Many of you have joined us for Roots On The Rivers, our boutique summer festival at the historic Two Rivers Mansion. For three years running, we’ve welcomed slates of exceptional artists from across the Americana spectrum to play nice, long sets on a great-sounding stage. The setting - the grounds of a 150-year-old antebellum home built by one of Nashville’s founding fathers - is relaxed, shady and ideal for our community to gather, converse, listen, and meet the artists. But what you don’t know, dear radio friends, is that behind the scenes at this year’s ROTR, on June 1, while the likes of Elizabeth Cook, Devon Gilfillian and Chatham County Line rocked the main stage, our crack audio/video crew produced a parallel, private concert.

The conversation about Black influence on and presence in country music has been intense and restorative over the past decade, and nobody has a more authoritative or informed take on the subject than writer and scholar Alice Randall. She became the first Black woman to launch a career as a professional Music Row songwriter and publisher in the 1980s. She’s shared her incredible journey in her new memoir My Black Country, while a multi-artist collection of the same title features a dozen leading Black female voices in Americana singing her songs. Craig Havighurst visited Alice at her home to talk about it all.

Episode 292 of The String begins, as any introduction to Madeleine Peyroux should, with the story of Careless Love. Released in 2004, it became the pivotal album of her international career. Its fresh and beguiling blend of jazz, early blues, and country influences fell between the industry’s proverbial cracks, yet the album became a hit in a dozen countries, selling more than a half million copies (hard to do in the new digital age) for its roots-centered label Rounder Records. Peyroux’s voice and phrasing, with echoes of Billie Holiday and Joni Mitchell, had more verve than the newly famous Norah Jones and more blues than Diana Krall. Her story was more remarkable than either.