Atlanta Area Friends of Folk Music
(AAFFM)
Fiddler’s Green April 18, 2026
JEFF BLACK / ROB McHALE
JEFF BLACK
“Jeff Black has the troubadour quality of a Steve Goodman, the poetic dignity of Bruce Springsteen, and the outer-fringe edge of Townes Van Zandt. We kid you not.” —Steve Morse, The Boston Globe
Nashville songwriter and performer Jeff Black has extensive awards and credits for his work. His songs appear on recordings by Alison Krauss, Waylon Jennings, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, John Oates, Dierks Bently, Blackhawk, Jo-el Sonnier and more.
His music can be heard on the soundtracks of The Thing Called Love, the acclaimed PBS documentary The Appalachians, and Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize Winner for Best Drama Steel City. BlackHawk’s cover of Black’s That’s Just About Right was a Top 10 Country single, and Black was voted one of the top 100 Folk artists of the last 25 years by Boston’s WUMB listeners.
He has recently released Anthology, an album of songs recorded 1998-2020. In the tradition of the great storytellers, his passionate, soul-driven live performances of songs from his vast catalog are not to be missed.
ROB McHALE
Rob McHale is a North Carolina-based folk/American artist whose songs can take you through a small town, down a dirt road, or on a historical journey. In 2019 he was the International Music and Entertainment Association’s Folk Artist of the Year and his Prophets on the Boulevard was awarded Folk Album of the Year.
Rob performs in the US and internationally. As a storyteller, he tells the Legend of Tom Dooley each year at a festival in the heart of Tom Dooley Country.
His 2025 book Outlaws Pyrates and Other Adventurers, which features stories about some of our greatest legends, received the Award of Excellence from the North Carolina Society of Historians.
“This North Carolina-based poet, musician and composer writes folk Americana songs that walk you through their narratives in an entirely involving way. They bring home the wealth of heritage and place it firmly in the present, they observe the days we live in and offer valuable meaning.”—Tom Franks, Folk Words Magazine, London
Fiddler’s Green is Back!
WE’RE BACK on MARCH 19th (with COVID precautions for now)!
AAFFM Presents: A Celtic Evening with Colcannon Society, and The Irish Brothers
Welcome! This site lists information about folk music and related activities in the greater Atlanta area and the Southeastern U.S. It contains:
- General and recurring information in an expanded directory format
- Links to other folk resources
- See the EVENTS Tab for Fiddler's Green and other AAFFM- sponsored concerts, workshops, and pickin' parties, as well as other events of interest in and around Atlanta.
In email blasts, you'll find details about current events and information on member-only activities like our famous "get-togethers". If you'd like to host a pick-'n-grin, let us know! See the EVENTS tab for upcoming concerts and pickin' parties.
Contact us at membership@aaffm.org to host a pickin' party, join our organization, find out about an upcoming concert, party or workshop, or to submit listings to the website.
See the 'History' tab for the history of the organization.
AAFFM sponsors a local monthly coffeehouse, Fiddler's Green, that features concerts that included traditional music, singer-songwriters, poetry and storytelling. As of August, 2016, it is held at First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta. AAFFM Membership benefits include the email blasts (our mailing list will always remain private) and discounts on AAFFM sponsored concerts. Annual membership dues are $15 for individuals and $20 for families, $35 sustaining members. E-mail membership@aaffm.org for membership information or click HERE for our Membership Application.
AAFFM Needs YOU
Chris Moser, President
AAFFM
John McCutcheon
Smoke Rise, GA
April 7, 2019
Dear Friends,
I got a call, early on in my years of performing, from Betty Smith, a friend I’d met at the Folk Festival of the Smokies, inviting me to come do a show in Atlanta. A follow up call from Don and Laeta Smith sealed the deal and, sometime in the 1970’s I appeared in Atlanta for the first of many times. My host was a freshly-formed group, The Atlanta Area Friends of Folk Music. What I found was a devoted clutch of folk music lovers who not only presented concerts, but sponsored all sorts of events that encouraged people to play music themselves, to share the love of this music that is the root of all the world’s music. To get involved with the music, with one another, with the world.
Having this lovely relationship with Atlanta played a part in my decision to move here in 2006. And I thank you for that.
Over forty years later, AAFFM is still sponsoring events that are meeting places for Atlantans of all stripes and a watering hole for that wandering herd of performers still plying the boards out there. I get to see some of my far-flung fellow performing pals as a result of these. And I thank you for that.
But groups such as AAFFM do not magically sustain themselves. Communities must commit to survive. And in this age of hyper-tribalism it’s more important than ever to reach out, to stand up, to say, “This is the kind of community, the kind of world, I want to be a part of.” You’ll never see the musicians AAFFM brings into our intimate gatherings at the Fox or on Netflix. No, you have to go out, sit shoulder-to-shoulder with others and have that experience live and in person. You can learn how to play, how to sing, how to harmonize in jam sessions not sponsored by YouTube. And, in the process, help build a community that improves the lives of individuals and the collective community life of Atlanta.
Pete Seeger would have been 100 years old this year. He taught us what we could feel like, what we could do if we risked adding our voice to the others in his audience, if we dared to harmonize with a roomful of strangers. But we had to make the move.
So, my fellow Atlantans, make the move, risk, dare, and join me in continuing to support the Atlanta Area Friends of Folk Music. And for that I thank you, as well.
Take it easy, but take it!
Become an AAFFM Member!
What's Happening?
