The String

Episode 221: Cristina Vane discovered American roots music from a greater distance than most converts. She grew up in capitals of Europe, identifying as a "third culture kid" and struggling with her identity. The slide blues guitar and Appalachian banjo became important icons of her journey to America and her burgeoning career as a singer songwriter who doesn't imitate the blues but who takes insp...

Episode 220: Early James pushed himself to find a singing voice and songwriting style all his own, and it certainly got the attention of Nashville's Dan Auerbach. The Birmingham, AL artist was invited into Dan's Easy Eye Sound studio to write and produce his debut album Singing For My Supper in 2020. That release was acclaimed by stymied by the pandemic. Not so the new one, Strange Time To Be Aliv...

Episode 219: This time I catch up with two dynamic women from Nashville with albums that are journalistic in nature, chronicling change and life passages. Nicki Bluhm is a national jam roots star thanks to hear years leading The Gramblers and numerous collaborations with the likes of Phil Lesh and Little Feat. On her new Avondale Drive album she ruminates on the end of her marriage and building a...

Episode 218: Of all the 1960s California folk rockers, Richie Furay had a quieter but most interesting career. He co-founded two iconic bands in Buffalo Springfield and Poco. He wrote and sang a landmark country rocker in "Kind Woman," the track that brought steel guitar man and eventual frontman Rusty Young into the Poco fold. And then in midlife Furay moved to Colorado to become a pastor, leadin...

Episode 217: Nashville master songwriter Mary Gauthier returns to The String to talk about her new album Dark Enough To See The Stars and her remarkable 2021 memoir Saved By A Song. Mary's entree into songwriting was unusual to say the least, a lifeline for a woman in her 30s recovering from substance abuse and putting together a full self after a traumatic childhood. She handles the prose and her...

Episode 216: In a casual, expansive conversation, Craig visits with his old friend Eric Brace, founder of alt-country band Last Train Home. Brace was a music journalist for the Washington Post when he formed the DC based group in the mid 1990s. Then in the early 2000s, he and the rhythm section moved to Nashville, where LTH found a new life and Brace branched out as a label owner with Red Beet Rec...

Episode 215: Since moving to Nashville at age 21 in 1978, Kenny Greenberg has built a reputation as a guitarist who could bring rock and roll punch and jangle to commercial country records as well as a standout behind the glass. Besides his seminal work with Allison Moorer, Kenny has produced albums by the Mavericks, Josh Turner, Joan Baez, Toby Keith and just recently Hayes Carll. And his studio...

Episode 214: Will The Circle Be Unbroken , released 50 years ago, revolutionized how country and bluegrass music were perceived by mainstream and youth culture in America. The 3-LP set of 37 songs came about when west coast country-rockers The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band persuaded a cast of venerated elders of Nashville to collaborate with them over a week at Woodland Studio in East Nashville. Craig sp...

Episode 213: Rarely do artists retire in their prime, but that's what Texas songwriter Robert Earl Keen is doing. In January, he announced to the surprise of his many fans that he'd play 2022 into September and then wrap up his road career with a final show in Helotes TX, a favorite venue. He's 66 years old and very much in fighting shape. But he's got other things he wants to do. He's planning to...

Episode 212: Decades after it came out in 1979, you still regularly hear "Romeo's Tune" by Steve Forbert over PAs in the grocery store or on oldies radio if that's what you're into. But don't let that early hit define Forbert's long, distinguished career. He's an excellent and widely admired songwriter with more than 20 albums to his credit. He came by Craig's home studio to talk about his mindset...

Episode 211: Not many instrumentalists have invented and spread a new technique, but Darol Anger has, and now the percussive bow and string practice called "the chop" is almost mandatory for rising bluegrass and even some classical players. This happened over a 40+ year career that's seen Anger contribute to the historic David Grisman Quintet, co-found the Turtle Island String Quartet, pursue a lo...

Episode 210: Over the past ten years, Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors have become one of the most successful and beloved bands in Nashville, a kind of nice guy finishes first story in Music City. Thing is, the band is also huge in Knoxville, where he went to college and Memphis, where he grew up. And around the nation too. It's just hard to remember that local dude Drew is a roots and folk rock sta...

