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Featuring Twisted Pine, Erin Viancourt & Jill Andrews

Featuring Wyatt Flores, John P. Strohm & Dallas Moore

For well over a decade, Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors have been among Nashville's most beloved local bands and national stars of folk rock at the same time. This weekend, Drew gathers his Neighbors, friends and family to mark turning 40 with two shows at the Ryman Auditorium. How he got here is a story with many layers, and that’s what we explore in Episode 210 of The String.

The story of Peter One is as warming as his music. As a young man in his native Côte d’Ivoire, he latched on to folk and country music more than most of his peers, until he met collaborator Jess Sah Bi, with whom he formed a celebrated, socially conscious duo in West Africa. Both had to leave the country due to political turmoil, and Peter One started over in the US, first in Delaware then in Nashville where he moved for a career in nursing. A rediscovery and reissue of his best African record reignited a music career that had been interrupted for 30 years, and this summer he’s everywhere from the Opry to Newport Folk Fest. I spend an hour with this kind and fascinating songwriter/guitarist.

Featuring Rachel Davis, Lauren Calve & Summer Dean

The big story of the week was the release of Molly Tuttle’s second bluegrass album in just over a year. City Of Gold features the same Golden Highway band that was introduced on the Grammy-winning Crooked Tree album bringing a new collection of varied, fascinating songs. We’re playing a lot of the album here on WMOT but The Old Fashioned got to premiere the trippy one, so enjoy going down the rabbit hole with “Alice In The Bluegrass.” Also prominent in Show #69 are musical duos. Amy and I just kept finding killer tracks by duos from both the bluegrass and old time camps, including a new single by Darin and Brooke Aldridge and some keening vintage sounding country from Andrew Small and Ashlee Watkins.

My co-host found herself too far off the grid to join me for this one, so I took her fine suggestions – including the divine Bob and Sarah Amos – and wove them into new music from some of our faves and some bluegrass classics. Becky Buller and Jim Lauderdale collaborated on the new single “Wall Around Your Heart,” a great one by Chris Hillman. The Grascals are back with the return of singer/guitarist Jamie Johnson and his song “I Go” that confronts his battles with addiction. I’ve been thinking about Kentucky bluegrass recently and that led to checking out Louisville’s Bibelhauser Brothers who turned in a terrific “What Would You Give” on their current album Close Harmony. And for some reason, the subject of incarceration was on my mind last week, leading to a cell block of prison songs from Del McCoury, Tony Rice, Ronnie Bowman and Barry Abernathy. Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time folks.

The charts don’t matter as much as hearts and arts, but sometimes they tell a story. For 17 weeks between March and July of this year, Simple Things, the ninth album by the Band of Heathens, was in the top ten on the Americana album airplay chart, with six weeks planted at number one. So whatever else happens, it will be among the most successful releases of 2023. That’s a testament to the resilience and consistency of a band that seems to take sustenance from playing live, and a special creative partnership that formed almost two decades ago between Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist.

Vince Gill and Paul Franklin, titans of Nashville music, first recorded together in 1989 and have been friends even longer than that. Gill is of course a Country Music Hall of Famer, while Franklin is in a different Hall of Fame - for the pedal steel guitar. Over the years in the studio and on stage, they've made the most of the euphoric blend of the voice, guitar, and steel, which is where Gill says he locates the very heart of country music. Ten years ago they made Bakersfield, honoring the songs of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Now they've teamed up for Sweet Memories: The Music of Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys, a set that covers the great singer's phases from old-school honky tonk to luxurious countrypolitan. I visited Vince's home studio for a wide-ranging conversation.

In Episode 68 as Amy and I reunite from a distance after more summer travel, I reflect on my stay near Port Townsend, WA where I attended two wonderful old-time concerts at the fifty-year-old camp called Fiddle Tunes and where I got to spend time with bluegrass hero (and now new Hall of Fame inductee) David “Dawg” Grisman. Inspired by that I pulled the classic album Doc and Dawg off the shelf to remind us why it was so influential. New music this week comes from young mando man Wyatt Ellis, Nashville’s Josie Toney, and Jeremy Garrett. Another classic from the grassy files is Dolly Parton singing “Silver Dagger,” while Don Reno and Bill Harrell kick it on “Country Boy Rock and Roll.”