Author: Don Wilcock

“This book wrote itself,” says Cary Baker about ‘Down On The Corner: Adventures in Busking and Street Music.’ Reflecting on life’s transitions — from closing his PR firm to moving to the desert — he delves into the colorful, often untold stories of buskers, from icons like Elvis Costello to street performers like Grandpa Elliott.

He discusses his deep love for the written word, recounts a remarkable tale of Mick Jagger thanking Ramblin’ Jack Elliott for playing in a subway station during a school field trip, and more. It’s these serendipitous moments that make both Baker’s book and his career truly unique.

If Woody Guthrie captured the heart of the working man’s lot in life and foreshadowed “the folk scare” of the early ’60s, then Arlo Guthrie gave warmth, humor and an Everyman perspective that reached a much larger demographic with his style and youthful exuberance.

New York folkie Lucy Kaplansky reflects on her unexpected journey from clinical psychologist to celebrated singer-songwriter. In this candid interview, she shares insights on her creative process, the value of co-writing with her husband, and her unique approach to independently producing and marketing her music. With a new album on the horizon, Lucy discusses the evolution of her career, her enduring passion for songwriting, and the balance between artistry and business in today’s music world.

“My U.S. fans are expecting ‘Devil with the Blues Dress On’ and ‘Jenny Take A Ride’ or ‘Sock It to Me.’ They’re gonna hear songs they have never heard before.”

On Thursday, November 7th, The Ruf Records 30th Anniversary Tour kicks off at Carnegie Of Homestead Music Hall in Pittsburgh. Samantha Fish headlines the show that includes Mitch Ryder, Canned Heat, Bernard Allison, and Ghalia Volt.

The Owsley Stanley Foundation of Grateful Dead fame has just released ‘You’re Doin’ Fine,’ a sumptuous three-CD set capturing John Hammond at two 1973 concerts at the Boarding House, a small club in San Francisco. The sound man was Owsley Stanley who invented the Grateful Dead’s wall of sound technology.

“I didn’t know that Owsley was recording that show. I was told he was the sound man, but I didn’t understand the significance of it. I mean the sound is great.”

“Our approach to it is to make it authentic, and we do that all the time. People say, ‘You guys sound like the record, only better.’” Interview with Dusty Hanvey, who has been the Grass Roots’ lead guitarist and one of their vocalists since 1984.

There’s no question Jerry Phillips has his daddy’s genes. “Do something different or don’t do anything at all.” Debut solo record out now via Omnivore Recordings!

“I just feel that music and song can be so much more than entertainment, and maybe that’s really what it’s supposed to be about.”

Mary Gauthier is a very unique contemporary artist whose music has proven what she says in her performances, her recordings, and placements of her music in the soundtracks of TV shows like ‘Yellowstone’ on Paramount Plus, ABC’s ‘Nashville’, Masterpiece Theatre’s ‘Case Histories,’ Showtime’s ‘Banshee,’ and HBO’s ‘Injustice.’

Shemekia Copeland’s new album ‘Blame It On Eve,’ out now via Alligator Records, sustains a level high enough to which other contemporary blues albums struggle to reach. The list of musicians who sat in is a who’s who of talented headliners in their own right: Americana superstar Alejandro Escovedo, guitarists Luther Dickinson and Charlie Hunter, lap steel master Jerry Douglas, and young sacred steel wizard DaShawn.

“It’s a bucket list thing,” says Curtis Salgado about playing the King Biscuit Blues Festival for the first time this year. He headlines the main stage Friday night, October 11th. Three-time Grammy winner and Saturday night headliner Bobby Rush also will be on stage with me as well as Anson Funderburgh.