The String

Episode 166: Still waters run deep with Nashville's Mando Saenz. He's cool and contemplative in conversation, while songwriters tell you he's a fountain of ideas in the writing studio, where he spends most of his time. The Texas native got his start in Houston and early tours with Hayes Carll. Fate brought him to Nashville where he's written and recorded since the mid 2000s for the innovative Carnival Music. He's especially close to Jim Lauderdale and Kim Richey and his songs have been recorded by Miranda Lambert and Lee Ann Womack, Midland and many more. His fourth album for the label and his most musically adventurous is All My Shame. Also a fun chat with Andrew Nelson and Blount Floyd, founders and co-leaders of the roots rock band Great Peacock.

Episode 165: Growing up in the Pacific Northwest in the 1960s, Curtis Salgado fell down the rabbit hole of Deep South blues, jazz, soul and R&B and knew it would be his life's work. Now in his mid 60s, he looks back at a life full of happy accidents, earned admiration, survival and awards, including the BB King Entertainer of the Year prize. His new album on Alligator Records is Damage Control, a study in existential poise. Also in the hour, a key Nashville musician who led some of the sessions on that album, piano and organ player Kevin McKendree. He's toured the world with Brian Setzer, Delbert McClinton and more, while writing and producing soul/blues in Music City.

Singer-songwriter Garrison Starr grew up in Mississippi, made rock and roll out of Memphis and got signed in her late teens to a major label deal where her song "Superhero" took her to the charts and major tours. Heady success, except it was upset by the traumas and betrayals of being outed as gay in college and a conservative culture that exiled her. Now, with a dozen albums to her credit and a successful songwriting career in Los Angeles, she revels in her growth and forgiveness on the new album Girl I Used To Be. Garrison is a fantastic talent with deep Nashville ties, and the story of how this personal album got written will surprise you. Also, I meet Nashville-based, English-bred newcomer Lilly Winwood, who's seen the music industry from the bottom and the top.

Episode 163: It's been a year since the music industry slammed to a halt due to Covid-19. Performing artists had to adjust financially, logistically, emotionally and more. Now with a year's hindsight, The String sought out a sampling of roots musicians to hear how they coped. Many found unexpected gifts. Some started new businesses. Everybody learned a lot about themselves and their field. Featured: Kyshona Armstrong, Jill Andrews, Tim Easton, Robert Greer, Molly Tuttle, Rob Ickes, Doug and Telisha Williams, Garrison Starr, Sarah Jarosz, Suzanne Santo and Jerry Pentecost. With music by all.

Episode 162: From his breakout days as guitarist for Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen to his four-decade career as a bandleader, songwriter and recording artist, Bill Kirchen has been a badass hero of Americana music. His dextrous and dazzling Telecaster picking may get the most attention, but he's a clever and insightful songwriter who knows how to put on a memorable show. The String is officially lobbying for an Americana Lifetime Achievement Award for the Ann Arbor MI native. I reached Bill at home in Austin to talk about his career and the fine 2020 anthology of his three albums with Proper Records. It's a blast.

Episode 161: Bluegrass has an instrumental tradition going back to its Bill Monroe origins and its old-time forebears. Over time, the playing and composing became more refined and exploratory. This show features three young masters of contemporary acoustic music who've released all-instrumental albums in recent months. I speak with Wes Corbett, banjo player currently with the Sam Bush Band, Jeff Picker, bass player for Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, and Andrew Marlin, half of the married duo Mandolin Orange. They talk about their new recordings and about the path that led them to write and record without words.

Episode 160: Women with roots - in jazz is the heart of this hour. Jenny Scheinman is one of the leading jazz violinists working today, yet her musical life began grounded in folk music and she's been a prolific contributor to records and tours by the likes of Rodney Crowell, Robbie Fulks, Ani DeFranco and others. Her many collaborations with guitarist Bill Frisell have produced sublime fusions of folk, country and jazz. And Jenny has released two acclaimed songwriter albums as well. Now she's leading a band with drummer Allison Miller. You'll hear samples from that catalog as we speak about a unique life in music. Also in the hour, Nashville's Kandace Springs talks about getting mentored by Prince, landing a record deal on Blue Note and making a new album with heroes like Nora Jones and Christian McBride. We've posted a feature about her here.

