Hometown musicians interview their Folk Alliance conference crushes

We asked a few locals playing at the Folk Alliance International showcase to phone their favorite out-of-town musicians headed to KC for the conference. Here are some of the exchanges they shared with us.

Betse Ellis interviews Bella Hardy

If you’re attending the FAI’s Winter Music Camp this week, you might find yourself under Betse Ellis’ tutelage. Or you might run into the violinist at one of the panels she’s either coordinating or participating in. Or you’re trying to get down front for her not-to-be-missed set at the showcase. She’s everywhere, is what we’re saying.

Derbyshire native Bella Hardy is a damn-fine fellow fiddler. Since 2007, the singer-songwriter has concentrated on bridging the gap between traditional folk and contemporary arrangements. Hardy’s latest full-length, last April’s Battleplan, is a stunner: a collection of moody stories old and new, knit together by a sirenlike voice. It’s no wonder Hardy is a four-time nominee (and 2012 winner) of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Ellis: Hi, Bella! How are you feeling about the upcoming Folk Alliance conference?

Hardy: It’s my first trip to America. I’m a bit giddy. I’m literally just coming over for Folk Alliance because I’m right in the middle of two different tours. I’m away for five weeks, and conference is a week in the middle of it.

Will you play another instrument?

It’ll all be fiddle and singing. I pluck the fiddle a lot when I’m writing songs. I travel with two fiddles: one that’s always tuned [for] plucking, one that’s a nicer sound to be plucked; and one that I sing against — it’s a smaller body and easier to play. When I tour solo in the U.K., I sometimes take a harmonium and do a few songs more droney. This will all be fiddle-singing.

How do you describe your own folk music?

Well, I think the way I describe all folk music reflects on how I describe my own, because I really think — and we all have this argument all the time — what is folk music? And for me, folk music is choosing whatever I want to do. That is what folk music is. It’s a choice. I like to do traditional songs. I like to do my own songs. I like to do covers. Folk music itself is having that root point which is trying to come from an honest place, trying to come from a place which is intimate, and getting to the root of something.

We’ll actually have a panel this year that’s called “Folk Music: Creation or Evolution.” Is there something that really stood out to you [in the conference] that you’re looking forward to?

The first person on the list who jumped out at me is Sam Baker. Somebody gave me one of his albums, Pretty World, a few years ago, and I’ve been so absolutely in love with it ever since. There’s a couple of boys who’ve been coming over to Scotland quite a lot — Cahalen Morrison and Eli West — who are just brilliant and are slowly building up a reputation on our side of the pond as well, so I’m really looking forward to seeing them again. And Sarah Jarosz, of course. I’ve never seen her live.

Betse Ellis plays at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, February 22, on the Pershing West Stage. Bella Hardy plays at 7 p.m. Saturday on the Union Hill Stage.

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Loaded Goat’s Eddie Crane interviews Eli West

Eddie Crane is one of KC’s most visible roots-music supporters and organizers. He puts on the Winfield Hangover, for instance — that mini-festival he holds in Westport every year just after Winfield’s Walnut Valley event. And he’s also easily spotted as the tall frontman for rowdy, moonshine-guzzling Loaded Goat.

Seattle duo Cahalen Morrison and Eli West describe their style as “old time” with a touch of bluegrass and a penchant for “brotherly” vocals. Listen to Morrison and West’s latest album, this month’s I’ll Swing My Hammer With Both My Hands, and you might mistake them for twins. They share guitar, banjo, mandolin and bouzouki duties, and it’s hard to tell their voices apart — though that hardly matters. Hammer is folk eloquence, dipped in Celtic silver and cased in tradition.

Crane: How did you two meet?

West: We met through a mutual friend in Seattle who is a DJ on a bluegrass radio show in Spokane. Cahalen was visiting, and he thought the two of us should play together.

I’m familiar with String Summit and a few of the other festivals in the Northwest. How’s the scene up there?

It’s curious. It waxes and wanes, and it’s kind of indie-centric. Most of the bars are around the indie-rock thing, but I think it just makes the folk scene a little more loyal.

There’s kind of two guards. There’s the older folk scene of the people who’ve been around for ages, and they’re maybe committed to this baby-boomer, political-activist kind of scene, which I really enjoy, too. The younger folk scene — well, Seattle doesn’t really have a good grasp on country music. They love outlaw country, like Willie and Waylon and all that stuff, but I don’t think they’re really doing anything cool with it, and the indie-folk scene here is like having milquetoast, or you blow up really quick. There’s not really an in-between. Seattle’s actually not a big part of where we play our music. Seattle’s where we go to do our other projects.

What would you like to see happen, not just with your band but with what we [folk musicians] do? The Mumford and Avett thing has really kind of changed the game for all of us — for better or worse, but at least they’ve broken it open to a wider audience.

It’s kind of like how Wal-Mart has begun selling organic foods. It’s that they have such leveraging capacity. They put something out, and hundreds of thousands of people hear it, so it doesn’t hurt, I guess. Take Yonder Mountain String Band, and the resolution I’ve come to is that they are really committed to their version of folk music and they’re really devoted to their fans, so that’s really admirable. They’re basically a service to their fans, and that’s a good thing.

Loaded Goat plays at 9 p.m. Wednesday, February 19, on the Liberty Stage. Cahalen Morrison and Eli West play at 6 p.m. Saturday, February 22, on the Roanoke Stage.

