Vernacular Sounds

Folk, traditional, and regional styles from all over the world; ethnographic, field recordings, local labels, state-sponsored labels, etc., sometimes themed or in the style of a survey, sampler, or anthology.

Past Episodes

  • Vernacular Sounds - EP7 - good time Louisiana! Aired: Tuesday, December 10, 2024

    A mix of regional styles and traditional music from Louisiana. Hear early to mid 50’s Cajun, Creole, Zydeco, Acadian and New Orleans brass bands, are all featured recordings from Amede Ardoin, Dennis McGee, Joseph Falcon & Cleoma Breaux, S.D. Courville, Dewey Balfa and his family, Nathan Abshire, Hackberry Ramblers, Elise Doshotel & His Lousiana Rhythmnaires (featuring steel guitar wizard Atlas Fruge), Eureka Brass Band, and others.

  • Vernacular Sounds - EP6 - Kentucky Aired: Tuesday, December 3, 2024

    A show of regional styles and traditional music from Kentucky, the Bluegrass state, ballads, banjo, fiddle, hard shell Baptist sacred singing, old time, and, surprise, bluegrass are all featured on recordings by Roscoe Holcomb, Bill Corbett, Daw Henson, Rufus Crisp, Lenville Ball, Clyde Davenport & W.L. Gregory, Edna Ritchie, George Roark, Bill Shepard, and others.

  • Vernacular Sounds - EP5 - Mediterranean Islands & Coasts Aired: Tuesday, November 26, 2024

    A mix of regional styles and traditional music from all over the Mediterranean. Hear Italian and Greek bagpipes, Periklis Halkias (Epirus), beautiful Tralaleri polyphony, Sicilian folk song and Cantastorie (poet-story-singing), and even an ancient Greek fragment from 130 C.E. Recordists include Wolf Dietrich, Walter Henna, Diego Capitella, Alan Lomax, and others. Music from Crete, Kos, Karpathos, Epirus, Sicily Calabria, Sardinia, Corsica, Mallorca, Genoa, and more!

  • Vernacular Sounds - EP4 - Ozarks Aired: Tuesday, November 19, 2024

    A show of regional styles and traditional music from the Ozarks. Hear tracks from the recording work of Vance Randolph, Mary Celestia Parler, Alan Lomax, and Shirley Collins. Ballads, mouth harp, banjo, fiddle, sacred songs, bluegrass, old time, and a few hog themed songs are all featured on tracks by Almeda Riddle, Neil Morris, Max Hunter, Jimmy Denoon, Hiter Colvin, Weems String Band, Dub Crouch, and others.

  • Vernacular Sounds - EP3 - Black Appalachia Aired: Tuesday, November 12, 2024

    A mix show of black Appalachian regional styles and traditional music, featuring pre blues forms, songsters, banjo, old time, work songs, union songs, quartet & group singing, and Piedmont blues from Joe & Odell Thompson, Jimmie Strothers, Cora Phillips, Etta Baker, Elizabeth Cotten, Isaac Curry, United Four Quartet, the Badgett Sisters, John Lusk, and others. Originating from North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.

  • Vernacular Sounds - EP2 - Hamish Henderson's Scotland Aired: Tuesday, November 5, 2024

    The traditional sounds of Scotland with an appreciation of the work of recordist, and one of the key figures of the Scottish folk revival, Hamish Henderson, from piping, mouth music, diddling, Bothy ballads, and Muckle Sangs or Child ballads.

  • Vernacular Sounds - EP1 - Wild & Wonderful West Virginia Aired: Tuesday, October 29, 2024

    The premiere episode features music from West Virginia, mining/coal songs, union songs sung in African American quartet style, bluegrass, old time, banjo and fiddling, including several members of the Hammons family