Interview with Cathy Guthrie and Amy Nelson from Folk Uke

June 18, 2008

Interview by Scott Preston

Folk Uke is an eclectic acoustic folk duo comprised of Cathy Guthrie and Amy Nelson featuring perfectly melded harmonies and sharp, often biting wit. We were inspired by many of the agreeable greats of the Folk, Country, and Americana genres. Our favorite chords are C, F, and G. So, if you’d like to play along, well, it’s that easy. Of our infamous families, the two of us had been the musical holdouts until we gave into the force and began writing and playing music together. Armed with a ukulele and a guitar, we penned songs such as ‘Shit Makes the Flowers Grow’, ‘Knock Me Up’, and ‘Motherfucker Got Fucked Up’ and we thought, “What a crime it would be to keep these national treasures to ourselves. How can we keep silent when we are the voice of a nation?” You may not hear us on the radio, since our songs have been described as “inappropriate”, “off-color”, “not ready for mainstream” and “NSFW”(Not Safe For Work). Our debut EP, ‘Folk Uke’, is self-titled, as are we. It was produced by Abe Guthrie and ourselves. “Family values” would be the common chord in this unprecedented collection of songs, since we let our Dads take the solos and chime in when they were compelled to do so. It was the least we could do for our executive producers. It made them feel good and that made us feel good; so we took the chance that it would make thousands of people feel good and we printed thousands of copies. - Cathy Guthrie and Amy Nelson

Cincy Groove: So how long have the two of you been together performing?

Amy Nelson: I think about 8 years, we started in 2000.

Cathy Guthrie: It was kind of a joke why we started playing.

Cincy Groove: Who are some of your influences?

Amy Nelson: We are both really big fans of The Jayhawks. We are really big fans of the way they harmonize and their writing.

Cathy Guthrie: We both grew up listening to our dads play. Obviously my dad (Arlo Guthrie) is a big influence. Some others are Pete Seeger, Leadbelly. I grew up listening to all the folkies. Amy was listening to all the country groups.

Amy Nelson: Yeah, I was listening to Roger Miller, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash.



Cincy Groove: Are you two working on a new cd?

Amy Nelson: We aren't actively recording a new cd but we are actively writing for a new record. We both have so many other things going on that when we get a chance we try to get together and work on some new stuff. We have random shows here and there. We aren't the most organized (laughing)

Read the full interview here