Craig Havighurst

Almost three years ago I profiled the young guitarist Luke Black as part of a package about the up and coming flatpickers in bluegrass. He was a student at Berklee College of Music and he'd recently started a progressive band called Mountain Grass Unit based in Birmingham, AL. They were still getting their act and sound together, but the idea - Tony Rice in Colorado was how I took it - felt strong. Well they've been crushing it since then, honing their thing and getting ready for their moment. At least two of them arrived this year - when they played the Ryman Bluegrass series - and when they played the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in June and left fans and journalists raving about what they'd seen. We play a cut from their 2024 EP Runnin' From Trouble. We're excited to hear more. Amy and I also spin a few artists who played Telluride this year, including Chris Thile, Alison Krauss & Union Station, and band contest winners Rachel Sumner and Traveling Light. Also this week, new songs from Rick Faris, Sister Sadie, and Darren Nicholson.

To hear Mike Farris sing - an experience a bit like being pinned to the seat of an accelerating Porsche Taycan - is to believe that he was born to the stage, motivated from childhood, and destined for soul/gospel glory. Yet in Episode 327 of The String, we learn that A) Mike is lucky to be here at all and B) that a singing career was not remotely on his own radar until he was approaching his 20th birthday. And the two are related. In his teens, Farris almost died from drug abuse. Music was part of his rescue. And I’ve never heard him go as deep on these subjects as he does in this hour. His newest album is a powerful, secular record recorded at FAME Studios called The Sound Of Muscle Shoals.

Andrea Zonn and John Cowan have a few years under their belts as co-lead vocalists in the Nashville supergroup The HercuLeons, and now they have a debut album to complement their regular shows at 3rd & Lindsley. Given that they have significant touring commitments with superstar bands The Doobie Brothers (Cowan) and James Taylor (Zonn), they’ve done well to corral this assembly of musicians and songs. They’re both Music City veterans with rich stories to tell, so we’ve given them each their own episode of The String.

I might have featured The SteelDrivers this week, who just released their latest album Outrun on the revived Sun Records label, and we do kick things off with thier new song "The River Knows." However, I published a whole episode of The String with Tammy Rogers and Mike Fleming going over their whole history, so find that here. Instead, let's shine the bluegrass spotlight on Tim O'Brien and his wife Jan Fabricius, who've released their first jointly named album together after recording and touring as a harmonizing couple for about a decade. Tim, who turned 71 this spring, is of course a main driver in the rise of Colorado as a bluegrass hub. His band Hot Rize was the most exciting act of the 1980s, and Tim's solo career has been standout for his wonderful singing, his smart collaborations, and his songwriting. Tim and Jan present Paper Flowers, and we have the title cut. More new album action comes from Missy Raines & Allegheny, mandolinist Ashleigh Graham, and Corrina Rose Logston Stephens of the band High Fidelity in a new project she calls Rrinaco. Our throwback cuts this week come from the New Kentucky Colonels, Rhonda Vincent, and the Del McCoury Band.

Lance Cowan came to Nashville from his native Kentucky in the 1980s to build his career as a newspaper reporter, but he had the songwriting bug from the beginning. He made the scene at the Bluebird Café and made musical friendships. But with a family to raise, he wasn’t up for the sacrifices of the touring life. So he turned to music PR and he’s been one of the most trusted and easy-going pros in the roots music field for three decades. Now though, he’s turned back to music, releasing two albums in two years. Craig catches up with his old friend and colleague about his new direction.

When Shelby Means played WMOT's Finally Friday show a few weeks ago, out team was just beside themselves. They raved about it like no other set I can recall. I made sure to catch the official album release show to see her band for myself, and it was indeed fantastic, with vivacious songs and guest musicians like Michael Cleveland that showed off Shelby's top tier network of friends and supporters. We in the biz have known about Shelby's musicianship for years, and the world got wind of her touring with Molly Tuttle's Golden Highway band. Tuttle's put that ensemble on the back burner, so now the members are free agents, and Shelby's timed her solo debut album just right, landing May 30. We play the clever "5 String Wake Up Call" to wake up this week's show. Also, an exclusive early track from Longtime Friend, the upcoming New West Records release by Virginia string band The Wildmans. Amy introduces us to the band Big Chimney Barn Dance. And we revel in old standards by Jimmy Martin and Pete Seeger.

It’s hard to believe that Nashville’s SteelDrivers have been making their unique brand of hard-core string band music for nearly twenty years. They were the vehicle through which many of us were introduced to the epic voice of Chris Stapleton, back when he and Mike Henderson co-wrote that band’s high impact debut album of 2008. When Henderson and Stapleton had to move on, the band pulled its greatest trick, growing bigger and building a legacy that’s like nothing else in 21st century bluegrass. In Episode 324 of The String, Craig talks with original members Mike Fleming, bass player and baritone vocal, and Tammy Rogers, the fiddler and harmony singer who now leads the way with the band’s songwriting. We talk about the whole ride, up to the new album Outrun, out now on a revived Sun Records.

The story of how global banjo explorer Joe Troop (formerly of Che Apalache) met Venezuelan harpist and all-around folk music master Larry Bellorín is testimony to the magic of global culture and a cautionary tale about the stark turn US policy has taken against working asylum seekers this year. Over three years as the bilingual, genre-fusing, and multi-instrumental duo Larry & Joe, they’ve toured widely and made two albums together to great acclaim among folk music lovers. They’re one of the most charismatic and culture-crossing acts to come out of roots music in the past decade. Here in a special episode of The String, they tell their story in an interview that took place in Knoxville, TN in March.

I was so lucky to know Barry Poss over the last couple of decades, because his spirit and wit helped me understand how he steered Sugar Hill Records from a one-man operation in a Durham, NC apartment in 1978 to a powerhouse of roots music that signed a young Ricky Skaggs to one of his first record deals, plus the Country Gentlemen, Hot Rize, Doc Watson, Tim O’Brien and more. Barry discovered a 13-year-old Chris Thile, releasing his first solo album and steering the rocket ship career of Nickel Creek. No doubt Sugar Hill changed my life and many others, so this week we pay tribute to the label and to Barry, who passed away after a grueling struggle with cancer. You’ll hear innovative Cajun from the Red Stick Ramblers, banjo mastery from Jim Mills, and the bluegrass breakthrough of Dolly Parton. By coincidence, Barry’s passing and thus this episode coincides with my new report from Durham and its new Biscuits & Banjos festival. It includes a note about Barry Poss’s role in making musical history there.

That. Was. Fantastic. WMOT’s experienced and passionate (and woman run) team pulled it all together, lined up great music, got a little lucky with the weather, and our people turned out for a truly exceptional Roots On The Rivers. All afternoon and evening on Saturday, the grounds of Two Rivers Mansion rang with authentic music that touched some core genres in the Americana universe - modern folk, rock and roll, bluegrass, newgrass, and the blues. Our members and fans turned out in record numbers. And the artists generously embraced our Roots Radio community with very nice words live on the air for WMOT between their scorchin’ songs.Photographer Kristen Drum was on the scene for us again, and here are some highlights of our day.