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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.

To hear Mike Farris sing - an experience a bit like being pinned to the seat of an accelerating Porsche Taycan - is to believe that he was born to the stage, motivated from childhood, and destined for soul/gospel glory. Yet in Episode 327 of The String, we learn that A) Mike is lucky to be here at all and B) that a singing career was not remotely on his own radar until he was approaching his 20th birthday. And the two are related. In his teens, Farris almost died from drug abuse. Music was part of his rescue. And I’ve never heard him go as deep on these subjects as he does in this hour. His newest album is a powerful, secular record recorded at FAME Studios called The Sound Of Muscle Shoals.

Featuring Alaina Stacey, Phil Madeira & Crooked Eye Tommy

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.

This week we make a celebratory sandwich with the very special duo of Kieran Kane and Rayna Gellert, with brand new tunes opening, closing, and subdividing the show, plus one of their incisive vocal numbers in the middle. Rayna, as many of you know, has been a distinguished fiddler and songwriter for years on the folk circuit, notably as part of the supergroup Uncle Earl in the early 2000s. Kieran kicked Music Row in the hiney in the 1980s as half of the O’Kanes (with Jamie O’Hara) by proving that smart, Beatles-influenced country music could achieve hit status on the radio, as they did many times. As part of that effort and era, he launched the important Nashville indie label (and artist collective) Dead Reckoning, a key moment in the Americana revolution. He says the new Kane/Gellert release – Volume 4 – will be the last Dead Reckoning release. But not, we hope, from him and his formidable partner. Also this week, we kick off with a powerful and fun twin fiddle romp by Deannie Richardson and Kimber Ludiker, then it’s off to new songs from Zeb Snyder, Danny Burns, Gina Britt, and the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys (with their new lineup).

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.