The String

Episode 122: Living the road life makes for tight musical couples. And in this split episode, I speak with a new mom who tours and duets with her husband and a couple that's been touring for a decade on their own and as side musicians. Nora Jane Struthers just released her fifth album, celebrating her full life, Bright Lights, Long Drives, First Words, and says it includes "Good Thing," the best s...

Episode 121 is a field trip to Asheville, NC, which Rolling Stone last year touted as one of the best music scenes in the country. We who visit regularly already knew that, and this week's show surveys the talent and the institutions making the region important in roots music and beyond. Featuring Amanda Anne Platt of the Honeycutters, Echo Mountain Studio, WNCW radio, Crossroads Music, Sarah Sisk...

Episode 120: Vince Herman and Drew Emmitt met in 1985 on Vince's first night in Boulder, CO and formed a lifelong musical bond. With banjo player Mark Vann they merged two bands into one and became Leftover Salmon at the dawn of 1990. And in the 30 years since they've earned the respect and partnership of the highest levels of the bluegrass and acoustic world while playing music that's as adventur...

Episode 119: Four virtuoso string band musicians well known for their work with other bands are taking instrumental acoustic music to new heights in the band Hawktail. They are fiddler Brittany Haas, bassist Paul Kowert, guitarist Jordan Tice and mandolinist Dominick Leslie. And they recently landed on the Grand Ole Opry on release weekend of their second album Formations. Also, the delightful and...

Episode 118: Marcus Finnie is one of Nashville's most admired drummers, with a background spanning gospel, roots, pop and jazz. Mabel Pleasure is a lifelong Hammond organ player who rocks Sunday morning church services and the occasional R&B gig. And she's also Marcus's Mom. The String sits down with a musical family that's come from Memphis to Nashville and contributed to a brighter Music City. M...

Episode 117: Often when songwriters talk process, we hear the same few nuggets about craft on repeat. Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer Beth Nielsen Chapman though has a deeply considered take on the art form and the personal work and qualities of mindfulness that truly unlock creative potential. Her workshops and lectures are in demand. And coming in 2020 she launches The Song School, a podcast...

Episode 116: Fiddler, songwriter, singer, bandleader and folk music scholar Michael Doucet is synonymous with Beausoleil the neo-traditional Louisiana band he co-founded 40+ years ago. But this artist relishes collaborations and his upcoming album with a new band, L'acher Prise on Compass Records, is a real Americana hybrid. It's Cajun at its core, but full of ideas from four other musicians a gen...

Episode 115: To start the new year, a full-hour with one of the certified icons of roots/Americana music and Nashville songwriting, John Hiatt. We cover a lot of ground, from getting launched out of Indianapolis in 1970 through a long, frustrating recording career and a breakthrough in the mid 1980s to his stature today as a Nashville leader. His long-time label New West Records has just released...

Episode 114: They grew up in Nashville in the home of the legendary preacher and singer Rev. Sam McCrary, a key member of the Fairfield Four and a major figure in gospel music. They've sung, together and apart, on stages and in studios around the world. And they've become beloved anchors in Music City. After some work with producer/artist Buddy Miller, they answered popular demand to form their ow...

Episode 113: Allison Moorer emerged around the year 2000 as one of the most profound and beautiful voices in true country music. As she grew in stature and acclaim, it emerged that she's suffered an extraordinary loss as a 14-year-old when her troubled, alcoholic father murdered her mother and then took his own life. The time emerged for Moorer to grapple with the trauma in public, and she worked...

Episode 112: Michaela Anne went to New York City to study jazz vocals and emerged a full on convert to country music. She built a career in Brooklyn then moved to Nashville to see it through. She's recently released her fourth album and a label debut with Yep Roc. There's a serenity in her voice and a sensitivity in her lyrics. She talks about her background and the courage it takes to live, as on...

Episode 111: This week, one last round of visits with great artists visiting Nashville to showcase during AmericanaFest 2019. My guests include two songwriter artists from the United Kingdom who've made American music their own - veteran New Orleans piano man Jon Cleary and Northern Ireland's soul-singing dynamo Foy Vance. Up first, an absolutely amazing songwriter from Portland, OR, Anna Tivel. H...

