The String

Episode 266: Lindsay Lou grew up surrounded by community folk music in Michigan, and when she connected with a scene and a band in East Lansing where she completed college, she set her plans for a career in medicine aside to hit the road and connect with her original dreams. But it's pretty clear from her ravishing voice that she was born to sing, and she made quite an impression, especially in western newgrass circles, as the lead singer and songwriter of Lindsay Lou and the Flatbellys. Living in Nashville since 2015 though, change was inevitable, and she processes some big life shifts and stylistic evolution on her new album Queen of Time. It's the most ambitious and enthralling release of her career, and there's a lot to talk about.

Episode 265: Two great male voices in new Americana. Cruz Contreras has been a key player in the East Tennessee music scene for twenty years, steering accomplished roots projects Robinella and the CCstringband and the Black Lillies. In 2019 he wrote and recorded his first solo album only to see the pandemic upend his plans for its big rollout. He made good use of the lost years, getting married, having a son and moving to a new place. But at last he thought it was time to release Cosmico. And I catch up with Logan Ledger who's back with his second album Golden State, a lush western-tinged album of melancholy but gorgeous songs. Both interviews took place on the same day during AmericanaFest 2023.

Episode 264: One might imagine that after 17 years singing country music and releasing ten albums, an artist would have shared all of her secrets with her audience, but Eilen Jewell says only in the aftermath of 2020 and a bunch of disruptive change and loss well beyond the reach of the pandemic, that she was ready to get real in ways she never had before. The result is Get Behind The Wheel, a cracking country blues album that extends the winning streak of this veteran artist, who made her way from her home town of Boise, ID to the top of the Boston scene and back home again. Also in the hour, the crafty roots pop of professional songwriter Jenny Owen Youngs.

Episode 263: Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound in Nashville has been one of the key discovery points for roots music in the past decade. And thanks to them, Robert Finley has become a rare and special thing - a top tier American soul and blues artist who found a worldwide audience in his 60s. He hails from north Louisiana, and his life in music has been tenacious and adaptable and fascinating. Only after he lost most of his sight, forcing him to retire from home construction, did he push music to the fore and connect with a roots music network. Evidence of how great that is can be heard on his third Easy Eye album Black Bayou. This is a magical and unpredictable conversation.

Episode 262: There's no better forum to survey what's happening at the cutting edge of roots music than AmericanaFest, and 2023's huge edition was no exception. In what's become an annual tradition, I survey three acts who are making waves in three different genre spaces in the Americana universe. Summer Dean quit her teaching job around her 40th birthday to hit the road as a honky tonk singer and songwriter and earned the support of Bruce Robison's Next Waltz Records. Caleb Elliott became ensconced with Muscle Shoals label Single Lock Records as a session cello player before breaking cover as a songwriter. They liked his stuff so much they've released two albums with him. And Allison DeGroot and Tatiana Hargreaves define the cutting edge in today's old-time scene.

Episode 261: She's the hit Nashville songwriter who never moved to Nashville, staying instead in her hometown near Boston. She's the power mom who wrote timeless country award winners like "Girl Crush" and "Humble and Kind" while raising five kids. Now she reflects on her own story more than ever before on her new album 1988. It's the fourth in a row she's made with producer Dave Cobb and a testament to the fact that while McKenna's won three Grammy Awards, she's the same humble and kind woman who got cajoled into playing at her first open mic back in the early 1990s.

Episode 260: Darrell Scott emerged in the late 1990s as one of Nashville's most complete folk/roots artists. He had the butter of James Taylor and the grease of Lowell George in his voice. He could pick numerous instruments like a practiced master. And his songs were stunning from the get go, including his widely-recorded "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" and his crowd favorite "Great Day To Be Alive" on his debut project. Now, Scott lives mostly on a farm two hours from Nashville tending the land and playing 60-80 dates a year. Recently he issued Old Cane Back Rocker, his first studio album since 2016 and his most bluegrass leaning project ever. I road tripped to Darrell's farm to record this week's atmospheric conversation.

