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Craig Havighurst

Editorial Director

Craig Havighurst is WMOT's editorial director and host of The String, a weekly interview show airing Mondays at 8 pm, repeating Sundays at 7 am. He also co-hosts The Old Fashioned on Saturdays at 9 am and Tuesdays at 8 pm. Threads and Instagram: @chavighurst. Email: craig@wmot.org

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  • When I met lifelong musician Red Young on board Delbert McClinton’s Sandy Beaches Cruise, I knew I had to interview him. He’s had one of those journeyman’s careers that ties together all the threads of American music, from pop to R&B to jazz. He’s a pianist, Hammond organ specialist, singer, arranger and producer, and at 76 years old, he’s seen it all. He’s worked with Kinky Friedman, Joan Armatrading, Dolly Parton, Sonny & Cher, Linda Ronstadt, Eric Burdon of the Animals, Marcia Ball, Janiva Magness, and of course Delbert McClinton himself, whom he met in his home town of Fort Worth, TX some sixty years ago. Sit back and enjoy the stories.
  • I’ve heard Tyler Grant play the frets of a Telecaster through a vintage amp ripping up country songs, but I feel like his natural habitat is as one of our finest bluegrass guitar players. He won the big national championship in Winfield some years back, and he played on the road with folks like Abigail Washburn, the Drew Emmit Band and his own ensemble Grant Farm. His chops will be on display in late March when he releases his seventh album, aptly titled Flatpicker, and we’ve got the new single this week, a speedy, thought-provoking desert train song called “Goat Canyon Trestle.” Also this week, a tongue-twisting “Auctioneer” from the Kody Norris Show, a Tom T. Hall cover from Chris Jones, and a new single from now-solo artist Laura Orshaw. Plus, we tip our hat to the bluegrass side of the recently departed Melba Montgomery.
  • I was raised on instrumental music before I fell in love with songs and songwriters, so I keep my radar scanning for contemporary instrumental records in the roots music space. For years, such albums came predominantly from the bluegrass universe, but through 2024 and on into this year, I kept latching on to sonic excursions encompassing rock, blues, guitar folk and twangy jazz. Here’s a roundup of recent recordings that will set your head bobbing while requiring no verbal skills.
  • It would be hard to name any songwriter in Nashville’s long history whose work has been recorded by more stars across more genres of music than Gary Nicholson. The Texas native came to Nashville in 1980 after stints in Ft. Worth and Los Angeles, and not only did he amass an impressive string of country music hits with Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, and more, he became Music City’s go-to soul and R&B man, conjuring songs for Bonnie Raitt, Etta James, BB King, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and even Ringo Starr. Now at 74 he’s turned his own performing/recording life to songs of conscience and social protest, as on his new album Common Sense.
  • Sierra Ferrell, fresh off her Artist and Album Of The Year wins at last Fall’s Americana Honors & Awards, went four-for-four in her first-ever nominations on Sunday at the 67th Grammy Awards. She shared American Roots Song honors with Nashville’s Melody Walker. Songwriter Ruthie Foster secured a first-ever Grammy for herself and her new label Sun Records. Billy Strings and the duo of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings won awards as well. While on the prime time broadcast, roots music didn’t get its turn.
  • One corner of old-time music we make sure to touch on time to time is pre-war jazz and blues, giving us a chance to feature new Old Fashioned artists like The Pear Blossoms, who offer the new tune “Tonight I’m Thinking Of You.” Alexander Jones (of Texas) and Dayna Pirso (of Ontario, Canada) joined forces as a duo in 2022, and these days they’re keeping up a robust tour calendar across North America and overseas. They’ve just released the album Going To San Antone, Vol. 1, so there’s more bluesy goodness where this came from. Also this week, we offer the first singles from upcoming albums by Sierra Hull and Big Richard, some of the hard hitting women in the bluegrass field. And we have a block of cover tunes of major league stars by the likes of Jordan Tice, The Wooks and (back in the day) The Dillards.
  • This week Amy Alvey did all the work, curating and hosting while I was out of town for a week. All I had to do was enjoy her mix of old-time and bluegrass, which runs the gamut from Deford Bailey to a new track from classic Americana trio The Devil Makes Three. But I wanted to spotlight Riverbend, a traditional-leaning quintet from the St. Louis comprising Aaron Muskopf (guitar, vocals), Blake Korte (dobro, vocals), Andy Novara (mandolin, vocals), Will Miscall (bass, vocals), and Alex Riffle (banjo). We’ve played these fellows before, and here, they’re teasing their upcoming album No More Will I Ramble with the single “Sawdust,” about putting in hard days’ work and seeing too little come of it. Also in the hour, a twist on the old Little Sadie story from Michael Corleto, fiddle and banjo from George Jackson and Brad Kolodner, and a new single from Amy’s own duo Golden Shoals.
  • Sam Grisman, the 35-year-old son of mandolin icon David “Dawg” Grisman, grew up in a unique and supercharged musical environment, to put it mildly. Jerry Garcia was coming over all the time to the family home to pick and record old-time folk music with the elder Grisman. Bluegrass legends came and went, rehearsing and recording, and giving Sam something to aspire to when he picked up the bass as a little kid. After a decade working and touring as sideman, he’s now based in Nashville leading his own collective, the Sam Grisman Project, which is nurturing the repertoire of the Grisman/Garcia partnership, with selected tunes from the Grateful Dead repertoire as well. With a remarkable concert at the Ryman Auditorium in January 2025, Sam stepped into a new phase of his musical life.
  • After decades in the shadows as a catalog company, historic Sun Records was acquired four years ago by the global music and media company Primary Wave. Now headquartered in Brentwood, a refreshed Sun is an active label again, and its 2024 releases by Americana standouts Amy Helm and Ruthie Foster - plus a flurry of vintage reissues - suggest that it’s going to make a substantial impact on the roots music space in the years to come.
  • Noah G. Fowler is a welcome addition to the Nashville roots music scene. He’s a Pennsylvanian who’s performed at Americanafest, FloydFest, our beloved Jalopy Theater in New York, and of course good old Dee’s Lounge in Madison. What I’d heard of him was squarely in country territory, but on his new single “Stranger,” he calls in the banjo brigade for a sweet bluegrass track. We’ll be watching for updates in case a string band album may be in the works. Elsewhere this episode, we feature the newest from Becky Buller, her take on New Grass Revival’s “Reach” for an upcoming covers album. Wyatt Ellis partners with Peter Rowan for a two-sided single, and we offer up the Bill Monroe ripper “Memories Of You.” More new stuff comes from Dale Ann Bradley and Joe Mullins. And the historic bells get rung by Jimmy Martin, the Highwoods String Band, and the Coon Creek Girls.