We’re pleased to announce some great additions to the Sing Out! “online content” family! We’ve been exploring ways to build more traffic and activity on our site, adding useful archival material (like the only Broadsides and People’s Songs collections that have already been added to our pages) … and today we’re really pleased to announce the concept of “auxiliary blogs” under the Sing Out! Umbrella: bringing additional folk music editorial voices that can operate independently while residing within the broad Sing Out! community. And we have two hopefully familiar voices to act as the inaugural ice breakers for the concept.

Folk DJ and freelancer Ron Olesko should be familiar to regular readers of Sing Out!. Ron has been a radio programmer for more than three decades. (2015 will mark his 40th anniversary on radio.) He created WFDU-FM’s “Traditions” in 1980, a show that he continues to host and produce along with co-host Bill Hahn. He’s also the president of and booker for the Hurdy Gurdy Folk Music Club (in Fair Lawn, New Jersey), and regularly emcees concerts and festivals around the NYC/NJ area.

Ron had been blogging over at Blogspot since 2006, so we’re really excited to bring his “Folk Music Notebook” under the Sing Out! umbrella. Along with general folk music musings, reviews, news and recommendations, Ron also share his radio program playlists here as well. He’s migrated over the entire archive of past postings, and has already gotten re-energized as a blogger under our banner … with great plans for what’s to come. You can always access “Folk Music Notebook” from the sitewide menu system (look under News, Reviews & More | Columns & Blogs), or access the blog’s homepage directly at: ronolesko.singout.org.

Our second inaugural blogger is none other than Roger Deitz, whose humor column “RagTag” has graced the last page of Sing Out! since 1995. Roger is a contributor to the Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. His Folk Music Chronicles, gathered essays, articles, and short stories he wrote for the late, lamented Fast Folk Musical Magazine (and The Coop before that) prior to his joining the Sing Out! family. He was program director of New Jersey’s Closing Circle Coffeehouse, June Days Folk Festival, and the Folk Project’s special concert series.

As a performer, Roger was a regular guest on Happy and Artie Traum’s “Bring it on Home” public radio program, and hosted and performed at musical venues of all sizes, including many main stage appearances at The Philadelphia Folk Festival and was the recipient of the 2012 New Jersey Folk Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Roger had already released a collection of the first 15 years of “RagTag” columns as a book, and his new blog here allows us to add online access for his contributions since and into the future … with an opportunity for Roger to write more often than our quarterly publishing schedule allows. Roger’s “RagTag” blog is also accessible through the menu system as describe above, or directly at: rogerdeitz.singout.org

Both blogs are available as a free email subscription or via the RSS reader of your choice for easy access on the go via tablets or smartphones!