Winterfolk, Toronto, Ontario’s annual blues and roots festival, will be streamed online, February 19-20, 2021 from 7-10 p.m. EST both nights due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The scaled-back virtual edition of the popular festival, now in its 19th year, will feature some of the artists who have previously graced its stages. Registration is free, although donations for the Daily Bread Foodbank will be accepted.
Distance and Time by Becky Buller, a Minnesota-based multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter, was the most-played album on folk radio during January 2021. Topping the monthly songs chart was “Monumentsa' by singer-songwriter Tret Fure. Tony Rice, the late bluegrass guitar virtuoso who died on Christmas Day, was January’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. [Click on the headline to continue reading this article and to view the monthly top albums, songs and artists charts that are posted here with permission.]
After a number of years at Fort Lauderdale’s Hugh Taylor Birch Park, the Broward Folk Club moved its annual South Florida Folk Festival to another location last February. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, festival organizers have been compelled to pivot again. The 2021 South Florida Folk Festival will stream live online February 13 (from 2-7 p.m.) and 14, 2021 (from 2-7 p.m. and 2-6:15 p.m. EST, respectively) via the nonprofit organization’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. [Click on the headline to continue reading this article, which includes comments from several participating artists.]
As in years past, an evening of music from Quebec was a highlight of the annual conference of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP), Jan. 8-12, 2021. However, like the multi-day conference itself, the Folquebec TradFest did not take place in-person in New York City but, rather, was livestreamed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [To continue reading this article, click on the headline.]
Folk DJs from throughout the northeastern United States and Canada, along with a couple from outside the region, will present a free, online emerging artist showcase on Saturday, January 23, 2021. [Click on the headline to continue reading this article and to see the list of performing artists.]
Linus Entertainment, a leading Canadian rights management company, distributor and music publisher whose portfolio of labels also includes Stony Plain Records, True North Records and others, has acquired the catalog of Borealis Records, an artist-focused Canadian folk and roots music label. [Click on the headline to continue reading this article that includes reflections from several artists on the label.]
Live performances at theaters and other venues could resume with relatively few restrictions “sometime in the fall of 2021 … if enough people get vaccinated,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during an online conversation as part of a virtual Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) conference on January 9. Theaters, performing arts centers, concert halls and other live music venues throughout the U.S. have been closed since last spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while the inability to tour and perform live has had a serious economic impact on artists, presenters and others in the field.
The Longest Night of the Year, Volume 3 [Hudson Harding Music], a two-disc compilation featuring 26 songs recorded by various artists, was the most-played album on folk radio during December 2020. Topping the monthly songs chart was “Mrs. Claus” by Pennsylvania-based “kaleidoscope folk” singer-songwriter Lisa Jeanette. Phil Ochs, the late American troubadour, was December'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. [Click on the headline or link below to view the monthly top albums, songs and artists charts that are posted here with permission.]
Entries are now being accepted for the 2021 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters that will take place online on May 22 and 23. The first 800 entries postmarked or submitted online by March 7 will be judged, and 24 finalists will be announced in April.
Liam Reilly, an acclaimed songwriter and former lead singer of the Irish folk-rock band Bagatelle, died on New Year’s Day 2021 at age 65. [Click on the headline to continue reading this article and to view a few videos.]
Tony Rice, an influential acoustic guitarist and 2013 inductee into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, died on Christmas Day, Dec. 25, 2020 at his home in Reidsville, North Carolina. He was 69. [To continue reading this article, click on the headline.]
The Long Island music community has lost one of its most unique and gifted singer-songwriters. Lois Morton -- who delighted audiences throughout the New York metropolitan area and beyond for years with her abundant charm and humorous songs of social commentary on such subjects as cell phones, clutter, diets, psychotherapy, and road rage -- passed away on Dec. 17 at 87. [To continue reading this article and to view a few video, click on the headline.]
