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For show #122 we lead off with Sister Sadie from the new multi-artist Bluegrass Sings Paxton album that’s finally out from Mountain Home. Artists including Alice Gerrard, Claire Lynch, Danny Paisley, and Tim O’Brien sing Tom Paxton songs, which have long found their way to bluegrass artists’ repertoires. The Sadie ladies offer perhaps his most famous, “Last Thing On My Mind.” Then we let the Earl Scruggs Festival inspire us for a block. From the Labor Day festivities in Rutherfordton, NC, we pulled tracks by artists the Earls of Leicester, Darrell Scott and his string band, The Steeldrivers, and young mando player Wyatt Ellis. Plus a bit of the immortal Flatt & Scruggs from their Carnegie Hall album, which the Earls and friends played at the festival in this year’s classic album hour. Also this show, blues from Jerron Paxton, new old time from Chris Coole, and a pretty folk anthem from Kentucky’s Sam Gleaves.

I attended the Earl Scruggs Music Festival for the third straight year to conduct some on-stage interviews, take in favorites like Marty Stuart and the Earls of Leicester, and hopefully discover some new artists who’d sound good on The Old Fashioned. Well, mission accomplished with The Wilder Flower, a western NC trio featuring Danielle Yother on guitar, Madeline Dierauf on fiddle, and Molly Johnson on banjo that formed in 2020. Their soulful and harmonious take on Appalachian music suggests that the traditions of the region aren’t lost on younger generations, but we knew that. We play their recent single “Rambling.” I also saw Shadowgrass, a gang leaning forward in bluegrass, and their string jam cover of the Dead’s “Mr. Charlie” sounds great. Chris Jones brings a new single about American paranoia and conspiracy mongering to launch the show. Brenna MacMillan continues to tease her next recording with the single “Black Bear.” And we reach back to the 90s with the brothers McCoury.

Featuring Wesley Dean, Liv Greene & Rachel Cole

While it’s one of the great music cities in the world, the story of Memphis, TN is generally told as one about Elvis, BB King, Isaac Hayes, and possibly Justin Timberlake - artists from the history books or well on in their careers. Roots music fans might know more contemporary talents like songwriters Amy LaVere and John Paul Keith. Many others simmer along in that city’s bars and clubs, but one has to go there to get up to speed on the talent pool. Southern Avenue is different - a breakout band from Bluff City with national acclaim, a renowned record label, and a musical voice grounded in native soil and native soul. It’s the band today’s Memphis has needed.

Performances from New Mexico troubadour Max Gomez, acclaimed New Zealand-born Jackie Bristow (pictured), and Shooter Jennings band alum Ted Rusell Kamp.

In a new Q&A at the Bluegrass Situation, Ali Vance, lead singer of Nashville’s DownRiver Collective, reveals that she was named after Alison Krauss, who in turn became her greatest musical influence. Ali has a powerful and supple voice, not like Krauss, but that’s a good thing. It’s just part of the signature sound that has this five-piece making waves in acoustic music, including their IBMA Momentum Band Of The Year award last fall in Raleigh. We were excited to see the new single “Come On Back” from the band, with promises of a full-length album this year. Jesse Smathers lights up the room with a celebratory opening song this hour. We also feature new singles form Asheville’s The Wilder Flower, Chris Jones, and Seth Mulder. Amy Alvey phones in a set from the Durango Bluegrass Meltdown. Our historic cuts come from Tony Rice and JD Crowe.

After the breakup of the legendary and scene-shifting Carolina Chocolate Drops around 2015, Rhiannon Giddens spread her wings as an artist, making wide-ranging albums to universal acclaim and winning both a MacArthur Fellowship and a Pulitzer Prize. Her identity as an old-time fiddle and banjo player was set aside for a time, even as her thought leadership changed the national conversation around race and country music. This April however, she brought back the string band sound that launched the Drops with co-founding member Justin Robinson on fiddle, with their album What Did The Blackbird Say To The Crow? It came out on the eve of her new Biscuits & Banjos festival in Durham, NC, where the CCD got their start, which included the first reunion concert in ages. I’ll have a longer report about that weekend soon, but for now, we celebrate that event and album with several tracks in this hour. Also, new singles from Appalachian Road Show, Aaron Burdett, and the Kody Norris Show.

It was wonderful of mandolinist Carter Shilts of Chicken Wire Empire to reach out to us specifically with an early listen to their single “Fiddle And Song,” a rollicking celebration of the music we love. It’s a harbinger of Growing Pains, the Milwaukee band’s first LP in seven years, one that features guest turns by Jerry Douglas and Kyle Tuttle. I finally got to see these guys last fall at World of Bluegrass where I was transfixed by their instrumental virtuosity and musical smarts. At the same time, they didn’t sacrifice any bluegrass swing or veneration of the sounds that brought us all here. Americana UK got it right, citing “a variety which transcends genre and rewards careful listening.” We look forward to hearing and playing more Chicken Wire when the album comes out on June 1. Also new this week, “Followin’ You” is the exciting first single from East Nash Grass as they anticipate release of their third album, All God’s Children, later this year. Shelby Means dropped the song “Farm Girl” so we built a block around farms and gardens to celebrate spring. Our old school tracks come from the Seldom Scene and the Flatlanders in 1973 and 1972 respectively.

Dr. Peter Wernick and Charles Humphrey III are fans of Colorado’s Ragged Union, so maybe all of us should be too. The quintet, led by North Carolina native Geoff Union, a flatpicker and the band’s lead songwriter, has been around for more than a decade. In that time, they’ve picked their way to stages at John Hartford’s memorial festival, the Northwest String Summit and even the Qingdao International Beer Festival in China. I love Geoff’s crafty writing and his yearning voice on the song “Spell of Rain,” which can be found on the engaging new album Pyramid Stairs, the band’s fifth release. We’re all about new of course, so we lead the show with a song from Mason Via’s brand new self-titled album, to my ears the best collection of songs he’s yet released. We were blown away by the classic ‘grass feeling captured by Water Tower’s Kenny Feinstein as he covers Ralph Stanley’s “Old Richmond Prison.” Also check out fresh cuts from Zoe and Cloyd, Pitney Meyer, Larry Cordle, and Dale Ann Bradley. Mercy!

Strangely, I’d never laid eyes on the outsider folk singer Michael Hurley until a few days before his passing. He was in Knoxville to play the Big Ears festival, and I was attending. I didn’t catch his set (it was utterly packed in a smallish pub), but I saw him loading in, wearing his signature hat. Amy Alvey’s a different story. She knew Michael and visited him recently, so she has stories, and she curated our tribute block of music. Hurley was one of the most provocative artists in deep roots music since the 1960s when he emerged in the Greenwich Village scene. He was witty and unique and risk-taking, so we’ll remember him fondly. Also this week, a surprise new album from Billy Strings and Bryan Sutton arrived - a guitar and voice duo show captured live at the American Legion in East Nashville. And we’ve got songs by major recent albums from Alison Krauss, Tyler Grant, and the duo of Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson.