FOLK MUSIC AWARDEES PUSH FOR CHANGE
- By Alan Richard
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
NEW ORLEANS — The International Folk Music Awards here became an evening to honor music legends and activists, celebrate Louisiana culture, and instigate pushback on the current climate of fear rising in America.
“We are remembering why folk music matters,” said Jennifer Roe, the executive director of the Folk Alliance International (FAI), during the Jan. 21 awards ceremony, part of the roots music organization’s 38th annual conference.
The conference theme, Rise Up, is a call to action in today’s America, she said, and she reminded the audience of the resilience of the people in New Orleans.
“This city reminds us that music carries grief and joy simultaneously,” Roe said. “We are called to rise up.”
Nashville singer-songwriter Crys Matthews, originally from Washington, D.C., kicked things off by winning Song of the Year for her rootsy inspirational anthem, Sleeves Up. The crowd screamed in celebration as she thanked FAI members for their support.
Nashville singer-songwriter and South Carolina native Kyshona, a performing artist and trained music therapist, accepted the People’s Voice Award for her music and for helping others heal through her organization, Your Song. She paused to thank everyone who helped her find authentic voice “and gave her the space to do so.” (Read this earlier interview with Kyshona here and be sure to check out her incredible latest album Legacy.)
(Photo of Kyshona and Taj Mahal at top of page, courtesy of Shadow Scape Records)
The great Taj Mahal was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for his incredible career devoted to the preservation and presentation of traditional blues, Caribbean, West African, and many other styles of music. To celebrate, he brought out a resonator guitar and performed his buoyant song Queen Bee, with Kyshona singing harmony and Yasmin Williams on guitar (more on her below) — all backed by The Rumble featuring Chief Joseph Boudreaux Jr., the outstanding New Orleans-based and Grammy-nominated house band.
“I’ve been enjoying making music now for approaching 75 years,” he said, adding that he will soon turn 84. Artists are “never in somebody’s shadow. It’s standing in their light,” he added.
Then he slowly, steadily, funkily, shook it as he danced off stage.
As the Milk Carton Kids next presented the Clearwater Award, Taj Mahal was overheard backstage still carrying on.
“Yeah, Taj!” one of the musical duo members yelled in response.
New Orleans artist Tank, leader of Tank and the Bangas, presented the Album of the Year award to I’m With Her — the roots music supergroup of Aoife O’Donovan, Sara Watkins, and Sarah Jarosz — for Wild and Clear and Blue. The group sent their thanks for the award via video message.
Clifton Chenier, the late King of Zydeco and a key founder of the genre, was posthumously honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award. With his brother Cleveland on washboard, Chenier developed zydeco music as we know it, a Creole-infused blend of R&B, rock ‘n roll, and the blues, now known around the world.
CJ Chenier accepted the award on behalf of his father and played the classic, Zydeco Sont Pas Sale.
“Wow. I figured tonight was a good night to bring out Black Gal,” he said, showing off his father’s favorite accordion embossed with his father’s name. “It’s 68 yrs old like me,” and his father played it until the 1980s.
CJ Chenier recalled when he was a 22-year-old saxophone player and witnessed his father perform with Taj Mahal in Baton Rouge. He remembers how special it was “for him to be one with my Dad.”
Yasmin Williams, the finger-picking guitarist with her own technique and alternate tunings, won the Rising Tide Award for advocacy. She played the Millennium Stage at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., despite her criticism of the center’s new right-wing direction and apparent endorsement of a Republican-led protest that interrupted her performance.
The Trump administration last year removed the arts center’s board and many important staff members — and summarily added the president’s name to the center’s facade — prompting protests, artist cancellations, and smaller audiences.
Originally from Northern Virginia, Williams told the awards ceremony audience that she had experienced lots of racist encounters with teachers in grade school, but her mother advocated for her regularly. Music class was a safe space was the only place at school where she didn’t feel that aggression, she said.
Williams didn’t originally intend to become more of an activist or advocate. “I just wanted to be a good guitar player.” She said, however, that she’s seen the same racist systems that govern so many parts of American life profoundly present in the music industry, too. She’s sometimes “mistaken for other artists, even though I look nothing like them at all.”
Williams has come to believe that for folk artists, speaking out against injustice is as important as the music itself. “Please don’t be afraid to speak out,” she said, quoting Audrey Lorde in saying that the more you stand up, it becomes “less and less important that I’m afraid.”
No Depression Managing Editor and FAI board member Hilary Saunders then presented the first Global Folk Album of the Year award, sponsored by Songlines Magazine in England, to The Baltic Sisters (see the full album title and link in the list following this story).