Episode 259: When East Nashville emerged as a nationally important music scene in the early 2000s, Amelia White was one of the reasons. Like so many others, she'd migrated from elsewhere (Boston and Seattle) to find a nurturing community full of collaborators and enablers, including her longtime recording partner and guitar player Dave Coleman. She was included on a seminal anthology of East Nashville songs. And she set up a rhythm of writing, recording and touring domestically and increasingly overseas. Now she's heading back to showcase at AmericanaFest 2023 and getting set to release an album this winter produced by Americana great Kim Richey. Amelia dropped by the studio for a friendly conversation that surveys her journey, through music from across her career.

Episode 258: For a band that released its independent debut album in 2017, the Teskey Brothers have come a long way. From our perspective here in Nashville, that would be 9,700 miles, the distance to their home town of Warrandyte, New South Wales, Australia. Raised on classic soul and R&B music, Sam and Josh Teskey started making music together as kids and became staples of the Melbourne music scene. They didn't have huge aspirations, but when their first record knocked out people close to home, they took their classic Stax/Muscle Shoals sound to the world and the world replied. This year they've toured Europe for five months and played major sold out venues, including the Ryman Auditorium behind their current album the Winding Way. Guitarist, songwriter, singer and recording engineer Sam Teskey tells me about their journey.

Episode 257: When you live in Nashville and chase the essence of country music, you find it's very much alive at residency shows like New Monday at the Station Inn. That's where master musicians Val Storey, Larry Cordle and Carl Jackson play a range of original and classic songs that connect country to bluegrass. It's magic, especially because of Val Storey's remarkable voice. She's the best country singer most people have never heard of. And after decades of singing for and with others, she has an album of her own, produced by star bluegrass songwriter Larry Cordle. Val and Larry sit down together to reflect on a long friendship and why some voices need an extra push.

Episode 256: Vince Gill and Paul Franklin, titans of Nashville music, first recorded together in 1989 and have been friends even longer than that. Gill is of course a Country Music Hall of Famer, while Franklin is in a different Hall of Fame - for the pedal steel guitar. Over the years in the studio and on stage, they've made the most of the euphoric blend of the voice, guitar, and steel, which is where Gill says he locates the very heart of country music. Ten years ago they made Bakersfield, honoring the songs of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Now they've teamed up for Sweet Memories: The Music of Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys, a set that covers the great singer's phases from old-school honky tonk to luxurious countrypolitan. I visited Vince's home studio for a wide-ranging conversation.

Episode 255: Ed Snodderly is more than just an exceptional singer-songwriter. He's a culture maker and culture keeper for the rich roots music region of East Tennessee. Raised near Knoxville, he launched into music in the mid 70s as an artist and as co-founder of the iconic Down Home listening room in Johnson City, TN. His band the Brother Boys made an impact and his songs have been covered and even enshrined at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Now he's released arguably his best album, a tapestry of impressions of modern Appalachia with scintillating music called Chimney Smoke. Also in the hour, getting to know Miles Miller, the longtime drummer for Sturgill Simpson who's broken cover as a songwriter himself with the album Solid Gold.

Episode 254: Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist have built a remarkable creative partnership over the past 17 years, ever since their fates collided at an Austin bar called Momo's. Songwriter residencies blurred into a proto band, and before long they were killing it in Texas and beyond as The Band of Heathens. It's been a consistent, resilient group, releasing impressive albums and playing soul satisfying country flavored rock and roll with excellent songwriting and singing. The most recent album Simple Things proved their staying power nationwide with a run of six weeks at No. 1 on the Americana airplay chart. Ed and Gordy join Craig from their homes in Austin and Asheville for a talk about origins, evolution and longevity.

