The String

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.