Why We Write with Kim Ruehl, Eps. 14: Eliza Gilkyson

Eliza Gilkyson has been making records for more than 50 years, and has covered everything from love and longing to political and topical songwriting. Her latest, Songs From the River Wind, has more of an old-West vibe as she takes a second look at some of the songs her father, Terry Gilkyson, wrote and recorded, and updates them from her own perspective. This kind of collaboration across time is not unfamiliar to folkies, but most songwriters who decide to rewrite old ballads will typically scrap all the lyrics and write them anew. Gilkyson, instead, decided to cowrite with her late father and present these adaptations alongside plenty of new originals. The result is a creative commentary on the legacies we leave and how the people who pick them up will do with them what they will. No better songwriter to do that than Eliza Gilkyson—the latest guest on Why We Write with Kim Ruehl.

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