Decade of Difference

Born in Vermont where her father was a novelist and college professor, Anais Mitchell traveled extensively while growing up. By high school she was looking for chances to perform, and in college she continued her international interests, studying languages and international politics.

Her first record came in 2001 with the second following three years later. It was this one, Hymns For the Exiled that drew the attention of Ani DiFranco, who signed Mitchell to her record label.

While working on her third record and the first to appear on DiFranco’s label, Mitchell was also co-writing a ‘folk opera’ called Hadestown. It was staged in 2007, and an album based on it came in 2010.

In 2019 Anais Mitchells’ Hadestown opened on Broadway and won eight Tonys that year including Best Musical and Best Original Score. The cast recording won a Grammy in 2020. Mitchell also wrote companion book, Working on a Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown published in 2020.

The following year she joined Eric D. Johnson and Josh Kauffman to form Bonny Light Horseman. The trio had first played together in 2018 and were so pleased with the results that they decided to make it a more formal group. The first record was Grammy nominated, and the followup appeared this year.

After a gap of eight years mostly filled by the Broadway show and Bonny Light Horseman, Mitchell has just released a new solo album.

Andrew Bird began playing violin as a 4 year old and ultimately earned a degree in violin performance from Northwestern University. Along the way, he developed a desire to incorporate traditions from many genres into his music, culminating in the release of his first album in 1996. Music of Hair was mostly instrumental, drawing influences from folk, jazz and swing.

Bird released three albums with the band Bowl of Fire before moving out of Chicago and beginning a solo career. In 2007 Bird had his first charting album Armchair Apocrypha, a complex folk-rock mix of multi-tracked violins and his impressive whistling mixed with cryptic lyrics.

A productive musician, Andrew Bird has released 18 studio albums with 13 of those coming in the last 17 years. The newest, Inside Problems is a look at one of the two types of problems Bird sees – inside and outside problems, From the preview video for the album Bird explains “In the way I figure, there are two types of problems in this world: inside problems and outside problems. And it’s all happening inside, no one is privy to it.”

After more than four decades playing approximately 200 shows per year, Robert Earl Keen announced that this current tour would be his last.

Growing up in Houston, Keen studied English at Texas A&M, where he crossed paths with Lyle Lovett. Keen’s Front Porch Song chronicles the pair’s habit of playing and singing in College Station.The 80s and 90s saw Keen cultivate a large cult following inspired by his raucous live shows and the literary quality of his songs.

The Road Goes On Forever from his second album, 1989’s West Textures remains a fan favorite. You can expect fans to drown out Keen singing along with that one.

Robert Earl Keen has been married for 36 years and has two adult daughters. He does not identify any health or other issues that have made him move on to retirement. He does say that it has been a consideration since 2010, when he started to notice that life on the road was getting harder and harder. For a change of pace he recorded a bluegrass album in 2015 and the positive reaction to the record re-energized his live shows.

In retirement Keen plans to focus on making short films in a studio he has outfitted in Medina, Texas and work with young songwriters, sharing the lessons he has learned over his long career. As for live performances, Keen says that he is not interested in working for money or being the star attraction – but he does not rule out the occasional cameo performance.

South Carolina native Sam Beam performs under the stage name Iron & Wine, a name he took from the label of a dietary supplement, “Beef, Iron and Wine”. Beam studied Art at VCU and then Florida State. From there he took a position as a Professor of film and cinematography at the University of Miami and Miami International University of Art and Design, while also writing songs and recording demos.

Iron & Wine released his first album in 2002, the home recorded The Creek Drank the Cradle and around the same time recorded a cover of the Postal Services Such Great Heights. Rather than appearing on an Iron & Wine release, the song was released by the Postal Service as the b side of their version. For his second record Beam moved to a professional studio where he was backed by additional musicians. More musicians and a better studio led to a different sound

Iron & Wine began collaboration with the Arizona band Calexico in 2005 with the EP In the Reins, Beam had written the songs much earlier and Calexico added their southwestern influenced arrangements to complete the album. The musicians have continued to work together with their most recent work coming in 2019  with the release of the album Years to Burn.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf was born on this day in London. A poor student in all subjects except Art, Stevens began a performing career in 1965 after being inspired to learn the guitar after hearing the Beatles.

