The String

Episode 368: He's one of Music City's most respected "multi-hyphenate" music-makers - an artist-singer-songwriter-picker-producer who's had his hand in scores of hit records while releasing much-admired albums of his own over a 20 year career in town. Craig regards him as a "Music Row whisperer," a guy with his finger on the pulse of the industry and a well-rooted point of view in the music he makes. He returns to the String with the new album Once Upon A Second Time Around and, though he didn't know it at the time, a new Grand Ole Opry member trophy.

Episode 367: One of the stars of Nashville's recent honky tonk boom first found her muse playing in late night jazz clubs of New York and Paris. That set Sweet Megg apart when she moved here just after the pandemic - a flair for early blues and hot club swing. In Music City, she's also developed as a songwriter releasing stylish Americana fare, but she continues to mine the catalog for golden nuggets she can make her own, as on her latest Massive Negroni.

Episode 366: In The Hour Of Chaos, Allison Russell's third solo album, brings the power of harmony and solidarity into a time of division and fear. In an interview days before its release, the songwriter says her "rainbow coalition" of collaborators has grown since her breakout album Outside Child of 2021, and many of them, including Brittany Spencer, Norah Jones, and Kashus Culpepper, sing duets with her. She also gets into her foundations in folk music during her pre-Nashville years.

Episode 365: His biography sounds like several different people: accomplished jazz guitar player, New York City glam rocker, progressive Americana songwriter in Nashville. That's why Aaron Lee Tasjan comes across as a true American original. Over 13 years in Music City, Tasjan's been prolific and acclaimed, releasing half a dozen albums touching many colors of pop music. His latest came after a time of discouragement and personal re-building, so it's called Get Over It, Underdog.

Episode 364: As Avery Hellman came of age in California, she took advantage of her good fortune of being from the family that established the game-changing Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco. It exposed her to standard-setting songwriting and artistry in folk and roots music, and with a bit of reluctance, she became an artist too under the name Ismay. Her two albums, Desert Pavement and the new Half Truth, are alive with a poet's ear for language and eye for landscape, plus a crafty marriage of melodies and chords. She's also the filmmaker behind the exploratory documentary Finding Lucinda, about Lucinda Williams.

Episode 363: Devon Gilfillian has been a key artist fulfilling the promise of a New Music City - a Nashville that's been welcome to the widest-ever range of genres, influences and innovations. He came to town with no contacts and a job with AmeriCorps in 2013. But before very long he'd landed a major label deal and national radio hits - all with an iconoclastic take on soul, funk and Americana. His newest album - his second for the prestigious Fantasy Records - is a beautiful grooving swirl called Time Will Tell.

Episode 362: Songwriter and artist Tenille Townes is a certified star in Canada where she's won heaps of awards and seen her moving songs top the country charts. In over a dozen years in Nashville, she's been an impressive songwriter with one foot in major label country and another in Americana. Now with a lovely self-produced acoustic album called The Acrobat, Townes points to an independent future with a unique vision and a renewed sense of self.

Episode 361: Folk rocker John R. Miller can be dry and understated, but get beneath the surface and you'll find an artist keen to write music that helps people be better people. Inspired by John Prine and others, the Nashville based West Virginian has earned widespread acclaim and released three albums for the prestigious Rounder Records, the latest being the sweeping and fiery The Great Unknowning. He spoke with Craig at his Madison home studio.

Episode 360: Andy Leftwich was a Tennessee string picking prodigy who crushed it at fiddle competitions and was working by his late teens. Then, before he turned twenty, he was offered a job (on stage no less) by legend Ricky Skaggs. For 15 years with Kentucky Thunder, he built a reputation as one of the most complete and technically gifted musicians in bluegrass, sharing in numerous IBMA and Grammy Awards. Now, after a few years of being independent, he's fired up his solo career with two enthralling instrumental albums.

Episode 359: We love it when great things happen to good people, especially when the story is a total surprise, and that's what's been going on with Alabama-raised singer and songwriter Kashus Culpepper. He'd never been on a stage or played the guitar before 2020, but a confluence of free time, an encouraging group of friends, and a timely instrument helped Kashus find his voice and his calling. He's been celebrated by the media and stars like Elton John, and his debut album Act 1 has surprised many with its depth and power.

Episode 358: Fifteen years into their close and literally harmonious relationship, Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale sound as satisfied and enriched as ever by the audience and aura they've established in Americana music. The Milk Carton Kids name was a self-effacing joke about how quickly they expected to be forgotten, but it's been quite the opposite. They've earned four Grammy nominations and an Americana Award as Duo/Group of the Year. Audiences still lean in to hear the nuances of their quiet and thoughtful sound. Their seventh album Lost Cause Lover Fool is the latest iteration of their less-is-more approach to folk artistry.

Episode 357: Liam Duncan grew up in the small city of Brandon, Manitoba and moved to the provincial capitol and musical hotbed of Winnipeg as soon as he could, thinking he might be a session musician and sideman. But post pandemic, he's been Boy Golden, a quirky, neo-romantic persona making some of Canada's most compelling folk rock. During a swing through Nashville, Boy Golden talked about shifting focus from Canada to the US, his tight band of old friends, and his new album Best Of Our Possible Lives.

