Elsa Howell
Southwest Virginia Traditional Ballad Singer and Songwriter
Elsa Howell took an early interest in old Appalachian ballads, a tradition rich with wild stories and haunting melodies. Her voice and attention to musical detail have won her ribbons at folk song competitions in the mountains of Tennessee, North Carolina, and her native Virginia. She spent more than a year learning the style from ballad master Elizabeth LaPrelle through the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program, and Elsa has been featured at the Richmond Folk Festival, Roanoke’s Taubman Museum of Art, the Floyd Country Store, on the Inside Appalachia podcast/radio show, and she was a resident artist at the 2024 MidMountain Festival, which was devoted to examining and reinventing murder ballads. She has also carved her own path as an acoustic guitarist and songwriter, writing personal songs that meld with her more traditional material. She recorded and released Eyes Wide, her EP of mostly original material, in 2024.