After a lifetime dedicated to folk music and folklore, Dr. Ellen Stekert—an influential yet often unsung figure of the 1960s folk revival—will release her first independent album, Go Around Songs, Vol. 1, on March 28th. It will be streaming on all platforms. At 89 years old, Stekert is finally bringing her archival recordings to the public, marking a milestone moment in folk music history.
Have a listen at the Bandcamp link below:
Go Around Songs, Vol. 1 is available on streaming platforms including YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and iHeart Radio by following this link to Ellen’s DistroKid page. To purchase a download of Go Around Songs or any of the other singles we’ve released over the last couple of months, visit Ellen’s BandCamp page at ellenstekert.bandcamp.com. For updates about further new releases, please follow Ellen’s Spotify or Apple Music profiles, or check back on the Music & Performing page here at her website. Also, follow @ellenstekert on Instagram and Facebook for updates and interesting stories about Ellen’s life.
Stekert, a contemporary of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Dave Van Ronk, eventually chose to pursue academia instead of becoming a touring performer. However, her influence in the folk world was undeniable, as a singer, scholar, and folksong collector. Dylan references her in his autobiography Chronicles: Volume One, remembering her work as an important part of how he learned to be a folksinger. She was also friends with folk legends Dave Van Ronk, Paul Clayton, the Seeger family, and many others. In fact, after attending one of her concerts in 1964, Dylan invited her to a party—an invitation she declined due to teaching responsibilities the next morning.
The road to Go Around Songs began in 2020 when Stekert, after retiring as a folklore professor at the University of Minnesota, started digitizing her vast archive of recordings. “Until I started to do my own
digitizing, frankly, I didn’t think I was a good singer”, Stekert recalls. “It was like meeting yourself walking
down the street. I do think I had a really good voice. And I just like to use it. I love to sing; I knew I could
give something to people that way.”
The final push came in 2024 when she met 25-year-old folk musician and producer Ross Wylde through an unexpected encounter on eBay. Wylde, a longtime admirer of her work, was thrilled to discover that Stekert wanted to compile an album. Using cutting-edge AI technology, Wylde remixed and mastered 10 songs recorded between 1954 and 1980, separating vocal and guitar stems from mono recordings to enhance their clarity.
“Ellen’s recorded work is the perfect candidate for this technology,” Wylde explains. “For example, some of these tracks were drowned out by the guitar due to microphone placement, but AI has allowed us to rebalance and elevate them. It’s like science fiction.”
Go Around Songs will bring to life the music of one of the few veterans of the folk revival genre, offering a rare glimpse into an era that shaped American music history. As Stekert puts it, “I didn’t write songs; I gave them another kind of life so that they would communicate with someone else. The song will talk for itself, but I can give it a new audience and a new life.”
