Craig Havighurst

Guitarist, singer and songwriter Eli West works with a quiet designer's mind in the Pacific northwest, and everything we hear from him has a rare depth and gravity. He's an avid collaborator who attracts greatness, having worked with Bill Frisell, John Reischman, Dori Freeman and others. I was taken with his album Tapered Point Of Stone in 2021, where West's musicianship blended organically with great east coast musicians Christian Sedelmyer (fiddle) and Andrew Marlin (mandolin). So it was exciting to see West release his new Shape Of A Sway album arrive in July. We've selected the gracefully swinging "Ever Lovin' Need To Know" for this week's roundup of new music. But we open by celebrating the first single in ages from our beloved old-time quartet The Onlies, followed by a sentimental new song from Hall of Famer Larry Sparks. The novelties continue with Kentucky's Carla Gover, fiddle wizard Darol Anger, and trad torchbearer Junior Sisk.

After a three-year tutelage with Old Crow Medicine Show, multi-faceted Appalachian artist Mason Via has set out on his own road. He was raised in bluegrass festival campgrounds and at picking parties hosted by his dad, songwriter and musician David Via. Bluegrass royalty hung out at his home near the North Carolina/Virginia border, and it’s rubbed off. After trying a few musical directions, Via’s self-titled album of this year shows range, depth, and a command of bluegrass and country moods. Meet a 28-year-old you’ll be hearing a lot more about if you follow acoustic roots.

Amy Alvey is a fiddle instigator. She tours and performs of course, but she also teaches in person and on-line, and she organizes old-time jams, including our annual Old Fashioned String Band Throwdown pre-party, pictured here. (We'll be back at Dee's by the way on Tues., Sept. 9 by the way so make plans to join us from 4:30 on.) Anyway, Amy extends her mission to share American fiddling with the people this week in a special episode. She made a list of the tunes that she teaches as core old-time repertoire and then found great examples of those tunes spanning present day recordings and old archival tracks. From "Fire On The Mountain" to "Lonesome Road Blues" to "Reuben's Train," this show will build your own experience with this great body of work, as well as the many regional and individual fiddle styles there are out there.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops changed roots music history between forming in 2005 and disbanding about a decade later. In Don’t Get Trouble in Your Mind: The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Story, independent filmmaker John Whitehead bears witness to every stage of their journey, including their first meeting, their tutelage with fiddler Joe Thompson, their rise to Grammy-winning fame, and their dissolution amid different priorities and personal strife. It is newly available to stream free on several platforms.

Singer-songwriter, fiddler and rambling man Joey Berglund has been performing under the moniker Bar Jay Bar for several years, and he's bringing something fresh to the western side of traditional country. Amy Alvey has brought a few songs of his to the mix, and this week, it's his bluesy "Breakdown Mama." I've seen his home base identified as Los Angeles and Sheridan, WY, and it's clear he gets around. Also on stage, where his reputation for acrobatics precedes him. Also this week, an unprecedented 9-minute single, as AJ Lee & Blue Summit take on "The Glendale Train" with imagination and epic solos. Tray Wellington has at last realesed his "Man On The Moon" title single. And we feature a unique track from the overlap of jazz and folk, as Bill Frisell and Tim O'Brien team up with their former teacher Dale Bruning in a session from Boulder a few years back.

These doggy days of July and August invite us to stay indoors, and I’m fine with that, because I can listen to records. With so many good albums arriving and with so much noise and nonsense out there to sift through, I felt inspired to pause and recognize some of the best recent and local music being released in our Americana space, especially those that might be off the popular radar. We’ll all have opinions about the new Tyler Childers album soon enough. Ketch Secor’s new one is a major statement that I’m working on covering in depth. But here are profiles of eight recent records with Nashville origins and originality. I’m grateful to our Local Brew host Ana Lee for suggesting some of these titles.

Few fully independent artists in any genre have been able to grow to the scale and influence that Cody Jinks has pulled off in the outlaw country space. He sells out iconic venues like Red Rocks in Colorado with a sound that layers his boyhood influence from Lefty Frizzell with the edge of the thrash metal rocker he once was. The Fort Worth native “put in the reps” for countless years in bars and honky tonks, nearly going broke, before albums like I’m Not The Devil and Lifers vaulted him to the big time in the years before the pandemic. He’s now out with In My Blood, an album that basks in his newfound sobriety and a new focus on himself and his family, making this a very candid and fascinating interview with a self-made country star whom mainstream radio virtually overlooks.

The great American folk music tradition continues to flourish in New York City, decades after the hootenanny heyday of Greenwich Village in the 1950s and 60s. We were excited to learn that one of the leading voices in today's scene is none other than Woody Guthrie's grandson Cole Quest. And how cool a name is that? He writes and collects songs and plays resophonic guitar and pedal steel. He and his City Pickers, a bluegrass leaning string band, have won praise from No Depression, Glide magazine and the overseas press. On their new album Homegrown, the group adds new life to great songs like John Hartford's "In Tall Buildings," Peter Rowan's "Dust Bowl Children," and Woody's own "Pastures of Plenty." We feature the great "Philadelphia Lawyer," but it comes last, so you have to listen to the whole show (no skipping!). On the way, you'll hear new songs from Rick Faris, Chris Jones, Jessie Smathers, and the hot fiddling duo of Kimber Ludiker and Deannie Richardson. Amy was still on the road but sent in a block of song picks inspired by her hang at the Canadian folk fest and workshop Nimblefingers.

Look who's still at it, at 84 years into his journey. Jim Kweskin was a staple of the 1960s folk and and pre-war music revival. His famous Jug Band included bluegrass standouts Richard Greene (fiddle) and Bill Keith (banjo), plus future folk stars Geoff and Maria Muldaur. His top-flight ragtime fingerstyle guitar was much more refined than the "jug band" moniker implied. And the group was a key influence on the formation of the Grateful Dead and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Kweskin's never dropped out of the scene, and this spring he came with his newest album Doing Things Right, featuring American standards and obscurities done with flair. We spin the novelty tune "Show Me The Way To Go Home." As No Depression noted, "Jim Kweskin plays old stuff. And it never gets old." Also this hour, a show premiere for Meredith Moon, a lovely folk singer and stylist who is set to play our Old Fashioned String Band Throwdown on Sept. 9. New singles come from Ashby Frank, Lori King, and Nick Chandler and Delivered.

While it’s one of the great music cities in the world, the story of Memphis, TN is generally told as one about Elvis, BB King, Isaac Hayes, and possibly Justin Timberlake - artists from the history books or well on in their careers. Roots music fans might know more contemporary talents like songwriters Amy LaVere and John Paul Keith. Many others simmer along in that city’s bars and clubs, but one has to go there to get up to speed on the talent pool. Southern Avenue is different - a breakout band from Bluff City with national acclaim, a renowned record label, and a musical voice grounded in native soil and native soul. It’s the band today’s Memphis has needed.