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Featuring Eliza Thorn, Mabilene & Amber Rubarth & Jake Etheridge

Featuring Mac Leaphart, Avocado Sundae & The Deltaz.

It’s an immigrant story like no other. JesseLee Jones pined for something bigger growing up in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He got glimpses of American music and a guitar, and with that a long journey began. After landing in the states, and getting robbed by the way, he found his way to a family in the midwest who took him in and helped him build a life. In the early 90s, destiny brought him to Nashville and a ramshackle honky tonk and boot store that he would help turn into Robert’s Western World, the pivotal and most famous honky tonk in Nashville. On the 25th anniversary of owning and running this legendary club, Jones tells his story, including the formation of his own long-running band, Brazilbilly.

Losing fiddler Bobby Hicks on Aug. 16 at the age of 91 may have been the biggest passing in bluegrass music since last summer when Jesse McReynolds and Bobby Osborne died close together. Hicks, a Bluegrass Hall of Famer, is among the greatest fiddlers in the music’s history. He grew up in the 30s and 40s in Greensboro NC and won his first state fiddle championship at age 12. He became a Blue Grass Boy for Bill Monroe in 1953, and we can hear him in show #121 playing on the legendary “Wheel Hoss.” We hear from his time with the Bluegrass Album Band supergroup, and with Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, a tenure that lasted from 1981 to 2004. He’ll be missed! Also this hour, new album releases from East Nashville’s Greenwood Rye, blues man Jontavious Willis, and labor-friendly songwriter Si Kahn.

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.

Steve Martin and Alison Brown first met when the star comic actor and writer invited Brown, the leading banjo player and owner of Compass Records, to be on his board for the Steve Martin Banjo Prize. That was almost 15 years ago, and as they got to know each other, they broke out their banjos to see what that felt like. Their blend of clawhammer style (Steve) and Scruggs-style (Alison) sounded special, so they co-wrote the instrumental “Foggy Morning Breaking.” That went Number 1 on bluegrass radio, prompting Martin to write the song “Bluegrass Radio” in gleeful celebration. They kept writing, and before you knew it, they had an album’s worth of material, which they’re about to release as Safe, Sensible and Sane on Oct. 10. On the way, they co-hosted the 36th annual IBMA Awards in Chattanooga, and this show features music that was nominated for prizes, along with the loveliest song from their album, “Dear Time,” sung by Jackson Browne. It’s last in the hour, so on the way there, enjoy music from nominees for New Artist of the Year, Entertainer of the Year, Song of the Year and more.

One day after Amy Alvey and I taped this edition of the show from a Chattanooga, TN hotel room at World of Bluegrass, Trey Hensley won his second IBMA Award as Guitar Player of the Year. And that just hints at the many talents he’s likely to win awards for in the years to come. The East Tennessee native was spotted early as a magnificent musician and singer, and he was playing on the Grand Ole Opry before his teens. A stint with Blue Highway brought him to my attention and kicked off an incredible run in a duo with Rob Ickes that produced three amazing albums and hundreds of enthralling shows. So Trey is more than ready for his closeup, and this week’s opener “Can’t Outrun The Blues” is his first single for Pinecastle Records, where, in 2026, he’ll issue a solo debut and launch as a leader. We are ready. Our backlog of new singles includes Darren Nicholson, Marty Falle, the Lonesome Ace String Band and the Grascals with a certain legend named Dolly Parton. Buzz Buzby brings the historic bluegrass buzz.

It’s not presented a bluegrass album per se, but Shawn Camp’s newest, The Ghost of Sis Draper, is rustic, acoustic, and soulful, and it’s full of fiddle tune Easter Eggs. The title track weaves its melody around “Arkansas Traveler.” One of the most famous American songs is reworked as “Soldier’s Joy 1864.” And the pickers, well they’re some of the best in bluegrass: Tim Crouch (fiddle), Mike Bub (bass), Chris Henry (mandolin), Jimmy Stewart (dobro), and Cory Walker (banjo). So okay, it’s bluegrass, but with all the praise it’s getting, let’s hope it gets nominated for Americana Album of the Year. We open with the title track. Also this week, new singles from the Foreign Laners, the Wilder Flower, and Ralph Stanley II. Amy was taken by Foggy Mountain Spaceship at World of Bluegrass (me too), and she picked their version of “Linus & Lucy” as our oddball track of the week. Far out.

I was browsing around the World of Bluegrass exhibit hall in Chattanooga in September and who should I see but Jesse Cobb, master mandolin player. I’d made friends with him way back when I was chasing the then-new Infamous Stringdusters around with a video camera. Then he moved on a couple years later to raise a family in Vancouver, so he wasn’t circulating as much. But he was at World of Bluegrass to showcase his band The Unfaithful Servants, who are looking to make a national splash with their new album Fallen Angel, which officially dropped Oct. 17. Besides Jesse, the band includes singer-songwriter Dylan Stone, fiddler Quin Etheridge-Pedden, and bassist Mark Johnson. We spin their title cut at the end of block two. Also this week, a new single from the Asheville Mountain Boys marking the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene with a song about an even older flood in Appalachia. Plus Larry Sparks, Meredith Moon, and an introduction to East Tennessee songwriter Beth Snapp.