Episode 159: Tennessee snuggles up against North Carolina at the apex of the Appalachian Mountains, together making a mid-South band from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River. It also defines possibly the most musically consequential pair of states in the nation. In a new history, veteran Raleigh journalist David Menconi describes NC music from Charlie Poole to the Avett Brothers and beyond. After a talk with him, we dive in with one of the most important and admired talents of our time from the state, songwriter M.C. Taylor who plays as Hiss Golden Messenger. His album Terms of Surrender is up for an Americana album Grammy Award.

Joachim Cooder has pursued his musical life as drummer, percussionist and family man, staying near and working regularly with his father, blues/roots guitarist Ry Cooder and his songwriting wife, among other scattered projects. In recent years though, his writing/composing side has fully emerged, and his debut on Nonesuch Records 'Over That Road I'm Bound,' featuring modern interpretations of Uncle Dave Macon songs, was one of the most unique and beguiling albums of 2020. We speak from his Los Angeles home. Also, Nashville writer/producer Daniel Tashian talks about his generation-spanning collaboration with the legendary Burt Bacharach.

Episode 157: The bluegrass and acoustic music world saw Sarah Jarosz coming. As she grew into her teens, artists and talent scouts knew of this young phenom from Wimberly, TX who excelled on banjo, mandolin, singing and songwriting. She got signed at 16 and launched a Grammy-decorated recording career soon after. Now her latest album World On The Ground, about loving and leaving her home ground, is up for two more Grammys. We have a wide-ranging conversation. Also, an introduction to Nashville's exciting emerging country artist Brit Taylor. Working with Dan Auerbach and Dave Brainard led to the lovely Real Me album.

Episode 156: Banjo innovator and string band visionary Tony Trischka has kept his eyes on the future over a fifty year career, but on a new album he looks to our uneasy past. Shall We Hope is a song cycle about the Civil War and its aftermath, featuring a cast of elite collaborators such as Maura O'Connell and Guy Davis. We talk about how the project came together over more than a decade and about Tony's rich career from his funky band Breakfast Special and teaching Bela Fleck to his work with Steve Martin. Also, another stringed instrument visionary is 33-year-old Jordan Tice of Nashville. The Hawktail guitarist has a new album of solo songwriting and guitar rags in the tradition of John Fahey.

Episode 155: Journalist and author Peter Guralnick is regarded by many as America's premiere chronicler of roots music. Besides his influential profiles, compiled into classic volumes in the 1970s and 80s, he wrote magisterial biographies of Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke and Sam Phillips. His newest collection, Looking To Get Lost: Adventures In Music And Writing, revisits some of his longtime subjects and adds some important new ones in a work that reveals more about the writer himself than anything he's published so far. Peter is a literary hero of mine, so this was an exciting conversation.

Episode 154: 2020 will go down in infamy but one happy occasion this year was the 95th anniversary of the Grand Ole Opry, the longest-running broadcast show in American history and the anchoring force that helped Nashville become Music City. In August of 2019, Dan Rogers was named Executive Producer of the show, putting him in a lineage that stretched back to George D. Hay. And in old school WSM fashion, they hired someone nurtured by the show. Rogers came aboard as an intern in 1998 and rose through the ranks of Opry marketing. In a wide-ranging talk, Rogers addresses what he learned along the way, how the Opry programs talent and how they handled crises like the 2010 Nashville flood and the 2020 pandemic.

Episode 153: Two great roots songwriters at different stages of their careers. Brent Cobb is a laid-back Georgian who got his first chance to record through his cousin Dave Cobb but who earned his stripes in Nashville and beyond thanks to his sensitive eye and relatable way with a lyric. He's released his fourth album Keep Em On They Toes. Dave Alvin is an icon of Americana who translated a musically rich upbringing in southern CA to a world-hopping career with the Blasters and his own unmistakable roots rock sound. His new album is a collection of side-project recording sessions cut for fun of songs he loves.

Episode 152: As recently as five years ago, Nashville's Margo Price was having trouble making ends meet after many years of "playing dives trying to stay alive" as she says in her new song "Twinkle Twinkle." But as that song also documents, she hit on the right sound with the right team. Third Man Records released her debut album in 2016 and it's been a remarkable ride ever since. By her side the entire time has been her husband, co-writer and bandmate Jeremy Ivey. I got a chance to talk to them together about the new music both of them released in the strange days of 2020.

Episode 151: The Steep Canyon Rangers emerged from the collegiate scene in central North Carolina around 2000 with a traditional sound that started winning them awards. Over 20+ years, they've broadened and deepened their sound through 13 albums on their own - including a bluegrass Grammy winner - and three with Steve Martin. Now they've released three very different albums in a calendar year, displaying range and mastery. In this hour, conversations with singer/guitarist Woody Platt, fiddler Nicky Sanders and banjo player/songwriter Graham Sharp. The new studio album is 'Arm In Arm.'

