Basic Folk 103 – Sadie Gustafson-Zook

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There is a lot going on with Sadie Gustafson-Zook. Raised in a supportive Mennonite community near Goshen, Indiana, Sadie was playing in her parents’ folk band from the age of 6. Homeschooled until grade 5, she learned to channel her feelings through writing. After graduating from Goshen College, she moved to Boston in order to experience life outside of her community and to further her education. She recently completed a master’s in Jazz voice at Longy School of Music in Boston. The way she incorporates Jazz brings a refreshing burst of energy into her original music.

The songs on her latest release, Vol 1., were finished recording before the pandemic started. Sadie worked with the delightful Alec Spiegelman, who WILL appear on a future episode of Basic Folk. She talks about their creative connection and what he brought to the project. There are plans for the full length, but who knows when that will be in this world of uncertainty. That very topic of uncertainty is something that she’s quite familiar with and has reflected on in her songs even as a person in her early twenties. We talk about the ability to cultivate wisdom at a young age. There has also been a pretty significant arc in her presentation of gender. She talks about how this her first release as an out lesbian and the evolution of her relationship to gender. Still based in Boston, Sadie is one of the most exciting up and coming songwriters coming out of the next generation of Passim musicians and I’m excited to welcome her to the podcast!

Sadie performing “Birdsong”

Her latest EP, Vol 1: