Allison Russell

Last Friday, Allison Russell was honored with an exhibit at the National Museum of African American Music. To note the occasion, she was interviewed by Alice Randall and her daughter Caroline Randall Williams. Watch the full interview and performance here.

On a recent morning, the atmosphere at Monique Ross’s East Nashville home is high energy. She and her sister Chauntee are here for a day between tour dates, having just arrived from the Newport Folk Festival where they played to thousands with Brandi Carlile and sat on stage during Joni Mitchell’s historic performance there. Monique’s 10-year-old daughter is heading out the door for the afternoon. Two small dogs, including a Chihuahua named Cello, scamper around the Victorian house. But things quiet down. The dogs curl up to sleep, and between gales of sisterly laughter Chauntee and Monique talk about what it’s been like to be on some of folk music’s biggest stages supporting Carlile and Allison Russell in the past whirlwind year.

Last week, folk star and multi-Americana Award nominee Allison Russell got together with Jessie Scott for a “side by side” guest DJ set, taped in the heart of Nashville. In between cozy chats about recent musical doings, Russell treated us to an hour of carefully chosen selections from mostly her contemporaries and friends in today’s rich Americana scene.

While we've long appreciated the songwriting and singing of Allison Russell as part of her duo Birds of Chicago, her solo debut this summer took her career and her art to new levels. In our final String of 2021, Allison speaks with WMOT about the transformative power of music and the changes she's championed in roots music.