September 24, 2026 - 5:26pm UTC
Eighth-generation East Kentucky musician and Appalachian traditional dancer Carla Gover assembled a remarkable cast of female musicians from Kentucky to record a concept song cycle by Si Kahn situated in southeastern Kentucky. The semi-fictional Walden-Johnson-Jones clan first settled during the early 1800s in and around Williams Branch, which flows into the Cumberland River in Kentucky's Bell County.
"The idea behind this album is that four generations of women from one Kentucky family tell their own stories in their own voices," explains Kahn, whose recording career began with 1974's New Wood on the June Appal label in Gover's hometown of Whitesburg.
"After chatting with Si for a few years about the best way we might collaborate, we landed on Williams Branch Is Hard to Find," says eastern Kentucky native Gover. "I've never been able to resist a concept album, even now when the very idea seems out of date to so many. This album is not only part of a larger project that Si has to get more of his voluminous catalog out into the world, it’s also the perfect vehicle to highlight the voices of contemporary women singers and musicians in Kentucky. I’m proud to have produced it and performed on it. I hope that it shines a light on Si’s particular genius along with the wealth of talented women in our state."
Those talented women, besides Carla, include other veterans like Sue Massek of the Reel World String Band and Karly Dawn Milner, as well as younger artists forming the next generation of roots musicians from the Commonwealth, like fiddler Ella Webster and activist songwriter Jeri Katherine Howell.
Kahn continues, "I wrote these songs to honor some of the strong, inspiring women I met in my years working as a labor organizer and folk singer in the region. In making this album, I wanted to highlight the voices of contemporary women singers and musicians in Kentucky."
Similarly, Carla dedicates her work on Williams Branch Is Hard to Find "to the strong women of Kentucky, past and present, and the amazingly talented and generous singers and musicians who helped me record it."
Gover's work has earned her the Merlefest Chris Austin Songwriting Contest and the Kerrville New Folk Award. She has spent three decades making music that speaks to issues both timeless and urgent, including labor, land, and the struggles of mountain communities. Her original songs have been covered by major artists and placed in film and documentary soundtracks, and three of her albums have reached #1 on the Folk Alliance International radio charts.
Si Kahn has spent more than sixty years as a civil rights, union, and community organizer, musician, and author. He has simultaneously had successful careers as a musical theater composer, lyricist, and book writer, and as an internationally recognized songwriter, recording and performing artist.