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We noticed that roots music shero Ola Belle Reed was born and died in August, in 1916 and 2002 respectively, and we wanted to pay homage to this songwriter, singer, instrumentalist and force of nature. So set three features four of her greatest songs, two sung by her and two by other artists. We drew from the Folkways compilation Rising Sun Melodies from 2010, which is a great resource about her impactful career. New this week, a wonderfully arcane track from young old timer Daniel Ullom, Becky Buller’s take on a James Taylor song and a harmony-rich cut from the Tennessee Bluegrass Band. And we offer classic recordings from Hazel and Alice, J.E. Mainer and Rhonda Vincent.

Since moving to Nashville at age 21 in 1978, Kenny Greenberg has built a reputation as a guitarist who could bring rock and roll punch and jangle to commercial country records as well as a standout behind the glass. Besides his seminal work with Allison Moorer, Kenny has produced albums by the Mavericks, Josh Turner, Joan Baez, Toby Keith and just recently Hayes Carll. And his studio resume is extensive and diverse, including work with Etta James, Chris Knight, Lee Ann Womack, Amy Grant, Jon Randall, Bob Seeger, and his wife of many years, Ashley Cleveland. Now he's released the first solo album in his career.

Tributes to Tony Rice have been bountiful since the legendary guitar player and singer died at home on Christmas Day 2020. The Punch Brothers issued a radically reimagined cut-for-cut cover of Tony’s Church Street Blues. Barry Waldrep steered a multi-artist collection. Now Dan Tyminski, singer and guitar man for Alison Krauss and Union Station has his own nod to his hero called One More Time Before You Go, a five-track EP. This week as I host solo while Amy Alvey is traveling and teaching, I bring you one fine cut from it, Dan and Billy Strings harmonizing luminously on “Where The Soul Of Man Never Dies,” a traditional tune that Rice arranged with Ricky Skaggs on their famous and stupendous duo album of 1980. This week features new cuts from Tim Stafford and Thomm Jutz, Gina Furtado and the Lonesome River Band, plus timeless tracks from James King, Bela Fleck and Irishman John Doyle.

Between the time we put Show 25 to bed and now, we learned that this week’s kickoff song “Travelin’ Shoes” by Nashville mandolinist Thomas Cassell comes from the album What You Need To Prove, arriving Sept. 16, 2022 from Mountain Fever Records. Cassell is part of the band Circus No. 9 and a veteran of sideman work with Billy Strings, Bryan Sutton, Becky Buller and others. And he’s the 2021 National Mandolin Champion, so look out. Love this song. Also this week, new music from Frank Solivan’s rapidly upcoming album Hold On, a lovely single by Dale Ann Bradley and J.P. Pennington and an instrumental from the great Alice Gerrard and some younger pickers, including Tatiana Hargreaves. Vintage tracks come from Mississippi John Hurt and Byron Berline with a promising young Vince Gill singing lead.

Cajun music is a constant source of inspiration for us old-time and traditional music fans. It has a pulse and a danceability like no other genre. The fiddle pairs with the accordion much as it does with the banjo in Appalachian music, as Amy notes in this show. And it’s nested in a culture that’s rich with language, race, history and food. So as Amy set off to attend another Blackpot Festival in Lafayette, LA, we cooked up a gumbo of music with an extra large measure of bayou magic. Also this episode, new songs from Seth Mulder and Midnight Run, Joseph DeCosimo and the Caleb Daughtery Band. Voila!

Jason Carter leads off this week’s Old Fashioned, because he’s one of the most versatile and renowned fiddle players in bluegrass of the last 30 years and because he’s releasing a new solo album. For those new to this scene, Jason sought out and landed the job of fiddling in the Del McCoury Band in the early 90s and he’s been there ever since, winning five IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year Awards in the meantime, plus building the Travelin’ McCourys into its own phenomenon. His project Lowdown Hoedown is out as of Nov. 4. We’ve also got new music from Junior Sisk, the Foreign Landers and the duo of banjo star Kristen Scott Benson and her husband Wayne, playing as Benson. Old time sounds come from Hard Drive, David Long and our own Amy Alvey playing with Golden Shoals and the Old Time Snake Milkers.

Last week’s featured fiddler with a solo album was McCoury brother from another mother Jason Carter. This week it’s Andy Leftwich, whom most of us got to know during his nearly twenty years with Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. Now he’s moved on and is spending more time producing gospel music, playing sessions and rolling out new material. His new album is The American Fiddler and we’ve got the title cut. Fellow fiddle maestro Michael Cleveland has something new on the way, and we’re teasing that with a guest vocal tour de force featuring Dan Tyminski and Jeff White. Also in the hour, new music from Theo & Brenna, Sam Bush and Jake Blount.

Folk singer Willi Carlisle is one of the most compelling and disarming young troubadours in the country. On his superb 2022 album Peculiar, Missouri, he’s empathetic, insightful, poignant and a little profane. On stage, he’s boisterous and whimsical and tender, a songster and raconteur in the lineage of Steve Goodman and Utah Phillips and Woody Guthrie.

The last time Gary Nichols cut a studio album was in 2014 when he recorded a Grammy Award-winning project with The Steeldrivers in his native area of Muscle Shoals, AL. But he quietly stepped away from that fantastic group in 2017 without much explanation. Now he’s gone public to say he was confronting substance abuse issues and that he’s back with a clear vision for what’s next. So it’s gratifying to spin his first single for RBR Entertainment “Fire In The Dark” by Billy Droze, Eddie Wilson, and Chris Myers. Also this week, a new single for Chris Jones, who’s on a hot streak of #1 songs at bluegrass radio and one from Jaelee Roberts’s superb 2022 debut album. We throw back with Claire Lynch, the Wildwood Valley Boys and Charles Sawtelle.

If I were to praise Joe Henry’s resume, you’d be justified in asking which one? On one hand he’s an acclaimed recording artist with more than 15 albums to his credit, including collaborations with folk icon Billy Bragg and jazz genius Ornette Coleman. At the same time, his life as a record producer has been at least as extraordinary, having steered albums by Bonnie Raitt, the Carolina Chocolate Drops and the historic pairing of Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint. It’s hard to think of any musician in American roots music who’s been as prolific on both sides of the studio glass as he has. He’s also a writer and thinker of great depth, as we find out in Episode 239 of The String.