Craig Havighurst

Bryan Sutton emerged from his hometown of Asheville, NC in the late 90s as a magnificently musical and technically gifted bluegrass guitarist, reaching most people for the first time through his long tenure with Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. He’s now a veteran of stage and studio with nine IBMA Guitar Player of the Year trophies, regarded by many as the finest all around flatpicker of our time. As he approached the 20th anniversary of his 2006 duet collection Not Too Far From the Tree: A Collection of Duets with Heroes and Friends, Sutton wanted to try a new series “built around peers and younger players rather than mentors.” We’ve played duets with Sierra Hull and an archival track with Doc Watson. This week, it’s an intense take on “Crazy Creek” with Nashville’s much-admired Jake Stargel. Also on the show, a new single from the Steep Canyon Rangers, our first listen to Boston’s duo Cold Chocolate, and a foot stomper from fiddler/dancer/singer Hillary Klug. Plus don’t miss the fireballing figerstyle guitar of Gwenifer Raymond.

For its 38th annual conference, Folk Alliance International returned to New Orleans, home of their largest-ever event (2020’s draw of 3,600 people) and the epicenter of one of the nation’s great regional roots music legacies. Besides a slate of Louisiana talent in blues, Cajun and zydeco, FAI was once again distinguished by diversity of style, genre, and nationality. Craig captured conversations with showcasing artists Joy Clark, Tyler Ramsey & Carl Broemel, Sparrow Smith, Maisy Owen, and Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light.

The Infamous Stringdusters are back with their first album of new material since 2022 and ready to celebrate their birthday. The quintet - with its roots in Nashville but its heart in Colorado’s progressive bluegrass legacy - formed 20 years ago, and on Feb. 13, they released a 20-song collection marking the occasion titled, aptly, 20/20. They won a Grammy Award and three IBMA Awards, but that doesn’t do their reputation or impact justice. Over these two decades, they’ve set the standard for musicianship, bandcraft, and songwriting in the newgrass/jamgrass world. And we’re glad to send the a shoutout with their single “Up From The Bottom” on the eve of their album release. I just interviewed three members of the band for another String appearance soon. Also this week, Tony Trischka lights up “Gentle On My Mind” for an upcoming sequel to Earl Jam, Frank Evans issues his first single from his upcoming debut solo record, Sparrow Smith brings her neo-Appalachian sound, and Mason Via sings a protest song on behalf of America’s wilderness areas

Nashville musicians comprise a brotherhood and sisterhood like no other, and on Sunday, hundreds of them and their loved ones gathered at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to remember and pay respect to pedal steel guitar player and music scholar Pete Finney, who died on Feb. 7 at 70 years old. They packed the 215 seats in the Ford Theater while at least another hundred people listened to music and memories over speakers in the Hall’s atrium.

Kristina Train is a singer and songwriter who should be on more people’s radar. Her remarkable resume was built in the jazz world (Blue Note Records and touring with Herbie Hancock), but the Savannah, GA native has always shown a seductive strain of country soul. That goes explicit on the powerful yet subtle 2025 album County Line. Craig speaks with Train about her critically acclaimed albums of the 2010s and her decade or so as a Nashvillian.

On January 10, Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers played their last road show - at Meadowgreen Music Park in Clay City, KY - marking the end of a 20-year touring career for one of bluegrass music’s most persuasive traditional bands. Mullins is not retiring from music, just the road. He has a lot going on with his chain of radio stations in Ohio and a new granddaughter. While they rambled, the band released a dozen albums in the bluegrass and gospel space, and in 2019 they were named Entertainers of the Year by the IBMA. We salute this fine banjo player, singer and broadcaster for 20 years of grassroots touring by opening up with a Joe banjo tune and by playing a song from their most recent album, appropriately titled “Something To Look Forward To.” Also this week, the album debut of Della Jane’s Heart by Appalachian Road Show, a new one from John Reishman and the Jaybirds, and a new old-time single from Amy Alvey herself and her duo Golden Shoals.

I wasn’t able to attend the recent Ryman Auditorium show featuring the Sam Grisman Project with Peter Rowan and special guests, but I went to last year’s debut of this important acoustic and bluegrass collaboration, and it was spectacular. David Grisman’s son Sam has come into his own as a leader, as I documented last year on The String. So imagine our surprise when he dropped a mighty 20-song double album just before Christmas. Working with banjo player Victor Furtado, mandolinist Dominic Leslie, and singer Logan Ledger, among others, Grisman steers with a steady hand through a rich mix of American songs. The sound is easy and natural. It’s a major statement, so we launch this show with two tracks, with more to come. Also this week, new music from LA’s Kenny Feinstein, Arkansas traveler Melissa Carper, and Nashville’s George Jackson. That last one? It's a little weird and we love it. Also, we say a sad farewell to banjo master Gabe Hirshfeld, who passed away too young.

Mavis Staples and the folk supergroup I’m With Her were validated as the class of the Americana field at the Grammy Awards on Sunday, while the prime time broadcast sidelined roots music just when Americans need it most. Interest in folk, hard country, and bluegrass seem on the rise in the marketplace, but you wouldn’t know it from the almost eight hours of ceremony split between an afternoon online segment and what’s now known to be CBS’s final network broadcast of the Recording Academy’s signature event.

Just over two hours from Nashville, the north Alabama town of Muscle Shoals and its nearby communities became an unlikely but ultra-rich musical wellspring in the 1960s. And seems to have made history in every decade since, right up to today. A new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and a huge new book offer fans of American music two ways into this dynamic and soulful story.

Della Mae has been on a heck of a journey since Boston fiddler Kimber Ludiker assembled a band of women to play bluegrass that shreds and defies limits in 2010. The cool thing is that their freshly rebuilt website acknowledges this with a crisp account of the band’s phases and stages – getting signed by Rounder Records, the global touring by way of the U.S. State Department, the IBMA Awards. Now, they say “Della Mae can boast their strongest lineup yet. Founders Kimber Ludiker and Celia Woodsmith are joined by guitarist and songwriter Avril Smith and vocalist and two-time IBMA Bass Player of the Year Vickie Vaughn.” And they’re coming in hot on Jan. 23 with their newest album Magic Accident, which “explores the complexity of being human and the drive to seize joy and possibility amid the sheer improbability of being here at all.” We spin the single “Family Tree” to launch this episode. Also, a special song cycle album from Valerie Smith and I play a batch of 1980s and 90s bluegrass I picked up over the holidays on CD at Nashville’s used record stores.