Episode 253: Brennen Leigh moved decisively beyond the pandemic and the end of a long partnership to release three remarkable albums in less than three years. They tell a story of a traditional country artist with a strong point of view and a keen eye for character and humor. Prairie Love Letter was inspired by growing up in rural Minnesota where she developed a love for picking and singing. The western swing project Obsessed With The West taps a friendship she made with Asleep At The Wheel during her years in Austin. Her latest is old school Nashville country with Ain't Through Honky Tonkin' Yet. Craig and Brennen talk about it all.

Episode 252: The story of Peter One is as warming as his music. As a young man in his native Côte d'Ivoire, he latched on to folk and country music more than most of his peers, until he met collaborator Jess Sah Bi, with whom he formed a celebrated, socially conscious duo in West Africa. Both had to leave the country due to political turmoil, and Peter One started over in the US, first in Delaware then in Nashville where he moved for a career in nursing. A rediscovery and reissue of his best African record reignited a music career that had been interrupted for 30 years, and this summer he's everywhere from the Opry to Newport Folk Fest. I spend an hour with this kind and fascinating songwriter/guitarist.

Episode 250: Craig contemplates genre-bending while introducing two guests this week who straddle the seemingly disparate worlds of indie rock and folk music. Eric D. Johnson is the veteran mastermind of the long running collective Fruit Bats. Raised in Chicago and based in Los Angeles, he came up with his friends in The Shins and Modest Mouse. Over time, his Fruit Bats project refined an esthetic all its own. The latest is A River Running To Your Heart. Meanwhile, in Canada, young songwriter Cat Clyde built a strong following for her first recordings before the pandemic stole her momentum. It took hard work and resilience to make her 2023 release Down Rounder, a labyrinth of emotion, sound and catharsis. Cat joins the show from a temporary base in Ontario.

Episode 249: One key reason that Dwight Yoakam exploded into country music consciousness in 1986 was the electric guitar and electrifying record production of his friend and bandmate Pete Anderson. Anderson moved from his native Detroit to Los Angeles and found himself in a powerful partnership that changed the sound of country and sold around 25 million records. After more than 15 years, Anderson pursued his own interests, including a bluesier side of his guitar and record production in his own studio, including key Americana stars. Now he's written a book compiling all he's learned and realized about record production, and that became the basis of a fascinating conversation.

Episode 248: For all of the sardonic honky tonk music of his early albums and the more character-driven folk music on albums like Upland Stories and Gone Away Backward, Robbie Fulks can trace a strong bluegrass thread through his career. He grew up loving Doc Watson in North Carolina, picked up the banjo and flatpicked guitar as a kid, and joined the venerable bluegrass band Special Consensus as he established himself in the Chicago music scene. He'd touch on the genre here and there, but now he's finally written and recorded Bluegrass Vacation, a 12-song collection that touches on classic themes and high lonesome textures. Also, a catch up from NYC with songwriter Laura Cantrell.

Episode 247: Layng Martine Jr. earned a slot in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame with numerous hits for a range of artists that included Reba McEntire, The Pointer Sisters and Elvis himself. He thought he was retired, but when his son Tucker, one of the most respected producers and recording engineers in indie music, gave his father the studio time and resources to make his first real album as an artist as he approached 80 years old, a series of sessions in Portland, OR became Music Man. It's a joyful, sunny collection that sounds like nothing else in roots music, and Layng turns out to be a sunny and charming fellow himself. We talk about arriving in Nashville in the 70s, writing Elvis's last hit, and the renewing thrill of cutting songs he'd written between 1964 and the 2000s. Also in the hour, banjo star and record company owner Alison Brown.

Episode 246: Alison Brown found her life's work early when she started playing banjo as a pre-teen growing up in southern California. But it took some time and real life experience - a Harvard degree, another MBA and a couple of years in banking - before she finally gave herself permission to chase a music career. She toured with Alison Krauss in her early days and then formed her own bands, earning her rep as an innovative, jazz-oriented virtuoso player. She's released about a dozen albums of her own composing, including the latest On Banjo, featuring guests like Stuart Duncan, Steve Martin and Anat Cohen. We sat down in the studio of Compass Records, which she co-founded with her husband more than 25 years ago, for a wide-ranging talk about her instrument, her destiny, and her latest music. Also in the hour, a teaser of my interview with Nashville journalist Tim Ghianni.

