Roots Music Rambler

Welcome to another in our Backstage episode of Roots Music Rambler. These are short interviews Frank and Falls are able to grab backstage (or just somewhere in person rather than on our virtual, longer-form interview episodes) and catch up briefly. In this case, we wanted to make sure everyone out there knew about Flood With Love, a music festival happening on Saturday, January 25 at The Burl in L...

Adam Chaffins has spent more than a decade and a half in Nashville, playing in bands, picking up tours with other artists, writing, producing and occasionally releasing an album, several singles and, last year, an EP. Sure, he also happened upon fellow Kentuckian Brit Taylor, whom he married along the way. Adam plays in her band, co-writes and produces some of her work. But 2026 is proving to be w...

Welcome to another in our Backstage episode of Roots Music Rambler. These are short interviews Frank and Falls are able to grab backstage (or just somewhere in person rather than on our virtual, longer-form interview episodes) and catch up briefly. In this case, Falls was able to catch Kentucky singer-songwriter and guitar virtuoso Shelby Lore for a virtual conversation.  He’s the man behind the S...

Noah Guthrie first made a name for himself and his music when his YouTube cover songs were noticed by producers for the Ellen DeGeneres Show. He “won” a contract with Degeneres’s fledgling record label which never manifested an actual album for the South Carolina singer-songwriter. But an appearance on America’s Got Talent started the ball rolling for Guthrie. In that 2018 season of AGT he finishe...

Heirloom, the new album from singer-songwriter Nathan Evans Fox, is out and an impressive manifestation of both creativity and almost historical documentation of an Appalachian artist. Fox joined Roots Music Rambler this week to talk about the new album, his journey to Nashville from the mountains of Western Carolina, fatherhood and more.  Like many artists today, Fox often shares little snippets...

One of the Americana voices out of Chicago that you’ve heard Frank talk about on Roots Music Rambler drops her first full-length solo album today (Friday, May 29, 2026). So you know we’re going to talk to her, right? Rachel Swain’s Neon Lullaby is out and features a solid mix of the sounds that define Americana music. She brings plenty of country influence with a hint of rock and a touch of blues,...

Jeremy Marshall, the singer-songwriter who founded and fronts the Alt-Country band Hollerhead, says he doesn’t know what to call the band’s genre of music. “We just play our music,” he told us when he joined Roots Music Rambler this week. The Western Kentucky-based band mixes a steady diet of southern rock with country, blues and even bluegrass influences, or Americana as we’ve come to say about a...

Americana/Folk artist Ismay (Avery Hellman) was in a Lucinda Williams cover band started by their father early in her adult life. As a singer-songwriter herself, the musician, rancher and self-identified “dreamer” went looking for more understanding of the legendary singer-songwriter and produced an outstanding documentary called Finding Lucinda. The film documents their journey of more self-disco...

It’s not uncommon for a professional musician to juggle multiple gigs. Until they make it big or get a break playing in a band that does, there’s session jobs, maybe a songwriting contract, picking up live gigs in someone else’s band, slinging merch or someone, or even all that plus holding down a full-time job to pay the bills. Lucciana Costa can relate. She’s established herself as one in the cu...

It’s been four years since Linda Jean Stokley and Montana Hobbs released a full album. The two, better known collectively as The Local Honeys, dropped a 45 last summer and have blessed fans with a couple of new singles in the last couple of months. But there has been no official announcement of a new record coming. We think we may have squeaked out a hint or two that one might be as the two joined...

There are few things we love better at Roots Music Rambler than talking to an artist about their first album. As this episode drops (March 27), so will southern rocker Andy Thomas’s debut solo record Highway Junkie. Andy spent some time with Frank and Falls recently to talk about the album, his songs and songwriting and a lot more.  Thomas is Virginia-born but now based in Florida. He played in a...

When Roots Music Rambler did our 2025 year-in-review episode, Frank told us her favorite music festival last year was the Crossroads Acoustic Fest in Seymour, Ind. She’s going again this year (and has convinced Falls to come as well). It takes place April 24-25 and features wonderful singer-songwriters and Americana acts  like John R. Miller, Jason Eady, The Tillers, Thunder and Rain and more. Fri...

Sophie Gault’s third studio album Unhinged dropped in early February of this year. But the singles rolled out as the record came to fruition and had already sold it for those familiar with her. The fiery guitar player and honky tonk songstress’s performance on the album mirrored its title. This record was Sophie being the Sophie people are used to seeing rattling the windows at bars and clubs arou...