Episode 356: Brit Taylor came to town from eastern Kentucky chasing the US Route 23 dream that brought us Loretta Lynn and Patty Loveless - and wound up working with Cowboy Jack Clement and Sturgill Simpson. Adam Chaffins grew up one or two counties over and ensconced himself, as a bass player and singer, in the East Nashville bluegrass scene. Eventually, a friend was smart enough to introduce them, and they became a super-talented Americana couple. But not a duo. Taylor has four albums out, including two produced by her husband. Chaffins dropped a debut LP in 2020 and a soulful EP last year, with Taylor's harmony vocals. Craig visited their homestead near Mt. Juliet to hear their story around their kitchen table.

Episode 355: Nearly 12 years ago, an informal arrangement between the caretakers of a down-on-its-luck American Legion Post and a handful of young honky tonk musicians led to the creation of Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights, one of the most vibrant residency music series of the past two decades. It's been a haven for people who love to dance, for East Nashville community, for visits from stars, and for talent development in roots/Americana music. Craig spends time with the event's founders and takes you to the scene, now moved to Eastside Bowl in Madison.

Episode 354: The Infamous Stringdusters emerged out of Nashville's world-class but somewhat undiscovered bluegrass scene of the 2000s. Six guys with different professional pathways into the music and wide ranging tastes in other genres got to know each other at gigs, picking parties, and the IBMA World of Bluegrass. And their first gesture as a band - the 2007 album Fork In The Road - was a triumph, winning three IBMA Awards. Since those days and after a couple of early personnel changes, today's quintet has become a huge force in jamgrass music with a fierce and in-demand live show. Yet they turn back to some of the simpler and more blues-based elements of their core heritage on their new 20th anniversary release, 20/20. Craig speaks with Chris Pandolfi (banjo), Jeremy Garrett (fiddle), and Andy Falco (guitar).

Episode 353: He was an East Tennessee country guitar prodigy who was invited on the Grand Ole Opry at age 11 by Marty Stuart, and Trey Hensley has made good on that promise by emerging as one of the finest singers and pickers in contemporary roots music. His national profile took shape after forming a super-flexible duo with dobro master Rob Ickes around 2016. Now, after four albums, collaborations with Taj Mahal and a Grammy nomination, Hensley has revved up his songwriting and made Can't Outrun The Blues, which is not his first solo album but the one he regards as his true artistic debut.

Episode 352: When Emily Scott Robinson released Appalachia, her fifth album in a 10-year career and her third for Nashville boutique Oh Boy Records, it spiked up into the Americana airplay top ten, something that had never happened to her before. But she had set the table through quality songwriting, ambitious touring, and a luminous voice that embraces the dark and the light with a rare alchemy. At WMOT's Eastside studio, Craig and Emily speak about her newest work with super-producer Josh Kaufman and the hard work that led to it.

Episode 351: Justin Townes Earle, blazingly gifted and deeply troubled, died of an accidental drug overdose in 2020 at the age of 38, after a life beset by addiction. Six years later, two coincident projects expand on what we knew about the songwriter with a mix of compassion and regret. Sammy Brue, Earle's much younger friend and protegé, has written a song cycle based on Justin's private notebooks, shared by his widow. Rolling Stone journalist Jonathan Bernstein recently published the first definitive biography of Steve Earle's son. Both join Craig in this hour of remembrance and appreciation.

Episode 350: Since breaking out with his 1989 major-label album How Did You Find Me Here, North Carolina's David Wilcox has been a consistently excellent practitioner of the new folk, fingerstyle guitar arts. The songwriter, known for his empathic writing and audience-embracing shows, is now 67 and still thinking deep thoughts about the world, compassion, art, and the arc of life. He stopped through Nashville last November to talk about maintaining a "visionary attitude" over time and his latest album The Way I Tell The Story.

Episode 349: For its 38th annual conference, Folk Alliance International returned to New Orleans, home of their largest-ever event (2020's draw of 3,600 people) and the epicenter of one of the nation's great regional roots music legacies. Besides a slate of Louisiana talent in blues, Cajun and zydeco, FAI was once again distinguished by diversity of style, genre, and nationality. Craig captured conversations with showcasing artists Joy Clark, Tyler Ramsey & Carl Broemel, Sparrow Smith, Maisy Owen, and Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light.

Episode 348: Kristina Train is a singer and songwriter who should be on more people's radar. Her remarkable resume was built in the jazz world (Blue Note Records and touring with Herbie Hancock), but the Savannah, GA native has always shown mastery for a seductive strain of country soul. That goes explicit on the powerful yet subtle 2025 album County Line. Craig speaks with Train about her critically acclaimed albums of the 2010s and her decade or so as a Nashvillian.

Episode 347: Rachael Price became an American fixture as the dynamic and flawless lead singer of roots/pop phenomenon Lake Street Dive. Long before she and the Dive were headlining Madison Square Garden, she was a Hendersonville, TN native pursuing a career in classic jazz, after her girlhood idol Ella Fitzgerald. This is the story of how a music school friend - guitarist, singer, and songwriter Vilray - helped her build a parallel life pursuing her first musical love. They have incredible chemistry on and off stage, as you'll hear in this fascinating interview.

Episode 346: To say that a lot has happened since Molly Tuttle last appeared on The String in 2019 would be an understatement. She's won two Grammy Awards and been nominated for two more. She won her first IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year Award, to go along with her two groundbreaking Guitar Player trophies. But most important, she's been through two entire stylistic swings in her musical vision and recording career. And she got engaged to Ketch Secor. So we cover a lot of ground in our latest conversation.