Episode 150: As a teenager, Philadelphia native Ray Benson fell hard for traditional American roots music and by 1970 he'd become the founding leader of a nimble, road-rambling band called Asleep At The Wheel. After a stint in California, they found their natural home in Austin TX and became icons of the scene there, while reaching the world as modern day masters of western swing music. This Fall, Austin City Limits aired a special featuring performances by the band from its very first show in 1976 until present day. We talk about an iconic 50 year career in country music.

Episode 149: Randall Bramblett is a powerhouse journeyman and veteran of southern roots and soul music, with a dense and deep resume working for others, from the Allman Brothers to Widespread Panic. But between his stints as a sax player, keyboardist, singer and songwriter he's released more than ten albums as an artist, and his fans know them to be a blend of sharp writing, a sensuous voice and spicy beats and ambience. The newest is Pine Needle Fire on New West Records, Bramblett's loyal home since 2001. Also in the hour, a visit with Nashville's Brennen Leigh about her nostalgic thematic album Prairie Love Letter.

Episode 148: Dirk Powell has build a Grammy-winning career by standing out in all aspects of folk and roots music. He's an outstanding fiddler and banjo player, a singer and songwriter, a curator and producer. And he's made marks in three related realms of music - Appalachian, Cajun and Celtic. Now the Louisiana-based Powell has turned back as he periodically does to recording his own music, and he's released When I Wait For You, a rangy album of songs that dip into new territory. Also, as we say farewell to our latest theme music, I meet the artist behind it, Scottish harpist Maeve Gilchrist.

Episode 147: As a literal child of the 1970s country outlaw movement, Waylon Payne had access to opportunity and temptation, and for most of his 48 years, temptation won. While immensely talented as a singer, songwriter and actor, he struggled with some harsh drug addictions and personal trauma. On the new album Blue Eyes, the Harlot, the Queer, the Pusher & Me, Payne chronicles his crash, his recovery and his return to the functioning world with incredible candor and grace. He's an extremely forthright conversationalist too. Also, a catch up with Ben and Dorothy of The Danberrys, a married duo from Nashville who've been through a journey of recovery of their own.

Episode 146: Wendy Moten is one of Nashville's most versatile and accomplished singers. She's been a solo R&B artist, a jazz singer, a duet partner with Julio Iglesias and a road vocalist with Martina McBride and Vince Gill. But lately she's taken on a storied role, singing lead with Nashville's extraordinary western swing band The Time Jumpers and she's released a new album of classic country covers. How a preacher's daughter from Memphis became a country artist with a meaningful platform is a great story. Also, the duo Granville Automatic brings a powerful sense of history and narrative to their eclectic, catchy songs.

Episode 145: Elizabeth Cook was welcomed with celebration into the Nashville country music fold in the early 2000s, because of her charm, her fascinating story and her bracing traditional country songs and songwriting. She's become an Americana star in these intervening years, but she had some rough times in the 2010s. Now back with the album Aftermath, she's on solid ground and reflective about a creative life with ups and downs. While Cook has played the Grand Ole Opry more than 400 times, Jeannie Seely has been on the show steadily since 1967. We catch up with the beloved veteran as she releases An American Classic at 80 years young.

Episode 144: New Grass Revival showed the world new ways of playing and thinking about bluegrass music between 1972 and 1989. Founded and led by fiddler, mandolinist and singer Sam Bush, two different lineups reached new audiences, interpreted and wrote important repertoire and ushered in today's modern and very popular jamgrass scene. The String talks with Bush and the rest of the 1980s lineup, banjo player Bela Fleck, singer and bass player John Cowan and singer, guitarist Pat Flynn in a special episode on the even of NGR's induction into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame.

Episode 143: Matt Rollings says his role as the leading studio piano playing sideman in Nashville from the late 1980s onward made it hard for him to forge his own taste and sensibility as an artist. Now that he's slowed that work and broadened his projects, he's made his first album as a leader in 30 years, Matt Rollings Mosaic, with a bunch of friends and collaborators who happen to be superstars, including Alison Krauss, Lyle Lovett and Willie Nelson. Our talk covered the fascinating ways and means of the A Team Nashville session players and much more. Also in the hour, emerging singer songwriter Shannon LaBrie, who's about to release an album produced by the guy who brought us The Judds and SHEL among many others.

