Eliza Gilkyson: A Modern, Old-Fashioned Folkie

Eliza Gilkyson is the daughter of folk pioneer Terry Gilkyson, whose band The Easy Riders helped kick off the ‘60s folk revival. She calls herself an “old-fashioned folkie,” still convinced that music can change the world for the better. On her new album, Songs From the River Wind, she abandons the political songwriting that’s marked her career and revisits the sounds that originally inspired her—cowboy songs from the western part of our country.

“My family used to spend summers along the Wind River in Wyoming,” she says. “The western landscape had a primal effect on me. Those vacations were the first time I tapped into unadulterated joy. When I recently moved to New Mexico, I felt like I’d come home. Emotional songs started popping up—originals and rewrites of classics like ‘Buffalo Gals’ and my dad’s early hit, ‘Wanderin’.’ It was a fast process. I decided to make an album.”

Gilkyson enlisted an old friend, Don Richmond, to serve as her producer. “He plays every instrument you can imagine, and his trio, The Rifters, sang old time harmonies on some tracks,” she says. “We recorded during the lockdown, with a strict COVID protocol agreement. We started out masked, but we were all so careful that, after a while, we took them off. It was not a problem. None of us were out in the world, and we all lived alone. The rest of the album’s personnel—fiddler Warren Hood, mandolist Kim Warner and autoharp player John Egenes—each recorded their parts in their home studios. “We sent them tracks to play on, and they sent back two or three takes,” Gilkyson says. “So we could take parts from them all and have options for the final mix.”

Likening the The Rifters— Richmond, Rod Taylor and Jim Bradley—to a modern incarnation of the Easy Riders, Gilkyson used her collaborators as a sounding board. “I never have any perspective on them, especially the songs that are so personal. But, they all loved them,” she says. “I laid out the guitar and vocals, and Don built the songs around my playing. We both like things stripped down—a few instruments with a lot of textures. There was a bit of back and forth, but it was one of the easiest records I’ve ever made. He’s fluid like me, so we didn’t have to stay in any one genre.”

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Written by Relix Music Magazine