Wanda Fischer, a veteran DJ and Folk Music Radio Hall of Fame inductee, announced four new members to the Hall, established nine years ago to honor radio personalities dedicated to preserving folk music and moving it forward: Ron Olesko, Susan Forbes Hansen, Kieran Hanrahan, and Michael Stock.
Stock, who has kept folk music thriving in Miami and Tampa through radio programs and events, accepted his award, saying he was the first Folk Alliance conference and marveled at its growth.
Two FAI staff members were honored with the Spirit of Folk awards for their work: Deputy Director Alex Mallett and Cindy Cogbill, who recalled working in her hometown of Memphis with the late FAI leader and SXSW festival founder Louis Jay Myers.
Folk music legend Ani DiFranco presented the Artist of the Year award — presented to both Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter Carsie Blanton and the group I’m With Her, who tied for the award.
Music isn’t a business or competition, Blanton said at the awards ceremony. Rather, it’s how people of the past speak to people of the future — and songs are always at the center of revolution. “There is a future, and we have to sing it into being,” she said.
Blanton accepted the award on the condition that the FAI commit to making the conference free to artists. Facing a deep financial debt, Blanton said she spent $1,000 (that she doesn’t have) on a credit card to come to New Orleans. (Later that evening, board members were discussing possible ways to make that happen.)
The Edmonton Folk Festival in Canada won the Clearwater Award for sustainability. Festival director Terry Wickham, who didn’t come to New Orleans out of concern about the U.S. political climate, sent a video message detailing the many ways the festival has cut down on garbage and the impact on its setting. One example he offered: Volunteers now wash thousands of reusable dinner plates rather than throw away millions of disposable products.
The final honor of the night was the Lifetime Achievement Award for Business/Academic, which went to Louisiana Folk Roots for the organization’s longtime work to preserve folk music of various types in the state.
To celebrate, Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes came forward to play Lil’ Liza Jane, believed to have originated with enslaved people in the Antebellum South and adopted into many musical genres.
“Folk music is the kind of music you have to shake your butt to,” Barnes said, before singing and playing, accordion in hand.
In New Orleans, how can you resist?
MORE FROM SOUL COUNTRY:
Feature: Country music around the world
Profile: Queen Esther reclaims her country
Essay: Soul music and civil rights
Feature: Kyshona wants all of us to listen
Essay: Black and country
Profile: Howard Grimes and the Memphis groove
List of all International Folk Music Awards nominees, with winners in bold:
Artist of the Year (sponsored by Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame):
Song of the Year:
Ain’t Afraid To Die (Written and Performed by Woody Guthrie)
Crying In The Night (Written by Stevie Nicks, Performed by Andrew Bird & Madison Cunningham)
I Bought Me a President (Written by Cathy Fink & Tom Paxton, Performed by Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer)
Room On The Porch featuring Ruby Amanfu (Written by Kevin R. Moore, Henry St. Claire Fredericks, Jr., Ruby Amanfu, Ahmen Mahal; Performed by Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo’, Ruby Amanfu)
Sleeves Up (Written and Performed by Crys Matthews)
Sisters Of The Night Watch (Written by Aoife O’Donovan, Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, Performed by I’m With Her)
Album of the Year:
Room on the Porch by Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’
Global Folk Album of the Year:
At the Feet of the Beloved by Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali
Bagola by Trio Da Kali
Niepraudzivaya by Hajda Banda
Tales of Earth and Sun by Rastak
Värav / Vārti / Vartai by The Baltic Sisters
Vié Kaz by Votia
Clearwater Award: Presented to a festival that prioritizes environmental stewardship and demonstrates public leadership in sustainable event production.
Edmonton Folk Festival
Rising Tide Award: Sponsored by the Levitt Foundation, the Rising Tide award celebrates emerging artists who inspire others by embodying the values and ideals of the folk community through their work.
Yasmin Williams
People’s Voice Award: Presented to an individual who embraces social and political commentary in their creative work and public careers.
Kyshona
Lifetime Achievement Awards: The Elaine Weissman Lifetime Achievement Awards are presented each year to honor the cultural impact of legendary folk music figures: one Living, one Legacy, and one Business/Academic.
Living Awardee:
Legacy Awardee:
Clifton Chenier
Business/Academic Awardee:
Louisiana Folk Roots
Spirit of Folk Awards: Honors and celebrates people and organizations actively involved in the promotion and preservation of folk music through their creative work, community building, and demonstrated leadership.
Alex Mallett and Cindy Cogbill
Folk Radio Hall of Fame: Honors and celebrates people and organizations actively involved in the promotion and preservation of folk music through their creative work, community building, and demonstrated leadership.
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