Episode 142: Ah, to be 25 again. Old enough to have a direction. Young enough to not know or care that the road ahead is steep and hard. This week, two remarkable emerging artists who've put in a quarter century and found unique pathways. Daniel Donato landed a plum guitar gig in downtown Nashville at age 16 and now he's building a new world of twangy jam with his debut LP 'A Young Man's Country'. Jake Blount is re-defining old-time music with banjo and fiddle out of his DC base. His anti-racist push is forcing bluegrass and Americana to investigate its origins and its audience. His new album Spider Tales is a showcase of the Black roots of our shared music.

Episode 141: Two guests this show who both have careers straddling Nashville's hit-driven Music Row and art-driven Americana scenes. Heidi Newfield had a run of country hits in the 2000s w a band and as a soloist. Now she's reinventing and going gritty with her songwriting and blues harp on her first new album in more than a decade, The Barfly Sessions, Vol 1. Mac McAnally is a legend on the Row - a Hall of Fame songwriter and a 10-time CMA Musician of the Year. His own music displays real independence and countless skills as a singer, writer and producer. His new one is called Once In A Lifetime.

Episode 140: Chuck Prophet is a lifer who at 57 says he's just getting the hang of it - it being crafty, intelligent songs that feel good even when they're downers, songs that rock and twang in balanced proportions. Since going solo after a decade with the psych garage band Green On Red, Prophet has given us a vast body of work that sits easily on the shelf next to Rockpile, Elvis Costello or Tom Petty. Now he's releasing a reflective, sardonic and political album called The Land That Time Forgot. From retooling his solo sound to his long partnership with spouse Stephanie Finch, there was a lot to talk about.

Episode 139: Reaction to Joshua Ray Walker's debut album was as strong and swift as any to come along in country music and Texas songwriting in quite a while. But the Dallas native had been working stages nightly for ten years by the time the world paid attention. He was ready to follow up fast and he did so to great acclaim on 2020's Glad You Made It. This self-assured, thoughtful artist has a lot to say. Also in the hour, we meet Australian emigre to Nashville Emma Swift, whose new collection of Bob Dylan covers is quite special.

Episode 138: Adia Victoria taps the lineage and resolve of the early Blues queens with a sound made for the now on her 2019 album Silences. Her journey from South Carolina to Atlanta and then to Nashville reads like no other artist of recent memory and she works hard to set herself apart from the institutional trappings of the indie music business. Critically acclaimed and sharply thoughtful, this made for a fascinating and challenging conversation.

Episode 137: Raleigh NC's Chatham County Line started at the dawn of the new millennium in a surge of passion for bluegrass music, with an old-school look and feel. Now at 20 years old, they've made only one very recent personnel change and refreshed their concept as a post-modern string band with drums. The new album Strange Fascination displays far-reaching vision and a warm cohesive sound, riding on the unique songwriting voice of Dave Wilson. Dave and co-founding multi-instrumentalist John Teer join me for a retrospective conversation, featuring music from their past and present.

Episode 136: Just beyond the fuzzy boundaries of roots and Americana music, we find Brooklyn Based singer-songwriter Becca Stevens. And I hope you have found her. With a complex musical language drawn from folk, jazz, classical and pop, her output is searching, challenging and ever-evolving. A graduate of the NC School of the Arts and the New School in New York, she leaps from American public radio to European tours to collaborations with the likes of Jacob Collier, Snarky Puppy and recently folk icon David Crosby. She is among my favorite artists working today, so I sought out an interview, and I was excited and loaded with questions when she said yes. Her newest album is the shiny and electric Wonderbloom.

Episode 135: With ten albums and 20 years under his belt as one of the finest and wittiest songwriters working the Western end of country music, Alberta's Corb Lund is on his way to legendary status in Rocky Mountain cowboy-inspired songwriting. His newest is Agricultural Tragic, a 13 song collection that evokes the characters and colors of his home region. Also in the hour, Henry Hicks talks about Black Music Month and Black Lives Matter. Henry is the CEO of the National Museum of African American Music, opening this Fall in Nashville.

Episode 134: In an era where women are marginalized on country radio, Brandy Clark is at the top of most people's list of women who should be on the air a lot more. She's written hits for others on Music Row, but her own records are beautifully produced and full of insight about people and humor that would have tickled Roger Miller. Clark's shared a Grammy Award for writing Kacey Musgraves' "Follow Your Arrow" and earned numerous nominations as an artist. Her latest is called Your Life Is A Record. Also in the hour, the prophetic and passionate folk and protest music of Eliza Gilkyson who focused on what she knew would be a pivotal year in history, producing the album 2020.