Episode 110: Ideal Man, the fourth full-length album from Nashville songwriter Andrew Combs has been praised by major outlets including Rolling Stone Country. Is it a country album? Is Combs a country artist? Well he undoubtedly was when his first records emerged. His debut album Worried Man had steel guitar and a snapping rhythm section and songs that got right to the point about loss and love. ...

As I browsed World of Bluegrass in Raleigh last September, I caught up with four artists who make for a pretty good cross section of the genre circa 2019: Tim Stafford of Blue Highway, an iconic band celebrating its 25th anniversary, Irene Kelley, a veteran songwriter who's on top of the charts as an artist, Appalachian Road Show, a new super-group with a cultural mission and The Dead South, a you...

Episode 108: The album Steady On in 1989 marked the pivot in Shawn Colvin's life between playing bars to make the rent and being a leader in the singer songwriter movement. Through a string of albums, including the hit-producing A Few Small Repairs, she became a multi Grammy winner and an Americana Lifetime Achievement Award winner. This year, she's revisited Steady On, recording and performing it...

Episode 107 features three conversations held on the run during AmericanaFest 2019 in Nashville, Sept. 10-14. Billy Strings represents the cutting edge of bluegrass and improvisational acoustic music. He's a breakout bandleader and a guitar player's guitar player. His second album is recently out, called Home. Jontavious Willis is another guitar-playing youngster, but his thing is traditional coun...

Episode 106: Ketch Secor is the fiddler and front man of the uncanny success story Old Crow Medicine Show. As they enter their third decade as a band, they can claim to have revived and re-imagined old-time string band and blues music for new generations. They've added at least one hit song to the country music repertoire in "Wagon Wheel" and reached millions with a show full of passion and classi...

In her new song "1988," Kelsey Waldon tells the story of the year she was born in Western Kentucky and what happened after that. What music fans know is that she brought her songs to Nashville and found community among the top emerging figure in East Nashville, including Margo Price and Erin Rae. She's just released her third album and it's special because White Noise/White Lines is a debut for Jo...

Del McCoury is a bluegrass hall of famer and repeat host of the International Bluegrass Music Association Awards. Jim Lauderdale is a beloved Nashville songwriter whose wide range of projects and songs includes Grammy Awards in bluegrass. Their personalities are as big as their resumes, so they'll make memorable co-hosts of the 2019 IBMA Awards in Raleigh. In a joint interview in front of a live a...

Episode 103 features two artists who are showcasing at AmericanaFest 2019 with new albums ready for early next year. Brian Wright has lived and made music in Texas, Los Angeles and Nashville, where he's been a guitar-slinging sideman and the co-founder of Cafe Rooster Records. His next opus is the sonically experimental Lapse of Luxury. Aubrie Sellers grew up around the country music business in N...

Episode 102: Kendell Marvel, native of rural southern Illinois, is  a veteran professional Music Row songwriter whose work has been recorded by Gary Allan, George Strait, Lee Ann Womack, Chris Stapleton and others. He's fought for country music values inside the system, even as it's often let him down. He also put his performing and band-leading dreams on hold for years while raising a family. Now...

Episode 101: Songwriter Amy Speace was entirely absorbed in theater, studying to be a Shakespearian actress in NYC. Then some fates and muses intervened and she began leaning into folk music. Before long she was recruited and mentored by the great Judy Collins, cultivating a voice that stands out even in the crowded songwriter scene of today. Now in Nashville, her story took another turn recently...

The String turns 100 Episodes old with a focus on one of the most celebrated and dynamic young artists in Americana music, a singer/songwriter who has negotiated the bridge from bluegrass to mainstream popular music with amazing grace. Molly Tuttle is a two-time IBMA Guitar Player of the Year as well as a winner of prizes at Folk Alliance and Americana. But more significantly, her debut album When...

  Charley Crockett  has a story that's difficult to imagine playing out in the 21st century - he's hoboed around the country, lost loved ones, scuffled with the law, played on the streets for a decade. And recently he endured open-heart surgery. At 35, he's lived several of our lifetimes. And the thing is, he's poured it all into his remarkable country blues, and he's finally getting the renown he...

The lineage of Nashville's Fairfield Four thrives and resonates in Odessa Settles, this week's guest on The String. The daughter of singer Walter J. Settles (1928-1999), Odessa is an in-demand singer who values the full spectrum of sacred to secular music, especially the roots/Americana world where she's amassed a long resume. She's been a guest vocalist on projects by Darrell Scott, Kathy Mattea,...