk Alliance International – a nonprofit organization that aims to serve, strengthen and engage the global folk music community through preservation, presentation and promotion. The region includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming in the USA and Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon and Northwest Territories in Canada. FAR-West seeks to foster and promote traditional, contemporary ad multicultural folk music, dance, storytelling and related performing arts in the West.