The String

Episode 172: A sense of place pervades this split show featuring two of the most fascinating and accomplished voices in Americana music. Amy Helm is a veteran singer but a relatively new solo recording artist having released her third LP 'What The Flood Leaves Behind.' We talk about the aura and sound of her late father Levon Helm's Barn and how she keeps discovering new things there. Rachel Baima...

Episode 171: Founded by an irrepressible enthusiast in his very early twenties, Alligator Records grew into the most authoritative and wide-ranging label chronicling urban blues in the US. That man, Bruce Iglauer, owns and runs the label to this day, having released hundreds of albums on artists such as Albert Collins, Koko Taylor, Roy Buchanan, Lonnie Brooks, Edgar Winter, James Cotten, Curtis Sa...

Episode 170: They're both Nashville icons but they'd rarely worked together until now. John Hiatt is a songwriter's songwriter with a voice that's made him a roots music star. Jerry Douglas is the most in-demand dobro player in the world. Both are recipients of Americana Lifetime Achievement Awards. When the idea to record together was hatched, Jerry brought his ace band to RCA Studio B where he a...

Episode 169: He's known worldwide as a consummate virtuoso on the fiddle and the violin, but Mark O'Connor's first instrument was actually the guitar. After starting his music life with classical and flamenco style lessons, the Seattle teen branched into traditional fiddle and acoustic guitar. After making the groundbreaking Markology when he was 16, O'Connor realized he had bursitis in his elbow...

Episode 168: By the time 2020's pandemic shroud covered the land and stilled its musicians, Oklahoma songwriter Samantha Crain knew all too well about incapacitation. In 2017, touring behind her album You Had Me At Goodbye , she was involved in three car accidents in three months, leaving her hands nerve damaged and debilitated, threatening her career. So the brisk and bright tone of her new EP is...

Episode 167: I met Casey Driessen almost 20 years ago when he was new to Nashville, fresh off a music degree from Berklee in Boston and full of new ideas about bluegrass and American fiddling. He became a key sideman for folks like Tim O'Brien and Darrell Scott. As a composer and arranger he made several solo albums and then refined a truly solo approach with looping pedals. He's become a cutting-...

Episode 166: Still waters run deep with Nashville's Mando Saenz. He's cool and contemplative in conversation, while songwriters tell you he's a fountain of ideas in the writing studio, where he spends most of his time. The Texas native got his start in Houston and early tours with Hayes Carll. Fate brought him to Nashville where he's written and recorded since the mid 2000s for the innovative Carn...

Episode 165: Growing up in the Pacific Northwest in the 1960s, Curtis Salgado fell down the rabbit hole of Deep South blues, jazz, soul and R&B and knew it would be his life's work. Now in his mid 60s, he looks back at a life full of happy accidents, earned admiration, survival and awards, including the BB King Entertainer of the Year prize. His new album on Alligator Records is Damage Control, a...

Singer-songwriter Garrison Starr grew up in Mississippi, made rock and roll out of Memphis and got signed in her late teens to a major label deal where her song "Superhero" took her to the charts and major tours. Heady success, except it was upset by the traumas and betrayals of being outed as gay in college and a conservative culture that exiled her. Now, with a dozen albums to her credit and a s...

Episode 163: It's been a year since the music industry slammed to a halt due to Covid-19. Performing artists had to adjust financially, logistically, emotionally and more. Now with a year's hindsight, The String sought out a sampling of roots musicians to hear how they coped. Many found unexpected gifts. Some started new businesses. Everybody learned a lot about themselves and their field. Feature...

Episode 162: From his breakout days as guitarist for Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen to his four-decade career as a bandleader, songwriter and recording artist, Bill Kirchen has been a badass hero of Americana music. His dextrous and dazzling Telecaster picking may get the most attention, but he's a clever and insightful songwriter who knows how to put on a memorable show. The String is...

Episode 161: Bluegrass has an instrumental tradition going back to its Bill Monroe origins and its old-time forebears. Over time, the playing and composing became more refined and exploratory. This show features three young masters of contemporary acoustic music who've released all-instrumental albums in recent months. I speak with Wes Corbett, banjo player currently with the Sam Bush Band, Jeff P...