Episode 345: Last year, The String got a new opening theme tune. "Vera" comes from New York based mandolin virtuoso, composer and band leader Jacob Jolliff. The Oregon native came East when he got a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music and joined a cadre of future acoustic stars clustered in the Boston area. He's worked for some big-league bands including Joy Kills Sorrow and Yonder Mountain String Band, but in this decade he's pursued his own four-piece Jacob Jolliff Band. We talk about building the audience for instrumental, improvisational acoustic music and about select pieces from Jake's fascinating discography.

Episode 344: Ashley Monroe moved to Nashville just after 10th grade from East Tennessee with a single-minded drive to sing and write country music. Her career would be the envy of many - Grammy nominations, several major label albums, and Pistol Annies, an influential supergroup - and yet many in roots music haven't recognized her as among the greats of our time. Following recovery from blood cancer, Monroe dove into her most ambitious and daring project yet, Tennessee Lightning.

Episode 343: Her name is made of flowers. And she's been spreading bouquets of joy and open-hearted country and rockabilly for more than 50 years. She is Rosie Flores, sounding great and enjoying the stage as much as she ever has as she cruised past her 75th birthday during Americanafest 2025. A couple days after that, we sat down to talk about her (outstandingly) supportive parents, the Los Angeles alt-country scene of the 1980s and 90s, and her new album Impossible Frontiers.

Episode #342: Daniel Donato became one of Nashville's more revered electric guitar players during his three years playing four nights a week at Robert's Western World on Lower Broadway. When he lost that gig in 2015, he had to start from scratch as a working musician and songwriting artist. In his second appearance on The String, Donato talks about landing some touring band gigs that sustained him while he developed his Cosmic Country concept. The band and his repute grew, and ten years after leaving Broadway, he headlined the Ryman Auditorium. Also on the table here, his two recent albums, Reflector and Horizons.

Episode 341: Since co-founding the history-making, history-preserving North Mississippi Allstars almost 30 years ago, Luther Dickinson has taken his guitar, his deep blues repertoire, and his Memphis soul around the world and into all kinds of collaborations. In his latest return to The String, we talk about the nature of improvising and some of his recent experimental and instrumental projects, plus the 2025 Allstars album Still Rollin', marking the 25th anniversary of the band's debut album.

Episode 340: Robert Randolph had no plans or dreams to take his fiery talents on the pedal steel guitar beyond the New Jersey church where he grew up and the network of pentecostal Black churches around the country that made the "sacred steel" a core part of their services. But his passionate sound and his joyful improvisational spirit were a perfect match for the jam/rock scene of the early 2000s. He's been a steady contributor ever since, through wide collaborations and a string of albums with his "Family Band." Now he's leading the band under his own name and he has a fabulous new record on the revitalized Sun Records.

Episode 339: South Carolina guitar wizard and powerhouse singer Marcus King has come through the valley of shadows, breaking self-destructive habits and arriving at a place of contentment and love on his latest album Darling Blue. In a career-spanning conversation, King talks about his unique path to finding his voice on the guitar, his collaborations with a series of very different world-class producers, and his place in the shifting ecosystems of jam band and Americana music.

Episode 338: North Carolina songwriter Tift Merritt became an instant star of Americana music when she emerged in the early 2000s with Bramble Rose (2002) and Tambourine (2004), but only with time have we learned that her relationship with her prestige record label - Lost Highway Records - was tumultuous and dispiriting. After a period of relative quiet on the music front, she's re-issued Tambourine on vinyl for the first time and put out a collection of demo/kitchen tapes that contextualize that classic. From her home in Raleigh, Tift lets us in on her diversified creative life. And we round out the hour catching up with Texas songwriter Tony Kamel, who's released We're All Gonna Live, his second in a row made with master Bruce Robison.

Episode 337: Ken Pomeroy, who turned 23 days after this interview, is a fresh voice not just from the Oklahoma lineage of great roots songwriting and musicianship, but also from a new generation of Native American voices in popular music. She talks about her Cherokee heritage and the stewardship that comes with it, plus her emotional bond to music in this introspective hour. You'll also hear incisive and sometimes sad songs from her acclaimed national debut Cruel Joke, out this spring on Rounder Records.

Episode 336: In a time when bluegrass is surging with young talent and mainstream dreams, Danny Burns and Shelby Means offer two profiles in making the string band business work in 2025. Burns is an Irish immigrant who brought his trad training and hearty work ethic from his native County Donegal. Even before releasing North Country in 2018, he'd made a name and reputation among roots music elites, and he shows his flair for cover songs on the new Southern Sky. Shelby Means played bass for Della Mae during their breakout years and became stylishly famous working with Molly Tuttle's Golden Highway Band. When that came to an end this year, she had her debut solo album ready to go.

Episode 335: Leslie Jordan, the Nolensville, TN-based songwriter not the late comic actor and singer, makes a major statement in her pivot from a robust career in Christian folk/pop to storytelling Americana with The Agonist. It's a song cycle that fleshes out the story of her late grandfather, a conflicted and complex man who left his family in Indiana when Leslie's mother was four years old. Through a unique collaboration with a collection of his posthumous journals and writings, she builds a world and a character, holding him accountable while investing his story with dignity. It's beautifully produced with Kenneth Pattengale and is one of the most impressive albums of 2025.