Welcome to the first of hopefully many shorter episodes of Roots Music Rambler, we’re calling our Backstage with episodes. These are short interviews Frank and Falls are able to grab backstage (or just somewhere in person rather than on our virtual, longer-form interview episodes) and catch up briefly. Our first such episode is with Josh Mitcham. The Breckenridge County, Kentucky native and farmer...

The day this episode of Roots Music Rambler drops, so does a new album from virtual newcomer to the music scene, Trey Hedrick. But don’t let the debut album and baby-faced Hedrick fool you: This guy can write songs and play like you wouldn’t believe.  In fact, Hedrick is a rare guest on Roots Music Rambler: Generally unproven with just a few social media followers more than the average bar band. B...

If most of us grew up the way Dakota Ray Parker did, we’d have given up a long time ago. But the resilient, friendly Parker navigated his way through a rough and tumble childhood to funnel those traumatic experiences into outstanding songs and singing in his music. Parker joined us on Roots Music Rambler this week to talk about his turbulent upbringing, finding music was a natural escape to distra...

Emily Scott Robinson may just be one of the most underrated singer-songwriters in the Americana space. When folks get hold of her fifth studio album Appalachia her status should rise considerably.  Robinson joined us on Roots Music Rambler for an episode that drops on the very day Appalachia hits stores and streaming services to talk about the album, the songs, her background and so much more.  Ro...

Elizabeth Sherman and Ryan Hardison started out as a couple. Then started tinkering with bluegrass music. Then the pandemic hit and they began recording multitracks of cover songs at home.  As you may have guessed by now, that led to another step, then another and the duo heads into 2026 as Brand New Box of Matches, a bluegrass group with no fewer than three studio albums and an ever-growing list...

Hunter Park quickly gained a reputation as one of the hottest up-and-coming singer-songwriters when her project She Returns from War made its first full album debut in 2015. Since, the road dogging and networking have done Hunter and the band well. A 2018 album, well-received by alt-country and alternative media, particularly in her native Charleston, S.C., was followed by the amazing Ruthless in...

When you say you’re in a bluegrass band from Brooklyn, N.Y., folks in Appalachia will look at you pretty funny. The reaction is almost like the Pace Picante sauce commercial in the 1990s. “New York City? Get a rope!” But when you dig a little deeper, as we did with Avery Ballotta from the group Damn Tall Buildings, you not only discover some fine pickers and songwriters, but there’s a thriving blu...

The Year 2025 has been a fairly impressive one in Americana and Roots Music and Roots Music Rambler fans have been there for it. On our year-ender episode, Frank and Falls not only recap their favorite new artists, albums and songs, but recall their favorite concerts and events of the year. And, as a bonus, Falls caught up with Ashton Bowling and Allen Hacker from The Creekers backstage at their r...

Americana music enthusiasts and concert-goers are constantly in search of the “next big thing.” We all want to be in on the ground floor of watching and artist’s rise to fame so we can say we were a fan from “the beginning.” Whether it’s seeing Tyler Childers with 20 other people at a dive bar in 2017 or standing next to Wyatt Flores at Laurel Cove watching Jesse Wells play, the undiscovered are a...

It's no secret that at Roots Music Rambler we love music  with that old school country sound. We’ve raved about previous guests like Kimmi Bitter, Logan Ledger and others. The latest episode reinforces our appreciation for the simpler tones of bygone eras as perhaps the queen of the sub-genre joined us. Melissa Carper’s blend of country and western, blues, gospel and even ragtime sounds has made a...

If you, “Woke up this mornin’, dazed and confused,” and sung the lyric in your head, you’ve been bitten by the audio bug that is The Creekers. That line, the opening one from a song called “Tennessee” was the second-most played audio clip on TikTok this summer. It helped propel the Leslie County, Ky.-based bluegrass group to viral success, headline spots at music festivals, and ultimately a record...

When you’re first experience with a band is seeing a publicity photo of them and each member is wearing an oversized, paper mache mask for a head, you either run for the hills or start exploring more. At Roots Music Rambler, we dive in head first. That’s the typical first impression one encounters when finding the Atlanta-based band Del Roscoe. Their new self-titled album came out this fall and th...