Maria is proud to present a new podcast telling the stories of women working in roots music, on stage and behind the scenes. Womenfolk features in-depth interviews with some fascinating musicians, songwriters, organisers, educators and more. Hit the play buttons on the audio players below to check out the pilot episode for an introduction, and the full interview episodes – with wonderful fiddler, guitarist, singer and songwriter Hannah Read, Grammy winning songwriter and singer Melody Walker, English banjoist, composer and visual artist Kate Griffin of Mishra, and Texas festival organiser and educator Brandi Waller-Pace of Decolonizing the Music Room.
Subscribe, download & listen to Womenfolk wherever you get your podcasts, or follow the links from the Womenfolk web page
Long time followers of True North Music will know that I’ve been talking about starting a podcast for ages! I’ve been lucky to get to work with and build friendships with so many fantastic and fascinating people over the years, and there’s never enough time at a gig to share much about their life stories. In Womenfolk, I’m hosting interviews with female artists and organisers across folk-roots, bluegrass and Americana, 
providing a window into the lives of some of the most talented, fascinating and hardworking people I know, who are making fabulous and important art, making great events happen and generally bringing joy, thoughtfulness and merriment to their local communities and to audiences far and wide. Championing women in roots music has always been a key part of my mission, and I’ve always worked hard to ensure a fair level of gender representation in True North Music’s events and booking roster. The quality of the music we’ve presented over the last decade is of the highest calibre, and I’ve had no issue in ensuring this whilst actively working to promote fair gender representation – our programme has featured incredible female artists/bands with women members including Sierra Hull, Liv Greene, Laura Cortese, Jaywalkers, Molly Tuttle, Front Country, Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves, The Small Glories, AJ Lee, Evie Ladin, Sophie Wellington and many, many more.
Please subscribe, download and listen to Womenfolk wherever you get your podcasts!
Follow, like and share the pod’s social media posts at Womenfolk on Facebook & @womenfolkpod on instagram
for that soon. Copyright © and ℗ 2025 Maria Wallace. All rights reserved. I want to thank Arts Council England, whose funding support helped me bring this podcast to fruition. Back in 2022, I was lucky enough to be awarded a Developing Your Creative Practice grant and they allowed me to delay the project for a couple of years, as I was so busy with True North Music’s local live music series. Over the last few months I’ve got stuck into learning about audio editing, scripting and interviewing, and I’ve recorded my first few interviews remotely. It’s been a big learning curve on audio editing in particular, but I’m really pleased with how the episodes have turned out. Please help me continue, by subscribing, downloading, listening and telling your friends!