Episode 209: The Po' Ramblin' Boys, probably the hottest young band in bluegrass, started as a house band at a distillery in East Tennessee, where they were able to hone their sound over years of daily performing. Balancing that polish with the raw and earthy sound of traditional bluegrass music has become a signature of the band, says founder C.J. Lewandowski in this wide-ranging conversation. Al...

Episode 208: Western North Carolina has a long history in roots music, but Amanda Anne Platt and the Honeycutters have been one of the defining sounds of the scene for the last decade or more, a no-frills, highly musical country band fronted by an exceptional singer and songwriter. On my recent trip to Asheville, I caught a Honeycutters show and then sat down with Amanda at her century-old home in...

Episode 207: Monoflora, the fourth album from Asheville, NC quartet River Whyless speaks to the musical values that have made them  cult favorites since 2012 - complex harmonies, layered textures and worldly grooves. This conversation reveals an especially deep bond of friendship that's produced creative tensions and ultimately exceptionally enthralling music. Also in this NC field trip episode, p...

Episode 206: Growing up in Florida, Joshua Hedley got his heart set on playing the fiddle at age 3 and on moving to Nashville to play in honky tonks in his teens. For years he was a sideman whose obligations ended at the end of the night or the tour. Eventually, he was moved to write and sing his own music, and as soon as he did, some heavy supporters noticed, including Margo Price and the team at...

Episode 205: An influx of superb roots artists from Michigan to Nashville has been good for Music City, with Billy Strings, Lindsay Lou, even Jack White. Rather new to the city are The Accidentals, the highly-skilled and daring roots pop trio from Traverse City. Since emerging five years ago, they've toured like crazy and built a large and loyal fan base. They got on a pandemic co-writing tear wit...

Episode 204: In a great year for bluegrass, two projects stand out. One, from our featured guest, because he's the living patriarch of traditional bluegrass music. Del McCoury has earned every honor and award one can win in his field, and he's built historic bridges from American folk and roots to the realms of jam band rock and roll, thanks to his open heart and a blazing band that for more than...

Episode 203: In another conversation with a prominent musical couple, Craig visits the home of Rachael and Dominic John Davis, artists who work together and apart, always enhancing the Nashville ideal with their attention to detail and timeless musicianship. He's most famous for years playing bass in various projects with his boyhood friend Jack White, but he's also been an in-demand sideman and r...

Episode 202: The String's look at the improv-heavy jamgrass community continues with a band at the heart of it all, Yonder Mountain String Band. Bass player Ben Kauffman and guitarist Adam Aijala talk about how Colorado became their laboratory for a new, dance-friendly, freewheeling take on bluegrass music in the 1990s and beyond. We discuss how they negotiated the departure of founding member Jef...

Episode 201: Friendly and funny, enthusiastic and energetic, Steve Poltz has released his tenth album Stardust & Satellites as he embarks on another year of intense touring. In a conversation at his home in East Nashville, Poltz speaks with Craig about his surprise embrace of Nashville co-writing, his wild experience writing one of the 90s big hits and the pot brownies that showed him the way to p...

Episode 200: Joan Osborne became a star on the strength of a controversial song and a Grammy-nominated major label debut album in 1995, but when you scan her catalog, it becomes quickly clear that she has one of the most powerful and nuanced voices in popular music. Her range and intimacy is quite clear on her new release Radio Waves, which compiles radio station performances and demos she found i...

Episode 199: Guitarist and songwriter Luther Dickinson, founder of the North Mississippi All-Stars, returns to the String to talk about two albums, each with its own story to tell about blues and roots music. Up And Rolling from 2019 was a deluxe CD package with extensive memoir liner notes by Luther and photographs of he and his brother Cody in 1996 just before the band formed. It's a celebration...

Episode 198: It's a double shot of blues from Alligator Records this week. Christone "Kingfish" Ingram is the most exciting prodigy to hit the electric blues scene in decades. It helps his narrative that the 23-year-old hails from the cradle of the blues, Clarksdale, MS, where the Delta Blues Museum's education programs gave him his start. Now he's nominated for his second Grammy Award with his 20...

Episode 197: Bay Area rock and jam hero Tim Bluhm founded The Mother Hips with Greg Loiacono 30 years ago while still students at Chico State in California. Signed right away, they made a mark with their quirky power pop and new-world psychedelia. They've had quieter phases over the decades, but now's not one of them. The team is writing a lot and working on recordings for an indie Nashville label...