Folk New England is thrilled to welcome Carol Young and Kate McNally to the board.
Carol Young has been a lifelong music fan since watching American Bandstand and Soul Train on TV and raiding her big brother David’s record collection including Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Carole King, Phoebe Snow, Janis Joplin, and The Beatles. In the early 1980’s, Carol founded an independent concert production company in western Massachusetts presenting The Roches, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and others while at the same time pursuing her M. Ed in Counseling at UMass/Amherst. Carol went on to work as Assistant Director of a counseling program for minority undergraduate students. Later, she formed a management company, Young/Hunter, with Charlie Hunter, representing artists including Bill Morrissey, Casselberry-Dupree, Dar Williams, Chris Smither, Peter Mulvey, and many others. Carol left the higher education world and began working for George Wein’s Festival Productions, both the New York and New Orleans offices, on notable events including but not limited to the Newport Folk Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Ben & Jerry’s One World, One Heart festivals, President Bill Clinton’s inaugural event Reunion on the Mall, the Essence Music Festival, and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (Jazzfest). She cites Robert L. Jones, aka “Bob”, and Quint Davis as her mentors in her music business life. Carol has previously served on boards including Club Passim and Folk Alliance. She has an MFA in Writing and is a Kwame Dawes Mapmakers Scholar and Anaphora Arts Fellow. Carol continues to work for Jazzfest and manage Chris Smither.
Kate McNally, host of The Folk Show on New Hampshire Public Radio, began her radio career as a volunteer DJ at Keene State College’s student-run station, WKNH. She went on to host a Sunday afternoon folk music program, “Fiddlesticks,” on the station for six years.
After graduating in 1986, Kate joined WKNE 1290 in Keene, where she worked as a production coordinator, copywriter, full-time program director, the morning drive personality, and host of a Sunday morning folk music program, The Lighter Side for 6 years. In 1995 she began hosting The Folk Show at New Hampshire Public Radio, making this her 30th year of broadcasting Sunday evenings from 7 to 10 pm with an encore on Fridays from 9 to midnight.
McNally grew up on Hank Williams, Eddy Arnold and The Kingston Trio, and she has visited on air with artists that include Arlo Guthrie, Tom Rush, Richie Havens, Bela Fleck, David Bromberg, Annie Patterson, Claudia Schmidt, Sally Rogers and many others. In addition to her radio program, she has long had a separate career in public service and has served on many boards.