Walter Parks standing with guitar — Walter Parks did a fantastic concert of Okefenokee swamp hollers, banjo tunes, and spirituals from American Folklife Center collections, as well as his own songs. Photo by Susanna Mars. Find Walter’s concert here.

Episode 19 of the Folklife Today Podcast (or Season 2, Episode 7) is ready for listening! Find it at this page on the Library’s website, or on Stitcher, iTunes, or your usual podcatcher. As usual, I’ll use this blog post to direct you to fuller audio and video of the items we mentioned in the podcast, and to give you more background on the topic.

But first:

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In this episode, John Fenn and I invite our colleagues from the AFC Research & Programs team, Theadocia Austen and Jennifer Cutting, to discuss two current initiatives of the Center. First we discuss the at-home version of the Archive Challenge, in which we ask everyone out there (even you) to get inspired by the archive, create some art, and share it on social media. This version of the challenge was first presented in the blog post at this link. The first round of results, which we also talk about in the podcast, was presented in the blog post at this link. From there you can follow the links to individual challenge items. Once again, we urge you to visit those links and have fun with the challenge yourself!

Dom Flemons seated with guitar — Dom Flemons was the first performer of the first Archive Challenge. He’s also performing in the Homegrown at Home series. After the concert premieres on September 16, 2020, it will be at this page on the Library’s website.

Jennifer filled us in on the history of the Archive Challenge, which began back in 2015 at the Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas City. We heard a bit of the very first Archive Challenge performance, which was Grammy-winner Dom Flemons singing a Big Bill Broonzy song; you can find that video at this link. We discussed the several years of performances at Folk Alliance International, you can see all the videos from Folk Alliance challenges over the years at this link. We also mentioned the Archive Challenge Concerts we held here at the Library. You can see the 2017 concert and related interviews here; the 2018 concert and related interviews here; and the 2019 concert here.

Jeneda and Clayson Benaly stand back to back. She holds an electric bass, he holds drumsticks and a rattle. — Sihasin is the duo of Jeneda and Clayson Benally. They recorded their concert outdoors in the Arizona desert near their homes in the Navajo nation. They were joined by family members including their father Jones Benally. Even their horse Moonwalker makes an appearance! Photo by Raechel Running. Find the concert video here.

After that, we turned our attention to this season’s Homegrown concerts, which we’re doing online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Artists are recording concert videos in their homes or studios and we’re premiering them on Facebook every Wednesday at noon. You can “like” our Facebook page here to find out about the premieres. After they premiere, the concert videos are immediately available on the Library of Congress YouTube channel, as well as on the Library website. Thea told us all about the process for booking and creating this year’s series, and we picked a representative sampling to tell the audience more about. (Hint: they’re the ones whose pictures are in this post!)

Sean Ardoin standing with accordion. — Sean Ardoin treated us to Creole music and zydeco from Louisiana. He played a couple of traditional accordion tunes from his family repertoire, but concentrated on his own zydeco and Creole rock-n-soul repertoire. Find his concert at this link.

But really, all of the concerts are our favorites! You can find the full list of 2020 concerts, with links to videos of all the ones we’ve already premiered, on the Folklife Concerts page at this link. Just follow the link from the 2020 list to the individual page for each concert, and you’ll find the video!

Singer Emma Björling and guitarist Petrus Johansson came to us from Sweden! They performed a set of Swedish traditional songs, with one Norwegian song for good measure! See their concert at this link.

We’re excited about both these programs, and we think the podcast gives a good overview of them with a great variety of musical sounds as well. We really hope you’ll give it a listen. So, just for ease of reference, here’s the link to the podcast one more time.

Burke Riley, 10 years old, holding a diatonic button accordion, Steve Riley, the boys' father, holding a fiddle. Dolsy Riley, 7 years old, holds a triangle. — Steve Riley (center) played with his sons Burke (left) and Dolsy (right). Theirs was the first concert in the series, and hit us so quickly I didn’t have time to make a branded image like the ones above. That just means you get to see these adorable kids in a slightly larger size! Find their concert at this link.

As always, thanks for listening, thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next time!

Homegrown at Home and Home Archive Challenge on the Folklife Today Podcast

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