The String

Episode #66: At 76 years old, Steve Cropper is in ideal position to reflect on an abundant, history making life in music, and he does so in this week's show. It's a special edition taped on stage in front of an eager audience at Nashville's Who Knew at City Winery. The series features speakers from the local to the world famous, on matters of creativity, entrepreneurship and mission. And Steve Cropper and his history with Stax Records represent all of those in abundance. Cropper grew up in Memphis from the age of nine, getting his first guitar by mail order in 1955. He channeled the city's sounds - blues, R&B, gospel and SUN Records rock and roll - into the band the Mar-Keys and then into the studio band at Stax. That history-making ensemble became the recording and touring band Booker T & The M.G.s. Cropper wrote masterworks of the American soul songbook: "Knock On Wood," "In The MIdnight Hour" and "Dock of the Bay." We talk about all that and his subsequent career with the Blues Brothers in this in-depth interview.

Episode 65: To understand the unique and intricate Nashville based quintet Cordovas, you've got to flash back to the early 2000s when a songwriter from North Carolina named Joe Firstman was tearing it up in Los Angeles. Blazingly talented, he got signed to Atlantic Records but it was a brutal time for the music industry and he went his own way in 2005. He was the bandleader for a late night network show. Then it was time for rebuilding - and over a lot of years, Cordovas became the result. With smart guitar duo parts arranged by Lucca Soria and Toby Weaver, plus a loosely grooving rhythm section, Cordovas evokes The Band, The Allman Brothers and The Grateful Dead. But they defy jam band logic with tightly constructed songs on their ATO Records debut That Santa Fe Chanel. Craig visits their home/rehearsal compound in Madison TN for a full band interview.

We're spending much of this hour with someone who's as thoughtful and articulate about her art as the art itself. Gretchen Peters is a lover of language. She has awe and appropriate respect for the power of words and healthy fear of their misuse. And while I would place her among the most literary of songwriters - Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan are among her heroes - there's nothing aloof or unreachable in her work. Her reputation in country music was secured by recordings and hits for George Strait, Trisha Yearwood, Faith Hill and Martina McBride. But she set out to be a performing songwriter and recording artist, and indeed she's built a devoted following. Peters's new album Dancing With The Beast takes up a lot of time in the conversation ahead. It grapples with the shock of the 2016 presidential election, the tumult in the country and the #MeToo movement. Its stories are ferocious and candid, but as always the music is gorgeous and easy on the ears if not always the heart. Also, we get to know Gretchen's friend and frequent co-writer Ben Glover, an exceptional Nashville based songwriter from the coast of N. Ireland.

This week's episode of The String (#63) is about a sense of place and how we stand up for the places we cherish. Nashville has thrived as the epicenter of country music songwriting in part because of its own strong sense of place. It was a mid South crossroads city that welcomed art and music from the 19th century on. It became a pioneer in radio in the 20s and 30s by reflecting and broadcasting local values and sounds. Then in the mid 1950s, music business innovators and instigators began to cluster together on the parallel streets of 16th and 17th avenues, transforming a residential neighborhood into Music Row. Compact and convivial, Music Row was like a village, where music makers and business people worked and mingled and loitered with intent. A culture evolved over the decades that still hangs on today. And yet, people are concerned. A city that used to change slowly is transforming and growing, too fast for many. Commercial interests and cultural passions are clashing. And at the vortex of that conflict is Music Row. We're spending this hour of radio on Music Row, 1028 16th Ave. to be precise, a little bar called Bobby's Idle Hour. And our featured guest is a wonderful veteran songwriter who hangs out here, named John Scott Sherrill.

Erin Rae came of age in Nashville and dropped out of college to get serious about music. She is a pure product of Music City's richly rewarding community, veteran of open mics and local venues. Her first album Soon Enough turned a lot of heads. Now her follow up, the moody and gorgeous but emotionally candid Putting On Airs, is earning national acclaim. She's one of East Nashville's new stars, and we talk about Cafe Coco, her all-woman songwriting posse and singing alongside Margo Price at the Ryman. Also in the hour, a progress report on the remarkable National Museum of African American Music, on target to open in December of 2019.

