The String

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.  

Two years ago, Lydia and Laura Rogers, the Alabama siblings who harmonize together so enchantingly as The Secret Sisters, looked like they had it all figured out. They’d built a sterling reputation with critics and a strong fan base. T-Bone Burnett was their record producer and they were in demand. But behind the scenes, the artists were suffering, at times despondent and afraid all they’d built and all they wanted to do was being torn away from them. They’d been cast adrift by their label. Faced with insurmountable legal bills, they took the extreme step of declaring personal bankruptcy. But they kept that a secret, if you will, from their fans.  But it got better. They leaned on family, faith and an ace in the hole, the friendship and mentorship of folk star Brandi Carlile. They called on their fans for what would be a make-or-break crowd-funding campaign. And they came out with a triumph, an album far more mature, revelatory and contemporary than anything they’d made before. It was the Grammy nominated You Don’t Own Me Anymore. Lydia and Laura spoke with The String before a show at the City Winery in Nashville.

With the aggressive acoustic bass, second-line intricate drumming and soaring brotherly harmony, the Wood Brothers have become a mainstay of roots and Americana music. What began well over a decade ago as a casual and personal initiative to spend more time together as brothers took on a life of its own and has grown steadily from listening rooms to a recent debut at the Ryman Auditorium. It was an experiment with potent inputs. Oliver had spent years on the blues circuit, first with band leader Tinsley Ellis and then as an architect of the horn and percussion heavy band King Johnson. Chris became one of the most famous and acclaimed bass players in the world with the remarkable progressive jazz trio Medeski, Martin and Wood. Drummer Jano Rix came aboard full time about five years ago.  The Wood Brothers are aptly named - sturdy, fine grained, organic and deeply rooted. Oliver and Chris join Craig for a conversation about their history and the new album One Drop of Truth. 

David Ball is one of our best traditional country singers, a regular on the Grand Ole Opry and that rare classic indie who had big radio hits in two different decades. But before he twanged us up with Thinkin' Problem, in his well-spent youth, he was bass player and singer in Uncle Walt's Band, one of the most exceptional and under-appreciated ensembles in roots music history. The acoustic trio was made up of Champ Hood on fiddle and Walter Hyatt on guitar. All three contributed to the complex sound and stellar songwriting, but it was Walter Hyatt's peculiar energy and intellect that stamped the group with his name and personality. Uncle Walt's Band's biggest fans were some of the biggest names in their base in Austin TX, including Lyle Lovett and Marcia Ball. They were truly something, but eventually they went their separate ways. Walter Hyatt died in a plane crash in 1996. Hood died of cancer in 2001. Here, Ball talks about the band and the new Anthology of its best work out now on Omnivore Recordings.

Lillie Mae has lived a classic Nashville journey. She came of age on Lower Broadway, playing six nights a week with her family band as a teenager. She and her siblings were mentored and produced by the great Cowboy Jack Clement. Her band was signed to and dropped from a major country label. Then she became a side musician for Jack White and eventually, he asked her to join the roster of Third Man Records, where she made the acclaimed debut album Forever And Then Some. The 26 year old is already exceptionally experienced and in every respect on her way. Plus the roots and jazz vision of guitarist Julian Lage. 

Delbert McClinton has two gifts that have served him well. He’s got a one in a million voice. It’s thunder and whiskey and leather and silk. It’s instantly recognizable. It’s innate and inimitable. Delbert’s other gift is a lifelong stubborn refusal to lend that voice to anything he doesn’t love, and he’s got really top drawer taste. He has released nothing for the sake of a short term hit and thus nothing that he needs to apologize for. Over 50 years. Delbert’s the subject of a new biography, One of the Fortunate Few, which came out late last year. It’s by established Texas-based music writer Diana Finlay Hendricks. It’s a great read and it was great preparation to talk about coming of age in Ft Worth TX, lighting out for California on a whim and chasing dreams across the country living out of a bus for years. He helped establish a beach head for roots music in New York in the 70s and inspired the Blues Brothers band. He then settled in Nashville where his songwriting took new leaps forward and he made the best recordings of his career for New West Records.  Also, a conversation with John Strohm, the new president of Rounder Records and Sugar Hill Records, two legendary roots labels that are now part of the very large but musically-focused Concord Music group. 

The 30th annual Folk Alliance International conference recently wrapped in Kansas City. It’s a confab like no other, with countless showcase performances large and small. And it’s the subject of this week’s multi-artist edition of The String. Of the interviews I did on site, these emerged as the best cross section of this unique and intense event. Featuring, in order:  Richard Thompson Martha Redbone Jayme Stone Ed Snodderly Vivian Leva  

Songwriter, singer and mandolin virtuoso Sierra Hull was born in Byrdstown, TN in 1991. Halfway between Nashville and the Smoky Mountains, it was an advantageous place to study bluegrass music, which she decided was her life’s calling at about age eight. Less than a decade after releasing her debut album on Rounder Records at age 16, Hull was named IBMA Mandolin player of the year two years running, the first woman to win the prize. She also, at age 26, recently married longtime music community friend and collaborator Justin Moses, an in-demand multi-instrumentalist studio and sideman. Hull has even been something of a musical diplomat, tapped for a US State Department American Music Abroad tour that took her to the island state of Micronesia and the occupied Israeli West Bank. Her most recent album was 2016's Weighted Mind, a hard earned departure from her straight-ahead bluegrass sound. In this hour we talk about working on that project with Bela Fleck producing. But mostly it's a talk about origins and influences and growing up in the Tennessee bluegrass culture.  Also, the curious case of Kurt Bardella. He’s a Washington DC political operative and pundit. You may well have seen him on CNN or MSNBC. And he’s also the creator and sole author of the most read daily morning tip sheet in the country music business. And we’ll hear his take on music and politics from the Country Radio Seminar, which just took place in Nashville.

Most songwriters start writing in their teens and THEN accumulate the life experience that give their work insight and heft. Mary Gauthier flipped the script. Like fellow American musician Louis Armstrong, she was orphaned in New Orleans. Her youth was, to use the euphemism, troubled. At 15 and 16 she was addicted to alcohol and drugs and in rehab. She famously spent her 18th birthday in a jail cell. She didn’t start writing songs until her 30s and when she did, there was a remarkably, fully formed artist who was quickly recognized by an influential record label and the nation’s leading folk and roots venues. Mary’s journey of recovery and reconciliation has been widely told and documented in her songs and her candid, moving on stage performances. What’s notable about her current chapter is how her experience with her own trauma and writing about it therapeutically helped steer her toward her current project. It’s a volume of songs co-written with veterans and active duty soldiers processing their complex and often traumatic experiences with stories and music. The album, arguably the most anticipated of Gauthier’s impressive career, is called Rifles & Rosary Beads.

He's been a key part of Alison Krauss & Union Station for 25 years. He's the voice of the most popular and successful bluegrass track of the 21st century in "Man of Constant Sorrow." And he's one of the most admired acoustic musicians all around in his field. Looking for new directions and challenges during a break from AKUS, Dan Tyminski started writing songs with Music Row songwriters he'd never met before. And before long he found a surprising new sound emerging and some thoughts and feelings he'd never thought about putting into music before. The result is a new career under the name Tyminski with a debut album Southern Gothic. It's daring and different and certainly not bluegrass. He says his late mom and dad wouldn't have liked it one bit. But here he is, 50 years old with a bold new direction. Also in the hour, some Time Machine Tape with Alison Krauss herself, talking with Robert Plant in 2007 about the album they'd just finished together, well before it was released and won 6 Grammy Awards.