As an 18 year old he had his first album Matthew and Son reach #2 in the UK. His second album went nowhere, but it did include a song that would win him a Songwriter of the Year Award 40 years later – a song popularized by Rod Stewart The First Cut is the Deepest.

1970’s Tea for the Tillerman pushed Stevens into the international spotlight, selling more than 500,000 copies in its first six months.

A 1976 near drowning in California led Cat Stevens to re-evaluate his religious beliefs and ultimately convert to Islam in 1977. He changed his name to Yusuf Islam and discontinued his career in pop music.  After one last show, Yusf would not perform again for more than two decades.

Slowly Yusuf resumed a recording career, beginning with religious recordings with no accompaniment other than percussion. Yusuf said that his abandonment of his career was misguided, and returned to recording with a benefit version of Peace Train recorded with David Bowie and Paul McCartney.

In 2006 Yusuf released his first new pop album in 30 years with An Other Cup and in 2017 won a Grammy for  his first album that returned to the name Cat Stevens . In 2019 Yusuf was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz, better known by his performing name Fantastic Negrito grew up in western Massachusetts. One of fourteen children, he relocated with his family to Oakland, California as a twelve year old. The move was a culture shock for the child, moving from a mostly white New England suburb to one of the blackest cities in America. Dphrepaulezz immediately ran away from home, joining a street gang and selling drugs.

At fifteen he had been caught by the police and sent to a foster care family, and it was there he got his introduction to music. Seizing the opportunity to perform did not separate him completely from street life and only after some life threatening experiences did Dphrepaulezz completely abandon street life.

A complete flop of a first record left him discouraged and after a near fatal car crash left him in a coma, the bottom fell out when on his revival from the coma he was released from his record contract.

Fantastic Negrito recovered from his music disaster by forming a new band which would play at his own after hours. Gaining confidence from the successful enterprise, and with a wife and child,Dphrepaulezz returned to Oakland and adopted the performing name Fantastic Negrito on his return to the studio.

This was a much more successful venture underscored by Fantastic Negrito’s three Grammys in six years.

George Frayne was studying sculpture and painting at the University of Michigan when he formed a rowdy country band driven by his boogie woogie piano playing. The band moved to northern California after he completed his graduate degree in 1969 where within three months they were opening shows for the Grateful Dead.

Taking the name of a 1950s sci-fi character as his alias, George Frayne fronted the band as Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. Two years later the group scored their biggest hit with a cover of a 1955 tune Hot Rod Lincoln. A radio DJ in Modesto, Calif., played the song late one night on a whim, the phones lit up, and a major hit was launched. It rose in the charts to the top 10. Before breaking up in 1976, the band toured constantly and recorded seven albums, all making the charts, along with five charting singles,

Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen helped establish the alt-country sound in the early 70s. With Frayne fully in charge the ensemble featured an ever changing roster that always came well prepared to play. Geoffrey Stokes chronicled the band in his mid 70s look at the music industry Star Making Machinery. The bands’ label wanted a hit album along the lines of the soft country-rock of The Eagles, but the band was not inclined to change its raw-edged style.

Frayne continued as Commander Cody long after the original group disbanded, releasing an additional nine studio albums through 2009. Frayne, who passed away last year, was also a successful visual artist. He has one video included in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent video archive.

California band Delta Spirit formed in 2005 when Jon Jameson and Brandon Young spotted Matthew Logan Vasquez busking in San Diego and the band released their EP in 2006 followed by their first album in 2007.

