Martha Redbone Interview: A Creative Life Rooted in Afro-Indigenous Identity and Appalachian Traditions

Martha Redbone is acclaimed for her powerful performances as a singer, as well as her prize-winning song-writing, composition and arranging. For over 30 years she’s been in a successful collaboration with her partner Aaron Whitby and we talked about some of their new theatrical projects including Black Mountain Women, The Sex Variants of 1941, and Guardian Spirit: The Words of bell hooks.  Throughout this episode you’ll be hearing clips from Martha’s powerful album The Garden of Love  which sets the poetry of William Blake to the diverse music of Appalachia, written with Aaron and John McEuen of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Many people think of the music, culture and history of Appalachia in terms of the blend of white settlers in the area, but Martha’s family heritage from Harlan county Tennessee include African-American, Cherokee, and Choctaw. She shared her experiences growing up with her grandparents as part of a coal-mining family, as well as the dramatic changes she has witnessed in Brooklyn over several decades. 

In this wide-ranging episode, you’ll also hear Martha’s great advice for self-care, maintaining boundaries and working collaboratively.  

 We started this conversation with Martha’s collaborations with clarinettist Tasha Warren and cellist Dave Eggar and if you missed my interview with Tasha last year it’s linked to this one in the show notes. 

Linked are the podcast, video and transcript.

Fern Lindzon is a Canadian multi-style pianist, vocalist, composer and improvisor. She recently released a great album with her new trio project Tryptique with Colleen Allen and George Koller ,and we’re featuring music from that album as well as some of her other work, including her Juno-nominated album Two Kites. We talked about her mother, the artist Rose Lindzon, many mentors and influences including Don Johnson, Alan Bern and Marilyn Lerner, and several of Fern’s projects including creating silent film music, Klezmer with the Sisters of Sheynville, and her new project of learning the expressive electronic instrument the Haken Continuum. In fact, what really struck me about talking to Fern was her thirst to continuously expand her knowledge, skills, and creativity. Like all my episodes, you can watch this on my YouTube channel or listen to the podcast on all the podcast platforms, and I’ve also linked the transcript.

I had a lot of fun stitching together some of the many highlights from this Season 3 so far, in a 10 minute compilation in which I've included clips from every full episode in 2023 so far! It’s time for my summer break, but the podcast will be back September 2nd with a special episode with two composers who are life partners and also work together with Hans Zimmer at Bleeding Fingers Music. Anže Rozman and Kara Talve will inspire you with both the music of Prehistoric Planet and their personal stories, insights and compositions.