Deidre McCalla doesn’t merely take the stage - she owns it. Her songs embody hope and celebration, struggle, loss, and longing - sometimes all in one song!

A Black woman, mother, lesbian, feminist, Deidre McCalla has long been in the forefront of Black musicians expanding the understanding of how Black folk can do folk. Deidre is riding high on her current release Endless Grace which dominated the June 2022 Folk Radio Charts as the #1 Album with the #1 Song - Shoulder To The Wheel and the #3 Song - I Do Not Walk This Path Alone, and finished for the year as the #13  Top Album. PopMatters, Rhythms Magazine, and the Folk Alley Listener Favorites Poll ranked Endless Grace among the Ten Best Folk albums for 2022. In 2023 Deidre’s song Shoulder To The Wheel won the 19th Annual International Acoustic Music Award for Best Folk/Americana/Roots Song making Deidre the first woman to ever win that category in IAMA history.

Deidre McCalla’s songwriting reveals an unyieldingly honest perspective expressed with a lyric touch that relentlessly celebrates the power and diversity of the human spirit. 

Sing Out!  praises Deidre as one of our generation’s most important singer-songwriters and the Austin-American Statesmen describes her as a highly distinctive voice in a crowded field of contemporary folk music. With five independent albums to her credit, Deidre McCalla has touched audiences from Maui to Maine, church basements and college coffeehouses to Carnegie Hall.

In July 2023 the National Women’s Music Festival (NWMF)  presented Deidre McCalla with the Jane Schliessman Award for Outstanding Contributions to Women’s Music. Deidre received a SERFA Award from the Southeast Regional Folk Alliance in 2021 for distinguished service and exceptional contributions to folk music in the Southeast region of Folk Alliance International. Deidre McCalla's first Olivia Records album Don’t Doubt It  is included in the LGBT Collection at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History and listed by Ms Magazine as one of 25 Classic Women’s Music Albums.

Deidre McCalla learned at an early age that life begins with an acoustic guitar. Her first album, Fur Coats and Blue Jeans, was released on Roulette Records when Deidre was 19 and a student at Vassar College. Deidre later studied jazz guitar at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee, and released three albums with the pioneering women's music label Olivia Records.

A much beloved performer in folk and women's music circles, Deidre McCalla has shared the stage with a long list of notables that includes Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman, Holly Near, Odetta, Cris Williamson, and Sweet Honey in the Rock. She has taught Performance at Warren Wilson College's Swannanoa Gathering, and songwriting at Common Ground on the Hill. Deidre's work has been published in Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, The Original Coming Out Stories, and Chrysalis: A Feminist Quarterly, and she is featured in The Power of Words: A Transformative Language Arts Reader. Deidre is a proud member of AFM Local 1000 and the North American Folk Alliance.

DISCOGRAPHY

2022 Endless Grace—  MaidenRock Music
2003 Playing For Keeps—  MaidenRock Music
1992 Everyday Heroes & Heroines—  Olivia Records
1987 With A Little Luck—  Olivia Records
1985 Don't Doubt It— Olivia Records

JOIN DEIDRE’S EMAIL LIST!

 

 

Deidre McCalla doesn’t merely take the stage - she owns it. Her songs embody hope and celebration, struggle, loss, and longing - sometimes all in one song!

A Black woman, mother, lesbian, feminist, Deidre McCalla has long been in the forefront of Black musicians expanding the understanding of how Black folk can do folk. Deidre is riding high on her current release Endless Grace which dominated the June 2022 Folk Radio Charts as the #1 Album with the #1 Song - Shoulder To The Wheel and the #3 Song - I Do Not Walk This Path Alone, and finished for the year as the #13  Top Album. PopMatters, Rhythms Magazine, and the Folk Alley Listener Favorites Poll ranked Endless Grace among the Ten Best Folk albums for 2022. In 2023 Deidre’s song Shoulder To The Wheel won the 19th Annual International Acoustic Music Award for Best Folk/Americana/Roots Song making Deidre the first woman to ever win that category in IAMA history.

Deidre McCalla’s songwriting reveals an unyieldingly honest perspective expressed with a lyric touch that relentlessly celebrates the power and diversity of the human spirit. 

Sing Out!  praises Deidre as one of our generation’s most important singer-songwriters and the Austin-American Statesmen describes her as a highly distinctive voice in a crowded field of contemporary folk music. With five independent albums to her credit, Deidre McCalla has touched audiences from Maui to Maine, church basements and college coffeehouses to Carnegie Hall.

In July 2023 the National Women’s Music Festival (NWMF)  presented Deidre McCalla with the Jane Schliessman Award for Outstanding Contributions to Women’s Music. Deidre received a SERFA Award from the Southeast Regional Folk Alliance in 2021 for distinguished service and exceptional contributions to folk music in the Southeast region of Folk Alliance International. Deidre McCalla's first Olivia Records album Don’t Doubt It  is included in the LGBT Collection at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History and listed by Ms Magazine as one of 25 Classic Women’s Music Albums.

Deidre McCalla learned at an early age that life begins with an acoustic guitar. Her first album, Fur Coats and Blue Jeans, was released on Roulette Records when Deidre was 19 and a student at Vassar College. Deidre later studied jazz guitar at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee, and released three albums with the pioneering women's music label Olivia Records.

A much beloved performer in folk and women's music circles, Deidre McCalla has shared the stage with a long list of notables that includes Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman, Holly Near, Odetta, Cris Williamson, and Sweet Honey in the Rock. She has taught Performance at Warren Wilson College's Swannanoa Gathering, and songwriting at Common Ground on the Hill. Deidre's work has been published in Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, The Original Coming Out Stories, and Chrysalis: A Feminist Quarterly, and she is featured in The Power of Words: A Transformative Language Arts Reader. Deidre is a proud member of AFM Local 1000 and the North American Folk Alliance.

DISCOGRAPHY

2022 Endless Grace—  MaidenRock Music
2003 Playing For Keeps—  MaidenRock Music
1992 Everyday Heroes & Heroines—  Olivia Records
1987 With A Little Luck—  Olivia Records
1985 Don't Doubt It— Olivia Records

JOIN DEIDRE’S EMAIL LIST!