Episode 232: Willi Carlisle is a folk singer in the populist tradition of Utah Phillips and Woody Guthrie, a boisterous, tender, funny performer who is impossible to forget. After years pursuing various outlets in old-time, poetry and theater, he emerged in 2022 as one of the finest songwriters in traditional folk music. The vehicle was his album Peculiar, Missouri, a varied collection of ruminations and character studies from Free Dirt Records. Willi is a remarkable raconteur and rhetorician, so hang on tight for one of the most dense and fascinating Strings ever.

To kick off the new year during my three week book leave, here's a special edition of The String in which I read my own in-depth analysis of how two great and sweeping genres - jazz and Americana - can have such different audiences and narratives in contemporary life despite their common origins in the blues. Reviewed are two releases - the 10th anniversary vinyl edition of Esperanza Spalding's Grammy Award-winning Radio Music Society and sax player JD Allen's new and provocatively titled Americana, Vol. 2. I've been thinking about this issue for years and at last the right circumstances came together to say something very important to me. If you relate, please write me at craig@wmot.org.

Episode 231: Sam Bush was the first guest on The String way back in September of 2016, because he's a hero of mine and an exemplar of the Americana ideal, traditional American music with a contemporary outlook. He returns to talk about one of his heroes, the late great John Hartford. They were friends, picking buddies and sometime tour mates. And while there are many sides to Hartford, Sam wanted to celebrate his remarkable songwriting, which he does on the new album Radio John.

Episode 230: With an instantly recognizable voice and uncommon skill for balancing melancholy with radiance, Courtney Marie Andrews has released a string of four acclaimed album since her 2016 breakout Honest Life. She's a Tucson, AZ native who hit the road on her own at the tender age of 16 and gave her life over to writing and sharing her soul with others. Her newest follows the arc of a new love affair, from ambivalent beginnings to a rapturous consummation in the final song. Its airy, sculpted sound matches the journey and assures the Nashville-based artist of another round of attention and respect. Also this hour, some archival tape with Nashville music journalist and songwriter/artist Peter Cooper, who died last week at age 52.

Episode 229: Todd Snider walked out alone on the stage of the Ryman Auditorium in late September looking radiant. He was bolstered and beloved by the loyalist lifer fans that hang on his every word, spoken or sung. He told the one about his first open mic and the one about East Nashville character Skip Litz who loved Train Songs. Todd's mother was on hand and it was her birthday, so we all sang for her. Two days later we sat down for a delightful, rambling conversation inspired by the release of the new album Live: Return Of The Storyteller.

Episode 228: One day during AmericanaFest 2022 I visited the headquarters of leading label New West Records to catch up with their two newest band signings - bands that fit on the label and in an episode with each other. 49 Winchester, school friends from tiny Castlewood, VA, had a breakout year while releasing Fortune Favors The Bold. Town Mountain began 15 years ago as a trad bluegrass band that writes its own fine songs. Recently they've added a drummer and let their sound find new levels of energy and groove. Together, the bands offer a look at how country rock is faring in Appalachia.

Episode 227: This week dwells on origins and growth with two artists who've had very different journeys but who had to get resourceful in their own way. Amy Ray put the Indigo Girls on the map with her partner Emily Saliers in part through a relentless focus on activism and support of causes they cherished. They were given the Americana Lifetime Award for Free Speech in September. Tami Neilson grew up in a family band playing gospel and country in and around Canada, but she had to start over from square one when she moved to New Zealand to get married 20 years ago. She found multiple ways to stand out and make her own scene, driven by her outstanding voice and her provocative feminist anthems.

Episode 226: The 5 Spot is a nightclub at the heart of East Nashville's music community, and for 12 years, Derek Hoke was at the heart of the 5 Spot. His showcase series Two Dollar Tuesdays offered newcomers a chance to play and music lovers 4-5 artists to sample in a cozy scene, many of whom would become the next wave of Americana stars. Hoke came from South Carolina with a ton of humility and eagerness to learn the ropes of Nashville, and he's created a fine body of work as a songwriter/artist, including his new album Electric Mountain. Nashville insiders will love this one.

Episode 225: When you serve a community on a good radio station, you get a feel for the soul of that place, and for me over these many years, that place is Nashville. So I thought it would be fun to join forces for a week with a friend of mine who has a similar gig in western North Carolina who has developed expertise and perspective on the amazing music scene around Asheville. He's Joe Kendrick, host of Southern Songs And Stories. We met up at the Earl Scruggs Music Festival over Labor Day weekend to talk about culture, history and the artists we're loving these days from our respective markets. We're calling it Southern Strings And Stories, and we hope you enjoy it.

Episode 224: It's a double Dan special as I visit with two movers and shakers who've contributed perhaps more behind the scenes than most musicians of their stature. Daniel Tashian is a Nashville lifer who's worn all the hats - songwriter, artist, band-leader and producer. He won a Grammy for Kacey Musgraves's Golden Hour and collaborated with Burt Bacharach. Now he's co-written the classic country rock album Night After Night with Paul Kennerly. Then it's Dan Knobler, recently in-demand Americana producer for luminaries like Erin Rae, Rodney Crowell and Allison Russell. His new project is whimsical and gorgeous - a multi-artist album of great cover songs chosen by his four-year-old son. It inspired a great conversation about how we maintain our youthful love for music.

