Bluegrass Jam Along

Welcome to the Bluegrass Briefing for July 2026, your monthly look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass and beyond. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and Announcements (Church Street News) McCoury & Douglas Family Pickin Party Béla Fleck's My Bluegrass Heart tour Releases (The Grass is New) Natalie & Brittany Haas - North Node NoaBass - Late Bloomer V...

This week's Bitesize episode comes from a fascinating conversation I had with Tristan Scroggins in 2021. In this section Tristan reflects on what it means to come to bluegrass as an 'outsider' and how culture and connection aren't just about geographical borders. Growing up in New Mexico, despite learning traditional bluegrass from his father, Tristan felt a disconnect from the...

My guest this week is Missy Raines and we're talking about one of her all time favourite records - The Seldom Scene's Act Two We talk about how Missy grew up listening to The Country Gentlemen and The Seldom Scene, thanks to her parents' love of bluegrass, and how the band played a formative role in her early musical life, in particular how Tom Gray influenced her to become a bass p...

Welcome to the June 2026 Bluegrass Briefing, a monthly 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) Craft Recordings Boone Creek reissue (preorder) CD LP Download Gabe Witcher's Gig Ledger Pro app 51st Annual Father's Day Bluegrass Festival Marcel Ardans&ap...

My guests on the podcast this week have an astonishing 24 Grammy awards between them and they represent two musical world I love - the first is bluegrass and string band music and the second is opera. Renée Fleming and Béla Fleck join me to chat about their wonderful new collaboration The Fiddle and the Drum , a project which explores Renée's long-held love of American folk and Appalachian mu...

My guest this week is Tim O'Brien and he joins me to chat about 'The Tim O'Brien Songbook', a handpicked selection of 40 of his songs, complete with notation, chords, Nashville number charts and thoughts from Tim on singing and songwriting. We talk about Tim's journey from being an instrumentalist, to a singer, then a songwriter, and some of the key points along the way, a...

My guest this week is Sierra Hull and we're chatting about her instrumental project The Movements. We talk about how the piece came about, as the result of a FreshGrass Concerto commission, how she approached writing the piece, with and for her current band (Avery Merritt, Erik Coveney, Mark Raudabaugh, and Shaun Richardson), and the challenges presented by releasing a project like this.  We...

My guest this week is John Reischman and we're talking about his fantastic record The Salish Sea , recorded with his band The Jaybirds. We chat about the band's long history together and the journey behind this record, including the Freshgrass Concerto Commission that led to the title track. John also shares his memories of first meeting Tony Rice and how he came to play with The Tony Ri...

My guest on the podcast this week is fiddle player Andy Leftwich and we're chatting about his new album  Aced . Andy talks about his love for instrumental music, including how hearing Mark O'Connor's  The New Nashville Cats as a child inspired him. He also talks about contest fiddling and his 15 year stint with Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, alongside Cody Kilby, who features on...

Welcome to this month’s Bluegrass Briefing, a monthly 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 Recent interview episodes Apple Spotify News and Announcements (Church Street News) Todd Phillips fundraiser North Carolina Guitar Celebration Craft Recordings Tony Rice reissue Releases (The Grass i...

In early April I got the chance to go and hang out at SoreFingers, the UK bluegrass and old time camp, for a night. I'd recently interviewed John Wirtz about Sore Fingers' 30 year history for the podcast (link below) and he invited me along to meet the staff and tutors, hang out and watch some music. While I was there I got to interview Michael Daves and Tony Trischka (links to their epi...

Tony Trischka returns to Bluegrass Jam Along to talk about his new record Earl Jam 2, the follow up to the first volume of a fascinating project that began when Tony was sent a thumb drive of recordings of Earl Scruggs and John Hartford jamming together at home. Volume 2 also has a great line up of special guests, including Billy Strings, Bruce Molsky, Molly Tuttle, Del McCoury, Sierra Ferrell and...

