Five Bullets 1.9.26: Fresh Folk Reinvention
What's capturing my attention: Dylan goes electric at Newport; Willie Watson on vinyl; Elizabeth Cotten, and the circle continues.
Hi Friends!
I’m discovering this week that the clean slate of a New Year is inspiring my return to all things authentic and original. In recent years, that’s manifested as listening to lots of folk music! Here’s what’s capturing my attention:
I made a list of my 50 Favorite Things From Last Year. Now that I’ve finished my last end-of-2025 post (I promise!), I’m writing resolutions and excited for new possibilities. I can’t remember where I read this but it’s always helpful to have something on your to-do list that’s already completed and crossed off, that way it seems more manageable.
For the price of a song, you can grab my worksheet! It’s perfect for focusing your 2026 resolutions, goals and projects onto a single page.
I’m reading Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric, the book that inspired Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. I’m learning about the early 60’s folk scene leading up to Dylan’s “electric apotheosis” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. You can watch that milestone moment here. The thing I’m finding most interesting is how Dylan reinvents himself, starting out as a rock-n-roller, becoming a folk singer and songwriter, then back to a rocker, and on and on. Future post on the book plus a playlist coming soon!
While reading Dylan Goes Electric and listening to traditional folk artists, I’m digging back into the music of Willie Watson, one of my favorite ‘new’ folk musicians. I kept his first two CDs in my car. I love the space on these recordings and Willie’s heartfelt delivery so I ordered Folksinger Vol. 2 on vinyl to listen at home. Check out the original versions of those songs here.
Because sometimes old things are new and new things are old, I looked through my archives to see what I wrote about this week in years past. In true Circles In Space form, I wrote about folk musician Elizabeth Cotten in 2023 and Woody Guthrie’s New Year’s Rulins in 2024. Maybe if I hadn’t heard Willie Watson, or read about Elizabeth Cotten, the Seegers and Woody Guthrie, or watched A Complete Unknown, I might not have picked up Wald’s book. The circle continues!
What are you returning to or reinventing this week? Email me by hitting reply or by leaving a comment below.
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See you next Friday!
-Keith