There haven’t been more than a handful of repeat guests on The String in these six years, but with Mary Gauthier it’s a no-brainer. She’s one of the most interesting figures in Nashville - a philosopher of song and a gifted teacher and speaker. A 2021 memoir allowed her to lay her remarkable story out end to end, mingling memoir with songwriting insights and laying bare her vulnerabilities and struggles. A new album ruminates on new love and the loss of friends with radical empathy.

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.

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.

A massive waterspout off the coast of Destin, Fla., Tuesday captured the attention of many. Several conditions are necessary to create one of these tornado-like phenomena.

The writer searched for more than a decade for Susan Lung, who taught him to read and write English when he was a 7-year-old in 1999. On Saturday, she surprised him at one of his book readings.

Under a voter-approved elections process being used for the first time in Alaska elections this year, party primaries have been scrapped and ranked choice voting is being used in general elections.