Episode 223: Americanafest 2022 is in the books, and as usual, I took advantage of all the visiting talent to collect a bunch of interviews with artists from stars to newcomers. Here, I speak with three fascinating emerging artists who will be shaping the scene for years to come. Tray Wellington is a new voice on the banjo from rural Appalachia, but his take on Scruggs style is modern and devoted to jazz as much as bluegrass. Nora Brown is a new phenom in old-time music based out of Brooklyn. Her new Long Time To Be Gone album is gorgeous and deep. And Austin, TX-based Taylor Rae has found extraordinary radio support for her indie debut album Mad Twenties.

Episode 222: Kentucky natives Linda Jean Stokley and Montana Hobbs have been musical partners for about a decade. They met as college students at Morehead State University, where they both more or less wandered into the school's distinguished traditional music program. They formed the duo The Local Honeys and have gradually built a following and a sound that rides the line between old-time traditional folk and the new electric Americana sound on their superb 2022 self-titled album on La Honda Records. I loved the record so much I took a field trip to the farm country around Lexington to visit with the artists on their home turf.

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 inspiration from it for her own personal style. We talk about her experience at Princeton, her solo travels roughing it across the US, her guitar tutelage at McCabe's in Santa Monica and her success in Nashville, including her acclaimed album Make Myself Me Again.

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 Alive, with its surreal, suggestive language and fevered country noir soundscape. I sit with the 29-year-old James in the same room where he cut these two special and unique recordings and talk about Alabama, stage fright and Howlin' Wolf.

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 new self in Nashville. Lera Lynn, a veteran of the show, returns with Something More Than Love, largely about the tradeoffs and blessings of being a new mother. They make a fine pairing of candid conversations.

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, leading a church for decades, while touring and recording as the Richie Furay Band. Now he's released a Nashville-made covers album called In The Country with tracks from the hit parade of Keith Urban, Garth Brooks and others. Also in the hour the Milwaukee to Nashville journey of Sista Strings, the musical vehicle for Chauntee (violin) and Monique (cello) Ross. They've been visible on stage in the past year with folk stars Allison Russell and Brandi Carlile. And they have big plans for their own sound.

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 song poetry with similar attention to detail and economy of language, and she weaves it all into a way of being that's made Mary an in-demand teacher and speaker. This was our most wide-ranging and profound conversation yet, and that's saying something.

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 Records, which documented the rising East Nashville music scene. Brace has continued to tour with small acoustic groups, but Last Train Home keeps releasing albums, most recently 2022's Everything Will Be.

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 resume is extensive and diverse, including work with Etta James, Chris Knight, Lee Ann Womack, Amy Grant, Jon Randall, Bob Seeger, and his wife of many years, Ashley Cleveland. Now he's released the first solo album in his career. Also in the hour, the Bros. Landreth from Canada about their new record and the song they wrote that Bonnie Raitt just released, with Kenny Greenberg playing guitar.

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 spoke with founder Jeff Hanna, distinguished alumnus John McEuen and new generation member Ross Holmes about the band's history, the Circle album and the new release Dirt Does Dylan.

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 write songs, get more focused on his excellent podcast and pursue what he feels like. He's not ruling out shows in the future, but he sounds pretty determined in the interview ahead not to return to a tour bus. Also, a visit with Kentucky indie roots rocker S.G. Goodman.

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 moving from his hometown Meridian, MS to New York in the 1970s, on up to his latest record, Moving Through America. Also in the hour, songwriter Michaela Anne on her lovely, reflective album Oh To Be That Free.

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 long-running duo with Mike Marshall and now lead a youthful quartet called Mr. Sun, which has a new album. Anger's influence is huge as a composer, player and teacher, and it was a treat to speak with him at his home in Nashville, where he's moved for the first time in his life. It puts him near many of his former students and proteges, including fiddle star Brittany Haas. I catch up with her for this look at Darol's career.

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 star, and as evidence of that, he's playing a two-night stand at the Ryman Auditorium to celebrate his 40th birthday. We talk about his years of struggle to gain momentum, the role of his wife Ellie in his life and band and about the music that came out of the pandemic, including a duo album with Ellie called Coming Home. Also, a catch up with old-time folk songwriter, banjo player and historian Jake Blount.

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. Also here, the newest member, fiddler and powerful singer Laura Orshaw. Their celebrated new album Never Slow Down was released by America's oldest roots label, Smithsonian Folkways.

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 Black Mountain, NC to talk about her guitar-building days, the evolution of her band and the new double album The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea. Also, part two of my visit with Asheville folk singer Valorie Miller.

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, part one of a chat with folk artists Valorie Miller.

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 Third Man Records, which released his debut Mr. Jukebox in 2018. Now he's followed with the grand sounding Neon Blue, inspired by the vibes of 1990s country. This is a classic modern-day Nashville story.

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 with some of the greats, including Mary Gauthier and Tom Paxton. And they made their most ambitious and exceptional album yet with 2021's Vessel. I talk with multi-instrumentalists Sav Buist and Katie Larson about the journey from school orchestra as teens to this run of acclaimed, edgy folk music.

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 25 years has included his sons Ron and Rob. I sat with Del backstage at the Grand Ole Opry to talk about being in Bill Monroe's band in the 60s and his new recording Almost Proud. The other project covered here is a collection of lost instrumentals written by Bill Monroe himself but revived and recorded for the first time by mandolinist Mike Compton. The former founder of the Nashville Bluegrass Band tells us how he produced the unique project Rare & Fine: Uncommon Tunes of Bill Monroe.

