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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.

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.

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.

Something happened again at World of Bluegrass in Raleigh that I don’t have to plan. I just seem to happen upon the Burnett Sisters performing there, and I always dig them. Siblings Anissa, Sophia, and Anneli lead the group, which is based in Boone, NC. They have a warm, relatable vibe while also being tremendous at their instruments, picked and sung. That chemistry helped them take first place at the MerleFest Band Contest in 2022, among other accolades. So when I saw the sisters had released a new single, I hopped on it, even though it’s mired in the mighty lonesome subjects of “Sorrow, Grief and Pain.” Also this hour, a classic song from an intimate and compulsively listenable new album from old friends Jordan Tice, Andrew Marlin and Christian Sedelmyer. Big Richard sent out their first single on the way to a debut studio album in 2025. I toss in two discoveries from rambling at festivals this year – The Plate Scrapers and Serene Green.

Featuring David Newbould, ZG Smith & Kevin Gordon.

Featuring Wild Ponies, Them Coulee Boys & Jett Holden

When Gaby Moreno was announced as an official showcasing artist at this Fall’s Americanafest, it stirred a tingle of recognition in me, but I had to do some digging to realize what a big deal it was. The Guatemala-born, Los Angeles-based singer and songwriter became part of the Watkins Family Hour at Largo in LA and a regular on Chris Thile’s Live From Here Show. She’s released nine records, winning two Latin Grammy Awards - and an album Grammy Award earlier this year. She’s internationally known as one of the most versatile and enthralling voices in any genre, but her latest Dusk, produced by Nashville’s Dan Knobler, brings a needed Spanglish influence to the Americana community.