My guest this week is Michael Daves and we're chatting about the superb new record he has out with Jacob Jolliff, We Like Jim & Jesse! The record, released on Michael's own label Wild Geranium Records , celebrates the music of first generation bluegrass legends, brothers Jim and Jesse McReynolds. Michael talks about meeting Jesse in 2019 - he was 90 or 91 at the time and still writin...

My guest on this episode is Bryan Sutton. We're talking about Bryan's new project  From Roots to Branches , the follow up to his 2006 album Not Too Far From the Tree , which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The new album features a series of duets with musicians from the wold of bluegrass and beyond, plus a couple of unreleased tunes he recorded with Doc Watson and Tony Rice. W...

In this bonus episode we're celebrating Tony Rice's best loved albums....as voted for by you! I put out a poll over my social channels as well as some popular Facebook groups and subreddits and collated all the responses. The rules were simple - just pick one album each for these 3 categories: 1. Tony Rice/Tony Rice Unit album 2. Album where Tony’s named as one of the artists (e.g. Blake...

My guest this week is Thomm Jutz. We're talking about Thomm's fascinating new project Ring-a-Bellin' , an 18 track album and, for those wanting to dive even deeper into the process behind this new release, a beautiful, hardback Ring-A-Bellin’ companion book, which includes the stories and inspiration behind each song.  Thomm talks about the idea behind the record; his unique approac...

My guest this week is Alex Graf and we're talking all things Manzanita . Alex made the shift from a more jazz based background to flatpicking a few years ago and Tony Rice's Manzanita became one of the absolute cornerstone records for him on that journey. We talk about why it became so important, what Alex learned from Tony's playing on the record and why he still finds something ne...

Welcome to this month’s Bluegrass Briefing, a monthly 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 Brad Kolodner interview Bill Nowlin interview Releases (The Grass is New) Del McCoury Band with Peter Rowan & David Grisman  Michael Daves & Jacob Jolliff Tony Trischka Earl Jam 2 Blue Highwa...

My guest this week is Bill Nowlin, co-founder of Rounder Records. Bill joins me to talk about Rounder's extraordinary 50 year legacy as one of the most important, influential and best loved independent labels in American roots music. We chat about how Rounder started, after Bill was randomly assigned  Ken Irwin as his college roommate, and how, along with Marian Leighton Levy, they grew Round...

My guest on the podcast this week is Brad Kolodner. Brad is a fantastic clawhammer banjo player. As well as his solo records - 'Chimney Swifts' and the recent album of solo gourd banjo tunes 'Old Growth' - Brad also plays with the band Charm City Junction , as a duet with fiddler George Jackson and with his father, Ken, as part of Ken & Brad Kolodner . He's also an awa...

My guest this week is John Wirtz. John, along with his partner Moira, runs Sore Fingers, a UK bluegrass and old time music camp that celebrates it's 30th anniversary this year. John joins me to chat about how the camp started up and how it's grown over the years to play a major role in the UK and European bluegrass scenes. We talk about some of the extraordinary tutors who have travelled...

Welcome to this month’s Bluegrass Briefing, a monthly 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. Ted Olson interview Doc Watson 100th Birthday Celebration - part 1 - part 2 News and announcements - church street news  Punch Brothers tour dates Scroll on Buddy Atkin Guitars pallet guitar Jude Rogers - The Sou...

My guest this week is Ted Olson, professor of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University. Ted joins me to celebrate the Rich-R-Tone record label and it's offshoot Folk Star. Rich-R-Tone was founded in 1946 by James Hobart Stanton who, in Ted's words, "was probably single-handedly the most important documentarian of Appalachian music." Ted has extensively researched...

My guest on this week's Bitesize episode is Sara Watkins, who joins me to talk about I'm With Her's Grammy winning album 'Wild and Clear and Blue'. It's an album I really love (and a conversation I loved too) and I wanted to put something out to celebrate not only the Grammy win, but also the Grammy they won for the opening track 'Ancient Light'. Sara talks...

Welcome to this month’s Bluegrass Briefing, a monthly 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 Tony Trischka’s New York Banjo Night Bruce and Darol’s Great Big Fiddle Hang Sore Fingers Rockygrass Releases (The Grass is New) Bryan Sutton...