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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.

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.

Russ Carson didn’t just have a father who played the banjo; he had a father who made them. So yeah, music was in his Pennsylvania home, and he began playing at age 10. He did time with several bands, including Gold Heart and Audie Blaylock’s Redline, before joining one of the elite units of our time, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. He recently released what appears to be his third solo album Songs That Birds Don’t Sing through the Engelhardt Music Group, and it’s a wonderful ride that mixes styles and classics with Russ’s original tunes. We spin “Look Me Up By The Ocean Door,” written by the Cox Family, with Ron Block on lead vocals. Also new this week, a rich socially provocative song from the Del McCoury Band, a beauty from our favorite dulcimer player Sarah Kate Morgan and fiddler Leo Shannon. The new Laurie Lewis song is a blazer too.

For our first show of 2026, we take one last look over our shoulder at 2025’s coolest and most newsworthy bluegrass, old-time, and folk music. There was a lot of fine music, but for me, there were a few standouts, as outlined in my Dec. 19 feature The Old Fashioned Dozen. The collaboration in which Po’ Ramblin’ Boy CJ Lewandowski coaxed his friend and mentor Bobby Osborne into the studio for one more set of recordings – including “Rocky Top” – before his passing was both beautiful to listen to and one for the history books. Jason Carter and Michael Cleveland showed why they’re the state of the art in bluegrass fiddling and song curation on their IBMA Album of the Year. My favorite discovery of 2025 was The Wild Shoats, an exciting young band from WV and PA. Billy Strings and Bryan Sutton paid Doc Watson the highest homage with their live album and tour. And Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson really surprised us with an al fresco old-time album from the historic Piedmont of North Carolina. Onward to the new year!

Our holiday special features (we think) tracks that we’ve never played on the show, even though we have our favorites from years past. Molly Tuttle and Ketch Secor set the scene for the season with their new single “Fairytale of New York.” The obligatory “Christmas Time’s A Comin’” comes this year from the amazing trio of Doc Watson, Mac Wiseman, and Del McCoury. Particularly interesting is Bela Fleck’s solo holiday medley. There’s just about nothing he can’t play. Sorry this is going up in the archive so late! But perhaps it will bring you a memory of a good Christmas 2025.

Featuring Garrett Boys, Garrett Hendricks & Lauren Lucas.

Featuring Michael Reynolds, Andy Sydow & Bryan Simpson

Featuring Certainly So, Randall Bramblett & Cyrena Wages

This week on The String, Molly Tuttle is the link in common between two of the exceptional breakout artists during an exciting era of bluegrass music. Bronwyn Keith-Hynes is the electrifying fiddle player in Tuttle’s band Golden Highway and a two time IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year. We get into her journey from Charlottesville, VA to school at Berklee to Nashville and the latest chapter in her solo life, the wonderful album I Built A World. AJ Lee and Tuttle go back even farther, to the family band they shared growing up in the fertile bluegrass community of California. AJ Lee, an exceptional and original singer, has led her own band Blue Summit for nine years, and their newest album City Of Glass is one reason they were nominated as IBMA New Artist of the Year for 2024.

Featuring Eliza Thorn, Mabilene & Amber Rubarth & Jake Etheridge