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It’s our first ever Christmas show, so we took on the task of sifting the staggering number of bluegrass holiday songs down to a collection that isn’t cheesy or sticky sweet. We had to include “Christmas Time’s A Comin,” the most famous of them all, which was written by Tex Logan and recorded first by Bill Monroe in 1951. There are many versions but we settled on a fine one by Rhonda Vincent. “Breaking Up Christmas” is a favorite from old-time music, and here it’s fiddled by April Verch with Joe Newberry on banjo. I’m particularly fond of “Beautiful Star of Bethlehem” with its fugue like vocal, offered here by Chosen Road, and the original “Rise Up Shepherd And Follow” by Virginia folk duo Robin and Linda Williams.

For our final show of 2022, Amy and I look back and pick tracks from what we thought were the best and most impactful traditional albums of the year. It was a year that reminded us that for every icon and veteran like Peter Rowan and Del McCoury, there are quite a few youngsters making a bright future for bluegrass and old-time. Molly Tuttle’s album Crooked Tree took her career to new places and inspired a road-burning year of touring and TV appearances. Billy Strings showed a new side of his musicality by making a traditional album of old favorites picked and sung with his dad, just like they did as he was growing up. Nora Brown and the duo of Allison DeGroot and Tatiana Hargreaves delivered remarkable and very different banjo driven old-time albums. Enjoy this tour of 2022 to get ready for the flood of new music in the year to come.

On November 20, 2022 we returned to our cozy club house in Madison, TN for another Old Fashioned Presents night at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge. This month’s featured artist was Austin Derryberry, one of the state’s finest young fiddler players and traditional musicians. He brought along his family band – wife Courtney, brother Conner and father Brian – and the music flowed between duos and full band over the hour. We’ve pulled five great songs from the set to share with you here. Otherwise, we spun new singles from Blue Highway and Larry Sparks, plus classic grass by Bill Grant and Delia Bell.

Radio is more than a signal and a service. It can act as a metaphor for the energy, sound and reach of a music scene. These synergies of radio station and music community are harder to find in the 21st century than they were in the 70s and 80s, but they’re around. We certainly try to capture the Nashville zeitgeist on WMOT, and there’s no doubt that in the potent scene of western North Carolina, WNCW is a hub of an extensive network of creatives and fans. Running operations and programming at the NPR affiliate is veteran broadcaster Joe Kendrick. And I thought it would be revealing and interesting to get together with him for a conversation.

AmericanaFest 2022 is in the books, and even more than usual, I came away with a backlog of fascinating conversations with artists who don’t live in Nashville but who are making an impact on roots music. This week’s show features highlights from three interviews with emerging talent in the veins of traditional old-time, modern bluegrass and folk-rock. There’s no such thing as a representative sample of the format’s younger generation, but between Tray Wellington, Nora Brown and Taylor Rae, there are plenty of storylines that will unfold and develop in the years to come.

The ambience at Two Dollar Tuesdays at East Nashville’s 5 Spot had a magic all its own. It was a neon-lit weekly church service of sorts, blending community fellowship with the sacred calling of nurturing and showcasing independent roots and rock and roll music at Music City’s most eclectic crossroads. After the closure of the Radio Cafe and the Slow Bar, the 5 Spot became the HQ for East Nashville’s musical renaissance through the 2010s, and Two Dollar Tuesdays (a mismatch of cover charge and musical value more alarming than today’s streaming rates) became its most reliable live event. The man who launched and built it was songwriter/artist Derek Hoke.

It’s one of the biggest bluegrass stories of the year. Sam Bush, founder of New Grass Revival and hugely influential mandolinist and fiddler, has released Radio John: Songs Of John Hartford. We recognize Hartford as the patron saint of our show, due to his mystical ability to advance tradition in a modern way and his deep influence on today’s scene. Sam was his good friend and sometime collaborator. Now he’s recorded nine songs on his own, playing all the instruments (!) plus one new title track in honor of the icon. We play that new song and several other Hartford-inspired tunes in this hour. Plus a great new duo from Shawn Lane and Richard Bennett, a lovely folky single from Carolyn Kendrick and a lookback classic by Bryan Sutton and Pat Enright.

This week’s show poses a question. What would Southern rock sound like in Appalachia, where hard-edged, working-class country music meets high lonesome history? I pursue answers through matched interviews with members of Town Mountain and 49 Winchester, longstanding bands from the high country of North Carolina and Virginia respectively that both made label debuts this year on leading Americana company New West Records. The albums sound great back to back, and the bands tell a story about Blue Ridge Mountain music culture in the 21st century.

Just as we were pulling this week’s show together, the new album by Billy Strings arrived, and it’s quite a different deal than his Grammy-nominated Renewal or his Grammy-winning prior album Home. This is called Me/And/Dad, featuring his father Terry Barber playing the songs that defined Billy’s growing up with his best musical friend and mentor. It’s an amazing story and a wonderful traditional album with a killer guest band. We help Billy celebrate his dad and Doc Watson with “Way Downtown.” Also new this week, singles from the serene-voiced Marija Droze, some clever wordplay from Nashville’s Charlie Treat, a classic from The High & Wides and a barn burner from Appalachian Road Show. We also start a two-week nod to the Grammy bluegrass nominees this year with selections by Peter Rowan and the Infamous Stringdusters.

Todd Snider walked out alone on the stage of the Ryman Auditorium in late September looking radiant. The guy has great teeth for one thing, along with the ease and confidence earned from more than 30 years on stage. He was bolstered and beloved by the loyalist lifer fans that hang on his every word, spoken or sung. He told the one about his first open mic and the one about East Nashville character Skip Litz who loved Train Songs. Todd’s mother was on hand and it was her birthday, so we all sang for her. Two days later we sat down for a delightful, rambling conversation.