Episode 160: Women with roots - in jazz is the heart of this hour. Jenny Scheinman is one of the leading jazz violinists working today, yet her musical life began grounded in folk music and she's been a prolific contributor to records and tours by the likes of Rodney Crowell, Robbie Fulks, Ani DeFranco and others. Her many collaborations with guitarist Bill Frisell have produced sublime fusions of...

Episode 159: Tennessee snuggles up against North Carolina at the apex of the Appalachian Mountains, together making a mid-South band from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River. It also defines possibly the most musically consequential pair of states in the nation. In a new history, veteran Raleigh journalist David Menconi describes NC music from Charlie Poole to the Avett Brothers and beyond. Afte...

Joachim Cooder has pursued his musical life as drummer, percussionist and family man, staying near and working regularly with his father, blues/roots guitarist Ry Cooder and his songwriting wife, among other scattered projects. In recent years though, his writing/composing side has fully emerged, and his debut on Nonesuch Records 'Over That Road I'm Bound,' featuring modern interpretations of Uncl...

Episode 157: The bluegrass and acoustic music world saw Sarah Jarosz coming. As she grew into her teens, artists and talent scouts knew of this young phenom from Wimberly, TX who excelled on banjo, mandolin, singing and songwriting. She got signed at 16 and launched a Grammy-decorated recording career soon after. Now her latest album World On The Ground, about loving and leaving her home ground, i...

Episode 156: Banjo innovator and string band visionary Tony Trischka has kept his eyes on the future over a fifty year career, but on a new album he looks to our uneasy past. Shall We Hope is a song cycle about the Civil War and its aftermath, featuring a cast of elite collaborators such as Maura O'Connell and Guy Davis. We talk about how the project came together over more than a decade and about...

Episode 155: Journalist and author Peter Guralnick is regarded by many as America's premiere chronicler of roots music. Besides his influential profiles, compiled into classic volumes in the 1970s and 80s, he wrote magisterial biographies of Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke and Sam Phillips. His newest collection, Looking To Get Lost: Adventures In Music And Writing, revisits some of his longtime subjects...

Episode 154: 2020 will go down in infamy but one happy occasion this year was the 95th anniversary of the Grand Ole Opry, the longest-running broadcast show in American history and the anchoring force that helped Nashville become Music City. In August of 2019, Dan Rogers was named Executive Producer of the show, putting him in a lineage that stretched back to George D. Hay. And in old school WSM f...

Episode 153: Two great roots songwriters at different stages of their careers. Brent Cobb is a laid-back Georgian who got his first chance to record through his cousin Dave Cobb but who earned his stripes in Nashville and beyond thanks to his sensitive eye and relatable way with a lyric. He's released his fourth album Keep Em On They Toes. Dave Alvin is an icon of Americana who translated a musica...

Episode 152: As recently as five years ago, Nashville's Margo Price was having trouble making ends meet after many years of "playing dives trying to stay alive" as she says in her new song "Twinkle Twinkle." But as that song also documents, she hit on the right sound with the right team. Third Man Records released her debut album in 2016 and it's been a remarkable ride ever since. By her side the...

Episode 151: The Steep Canyon Rangers emerged from the collegiate scene in central North Carolina around 2000 with a traditional sound that started winning them awards. Over 20+ years, they've broadened and deepened their sound through 13 albums on their own - including a bluegrass Grammy winner - and three with Steve Martin. Now they've released three very different albums in a calendar year, dis...

Episode 150: As a teenager, Philadelphia native Ray Benson fell hard for traditional American roots music and by 1970 he'd become the founding leader of a nimble, road-rambling band called Asleep At The Wheel. After a stint in California, they found their natural home in Austin TX and became icons of the scene there, while reaching the world as modern day masters of western swing music. This Fall,...

Episode 149: Randall Bramblett is a powerhouse journeyman and veteran of southern roots and soul music, with a dense and deep resume working for others, from the Allman Brothers to Widespread Panic. But between his stints as a sax player, keyboardist, singer and songwriter he's released more than ten albums as an artist, and his fans know them to be a blend of sharp writing, a sensuous voice and s...

Episode 148: Dirk Powell has build a Grammy-winning career by standing out in all aspects of folk and roots music. He's an outstanding fiddler and banjo player, a singer and songwriter, a curator and producer. And he's made marks in three related realms of music - Appalachian, Cajun and Celtic. Now the Louisiana-based Powell has turned back as he periodically does to recording his own music, and h...