A Folksinger’s Almanac is the working title for a series of podcasts and live performances that blend personal narrative, travelogues, regional folklore, and music. Featuring field recordings, interviews, and folksongs from Arkansas and around the world, A Folksinger’s Almanac will focus on rural, queer, and outsider voices. It will ideally be a project that lasts three-to-four years, spinning out from the heart of the Ozarks into far-flung corners of the country.
Willi Carlisle is a folksinger, theatre-artist, and writer. A multi-instrumentalist, skilled on banjo, fiddle, guitar, accordion, bones, and harmonica, Willi creates both conventional and experimental works that blend living folklore with social and civic practice. Above all, Willi’s work seeks to cultivate and preserve traditional ways of knowing, inspire audiences to sing and dance, and to grow love and queer acceptance in rural and traditional communities.