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 record producer. Rachael is a singer's singer, raised on folk and roots music in small town Michigan. She's released several fine albums on her own and collaborated with numerous other artists, notably her recent trio called the Sweet Water Warblers. This is a delightful and casual conversation.

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 Jeff Austin and how two new members in recent years contributed to the varied material on the new album Get Yourself Outside. Also in the hour, a chat with Craig Ferguson, longtime director of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, where Yonder have been kingpins for 20 years and where the jamgrass sound has been celebrated.

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 performing solo, which he does so well.

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 in her closets during the pandemic. It becomes a great vehicle to talk about her rich and varied vocal pursuits. Also, a Mardis Gras season visit with Louis Michot, founder and fiddler in the Lost Bayou Ramblers, a powerfully inventive progressive Cajun band near Lafayette, LA.

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 of the hill country blues tradition they inherited. Now they're out with Set Sail, a pandemic-created album with more orchestration and complexity than anything they've done, plus the contributions of singer Lamar Williams Jr. Also, an excerpt from my recent visit with bluegrass songwriting stars turned recording duo Tammy Rogers and Thomm Jutz.

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 2021 album 662. Carolyn Wonderland is more of a veteran (already in the Austin Music Awards Hall of Fame) but a new artist on Alligator at 48 years old. She's a gentle presence off stage and a blistering singer and electric guitarist on stage, and she's recently spent a few years touring the world in the band of English icon John Mayall. We talk about all that and her current disc Tempting Fate, produced with Dave Alvin.

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 form their Bay Area base. The latest, Glowing Lantern, helps illuminate a fascinating conversation about one of the nation's excellent cult bands.

Episode 196: The String's spotlight on the contemporary jamgrass scene continues with a career-spanning conversation with Paul Hoffman (mandolin) and Mike Devol (bass) of Greensky Bluegrass. The band formed at local bars and breweries in Kalamazoo, MI just over 20 years ago, and they've found a groove and a rapport with their instruments and audience that most bands dream of. After winning the Telluride Bluegrass Festival band contest in 2006, they've had national reach and a huge fan base. Their brand new album is Stress Dreams.

Episode 195: Aoife O'Donovan has one of the most beautiful and nuanced voices in popular music and she's deployed it in a lot of collaborative directions. She was the voice of Crooked Still for ten years. She's joined projects by Dave Douglas, the elite Goat Rodeo Sessions ensemble, the award-winning trio I'm With Her and more. Now she's back with her first solo album in six years, Age of Apathy. Also in the hour, a radio report from Citizen Vinyl, a synergistic, community-focused business in Asheville, NC that mingles record pressing, a vinyl and art store, food and drink and a recording studio - all inside the historic home of the city's newspaper.

Episode 194: Formed in the mid 2000s in Nashville, the Infamous Stringdusters executed one of roots music's most successful pivots. Their foundation was and remains traditional bluegrass music, and they have the chops to execute the real deal at any moment. But when that audience and scene proved confining, they looked west to Colorado and the broader, wider values of the jamgrass world. After touring with the leaders in that arena, they became headliners themselves, while turning out Grammy winning recordings as well. I spoke with banjo player Chris Pandolfi, dobro player Andy Hall and guitarist Andy Falco about the odyssey of the Dusters on the eve of the band's tenth album Toward The Fray, due Feb. 18.

Episode 193: From where we sit at WMOT, Allison Russell was the artist of 2021. Her album Outside Child, our most played disc, emerged in the summer to massive acclaim and it has now been nominated for three Grammy Awards. And she was tapped to curate the Sunday closing set at Newport Folk Festival, which she used to shine a light on a dozen extraordinary African American women who've found their footing in roots music and lit up the genre with deeply individual work. That said, she's been in folk music for 20 years. So to close out 2021, Allison joined me to talk about it all. Also, Cajun music star and caretaker Joel Savoy speaks about his father Marc Savoy's new book tracing his career and contributions to the Acadian accordion.

Episode 192: Nashville-raised songwriter Aubrey Sellers returns to The String as half of the new duo Jackson & Sellers. She and Jade Jackson became Instagram friends after the 2019 AmericanaFest where they realized they liked each other's music. Then a co-writing date sparked a close friendship and a hot duo that's attracted a ton of attention and praise. Their self-titled album has country in its bones, but it rocks hard and takes advantage of the dazzling guitars of Ethan Ballinger.

Episode 191: The Charleston, SC collective SUSTO has been a vehicle for the fertile mind of songwriter Justin Osborne since 2014. The music and his lyrics have both a grandeur and an intimacy, tackling nothing less than existence. On his newest Time In The Sun, Osborne wrote epic tracks that among other things tackled the near simultaneous passing of his father and the birth of his first child. We also talk about the influence of a pivotal trip to Cuba and discovering psychedelics while a student at the Citadel military academy. Also, a tour through the fine 2021 album Ten Thousand Roses with its creator, Galax, VA songwriter Dori Freeman.

