Rachel Baiman

For the Nashville-based singer/songwriter Rachel Baiman, progressive folk extends well beyond musical boundaries. Grounded in old-timey string music yet fluent in soul, blues, pop, country, and rock, Baiman channels an equally progressive outlook into her songwriting, a quality that surfaces clearly on her 2017 album Shame.

Chicago, Illinois, is where Baiman was born and raised; her parents fostered an early awareness of social responsibility by bringing her to gatherings of the Ethical Humanist Society of Greater Chicago. Music captured her attention in childhood, leading her to the fiddle and, at age 17, victory in the Illinois State Fiddle competition. Once high school ended, she relocated to Nashville to launch a professional career.

Baiman issued her independent album Speakeasy Man in 2014, a collection centered on older folk material. Steady performing work followed, highlighted by an opening slot for Kacey Musgraves, and she joined fiddler Christian Sedelmyer in the duo 10 String Symphony, which delivered its debut album Weight of the World in 2015. After the 2016 presidential election she established the national political awareness organization Folk Fights Back, enlisting musicians to stage events and concerts in opposition to the Trump administration.

Andrew Marlin of Mandolin Orange produced Baiman’s 2017 album Shame, which turned to original songs examining sexual politics and class in contemporary America.