Episode 245: Dom Flemons made history founding the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an old-time band that changed the face of roots music in the 21st century. Through found songs and tunes learned at the feet of old masters, they won a Grammy Award, played the Grand Ole Opry and opened up new lanes for Black musicians finding their voice in folk. Since parting ways in 2013, Flemons has been a lynchpin of the folk music scene, an "American songster" who plays a wide range of instruments and who puts on magnetic solo shows. His 2018 concept album Black Cowboys dug up more potent history and earned a Grammy nomination. For his first album since then, he goes inward and leans into his life of songwriting for the first time, resulting in the vivacious and eclectic Traveling Wildfire. Also in the hour, guitarist Matthew Stevens on his work producing I Am A Pilgrim: Doc Watson at 100.

Episode 244: William Prince grew up on country and gospel music in rural Manitoba on the Peguis First Nation reserve, getting a grounding from his minister/musician father. Now Prince is a musical minister of sorts, making a strong mark on north American folk music with his sincerity, gravitas and beautiful baritone voice. His formal debut won Canada's JUNO Award for best contemporary folk album, and his twin releases in 2020 were well attuned to the spiritual yearning of the pandemic lockdown. Now Stand In The Joy, produced by Dave Cobb, is a rich portrait of contentment and gratitude. I also speak with DC-based roots rocker Erik Vincent Huey about his late career solo debut, investigating his West Virginia roots.

Episode 243: Canada's coolest couple - more than 12 years into their joint venture called Whitehorse - is on a creative tear, releasing three albums in two years, all of which came with a portfolio of daring and whimsical graphic design, photography and video. The albums flow, from the zesty indie-rock leaning Modern Love in March 2021 to the psychedelic wonder whirl of Strike Me Down, which arrived six months later. Then in January of this year came I'm Not Crying You're Crying, the most overtly country album yet. From their studio in Winnipeg, we talk about a grand romantic folk-rock adventure.

Episode 242: Craig reports from Knoxville, TN and the tenth edition of the world-renowned Big Ears Festival. Conceived by Knoxville native Ashley Capps as a showcase for modern and avant-garde music, it's broadened to encompass just about every genre and concept from around the world. This year saw a record number of folk/roots/Americana artists, playing alongside some of the world's elite jazz, electronic and experimental creators. Craig offers a history of the festival, thoughts from Ashley Capps and conversations with Bela Fleck, Christian McBride, Sierra Ferrell, Rich Ruth and Jake Xerxes Fussell.

Episode 241: San Francisco-based Miko Marks hit brick walls when she made her first run at country music in the mid 2000s, when the industry was systemically impenetrable to independent artists and even more so artists of color. After taking more than a decade away from her passion, Marks was inspired to reconnect with her band and producers, and this time, she found a lane, made possible by excellent music. She's released three recordings in two years, each more interesting than the last, culminating in the country soul album Feel Like Going Home of late 2022. She's now been on the Grand Ole Opry and is touring the nation. Also in the hour, an archived moment with Shemekia Copeland, an artist working the same fusion of southern roots and contemporary message.

Episode 240: Emily Nenni didn't fall in love with country music and then move to Nashville. She did the reverse, using the city's honky tonks and local haunts like country music college. And instead of the lure of the CMA Awards, the Bay Area native dove fully into the traditional end of the pool. Her sparky voice and detail-rich songs grabbed the attention of New West Records, which released her breakout album On The Ranch late last year. Also in the hour, a talk with New York writer Stephanie Clifford whose new novel The Farewell Tour tells the life story of a fictional artist in a realistic world, carrying us through the 20th century, from the west coast to Nashville and the long hard road.

