Like a carrot dangling from the end of a stick in those old cartoons, Friday beckons us through the week and keeps us hopping forward. And there’s no carrot more tasty than Americana music, performed by sincere and excellent artists. This week’s root vegetable medley features progressive bluegrass from We Banjo 3 and vulnerable neo-country music from Jessica Willis Fisher.

On a recent morning, the atmosphere at Monique Ross’s East Nashville home is high energy. She and her sister Chauntee are here for a day between tour dates, having just arrived from the Newport Folk Festival where they played to thousands with Brandi Carlile and sat on stage during Joni Mitchell’s historic performance there. Monique’s 10-year-old daughter is heading out the door for the afternoon. Two small dogs, including a Chihuahua named Cello, scamper around the Victorian house. But things quiet down. The dogs curl up to sleep, and between gales of sisterly laughter Chauntee and Monique talk about what it’s been like to be on some of folk music’s biggest stages supporting Carlile and Allison Russell in the past whirlwind year.

It’s true that for many people Friday is the end of the work week and the weekend is a chance for rest and personal pursuits. Of course that’s not true for everyone so let’s remember the servers and drivers and cops and so forth who work weekends for the good of everyone. But hopefully what we all have in common is that we can take an hour at lunch time on Friday to enjoy killer music over our video feeds, phones, radios and smart speakers. Because we’re back at it on Aug. 5 with honest songwriting from Nashville’s Mabilene and midwestern folk rock band The Damn Quails.

This week's episode of Finally Friday from Home features We Banjo 3 playing songs from their latest release, Open the Road, and Jessica Willis Fisher, who will be playing song's from her 2022 release, Brand New Day.

Nashville's Mabilene and Oklahoma's The Damn Quails share songs from their respective new albums on Finally Friday from Home.

Recorded in New Orleans, Sara Syms explores the sounds of the Crescent City through themes of survival, love and hope on her new album, The Darkest Light, out today.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has issued more than a dozen decrees in favor of Brazilians' right to bear arms. Sales have spiked and gun shops and shooting ranges have opened up all over Brazil.

Congress changed the law in the 1970s when President Nixon prepared to leave with his documents — and infamous tape recordings.

The author Chibundu Onuzo reflects on her older brother's path to success after leaving the U.K. for their native Nigeria — and wonders whether she should consider joining him.