Song of the Soul

Lena Elizabeth writes and sings music straight from the heart, using her songs to transform experiences like depression, crippling anxiety, & an eating disorder into health and wholeness. While clearly growing from folk-music infused ground, she has a blues-rooted voice, and the combination of these & other influences is magical. Check out her transformation of the Everly Brothers' song, Bye, Bye, Love, so that it sounds like the lyrics, with Sarah Morris and her Toilet Tunes.

Lou & Peter Berryman are known for their unstoppable humor & wordplay, and for their distinctive guitar & accordion instrumentation. Based in Madison, WI, they've churned out many hundreds of songs on topics large & small, staving off the weight of the world with terminal laughter syndrome. There's no one like them as you will know by browsing their Lou & Peter's Big Songbook.

Wendy Martin is part country, folk, Americana, and rock, but she is completely a golden throat and a golden heart. She wrote her first song, a really viable song complete with harmonies & instrumentation, at age 5, so it's a great pity that shyness and care for her children and family delayed the release of her musical gifts to the world by decades. She's here now, a great reason to be thankful for her voice, lyrics, & stories.

Stuart Stotts is a powerful singer/songwriter, storyteller, & writer. Although he's made a living for around 30 years focusing mostly on youth & schools, many of his most popular and requested songs are targeted at grown-up audiences. Present for the founding of the Children's Music Network, Stuart also played for a stretch as part of the social change rock group, Tongue N Groove.

David Van Dyke is deeply passionate about the music he writes & plays, even more so than the science he teaches to middle school students. Obsessive about chord progressions, authors, and Evel Knievel, his songs reverberate with the rich & varied inputs of his passions. David sometimes performs solo, sometimes with his father as The Backsliders, and sometimes with the full band, The Van Dyke Revue.

A retrospective of many, but not all, of the Minnesota-based Song of the Soul guests of 2018. There's gospel, folk/Americana, country, blues, rock, and more from: Mother Banjo (Ellen Stanley), Sarah Morris, Charlie Parr, Annie Fitzgerald, Braden Canfield, Joyann Parker, Kristin Lems. Click on the date to listen to the full interview.

For great folk music north-of-the-border, Dawud Wharnsby is the one. Homeboy of Kitchener, Ontario, with roots also in Syria and Pakistan, Dawud weaves nature, vulnerability, faith, truth, and universality into song, integrally linked to the Islamic path he walks. Occasionally he performs as part of the Abraham Jam, a Jewish-Christian-Muslim collaboration trio.

Laura Joy won the Songwriter Contest at the Great River Folk Fest 2017, and it's no mystery why. The young Phoenix-to-Chicago transplant has talent far beyond her actual miles. And what's more, "Laura Joy has been known to quell dark, angry bars full of ornery old Irishmen".

Barb Tilsen became a devotee of folk music in the early '60s, and has spent a life mixing music, activism, and enrichment of children. Her circles of music & work have included the People's Music Network, the Midwest People's Music Network, and the Children's Music Network (CMN) - watch the video of Let The World Be Well - and she was the founder/early curator of the CMN Song Library.

Vicky Emerson touches the heart with Americana-rooted music with country tinges telling stories of relationship & connection. A mentor in the Minnesota Music Coalition and a touring partner of Sarah Morris as The Home Fires, Vicky has lived on both coasts and is now happily at home in Minneapolis, Minnesota.