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I was so lucky to know Barry Poss over the last couple of decades, because his spirit and wit helped me understand how he steered Sugar Hill Records from a one-man operation in a Durham, NC apartment in 1978 to a powerhouse of roots music that signed a young Ricky Skaggs to one of his first record deals, plus the Country Gentlemen, Hot Rize, Doc Watson, Tim O’Brien and more. Barry discovered a 13-year-old Chris Thile, releasing his first solo album and steering the rocket ship career of Nickel Creek. No doubt Sugar Hill changed my life and many others, so this week we pay tribute to the label and to Barry, who passed away after a grueling struggle with cancer. You’ll hear innovative Cajun from the Red Stick Ramblers, banjo mastery from Jim Mills, and the bluegrass breakthrough of Dolly Parton. By coincidence, Barry’s passing and thus this episode coincides with my new report from Durham and its new Biscuits & Banjos festival. It includes a note about Barry Poss’s role in making musical history there.

When Shelby Means played WMOT's Finally Friday show a few weeks ago, our team was just beside themselves. They raved about it like no other set I can recall. I made sure to catch the official album release show to see her band for myself, and it was indeed fantastic, with vivacious songs and guest musicians like Michael Cleveland that showed off Shelby's top tier network of friends and supporters. We in the biz have known about Shelby's musicianship for years, and the world got wind of her touring with Molly Tuttle's Golden Highway band. Tuttle's put that ensemble on the back burner, so now the members are free agents, and Shelby's timed her solo debut album just right, landing May 30. We play the clever "5 String Wake Up Call" to wake up this week's show. Also, an exclusive early track from Longtime Friend, the upcoming New West Records release by Virginia string band The Wildmans. Amy introduces us to the band Big Chimney Barn Dance. And we revel in old standards by Jimmy Martin and Pete Seeger.

I might have featured The SteelDrivers this week, who just released their latest album Outrun on the revived Sun Records label, and we do kick things off with thier new song "The River Knows." However, I published a whole episode of The String with Tammy Rogers and Mike Fleming going over their whole history, so find that here. Instead, let's shine the bluegrass spotlight on Tim O'Brien and his wife Jan Fabricius, who've released their first jointly named album together after recording and touring as a harmonizing couple for about a decade. Tim, who turned 71 this spring, is of course a main driver in the rise of Colorado as a bluegrass hub. His band Hot Rize was the most exciting act of the 1980s, and Tim's solo career has been standout for his wonderful singing, his smart collaborations, and his songwriting. Tim and Jan present Paper Flowers, and we have the title cut. More new album action comes from Missy Raines & Allegheny, mandolinist Ashleigh Graham, and Corrina Rose Logston Stephens of the band High Fidelity in a new project she calls Rrinaco. Our throwback cuts this week come from the New Kentucky Colonels, Rhonda Vincent, and the Del McCoury Band.

This week brought a bounty of banjos - even more than usual. Brad Kolodner, a friend of the show and fellow bluegrass broadcaster, has a new solo album out called Old Growth featuring gourd banjo. We have our first cut from Joseph DeCosimo's upcoming album Fiery Gizard, a unique take on the western swing tune "Ida Red." But let's shine the spotlight on an artist who's keeping the banjo cool in New York City, Hilary Hawke. She's a songwriter, arranger, teacher and collaborator who treats the banjo like a versatile instrument, not a one-way ticket to bluegrass-ville. We've played selections from her solo instrumental debut Lillygild. Now we dip into her upcoming album Lift Up This World with the song "All I've Ever Known," with support from guitarist Ross Martin and fiddler Camille Howes. Also this week, two generations of Ralph Stanleys sing two versions of the ancient "Pretty Polly." Sister Sadie and the Po' Ramblin' Boys team up to celebrate World of Bluegrass moving to Chattanooga. And we've got new songs from East Nash Grass and AJ Lee & Blue Summit, who are set to play The Ryman together on July 15.

Few fully independent artists in any genre have been able to grow to the scale and influence that Cody Jinks has pulled off in the outlaw country space. He sells out iconic venues like Red Rocks in Colorado with a sound that layers his boyhood influence from Lefty Frizzell with the edge of the thrash metal rocker he once was. The Fort Worth native “put in the reps” for countless years in bars and honky tonks, nearly going broke, before albums like I’m Not The Devil and Lifers vaulted him to the big time in the years before the pandemic. He’s now out with In My Blood, an album that basks in his newfound sobriety and a new focus on himself and his family, making this a very candid and fascinating interview with a self-made country star whom mainstream radio virtually overlooks.

This week, we have performances from Nashville songsmith Jamie Kindleyside, Jamie's recent creative partner Suzy Ragsdale (pictured), and Irish bluegrasser Danny Burns.

Featuring Hannah Fairlight, Kevin Gordon & Sizzle Went The VCR.

Featuring JP Harris, James Talley & Dallas Moore

“I like dark songs. I don't know why,” says Grayson Capps early on in Episode 303 of The String. “Cheerful songs don't do much for me.” The Lower Alabama bluesman and songwriter is talking about both his career in general and his seventh album in particular, with the un-cheerful title Heartbreak, Misery & Death. It’s a covers collection featuring songs that shaped him as a young guy coming of age in Brewton, AL and New Orleans, where he went to school and launched his music career. It couldn’t have been a better springboard for an hour with an artist who’s even more fascinating for his distance from Music City and its business apparatus.

Brenna MacMillan is ready for her closeup. The Kentucky native has been a fixture of the Nashville bluegrass brigade for a few years now, collaborating widely and touring for a time with her brother as Theo & Brenna. Now the banjo player and singer has written and recorded a moving, effervescent new solo debut album called Dear Life, featuring some hot guests like Peter Rowan, Sarah Jarosz, and Ronnie McCoury. We start this week’s show with my current favorite cut, “Sweet Thing,” a classic country duet with East Nash Grass dobro man Gavin Largent. Also in the hour, a new old-time album from Brad Kolodner (banjo) and George Jackson (fiddle), a hot duet No. 1 bluegrass single from fiddle geniuses Michael Cleveland and Jason Carter, and fiery flatpicking from England’s Charlotte Carrivick, an international bluegrass guitarist you need to know. I hosted this one solo while Amy was in Louisiana finding accordions to play with.