Womenfolk
Womenfolk tells the fascinating stories of women working in roots music, both on stage and behind the scenes. Maria Wallace hosts interviews with female artists and creatives across roots music genres, highlighting the interconnectedness of artists and folk traditions around the world.
Maria has been a grassroots music promoter under the name True North Music for over 10 years, hosting concerts in Yorkshire and booking UK tours for some of the finest artists in folk-roots, bluegrass and Americana. Maria won the Yorkshire Gig Guide’s Outstanding Promoter Award in 2017, attended the Leadership Bluegrass programme in Nashville in 2019 and was nominated for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s IBMA’s Industry Involvement Award in 2021. She is also a singer and songwriter herself, and is passionate about championing women in roots music.
We want to acknowledge the support of Arts Council England, whose Developing Your Creative Practice grant enabled Maria to bring you this pilot season (4 episodes) of Womenfolk.
Womenfolk
Womenfolk - in conversation with Melody Walker
Welcome to my conversation with Melody Walker, a brilliant songwriter, singer and musician from California. Melody’s star is in the ascendant as an in-demand co-writer in Nashville, Tennessee, and she recently won a Grammy Award! Melody is a remarkable singer and performer with lots of interesting projects on the go, including the band BERTHA – Grateful Drag, which is causing quite the sensation. I’ve known Melody for a number of years and previously worked with her bluegrass-roots band Front Country. So it’s been fascinating to see Melody’s career blossom and develop. It was great to catch up with her for this interview, where we chatted about all these topics, as well as the value of building community in music, in all sorts of ways.
Womenfolk is a new podcast telling the stories of women working in roots music. Maria Wallace (True North Music) hosts in depth interviews with female musicians, songwriters, creatives and organizers. Please subscribe to the podcast and share the episode far and wide!
Links:
https://www.frontcountryband.com/
Follow Melody Walker and BERTHA: Grateful Drag on social media:
https://www.instagram.com/melodywritessongs/
https://www.instagram.com/gratefuldrag/
Listen to and buy Melody’s music:
https://frontcountry.bandcamp.com
https://melodywalker.bandcamp.com
BERTHA: Grateful Drag performance videos:
https://www.youtube.com/@GratefulDrag
For Nashville visitors/residents: Writer’s Kitchen every Tuesday
https://www.instagram.com/writerskitchenround
Check out Melody’s most celebrated co-writes:
American Dreaming (Sierra Ferrell):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8e9nbsq-18
Crooked Tree (Molly Tuttle):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8lDUvDMoqQ
The podcast theme music ("The Old Ways - instrumental") was written by Maria Wallace and features Jay Bradberry (fiddle), Mike Giverin (mandolin), Lucille Williams (double bass) and Phil Stott (guitar). Copyright © and ℗ 2025 Maria Wallace. All rights reserved. This episode also features music clips from “Family Band” by Melody Walker and “Sake of The Sound” by Front Country, both written by Melody Walker. These were independent releases and the excerpts have been used with Melody Walker’s permission as the songwriter and owner of the publishing.