Isa Burke

I spent this past weekend at the Blackpot Festival and Cook-Off, which takes place in Lafayette, Louisiana. This year marked the festival’s 13th year of celebrating and preserving South Louisiana’s traditional culture of gathering around the cast-iron pot for music, dancing, and good food. I’d been hearing

A few days ago, on the bus home from the grocery store, I was absorbed in a book: The Argonauts, by Maggie Nelson. A passage in the book struck me by reminding me of a recent situation in my own life, so I paused my reading to think. (I do

Recently I was at a music camp in New Hampshire, playing Appalachian old-time tunes on a porch with a few other musicians. Someone suggested a tune called “Indian Ate the Woodchuck,” which is one of my favorites, but I was distracted as we played it – the tune’s title was

This is how it happens: I have an idea for a song, I start working on it, and then it starts to get difficult. I have a good lyric, but I can’t find anything to rhyme with it. I have four verses but no chorus, no idea what ties