Bluegrass Jam Along Interviews

My guest this week is Tom Nechville from Nechville Banjos. Tom joins me to chat about 40 years of making banjos, including what he's learned along the way and some of the innovations he's brought to the banjo, including his revolutionary Heli-Mount head tightening system.  We also chat about why he chose to sell his building in Minneapolis and move his entire shop to Sisters, Oregon; ret...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. Pod news Eric Skye - Phillips, Grier & Fliner special  Apple Podcasts Spotify News and Announcements (Church Street News) Alison Krauss pre-order and tour info Billy Strings tour dates DelFest lineup and ticket...

My guest on the podcast this week is Eric Skye, who joins me to celebrate the album 'Phillips, Grier & Flinner'. Released in 1999 on Compass Records, it marks the first collaboration between bassist Todd Phillips, guitarist David Grier, and mandolinist Matt Flinner and features three original tunes from each. We chat about how Eric first discovered the record and why it means so much...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. Pod news Daniel Kimbro interview Apple Podcasts Spotify News and Announcements (Church Street News) Dawg at 80 Sierra Ferrell tour dates Earl Experience Banjo Camp Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly)...

My guest this week is Daniel Kimbro. Daniel is the bass player in Jerry Douglas's band and plays with Jerry in Transatlantic Sessions and The Earls of Leicester. He's also part of the trio Harley Kimbro Lewis and joins me this week to chat about his first solo record  Carpet in the Kitchen .     This was a fun conversation that touches on story songs, fishing, murder ballads, collaborati...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and Announcements (Church Street News) Sierra Hull - pre-order/pre-save the new record Bluegrass in La Roche info Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2025 playlist Other bits Sign up for emai...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and Announcements (Church Street News) Chris Thile’s Acousticamp Station Inn book Bluegrass Hall of Fame - John Hartford Days Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2025 playlist Other bits Sign...

My guest this week is author Dan Gutstein, who joins me to chat about his book 'Poor Gal: The Cultural History of Little Liza Jane'. The book traces the history of one of America's most recorded folk songs, from it's origins amongst enslaved people on southern plantations, through the Civl War and minstrelsy, to the folk revival and beyond. On its journey Little Liza Jane, and...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and Announcements (Church Street News) Noam Pikelny and Friends tour dates Alison Krauss tour dates Earl Scruggs Center events Bela Fleck’s Blue Ridge Banjo Camp European Bluegrass Summit Releases (The Grass i...

My guest this week is Darol Anger, one of the leading lights of progressive string band music over the last 50 years. Through his work with the David Grisman Quintet, the Turtle Island String Quartet, bands like Psychograss and New Grange and his long standing collaboration with Mike Marshall (not to mention his own wonderful solo records), Darol has been at the forefront of pushing perceptions of...

My guest this week is Charlotte Carrivick. Charlotte is one of my favourite guitarists, so I'm delighted she's back on the podcast to talk about her new record  Sensible or Otherwise . We chat about why, despite having written tunes for years, it took so long to make an instrumental record; the new guitar she commissioned for this album; why she's not uploading it to Spotify and whe...

My guests this week is Olli Chanoff, Director of Programming at the FreshGrass Foundation. So much music I love has its roots in FreshGrass Commissions, from albums like Becky Buller's  Jubilee , Sarah Jarosz's  Blue Heron Suite  and Aoife O'Donovan's  All My Friends,  to instrumental works by Sierra Hull, Jerry Douglas and Jacob Jolliff. So I was delighted to get the opportuni...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and Announcements (Church Street News) Blue Ridge Guitar Camp Allison de Groot’s ArtistWorks clawhammer banjo course Releases (The Grass is New) Charlotte Carrivick Bandcamp The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 play...

My guest this week is Sarah Jarosz. Sarah joins me to talk about one of my favourite albums, 'Blue Heron Suite', which is getting a physical reissue on November 22nd. We chat about how the record developed out of a FreshGrass commission, what that process was like, the central themes that underpin the album, the decision to arrange it for a trio rather than including drums and how it fit...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. This week we have a special episode looking at the artists from the bluegrass and string band world who've been nominated for a Grammy. There'll be some music in here you're familiar with and, hopefully, something new to discover too. The awards themselv...

My guest this week is Sierra Hull. Since I spoke to Sierra for the podcast back in January 2023 she's been ridiculously busy touring and recording. We chat about the extended tour she's been on for Bela Fleck's  My Bluegrass Heart  (which she describes as one of the highlights of her musical life), her current and ongoing tour with her own band (which has been chaotic to say the lea...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. Podcast news Bryan Sutton IBMA fundraiser interview Donate to the  Bluegrass Jam Along/Bryan Sutton fundraiser  to help people and communities devastated by Hurricane Helene News and Announcements (Church Street Ne...

This week I'm joined by bluegrass legend Bryan Sutton for a very special episode to benefit the IBMA Trust Fund and help people suffering the devastation of Hurricane Helene. In the run up to recording the episode we asked for questions for Bryan for Bluegrass Jam Along listeners - in this interview you'll hear me put those questions to him. We talk about growing up in Asheville and how...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and Announcements (Church Street News) Donate to the Bluegrass Jam Along/Bryan Sutton fundraiser to help people and communities devastated by Hurricane Helene. Biscuits and Banjos European Bluegrass Summit Res...

My guest this week is Daniel Patrick, host of the excellent  Mandolins and Beer  podcast. Daniel has interviewed dozens of great mandolin players for his podcast, but today we're going to talk about his new record  Around the Clock , which features him playing with eleven of his heroes, including Tim O'Brien, Ronnie McCoury and Sam Bush, as well as some of the top players on the scene to...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and Announcements (Church Street News) Donate to the Bluegrass Jam Along/Bryan Sutton fundraiser to help people and communities devastated by Hurricane Helene. Celtic Connections 2025 Blue Ridge Guitar Camp 20...

This week's episode is about a very special fundraiser I'm putting together. I’m working with Bryan Sutton to raise funds to help people suffering the devastating effects of Hurricane Helene. Bryan is from Asheville, NC, one of the cities hit hardest by the hurricane, so this cause is very close to his heart. We’re putting together a one off episode of Bluegrass Jam Along where you, the...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and Announcements (Church Street News) Donate to the Bluegrass Jam Along/Bryan Sutton fundraiser to help people and communities devastated by Hurricane Helene. Appalachian Allies benefit concert Energy Curfew...

My guests on the podcast this week are Lillian Werbin and Kristina Gaddy. I caught up with them at IBMA to chat about  Roots Revival : A Black Stringband Symposium , a collaboration between IBMA and The Banjo Gathering. Hosted at IBMA's World of Bluegrass, the symposium celebrated and explored Black contributions to Bluegrass and other traditional music, both historic and continuing, featurin...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and Announcements (Church Street News) Donate to help those devastated by hurricane Helene John Hartford tune marathon Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Other bits Sign up for...