Episode 190: Veteran songwriter Bruce Robison set the pace for the alt-country/Americana format in the 1990s and wrote hit songs for George Strait, the Dixie Chicks and others. Five years ago, he widened his scope and formed The Next Waltz, a studio sessions oriented video channel and nascent record label. Now TNW has released its first full album by a solo songwriter, and that's Tony Kamel, ten-year founding member of string band Wood & Wire. In a split hour, I speak with Tony about his life around the Gulf Coast and his work with Bruce on the album Back Down Home. Then it's a catch up with Robison about his vision for The Next Waltz.

Episode 189: Phoebe Hunt established herself on a national stage playing for years with her former band the Bellville Outfit out of Austin. Since pursuing a solo career in New York and now Nashville, she's come into her own as an artist with a highly developed global and spiritual perspective, expressed on the recent albums Shanti's Shadow and Neither One Of Us Is Wrong. She's also advocated for music as therapy and self-actualization through TED talks and a non-profit. This is an enriching talk about music's role and about some great new sounds. Also, I interview Dr. Ted Olson of ETSU about his liner notes for a new career-spanning Doc Watson anthology.

Episode 188: Doyle Lawson has been mingling the holy and the down home in his blistering traditional bluegrass over a career on the road stretching back just shy of 60 years. Now at 77 he's stepping away from touring and the album cycle, leaving us with the swan song album Roundtable. In a career-spanning conversation we talk about getting hired by Jimmy Martin at age 18, about the supergroup Bluegrass Album Band, about forming and leading his band Quicksilver, and about his observations, as a conservative Christian, of efforts to diversify bluegrass music.

Episode 187: John Sebastian is most famous as the founder of and songwriter for the Lovin' Spoonful, which produced a fresh crop of folk rock hits in the late 60s. But there's much more to his story. In a full hour conversation, Sebastian talks about learning music in Washington Square in the 50s, about the great song "Nashville Cats," about Woodstock and his time with NRBQ. His most recent project was to team up with guitarist Arlen Roth to reinterpret great songs from the Spoonful catalog. John is a great storyteller and I loved this encounter a lot.

Episode 186: Formed as a showcase for women in string band music in 2009, Della Mae has seen lineup changes but no drift in its mission to create a new bluegrass and neo-folk sound full of ideas and heart. This episode, founding member Kimber Ludiker and decade-long vocalist Celia Woodsmith tell the story of how the band worked together at a distance during 2020 and then came together in a cathartic run of sessions that became the new Family Reunion. Also, Boston's imaginative, daring Twisted Pine speaks to me at the World of Bluegrass.

Episode 185: Tim Easton is one of the most interesting guys in the Americana troubadour game. He grew up split between Akron, OH and Tokyo, Japan. He busked all over Europe for years as he formed his identity as a performer and songwriter. His albums on New West in the early 2000s are classics of folk rock, and he's also powerful as a solo artist, as you can hear on the one-take direct-to-analog tracks of Paco And The Melodic Polaroids. His newest, You Don't Really Know Me, takes us inside his story and his heart more directly than most of his prior work. This is a fun, wide-ranging talk from his new home in Madison, TN with plenty of music from the new album.

Episode 184: AmericanaFest returned to the clubs and yards of Nashville with a slimmer but spirited 2021 edition. Those able to come found community, diversity and great performances. I caught up with five showcasing artists to check in on their new projects and their take on today's roots scene. Included: blues veteran Sue Foley, LA protest folk artist Chris Pierce, Colorado songwriter Emily Scott Robinson, new Austinite roots rocker Suzanne Santo and folk duo Golden Shoals.

Episode 183: He's the most gifted and innovative banjo player of all time and one of the architects of an American string band jazz tradition that's influenced generations of bluegrass musicians. And now after two decades of varied explorations in classical, world and fusion music, Bela Fleck has circled back to the music that captivated him as a teenager. My Bluegrass Heart is an epic 19-track double album featuring the finest acoustic pickers of our time and the completion of a trilogy of albums that began in 1987. Also in the hour, a report from the 20th anniversary Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion.

Episode 182: To spotlight the 2021 AmericanaFest, returning after a year off, I reached out to two of the most interesting artists showcasing during the week. Sierra Ferrell is a rambling free spirit from West Virginia who found her way to Nashville and its new era honky tonk scene way off of Broadway. Rounder Records heard her arresting old-world voice and feel for songs and signed her to a deal, and her debut is remarkable. Live, she's a brilliantly energetic and unusual singer songwriter. From the other end of the country music spectrum comes newcomer Brittney Spencer, who deftly rides the line between the commercial mainstream and roots. From the Opry stage to the ACM Honors live broadcast, she's knocking Nashville out.

Episode 181: It's a jangle pop special with two bands of brothers who are back on record after two-decade breaks. The Delevantes, Bob and Mike, are pioneers of Americana, chart toppers when the format was born thanks to their Everly Brothers harmony and country twang. Their enchanting new album will be called A Thousand Turns. Also in the hour, also with a brother named Mike, Raleigh, NC band The Connells on their work with REM producer Mitch Easter then and now. They take me back to turning 19 in Chapel Hill when my world was defined by southern college radio rock and roll.

Episode 180: When Maggie Rose held her album release party in late August for her third album Have A Seat, she filled one of the city's largest music halls with wildly enthusiastic fans, testimony to her 13 years of work and resilience and acclaim. She's a bold and emotive singer who has forged a unique fusion of roots, soul and pop, and her recording sessions at FAME Studio in Muscle Shoals picked up just the right amount of vintage vibe. We get to know an artist who will surely be on ever bigger stages as the coming years unfold. Also, a legendary voice from country music, as I catch up with Opry star Connie Smith on the release of her new project, The Cry of the Heart.