Episode 61: Craig H. and sometime producer companion Gina Frary Bacon sit down with iconic Nashville Cat Wayne Moss. Raised in Charleston WV, Moss was obsessed with music and recording and made his way to Music City in 1959. He put his guitar to work with The Casuals, Nashville's first rock and roll band. And his web of relationships - Buzz Cason, Charlie McCoy, Norbert Putnam, Mac Gayden and others - put him at the center of the recording scene. He played famous licks and solos for Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton, Charlie Daniels and others. He formed the bands Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry for an extra dash of creative freedom. He built his studio Cinderella Sound in 1961 and it's still in business, the oldest surviving indie studio in the region. Moss talked about his extensive career and his new anthology CD called Collaborations With My Guitar Heroes.

Her recording career began in 2011 with an alt-country album whose title asked: Have You Met Lera Lynn? We hope you've met her by now because in the seven years since, the Athens GA-turned-Nashville TN songwriter has emerged as a fascinating and dynamic artist with a grasp of sound and production along with her mesmerizing voice. Her newest record finds her co-writing and collaborating. Plays Well With Others is a set of co-written duets with some important indie artists, including Peter Bradley Adams, Nicole Atkins, JD McPherson and the album's producer and record label boss John Paul White. We listen to the record in detail and burrow into what the songs say about Lera Lynn's vision and journey so far.

In Episode 59 of The String we dive deep into the Austin/Nashville dynamic captured in the new Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum special exhibit Outlaws & Armadillos: Country's Roaring 70s. Our feature interview is with Michael Martin Murphey. Best known to many for his crossover hit "Wildfire" from the summer of '75, Murphey's had a wide ranging career. His songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash and Lyle Lovett among others. And he's earned abundant recognition for his decades as a champion and revivalist in the field of cowboy songs and western music. But before all that, Murphey was a key player in the Austin TX phenomenon, residing there as a full time musician from 1968 to 1974. He was a regular at the Armadillo World Headquarters, the iconic venue at the heart of the live scene, where a diverse audience heard a diverse array of roots music, from hard country to traditional blues. Murphey, along with Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker (about whom he wrote the era-defining song "Cosmic Cowboy") and others forged a country-rock hybrid that became the foundation for the progressive folk music field we now call Americana. Also, a visit with exhibit co-curator Peter Cooper.

The Travelin' McCourys began as a side project - an outlet for Del McCourys sons and their bandmates to pursue experiments and collaborations. Over the past eight years, they've developed a repertoire and an identity all their own, and with the addition of full time guitarist Cody Kilby, a personnel they at last called official. So now they've released their debut self-titled album and launched a limitless future, for now very much in parallel to the iconic Del McCoury Band, arguably the most influential bluegrass outfit of the past 20 years. In this special edition of The String, taped before a live audience at Nashville's City Winery, Craig talks with Ronnie McCoury (mandolin), Rob McCoury (banjo) and Jason Carter (fiddle) about the past and future of their wide-open view of bluegrass. Also, guest producers Matt Follett and Brady Watson report on the Grand Ole Opry's most recent venture to New York City.

Rev. Sekou is an activist, writer, theologian and community organizer with a dense resume stretching back to before the 2000s. He says he found his calling at age 19 when he visited the Highlander Center, the research and education retreat in East TN where legions of civil rights activists have been trained and where the song 'We Shall Overcome' was adapted to the central struggle of the American 20th century. Sekou has been a pastor in New York and Boston. He's worked on the ground in Haiti after its devastating 2010 earthquake, in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and Ferguson, MO in 2014. But only in the last few years, in his mid 40s by the way, did Rev. Sekou step forward as a songwriter and singer, as a soul and blues man. He did grow up around music and attended college on a voice scholarship. He's been in some bands. But it's clear that in going on tour and recording his two albums The Revolution Has Come and In Times Like These, music has become a new way for Rev. Sekou to speak his truth and inspire his cause. This all made for a fascinating conversation. Also, an in-depth talk with John McEuen about why, after its 50th year, he parted ways with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and the process of writing his new autobiography, The Life I've Picked.