Sara Swenson interviews SHEL’s Eva Holbrook

For the past few years, Sara Swenson has been one of the metro’s secret folk darlings. Her 2010 full-length — the soft, subtle All Things Big and Small — still goes down like honey off a spoon. Lately, Swenson splits her time between her hometown and Belfast, Ireland.

SHEL is almost too precious to be true. The Colorado foursome — Sarah, Hannah, Eva and Liza Holbrook, four sisters all close in age and blessed with the talent gene — stirs bits of steampunk and vaudeville into its fairy-folk sound. On the group’s 2012 self-titled album, lead singer Eva bends her wispy voice around the curves and through the crevices left by an elegant mix of bass, cello, violin and mandolin.

Swenson: What conference events are on your can’t-miss list?

Eva Holbrook: Definitely Sarah Jarosz and Della Mae. And I’m really looking forward to Steep Ravine — I would definitely recommend them. We played a show with Steep Ravine in Manhattan, Kansas, and it was magic. They all just gathered around one mic and did their thing. Great harmonies, great musicianship.

You all are working on writing a new album. What’s different about this project?

We’re doing all the writing together — all the lyrics, that is; we’ve always done the music and arrangements together. Now we take turns coming up with the ideas. Everyone has their little treasure chest, so to speak. We go through everyone’s memos and ideas and pick what we like. I think everyone feels a bit more ownership this way.

How are you evolving as songwriters?

I think we’re looking at writing as more of a really disciplined art form, not just writing when we’re feeling really emotional or introspective. I’m realizing that anytime I write something, I’m drawing from my own emotion, interpretation, experience or understanding. Regardless of the subject or inspiration, it’s valid even if it’s not something directly from my diary. So just trying to live in that head space and look for inspiration beyond myself daily. And I really like refining it — making it concise and pointed.

Sara Swenson plays at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, February 22, on the Pershing West Stage. SHEL plays at 8:15 p.m. Thursday, February 20, on the Century C Stage.

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Truckstop Honeymoon’s Katie West interviews the Carper Family’s Melissa Carper

Katie and Mike West, of the Lawrence husband- wife duo Truckstop Honeymoon, are no strangers to adversity. They survived Hurricane Katrina, for one thing. And throughout their trials, music has been their constant — a strength audible on the pair’s most recent album, 2011’s fierce Steamboat in a Cornfield.

The Carper Family’s Melissa Carper, Beth Chrisman and Jenn Miori might not be related by blood, but they sound like a classic family band on their latest album, Old-Fashioned Gal. Carper can sound like Dolly Parton or Emmylou Harris, depending on the song, and her bandmates swoop in with flawless backup singing that takes a page from the enchanted bluebirds known to harmonize with Snow White. In Austin, the Carper Family enjoys a hometown reputation as a peerless live act.

West: What is it like on the road with the Carper Family?

Carper: We drive Judy, Jenn’s new Dodge minivan. Jenn and Beth sit in front and talk and listen to music and take pictures for Instagram and tweet. We get along most of the time, and usually we have some sort of adventure, like getting lost or staying on an organic farm and sleeping in a barn or drinking whiskey all night with a local bluegrass band.

Do you practice harmonies in the van?

We don’t practice harmonies much in the van. Sometimes we trade the banjo around — we’re all learning clawhammer banjo — but there’s not a lot of singing, except with the radio. Sometimes we work on writing new songs. “Fancy Pants” was composed primarily in the van, the last two verses. We’re working on a new one called “Queen of the Honky-tonk/King of Fools.” Sometimes we make set lists and do band-meeting stuff, answer e-mails.

Do you stop at roadside attractions?

Last summer, we stopped at the Little House on the Prairie homestead, near Independence, Kansas, one-time home of Laura Ingalls Wilder. In Alaska, Beth had us stop at a spot on the side of the road where fresh water from a glacier comes pouring out of a pipe in the side of a mountain. We all filled up our water jugs with the coldest, most refreshing water ever.

What was your best night on tour ever?

Our best night on tour ever was last November, when we got to play live on A Prairie Home Companion in Dallas. We got to sing a few of our songs, compose music for a few jingles that Garrison Keillor wrote, and sing “Deep in the Heart of Texas” and the Powder Milk Biscuit theme song with the house band. It was the biggest audience we’ve ever played for.

Worst?

Someplace we don’t even want to name. Five people in the audience — two were friends — followed by a lecture from the club owner about how to run our careers. And he didn’t want to pay our guarantee. That kind of stuff makes us sad and wish we worked in a coffee shop or were massage therapists or something.

Who is on your conference must-see list?

A lot of them are buddies we’ve met over the years: Betse Ellis, Della Mae, Foghorn Stringband, John Fullbright, Shinyribs — the Gourds’ Kevin Russell’s amazing new project. Also: Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellies; our guitar heroes Bill Kirchen and Redd Volkaert, who are teachers at the camp; Cahalen Morrison and Eli West; Kansas City Bear Fighters; and, of course, Truckstop Honeymoon.

Truckstop Honeymoon plays at midnight Wednesday, February 19, on the Washington Park Place 1 Stage. The Carper Family plays at 10 p.m. Saturday, February 22, on the Pershing South Stage.