Episode 133: David Bromberg is one of the most fascinating and multi-faceted figures in roots music, a pioneer of the Americana idea decades before the term came into being. In the 1960s New York folk revival, he was a guitar player and multi-instrumental sideman who specialized in the blues. Then as an artist on Columbia Records, he made dazzling varied roots albums while supporting stars like Bob Dylan and Jerry Jeff Walker. He took nearly 20 years off the road to become the nation's pre-eminent expert on American violins, and now at 74 he divides his time between his Wilmington, DE violin shop and recording and touring. We complete our hour of blues with Clarksdale, MS phenomenon Christone Kingfish Ingram.

Episode 132: The timing was right to split the hour between two exceptional emerging artists making hard country music in the outlaw tradition. As you'll hear, Jesse Daniel and Jaime Wyatt have lived the life, paid the price and processed their pain and redemption in song. Both are products of the West Coast and both have dug deep into their own stories. Many are sizing up Daniel's 'Rollin' On' and Wyatt's 'Neon Cross' (produced by Shooter Jennings) as among the cream of 2020. These are candid, complimentary conversations.

Episode #131: Two of the most exceptional and provocative songwriters of their respective generations take on America's political divide and inject some radical empathy in the red/blue schism. Steve Earle addresses coal mining from the heart of a state that didn't vote like he does in Ghosts of West Virginia. BJ Barham caps off 15 years of leading American Aquarium with the amazing Lamentations, which debuted atop the Billboard Americana chart. This is a timely and complimentary pair of conversations.

Episode 130: She's a daughter of Grand Ole Opry royalty, but Pam Tillis found her own way to the music business and the top of the country charts in the 1990s. She's long been one of Music City's most independent-minded major leaguers, and she shows it on Looking For A Feeling, her first album in more than a decade. She works with some of Nashville's most creative musical minds too. Also in the hour, highlights from a 2008 interview in which we remember the timeless voice and humor of Joe Diffie, who died in March after contracting Covid-19.

Episode 129: Lilly Hiatt put in a lot of work at the local and regional level, including releasing two albums, before her third, Trinity Lane, met the moment and became a breakout work. So a lot of ears were lifted toward her 2020 release of Walking Proof, and it was quickly acclaimed as punchy, vivid and memorable. We talk about going on the road with her dad songwriter John Hiatt back in the day, the deserved success of Trinity Lane and new musical directions. Also, a get-acquainted talk with Nashville-born, rocking country songwriter Gabe Lee.

Episode 128: Katie Pruitt has been known as a phenom ready for big things in Nashville for a few years now. With patience and enough maturity to get the music exactly as she intended, Pruitt has now made her debut on Rounder Records. The album Expectations is a bold, ambitious and succulent collection, and vividly honest as well, with songs documenting a difficult journey from a conservative family in Georgia to a proud out gay woman in Music City. This is a 25-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist poised for big things. Also in the hour, the journey of Arkansas born fiddler Jenee Fleenor. She was named CMA Musician of the Year and she's releasing her first recordings of her own music after years supporting others.

Episode 127: Paul Burch moved from Indiana to Nashville in 1994 when his friend Jay McDowell (BR549) told him about the burgeoning indie country music scene on sleepy Lower Broadway. In the 25 years since then, Burch has made uncompromising and original music with shades of classic honky tonk and timeless rock and soul. Here we talk about his role in the fascinating band Lambchop, the evolution of his band the WPA Ball Club and his new album Light Sensitive. Also in the hour, German-born bluegrass songwriting star Thomm Jutz.

Episode 126: This Spring, many of the outstanding women of roots music have released new albums, and here we catch up with two of them. Jessi Alexander, native of Jackson TN, moved to Nashville at 18 and landed songwriting and record deals. She's a hitmaker behind the scenes who rarely surfaces with her own heartfelt country music, but she sure does so on Decatur County Red, anchored in stories of her Tennessee coming-of-age. Jill Andrews is more urbane and silky in her sound, but the personal journey she shares on the album and book Thirties is full of challenges and the clarity that comes with time and triumph.

