Andrew Calhoun (born November 30, 1957, in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

, United States) is an American

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

singer-songwriter based in the Chicago area.

Career

Calhoun was inspired to become a musician when his mother introduced him to some of her high school students who played guitar. Early influences include

Kris Kristofferson Kristoffer Kristofferson (June 22, 1936 – September 28, 2024) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was a pioneering figure in the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, moving away from the polished Nashville sound and toward a m ...

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter. Most of his music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career. ...

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

Edna St. Vincent Millay Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyric poetry, lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted Feminism, feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. ...

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the Eng ...

C.S. Lewis CS, C-S, C.S., Cs, cs, or cs. may refer to: Job titles * Chief Secretary (Hong Kong) * Chief superintendent, a rank in the British and several other police forces * Company secretary, a senior position in a private sector company or public se ...

and

Mississippi John Hurt John Smith Hurt (March 8, 1893 – November 2, 1966), known as Mississippi John Hurt, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Biography Early years John Hurt was born in Teoc,Cohen, Lawrence (1996). Liner notes to ''Av ...

. In 1992, he founded the artists cooperative record label

Waterbug Records Waterbug Records is a small independent record label based in Glen Ellyn, Illinois specializing in singer-songwriters and traditional folk musicians who do original research. The label was founded as an artist cooperative label in 1992 by singer-s ...

,Winters, Pamela Murray, "Linen Lites: Andrew Calhoun – Call Me 'Colquhoun'", '' Dirty Linen'', 112, June–July 2004, p. 14-15 stating "Waterbug is largely an artists' co-op. All the artists own their recordings and publishing rights. We are working cooperatively to help each other get heard."Calhoun, Andrew, "Hey Rube!: Success", ''

Sing Out! ''Sing Out!'' was a quarterly journal of folk music and folk songs that was published from May 1950 through spring 2014. It was originally based in New York City, with a national circulation of approximately 10,000 by 1960. Background ''Sing O ...

'', 41:2 August–October 1996, p. 110-111 Calhoun's performances include works by various songwriters and poets, Anglo-Scottish ballads in original translations from dialect, African American spirituals, and his own varied songbook. He is working on a Robert Burns songbook which will challenge several decisions on tune sources and variants accepted by scholarship since James Dick's work in 1903. He performs solo and in a duo with his daughter, Casey Calhoun, who sings. In 2012, Calhoun received the Lantern Bearer Award for 25 years of service to the folk arts by the Folk Alliance Regional Midwest. In 2014, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Woodstock Folk Festival.

Discography

*''Water Street'' (1983, Hogeye Records LP – out of print) *''Gates of Love'' (1984, [Flying Fish Records LP – out of print) *''Walk Me to the War'' (1987, Flying Fish LP – out of print) *''Banks of Sweet Primroses'', (1990, self-release cassette of folk, Renaissance and Baroque guitar instrumentals) *''Jack Spratt'', (1991, self-released cassette album in duo with Kat Eggleston) *''First Comes Love'', (1992, self-released cassette album in duo with Kat Eggleston, with Andrew Bird, violin) *''Hope'' (1993, Waterbug) *''Phoenix Envy'' (1996, Waterbug) *''Where Blue Meets Blue'' (1999, Waterbug) *''Tiger Tattoo'' (2003, Waterbug) *''Telfer's Cows: Folk Ballads of Scotland'' (2004, Waterbug) *''Shadow of a Wing'' (2004, Waterbug) *''Staring at the Sun (Songs 1973–1981)'' (2005, Waterbug) *''Bound To Go: African-American Spirituals and Secular Folk Songs'' (2008, Waterbug) *''Grapevine'' (2011, Waterbug) *''Living Room'' (2013, Waterbug) *''Rhymer's Tower: Ballads of the Anglo-Scottish Border'' (2017, Waterbug) *''Skeins: Andrew and Casey Calhoun'' (2018, Waterbug)

Bibliography

* ''Twenty-Four Poems'' (1989, Psychological Bagpipes Press) * ''Hay'' (2004, The Paper Airplane Press) * ''The Trilogy Trilogy'' (2012, Waterbug, humor book) * ''Warlock Rhymer: An English Translation of Robert Burns' Scots Poems'' (2017, Artemis Press)

References

External links

Official Web SiteArticle on AllMusic.com
1957 births Living people American male singer-songwriters American folk musicians Fast Folk artists Musicians from New Haven, Connecticut Writers from New Haven, Connecticut Singer-songwriters from New York (state) Waterbug Records artists Singer-songwriters from Connecticut {{US-singer-songwriter-stub