Episode 179: He goes by "Ferg" and he's one of the most interesting and influential creative forces in Nashville, whether you've heard of him or not. David Ferguson grew up in town, connected as a teenager with the great producer Cowboy Jack Clement and learned the mystic arts of recording and producing records. He engineered Johnny Cash's iconic comeback albums with Rick Rubin. He's worked the board or produced for John Prine, Sturgill Simpson, Margo Price and recently become a creative partner at Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Records. Now he's made an album of his own, featuring easy country arrangements of classic and favorite songs. He's the most interesting man in Music City.

Episode 178: East Nashville's J.P. Harris has been a train-hopper, a logger, a shepherd, a honky tonker and a historic home carpenter. Indeed he was getting up from this early morning interview to work on an old home. It's a mix that makes him the most interesting man in roots music. And now, he's turned his attention back to the music that first drew him into country, old-time fiddle and banjo ballads. His new album Don't You Marry No Railroad Man brings a fresh reading to some ancient songs and a vivid partnership with album producer and fiddler Chance McCoy. This was a remarkable conversation.

Episode 177: This year marks the 30th anniversary of Jim Lauderdale's solo debut album Planet Of Love, but he was a veteran even then of the burgeoning alternative country music scenes in New York and Los Angeles. In his Nashville decades, he's been cherished as a leader and spokesperson for Americana music, a very successful hit songwriter, a collaborator with giants and an artist who just kicks out incredible album after album. In this laid back conversation, Jim talks about how his first album came to be, how he pursued a long-running writing relationship with the legendary Robert Hunter and his new album Hope.

Episode 176: Parker Millsap burst on to the folk and roots scene in 2014 out of Oklahoma with a voice beyond his years and a bold way with drawing characters from the American heartland. Raised in the Pentecostal church, he's a rare Americana singer comfortable with celebrating and critiquing the faith community that shaped his picture of humanity. On his newest Be Here Instead, Parker turns his lens more inward and in a season of socially conscious music, delivers a musically ambitious set of songs about more conventional terrain - life and love. Also, a visit with Leah Ross, director of the Birthplace of Country Music Museum and the Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion, one of the major festivals taking place in crowded, historic return to live music in America this fall.

Episode 175: Tim O'Brien is one of several roots music icons who've circled back for a second visit to The String in recent weeks, and that's a great thing. His band Hot Rize dominated bluegrass in the 1980s and since the 90s he's been a dynamo of songwriting, ensemble playing, recording and collaborating. The latest project He Walked On finds Tim reflecting on the accelerated, unnerving world unfolding out his window during the pandemic with his signature mix of old-time tradition and contemporary songwriter sensibility. Also, an introduction to Nashville bass player Geoff Saunders, an academy trained jazz artist and composer out with his debut as a band leader.

Episode 174: Amythyst Kiah grew up in East TN and discovered traditional folk music at college there. Drawn to its heritage and its sound, she launched her career as a solo singer of original and traditional songs on guitar and banjo. Her low-timbred voice reminded me in her growth years of Odetta. Frustrated with her trajectory, she nearly quit but was revived by the support of folk star Rhiannon Giddens and included in the acclaimed project Our Native Daughters. Now, on her label debut Wary & Strange, Amythyst forges a personal sound that is earthy and epic at the same time. And through songs like "Black Myself," she's changed the conversation about African American voices in contemporary folk and country. Also, a visit with Jody White about his role in the posthumous album Smoke From The Chimney by his late father Tony Joe White.

Episode 173: It takes a bold woman to cover "Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line," but Shannon McNally has been fearlessly facing down naysayers in the music business for 20 years. Nashville based after turns in LA, New Orleans and Mississippi, she's one of the most underrated roots singer songwriters in roots music, with a deep catalog and numerous distinguished collaborations to her name. Her lifelong love of Waylon Jennings inspired her at last to round up a band and cut songs by him or inspired by him, and the collection is getting raves. Also I speak with Oliver Wood, the guitar playing, songwriting half of the Wood Brothers, about his first-ever solo release.

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 Baiman came to Nashville from Chicago for college and made a name as a fiddler in the duo 10 String Symphony. Her solo albums are crystalizing a new indie roots sound with great songwriting. We talk at her home, a charming cabin thrust over the Cumberland River in Madison TN. Her new album is 'Cycles.'

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 Salgado, Marcia Ball, The Holmes Brothers and newest star Shemekia Copeland. The hour features Iglauer in conversation, guest appearances by Copeland and artist Selwyn Birchwood, and selections from the new anthology '50 Years Of Genuine House Rockin' Music.'

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 and John crafted a gorgeous set of songs under the title Leftover Feelings. When the chance came up to sit down around a table with these amazing artists (and former String guests by the way), it was a no-brainer.

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 and he gave up the guitar to save his fiddling. After more than 40 years winning Grammy Awards and making waves in country, bluegrass, jazz and classical music, O'Connor picked up the guitar again and made a series of recordings that became the new Markology II. We talk about the long journey back. Also, mandolinist Joe K. Walsh, one of the many alums of O'Connor's famed, scene-making fiddle camps, talks about the new acoustic scene today and his new quartet album.