Gordon Lightfoot, an iconic Canadian folksinger-songwriter known for his evocative, poetic and stirring songs, died of natural causes in a Toronto hospital on May 1, 2023 at age 84.
Upstate Crossroads by Ithaca, New York-based fiddler Tim Ball was the top album on folk radio during January 2023, while “Four Strong Winds” by the folk duo Ian and Sylvia was the month’s most-played song and the late Canadian troubadour Ian Tyson, who died in December, was the month’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 on AcousticMusicScene.com with permission.]
Ian Tyson, an influential Canadian troubadour best known for having penned the hit songs “Four Strong Winds” and “Someday Soon” as half of the internationally acclaimed folk duo Ian & Sylvia, died on December 29, 2022 at his ranch in southern Alberta at age 89. Folk DJ Charlie Backfish will pay tribute to him and his music during a special edition of his long-running weekly radio show Sunday Street that airs January 8 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET on WUSB 90.1 FM on Long Island, NY and online at wusb.fm or https://tunein.com/radio/WUSB-901-s2324/.
Bill Keith, a noted five-string banjoist who introduced a melodic style of playing the instrument and designed a specialized type of tuning peg that bears his name, died Oct. 23 at age 75. [To continue reading this article, click on the headline.]