Episode 239: She sounds like she was born into a country music family, but Sunny Sweeney was actually a late and somewhat reluctant bloomer as an artist. Her friends had to beg her to record her first album when she was playing bars in Austin. But that album got picked up by a Nashville label and got her to the Grand Ole Opry. The major label system was a bad fit, but Sunny has pursued an exemplary indie career in the years since. Her mix of smarts, sass and lonesome blues infuses her latest album Married Alone.

Episode 238: Cellist and composer Larissa Maestro enjoys a rich and diverse career as a Nashville session and stage musician. When she came to town in 2007, she had a music degree and flexible expectations about what she'd find in a place she'd never been. Now she's a veteran of creative collaborations with Margo Price, John Legend, Brandi Carlile and Allison Russell, who's just had Maestro arrange the strings for her next album. In 2022, she was named Americana Instrumentalist of the Year. Maestro is also a formal composer with numerous Nashville performances, including a night of her own music in March 2023. We talk about finding the cello, working with friends in the Nashville community, and composing for the ballet and the stage.

Episode 237: Ron Sexsmith's brilliant solo debut album of 1995 - the one with the song "Secret Heart" - was on the verge of being overlooked and forgotten when Elvis Costello endorsed it as one of his favorite projects in a major magazine. It changed the conversation about the young balladeer and he was quickly recognized as one of Canada's finest songwriters. Now a dozen great artists have covered "Secret Heart" and Ron is 17 albums in to a rewarding and esteemed career. We talk about those tenuous early days, about his move from Toronto to the country and the resulting album The Vivian Line.

Episode 236: It would be difficult to name one musician with such long and distinguished resumes as both a recording artist and a record producer as Joe Henry. Since emerging around 1990 as a layered, visionary songwriter, he's released 17 albums to almost universal acclaim. And since his tutelage under T Bone Burnett, stemming from one of his early albums, he's been an in-demand producer with credits on Amy Helm, Bonnie Raitt, the Carolina Chocolate Drops and many more. I spoke with Joe by Zoom from his home in rural Maine and we talked about three albums that shaped him, 1990s Shuffletown, 2001's Scar and his latest, the moody All The Eye Can See.

Episode 235: After a remarkable life in show business and soul music, Charles "Wigg" Walker moved back to his native Nashville in the 90s, and he's been an important fixture in Music City ever since, a one-of-a-kind voice in soul and blues. It started on Jefferson Street in his teens. Then he moved to New York, opened shows for James Brown, played the Apollo Theater and held down Harlem residencies. He lived overseas in the post disco era. And he's recorded all the way through, including some great albums in the 2000s with The Dynamites. Now he holds court every weekend at Soul Brunch at ACME Feed & Seed on Broadway, and that's where we sat down to reflect on his 83 years.

Episode 234: Not very long ago, Sunny War was busking on Venice Beach in Los Angeles, nearly homeless and beset with substance abuse. But she was also making weirdly beautiful and honest music that evoked country blues, punk rock and old folk songs without being really any of the above. Now she's moved to Nashville, signed to New West Records, with one of the most talked-about albums in indie music. Raves have poured in for her new record Anarchist Gospel, which has an atmosphere all its own and bracing candor about heartbreak, struggle and resilience.

Episode 233: Madison Cunningham blasted on to the modern folk scene in 2019 with a debut album so thoughtful and original that it landed on the prestigious Verve Forecast label and was nominated for a Grammy Americana Album award. After the pandemic interrupted her career momentum, she picked right back up in 2022 with a fast-growing audience and a brilliant sophomore album called Revealer. Just home from her final overseas tour of last year, Madison joined me by Zoom for a conversation about her acclaimed guitar playing, writing an album in stasis and her less-than welcome categorization as a folk singer. Also in the hour, Jason Carter tells the story of how he planned at age 15 to play fiddle for Del McCoury - before he played the fiddle - but got the job a few years later anyway. The 30-year veteran has made a new solo album.

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 [email protected].

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.