Catherine Miles and Jay Mafale visit with host Ron Olesko to discuss their latest album "Be Brave" and share their thoughts on creating music since the pandemic.

Miles And Mafale on Traditions 10-8-23

Singer-songwriter Christine Lavin visits with host Ron Olesko to discuss "The Seasons Project", a compilation of 80 songs and 63 artists celebrating the seasons of the year and more.

CHRISTINE LAVIN on Traditions 12-10-23

Host Ron Olesko sits down with acclaimed singer-songwriters TOM PAXTON and JOHN McCUTCHEON to discuss and share songs from their album "Together".  Tom and John also share stories about songwriting and give their views on the contemporary folk scene.

TOM PAXTON And JOHN McCUTCHEON on Traditions 12-23-23

Founder and lead singer of the band Misty Blues, Gina Coleman (www.mistybluesband.com), visits with host Ron Olesko to discuss the groups new album "I'm Too Old For Games: A Live Tribute to Odetta". 

The album is the second installment in the live Odetta tribute recordings the band has captured. In a perfect bit of timing it doubles as a celebration of Odetta's recent induction both the Blues Hall of Fame and The Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame!

GINA COLEMAN of Misty Blues On Traditions 8-25-24

Jennifer Roe, Executive Director of Folk Alliance International (www.folk.org) sits down with Ron Olesko to discuss the role of FAI in growing and perpetuating the folk community.  Plans for the 2025 International conference as well as future conference locations are discussed, along with the challenges facing the folk music world in 2024.

JENNIFER ROE on Traditions 9-22-24

Host Ron Olesko visits with Heather Pierson (www.heatherpierson.com) to discuss and share songs from her new album "Back to the Light".Heather Pierson is a singer/songwriter, pianist, songleader, and performer with a passion for cultivating joy, both onstage and off. Her live performances feature her ease at the piano and her bell-tone voice that Americana Highways says ‘sounds like timeless wind moving slowly through the trees.’ Heather’s latest album, Back To The Light, was recorded ’live on the floor’ in Portland, ME with her trio—bassist Shawn Nadeau and drummer Craig Bryan—and pulsates throughout with the grooves of New Orleans, the beauty of Appalachia, and Sunday-go-to-meeting celebration.

HEATHER PIERSON on Traditions 10-20-24

Jim Bowers discusses his book "The Man in the Gold Lame Suit", a biography of Phi Ochs.  Host: Ron Olesko

JIM BOWERS on Traditions 11-10-24

The Twangtown Paramours (www.twangtownparamours.com) visit with Ron Olesko to discuss and share tracks from their new album "The Wind Will Change Again".
The Twangtown Paramours are an award-winning husband and wife Soulful Folk duo from Nashville. They are three time Kerrville finalists and and winners of Texas’s Wildflower Contest. Recently, other artists have started to record their songs. Lead singer, MaryBeth Zamer used to sing background vocals for Eva Cassidy. Writer, producer, and guitar player, Mike Lewis is the author of a #1 platinum selling hit in Korea and sometimes plays upright bass for Jimmie Dale Gilmore. 

THE TWANGTOWN PARAMOURS on Traditions 1-26-25

New Jersey singer-songwriter Carol Crittenden  (www.carolcrittenden.com) joins host Ron Olesko to share songs from her long-awaited second full album,"Glimmer". After her debut album, En Route, was released in 2011, Carol announced that she was pregnant with her first (and only) child. She has since been balancing career goals and family life.

Carol recorded and toured as lead singer of Four Celtic Voices with a No. 1 CD on the BillboardWorld Music Chart. She honed her songwriting at Dar Williams songwriting retreats.

This last decade has brought about changes, growth, deep sorrow, and pure joy. Glimmer is a tribute to the idea that there are glimmers of light all around us, even in the darkest times.

Carol Crittenden on Traditions 2-9-25

With 14 albums in Steve’s catalog, film credits from Disney and MGM Studios, and live
performances in every state, most of Europe and even Japan; Steve is equally at home in
the campfire circles of the Kerrville Folk Festival or the Millennium Stage of the Kennedy Center. His newly released CD is a “bucket-list compilation” contains a dozen of Steve’s best songs, some written with his talented co-writers. A dream team of seasoned session players have brought the songs to life with a new level of musicality, perfectly showcasing Steve’s expressive voice.

Steve Gillette on Traditions 6-22-25

Host Ron Olesko sits down with Judy Kass to discuss and share songs from her latest album "New Skin".  

New York based singer-songwriter, Judy Kass draws in her audience with soulful vocals, no-nonsense lyrical storytelling and genre-bending exploration of guitar and piano. Her original music blends generous amounts of folk, jazz and blues with songs covering the full gamut of mood and experience.

Her latest solo album release, "New Skin," is an eclectic mix of songs that speak to various aspects of navigating life during unprecedented times -- from reframing involuntary detours and moving through painful changes to poignant observations on the state of our fragmented world.

"New Skin" features co-writes with renowned artists Sloan Wainwright, Glen Roethel, Dan Berggren, Jon Shain and Kellie Lin Knott.


www.judykass.com

JUDY KASS  on Traditions 7-13-25

For nearly 50 years, Ron has been a radio programmer on WFDU-FM in Teaneck, New Jersey and in 2019, Ron launched a 24/7 Internet channel for folk music called FOLK MUSIC NOTEBOOK (www.FolkMusicNotebook.com).

Ron created WFDU-FM's TRADITIONS in 1980, a show that he continues to host and produce every Sunday afternoon from 3 to 6pm ETand as of 2023 the show moved to Sunday evenings from 10pm to 1am ET (www.wfdu.fm)and simulcast at www.FolkMusicNotebook.com where there is also an encore broadcast Mondays at 3pm ET.

He's the president of and booker for the Hurdy Gurdy Folk Music Club in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, and is a regular contributor to Sing Out! as well as the host of a folk music blog at Sing Out! magazine's website  - http://ronolesko.singout.org .  

Ron can also be found emceeing concerts and festivals around the NYC/NJ area as well as the streaming Greenwich Village Folk Festival on the first Sunday of each month.

Steve Gillette on Traditions 6-22-25

FOLK MUSIC NOTEBOOK - Ron Olesko

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