The Archives Podcast
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The Archives Podcast
Follow us to hear select rare recordings; music from teaching artists; and The Archives podcast, showcasing stories from the Old Town School community alongside live performances, field recordings and more from the archive at the school’s Resource Center. The Old Town School of Folk Music teaches an...
Recent Episodes
33 episodes
Ep 26 - La Peña, Part 4: Desde La Peña hasta World Music Wednesday
En la parte final de la serie, La Peña comes to a close, and makes room for a new and broader concert series, which continues to this day: World Music...
Ep 25 - La Peña, Part 3: Music and empanadas
“I think some people came because they could eat the empanadas. You know, and then, the music.” En la tercera parte de la serie, we hear how the La Pe...
Ep 24 - La Peña, Part 2: "The school was in dire straits"
In the early 1980s, the Old Town School came the closest it ever has to shutting its doors. How did they manage to stay open? Escucha la historia en l...
Ep 23 - La Peña, Part 1: El principio
Esto es la historia de La Peña, the first Latin music concert series at the Old Town School, pretty much the predecessor to today’s enormously success...
Trailer - La Peña: Música Latina en la Old Town School
Esto es la historia de La Peña, the first Latin music concert series at the Old Town School--the predecessor to today’s enormously successful World Mu...
Ep 22 - Second Half, Part 4: Jim DeWan & Elaine Moore
A running theme throughout Old Town School history is people finding deep connections and community, forging lifelong collaborations, friendships, and...
Ep 21 - Second Half, Part 3: Remembering Becca Babcock
[Content warning: Brief profanity, conversation about death and chronic illness.] In these excerpts from a conversation between Mary Babcock and Loren...
Celebrating 50 Years at 909 W Armitage (REBROADCAST)
Before we take an end-of-year break, we want to recognize something pretty significant. The Old Town School and the music store formerly known as the...
Ep 20 - Second Half, Part 2: Jon Langford & Sally Timms
Jon Langford and Sally Timms--of The Mekons and countless other projects--have been part of the Old Town School community in a myriad of ways since th...
Ep 19 - Second Half, Part 1: Peggy Lipschutz
Welcome back! This season, we bring you Second Half: a new series drawn from the interviews we've collected as part of our oral history partnership wi...
Teaser & Rebroadcast - 60 Years of Folk, Part 1: Come for to Sing
Welcome back! We've got a fresh new season for you, to begin this Thursday, December 6th, and we want to tell you a little about it. Plus: Today is th...
Ep 18 - 60 Years of Folk, Part 6: Old Town School today
The Old Town School has grown exponentially in the new millennium--both in terms of its reach and the two new buildings it’s grown into since 1998. Si...
Ep 17.5 - EXTRA: La Peña
In this special episode, Resource Center engineer Raul Fernandez shares a selection of archival recordings from the La Peña concert series, a weekly s...
Ep 17 - 60 Years of Folk, Part 5: Expanding the definition of folk
From Wiggleworms to the Latin Music Festival, this two-part episode explores how the school has expanded class offerings and community programs to be...
Ep 16.5 - EXTRA: Robbie Fulks & Steve Dawson
This is a special extra episode featuring excerpts from a conversation between longtime friends Robbie Fulks and Steve Dawson, fellow songwriters and...
Ep 16 - 60 Years Of Folk, Part 4: A bigger tent
By the early 1980s, “folk” was a four-letter word, and the Old Town School was nearly empty. Part four of the series explores how the school endured b...
Ep 15.5 - In sacred trust: Stephen Wade, Fleming Brown & Hobart Smith
This is a special mini episode on the musical lineage between Hobart Smith, Fleming Brown, and Stephen Wade, who was featured on our last episode. You...
Ep 15 - 60 Years Of Folk, Part 3: Folk clubs and all-night parties
Folk music changed significantly over the 1960s, and the Old Town School was no different--even as it sought to preserve the traditional music that de...
Ep 14.5 - EXTRA: Ted & Marcia Johnson
This is a special mini episode featuring the stories of Ted and Marcia Johnson, who you heard in both of the last two episodes. Ted and Marcia met at...
Ep 14 - 60 Years Of Folk, Part 2: Folksingers and folk families
This episode shares the stories of the school’s fabled opening night on Dec. 1st, 1957, and the early years when it was housed at the Immigrant State...
Ep 13 - 60 Years Of Folk, Part 1: Come for to Sing
Sixty years ago, in the holiday season of 1957, Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music first opened its doors. This Thanksgiving Day, The Archives ce...
Ep 12 - Five from the Archives - City of New Orleans
In this episode on “City of New Orleans,” we chat with longtime Chicago folksinger Ed Holstein about his friend Steve Goodman, and other memories from...
Ep 11 - Five from the Archives - Cindy
Part five of our series on songs of the Old Town School songbook delves into the American folksong “Cindy.” Episode 11 features folklorist, Volo Bogtr...
Ep 10 - Five from the Archives - Gypsy Davy
In the second of two podcasts featuring descendents of the old Scottish folksong, “The Gypsy Laddie,” we follow the trail that led across the ocean to...
Ep 9 - Five from the Archives - The Gypsy Rover
Tracing the journey of the ballad “The Gypsy Laddie” from the British Isles to the southern United States, we see one of the most fascinating examples...
Ep 8 - Five from the Archives - Sloop John B
Episode 8 of the Archives tells the story of “The Sloop John B,” and the song’s special place in Old Town School history. Listen through for interview...
Ep 7 - Five from the Archives - John Henry
This episode on the classic American ballad “John Henry” is the first of five featuring key songs of the Old Town School songbook. Like our last story...
Ep 6 - Five from the Archives - We Shall Overcome
In the first episode of our Five from the Archives series, we tell the story behind the rise of the protest song “We Shall Overcome,” featuring its jo...
Ep 5 - Appalachian Balladry Workshop by Anna & Elizabeth
Episode 5 of the Archives features excerpts from a workshop on Appalachian balladry by Elizabeth Laprelle and Anna Roberts-Gevalt of the duo Anna & El...
Ep 4 - The Armstrongs, Part 4: The Wandering Folksong
In the fourth and final episode of our podcast on the Armstrong family, we delve into George’s inspiration for the 1974-1985 WFMT radio program The Wa...
Ep 3 - The Armstrongs, Part 3: From the Mountains to the Midwest
In Episode 3 we continue to meditate on George and Gerry’s contributions to the music community of Chicago. We chatted with their daughter Rebecca, w...
Ep 2 - The Armstrongs, Part 2: George & Gerry Armstrong, Unsung Musicologists
In Episode 2, Mareva Lindo and Emma Rothman explore the Armstrongs’ trove of field recordings, focusing on their trips to Beech Mountain, NC, where th...
Ep 1 - The Armstrongs, Part 1: Introducing the Armstrongs
The Archives is a podcast brought to you by the Resource Center at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music. This series is dedicated to exploring and...