Folk & Bluegrass

Guitarist Bob Brozman. He'll play two songs from the 20s, one a Fats Waller tune, on his National Steel Guitar.

Folk singer Bill Staines will perform two songs that reflect on the change in seasons.

Folksinger Hazel Dickens. She sings and appears in the John Sayles film "Matewan." Dickens is best known for her traditional renditions of country and folk tunes and for her songs of protest.

Folk singer Garnet Rogers will play a song which sets to music a poem by Australian Henry Lawson.

Blues and country musician Roy Bookbinder joins Fresh Air to talk about his career on the road and the issues involved with being a white singer performing traditionally black music. He plays several songs in-studio.

Folk musician Michael Cooney returns to Fresh Air to share two older love songs that he thinks do a better job of conveying emotion than the pop hits of today.

Puerto Rican songwriter and performer Roy Brown discusses the Nueva Cancion movement, which sets politically-charged poetry to music. He performs several songs in studio.

Accordion player William Schimmel examines the stylistic nuances that distinguish the genre.

Folk singer Michael Cooney returns to Fresh Air to perform two songs originally written in the 1920s

Folk festival mainstay Michael Cooney performs several songs he learned while on the road.

Fiddler and folklorist Michael Doucet plays with the band Beausoleil. He tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross about the history of and techniques involved in the Louisiana-based genre.

Accordionist William Schimmel explains how his instrument lends itself to stylistic mash-ups and improvisatory approaches to composition.

Musician John Phillips was a member of the group The Mamas & The Papas, a pop-folk band that was popular in the 1960s. Phillips has recently written his autobiography "Papa John."

Guitarist and signer Jane Voss and singer Hoyle Osborne play for a live audience at Fresh Air's music studio. Their style incorporates the blues, Tin Pan Alley, vaudeville, and originals. Voss and Osborne are also married and today is their tenth anniversary.

Leonard Cohen is a singer-songwriter, whose unpolished voice is described as "intimate." His folk music was popular in the 1960s and his songs have been recorded by many artists. Before becoming a musician, Cohen was already a novelist and poet best known for his novel "Beautiful Losers."

Nick Spitzer is a folklorist who worked for the State of Louisiana for six years, and now works at the Smithsonian. Spitzer has also hosted several radio programs and recently produced the film "Zydeco: Creole Music and Culture in Rural Louisiana" and helped produce the album "Zodico: Louisian Créole Music." Spitzer joins the show to discuss and share jazz music from New Orleans, with a focus on Mardi Gras music and lesser known styles. (INTERVIEW BY BOB CARLIN)

On this edition of "The Record Ranch," with Bob Carlin, Carlin will share records of new-wave old-time music. (PARTIAL COMMENTARY)

Pete Seeger has dedicated his career to celebrating working people and civil rights. He was blacklisted in the 1950s, which kept him off television for decades. He joins Fresh Air to talk about how he developed his repertoire and honed his craft as a performer.