Episode 125: Recording producers are often the best people to speak with to gain extra insight into what makes some music more effective than others. And that's what we do this episode with two Nashville leaders with very different stories. Rick Clark came of age in Memphis and moved to Nashville in the 90s. He's been a DJ, a compilation curator and a music supervisor for film and TV. He's also getting back into songwriting and recording his own music. Neilson Hubbard is a key player in the modern Nashville music scene, with albums to his credit by Mary Gauthier, Gretchen Peters, Nora Jane Struthers and Matthew Perryman Jones. His own band of late is called the Orphan Brigade.

Episode 124: Caleb Caudle grew up in rural North Carolina outside of Winston Salem, captivated by music far beyond what his school peers cared about - English punk, folk music and Bob Dylan among them. Since entering the fray as a singer songwriter in the mid 2000s, he's released seven studio albums, with a brand new one on the way later this week. Better Hurry Up was cut in 2019 just days after the artist and his wife moved to Nashville. A crack band set up at the Cash Cabin in Hendersonville, surrounded by the spirit of Johnny and June. Great things resulted. Also in the hour, bass playing sideman turned impressive singer/songwriter Adam Chaffins.

Episode 123: Ron Pope is a case study in good indie art and commerce. He's an admired songwriter with an avid following for his cathartic, detail-laden songs and his range across a bunch of roots and rock and roll genres. Over more than a dozen albums, he's steered his own ship in a business partnership with his wife/manager and their Brooklyn Basement Records. The newest project is the sweeping album Bone Structure. A Georgia native, he got his career moving in New York and then moved to Nashville, where he's raising a daughter and keeping the songs flowing. Also in the hour, a radio field trip to Nashville's shrine of analog recording, Welcome To 1979.

Episode 122: Living the road life makes for tight musical couples. And in this split episode, I speak with a new mom who tours and duets with her husband and a couple that's been touring for a decade on their own and as side musicians. Nora Jane Struthers just released her fifth album, celebrating her full life, Bright Lights, Long Drives, First Words, and says it includes "Good Thing," the best song she's ever written. Then it's The Mastersons, both of them, as Chris and Elanor talk about meeting, becoming part of Steve Earle's band and maintaining an identity as an Americana duo. Their new project is No Time For Love Songs.

Episode 121 is a field trip to Asheville, NC, which Rolling Stone last year touted as one of the best music scenes in the country. We who visit regularly already knew that, and this week's show surveys the talent and the institutions making the region important in roots music and beyond. Featuring Amanda Anne Platt of the Honeycutters, Echo Mountain Studio, WNCW radio, Crossroads Music, Sarah Siskind, Morgan Geer and more.

Episode 120: Vince Herman and Drew Emmitt met in 1985 on Vince's first night in Boulder, CO and formed a lifelong musical bond. With banjo player Mark Vann they merged two bands into one and became Leftover Salmon at the dawn of 1990. And in the 30 years since they've earned the respect and partnership of the highest levels of the bluegrass and acoustic world while playing music that's as adventuresome as it is laid back. Herman and Emmitt marked the anniversary with a duo acoustic tour. Craig caught up with them at Nashville's City Winery for a wide ranging talk about their years together.

Episode 119: Four virtuoso string band musicians well known for their work with other bands are taking instrumental acoustic music to new heights in the band Hawktail. They are fiddler Brittany Haas, bassist Paul Kowert, guitarist Jordan Tice and mandolinist Dominick Leslie. And they recently landed on the Grand Ole Opry on release weekend of their second album Formations. Also, the delightful and clever throwback country duo of Noel McKay and Brennan Leigh. They've moved from Austin to Nashville and put out a masterful album of timeless songwriting.

Episode 118: Marcus Finnie is one of Nashville's most admired drummers, with a background spanning gospel, roots, pop and jazz. Mabel Pleasure is a lifelong Hammond organ player who rocks Sunday morning church services and the occasional R&B gig. And she's also Marcus's Mom. The String sits down with a musical family that's come from Memphis to Nashville and contributed to a brighter Music City. Marcus has a new album as leader of his jazz band. Mabel is about to make her lifelong recording/singing debut on album. And we talk about much more besides.

Episode 117: Often when songwriters talk process, we hear the same few nuggets about craft on repeat. Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer Beth Nielsen Chapman though has a deeply considered take on the art form and the personal work and qualities of mindfulness that truly unlock creative potential. Her workshops and lectures are in demand. And coming in 2020 she launches The Song School, a podcast that will include her wisdom and critiques of real songs in real time. Here, she invites Craig into her home studio to talk about her success as an artist and writer for others (Willie Nelson, Tanya Tucker, Faith Hill, Trisha Yearwood and many more) and how she keeps the flame lit.