Revisiting the stack of CDs I brought back from Folk Alliance 2013 reveals that there are more interesting Canadian acts I haven't shared with readers yet -- which is fitting, since the meeting was in Toronto.

I'm back with more reviews of material I picked up or heard about at the Folk Alliance International meeting. This time, I'm writing about Americans, so let's start with some real Americana, and one of the hottest bands in folk music, Spuyten Duyvil.

At a recent show, guitarist Hubby Jenkins joked that a white person playing banjo in the mid-1800s was like "Vanilla Ice rapping in the 1980s."

I developed a taste for Louisiana's Cajun music pretty early on in life when I attended a concert by the Balfa Brothers. The band, fronted by Dewey Balfa, totally charmed me with their personal warmth and humor.