This week, two conversations with country music families at their heart. First, up a feature interview with Nitty Gritty Dirt Band co-founder Jeff Hanna and his wife, songwriter Matraca Berg. Matraca's mother wrote songs and had other family in the business. She's had a commanding career with numerous hits including the CMA song of the year 1997, "Strawberry Wine." Berg is also a deeply respected recording artist who makes albums as exceptional as they are rare. Hanna migrated to Music City from California, but he's got this family tradition thing down, evidence his son Jamie joining the newest iteration of the Dirt Band, which is touring with a new lineup after a profound shakeup. There's a lot of news in our talk about the reconfiguration of that important group. Later in the hour, Glen Campbell's daughter Ashley Campbell steps out on her own with a debut solo album. She's been recognized for her talents as a singer, songwriter and banjo player, but she's been through one of the ultimate family challenges. The Lonely One balances roots, country and pop.

In Nashville, the greatest guitar town in the world, Guthrie Trapp is at the top of the mountain. He can range across every style, improvise with endless invention and subtlety. He can shred or twang or drift elegantly. And most of the time, he's a sideman and studio player. A player in demand for being able to serve and enhance a song and do no more than what's called for. But he's also a mind-bending solo artist. And his second LP as a leader and composer came out this spring. It's called Life After Dark. Trapp has worked with Patty Loveless, Dolly Parton, Jerry Douglas, Garth Brooks, Rosanne Cash and many other greats. Currently he tours with John Oates in his solo configuration. But Guthrie's work as a leader ranks up there with the best guitar music being made today. For years he's led his own small group at a variety of Nashville venues, where he can really stretch out, refine his originals, indulge in some favorite old songs. He put out his first solo album in 2012, called Pick Peace, and it's an entirely instrumental project. This new one mingles instrumentals with guest aritists taking star turns on vocals - Jimmy Hall sings the blues. Charlie Worsham and Vince Gill sing country classics. Bekka Bramblett offers a stunning take on "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." It shows how much reverence he has among his peers in music city. I like what acoustic Americana star tim O'Brien says about Guthrie. "He'll blow you away but he'll never wear you out."

Kim Richey launched her career later than most, after her old friend and college band mate Bill Lloyd (of Foster & Lloyd) urged her to move to Music City. And after one of the most powerful executives in the music business introduced himself after a show and our guileless heroine had no idea who he was. Kim's crafty and tuneful mingling of folk, country and jangle pop was well formed when she released her debut album in 1995. Since then she's explored collaborations with diverse producers but maintained a through line to her sound and vibe that's made fans all over the world. She's one of Nashville's finest and she joins Craig to talk about her career and her new album Edgeland. Also, songwriter Tim Easton describes the experience of recording direct to lacquer disc in Bristol, just like the Carter Family did in 1927.

If nothing else was left behind about America in the 20th century but the lyrics to all the country songs written by the famous and the obscure, you'd have a pretty good catalog of what happened and how we worked and how we fought, how we loved each other and judged each other and murdered each other. How we socialized and danced and drank and raised families. That's no small feat for a genre of music. It's a more vivid and truthful diary of American life than the last 100 years of the New York times. And it's this granular sense for the music in all its human revelation that has sparked a rush of interest in the story of country music in the 20th century as told by Tyler Mahan Coe. Another reason it's gotten attention is that it's not a big doorstop of a book. It's a podcast. It's called Cocaine & Rhinestones. Craig sits down to learn the background and vision of this sudden hit.