Each of the bandmates had been playing in bands in southern California and mostly hating it, but found a sound they could all like with the Delta Spirit mix of indie rock and alt country. Delta Spirit averaged 290 days a year on the road touring in support of that first album.

By 2012 Delta Spirit had moved from California to Brooklyn.  In 2013 the band had their song ‘Running” included in the soundtrack for AMC’s The Walking Dead.

2014’s album Into the Wide was the best selling Delta Spirit album, but it also marked the end of the band, at least temporarily. After ten plus years together, the band announced an indefinite hiatus and Matthew Logan Vasquez moved on to a solo career.

2020s’ What Is There marked the return of Delta Spirit after a six year hiatus and during the COVID shutdown the group went to work on a new record. Released in May One is One explores life, with Vasquez explaining that “One Is One essentially says, ‘What is life all about? Here are some observations.'”

Possessing one of the greatest voices in popular music, Linda Ronstadt collected 11 Grammys and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame over her 44 year career. As an Arizona State University student, she met Bobby Kimmel and together they moved to LA and joined up with Kenny Edwards to form the Stone Poneys, becoming a southern California folk staple.

In 1968 Ronstadt began a solo career with two records that highlighted her country roots before releasing a pivotal record. The 1971 self-titled record featured a band that would go on to be the Eagles backing her and incorporated songs from the decades’ best songwriters, including Jackson Browne and Neil Young. The softer, folkier sound was perfected by 1974 on Heart Like a Wheel which soared to number 1 on sales of over 2 million copies.

Linda Ronstadt scored several hits in the 70s and 80s applying her incredible voice to material from the folk, rock and new wave genres. She sensed a need to move on when her 1982 album Get Closer failed to go platinum.

Moving on, Ronstadt appeared in a broadway musical, recorded an album of standards and then two records of pre rock hits – all of which sold well. She also recorded albums with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris that returned to her country roots. Exploring her Mexican-American heritage, Ronstadt had a surprise hit with an album of traditional Mexican songs.

In 2006 Ronstadt released Adieu False Heart, and this would be her last studio album. She toured to support the Grammy nominated record but in 2011 she announced her retirement. Later she revealed that she suffers from Parkinson’s disease and that it had left her unable to perform

One of Americas’ greatest folk treasures, Woody Guthrie wrote hundreds of songs for adults and children. His album of songs about the Dust Bowl era Dust Bowl Ballads preserved the true life experiences of those times. Guthrie himself was an Okie, leaving his wife and children behind when the dust storms hit Oklahoma and joined the thousands headed to California in search of a better life.

Guthries’ mother was committed to an insane asylum when he was 14 and his father was in Texas working to repay debts. That left the children in the care of Roy, their oldest brother. Guthrie developed an interest in music and after seeing a black friend play harmonica, acquired one and worked to play like his friend.

An uninspired student, Guthrie focused on music. Eventually moving to Texas to join his father. It was there he married his first wife

Woody Guthrie had his first commercial success in California, playing hillbilly music on a Los Angeles radio station. Now known as ‘the Oklahoma Cowboy’ Guthrie moved on to New York where he made his first recordings.. It was there he wrote his best known song This Land is Your Land, a reaction to what Guthrie saw as overuse of Irving Berlin’s God Bless America.

From New York Guthrie moved on to the Pacific Northwest. He described the Columbia River valley as a paradise and it sparked a creative surge – Guthrie produced 26 songs in about a month. World War 2 saw Guthrie serve in the Merchant Marines but his connection to communism resulted in a forced move into the Army.

After the war Guthrie returned to New York, living on Coney Island’s Mermaid Avenue. This was a productive time and a young Ramblin’ Jack Elliott came to study Guthrie’ performance style. Later, Elliott was credited by Arlo Guthrie and Bob Dylan as having taught the style to them Elliott said on hearing this, “I was flattered. Dylan learned from me the same way I learned from Woody. Woody didn’t teach me. He just said, If you want to learn something, just steal it—that’s the way I learned from Lead Belly.”