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This one’s personal. Eight years ago, when we launched the Roots Radio format on the historic signal WMOT 89.5 FM, a few of us knew we could have no better program director than Jessie Scott, and we were fortunate that she was in the right time and place to come on board. Her 50 years of on-air experience, her expertise in Americana music, and her warm and knowledgeable voice have become the core of WMOT’s sound. She governs the deep and excellent WMOT playlist and its mix of new and legacy music, plus she’s a fountain of enthusiasm on the air every weekday afternoon from 4 to 7 pm. So after all this time and hearing some of her career stories, it was time to invite her on The String for a special year-end episode.

It was 50 years ago this month that a 23-year-old Mickey Raphael felt his way through his first recording session with his relatively new band boss Willie Nelson. And it was no small thing, producing the iconic Red Headed Stranger. It was one event in a charmed life that set this Dallas musician on a path to the ultimate steady gig for more than 50 years, plus stature as the world’s most on-call harmonica player. Raphael’s played and recorded with Merle Haggard, Leon Russell, Don Williams, Emmylou Harris, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Norah Jones, Wynton Marsalis, and even U2 and Motley Crue. In a session taped at WMOT’s East Nashville satellite studio, we talk about it all.

Featuring Jake Neuman, Molly Murphy & Nellen Dryden.

For country singer Kaitlin Butts, 2023 was very good and 2024 was even better, with an Americana Award nomination, praise in Rolling Stone magazine, and festival dates she’d been dreaming of. Her reputation and acclaim grew on the strength of her feisty stage temperament, her bold and cutting voice, and her fearless songs. Raised in Oklahoma on theater and country music, the iconic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical set in her state became a touchstone. Years later, she’d take the bold step of writing and recording a concept album reacting to and enlarging on the themes of the show. It’s called Roadrunner!, and it was among the most impactful albums in Americana and country music last year.

Grammy Award season began on Nov. 8 when the nominations were announced. The American Roots categories are looking good, lining up pretty well with my feelings about the best albums released in the past year. This week we spin tracks from all of the Best Bluegrass Album nominees: Brownwyn Keith-Hynes, Billy Strings, Sister Sadie, Dan Tyminski and Tony Trischka. But we know those folks and I want to turn your attention to a newcomer to the show, though certainly not in bluegrass music – Tim Raybon. He’s a Florida native, brother of Marty Raybon and half of the Raybon Brothers, who earned a CMA nomination for Duo of the Year in the late 1990s. Tim’s band soars here with Osborne Brothers style harmonies on an old Dallas Frazier / Doodle Owens song, “Walk Softly On The Bridges.” Also in the mix, folk singer John R. Miller and banjo composer Hillary Hawke, also spun on the show for the first time.

John Cowan didn’t plan, even remotely, on being in a bluegrass band. But when he was a 22-year-old in Bowling Green, KY, he tried out for New Grass Revival, hoping maybe to play bass for a weird hybrid band that was making national noise. Sam Bush heard him sing one and declared him the lead singer AND bass player, and off they went for decades together and a career that landed them in the Bluegrass Hall of Fame. Cowan made a run of excellent solo albums, finding his personal balance of string band and soul music. His voice is magisterial. And he collaborates brilliantly. Thus, we have Fiction, his first new solo album in a decade, out now. This week we have a couple of artists we don’t tend to think of in the grassy universe, but indie folk artist Bonnie Prince Billy and Americana stalwart Lukas Nelson are both here with creative singles. We offer our first ever taste of Big Country Bluegrass, a high and lonesome band from Virginia. And Carolyn Kenrick returns with a beguiling take on the old song “Leela.”

Traditional acoustic blues has seen one of its periodic revivals, with more younger African American artists involved than any time I can remember. No survey of the scene would be legit without sizing up the career of 35-year-old Jerron Paxton, sometimes known as “Blind Boy” for a severe myopia that’s affected his life since his teens. We should be grateful he’s committed to music - as a revivalist of the old and a writer of the new in a range of styles from Delta to ragtime to stride to spiritual. His variety and vivacity bursts forward on Things Done Changed, his first album for Smithsonian Folkways Records. In a zoom from his base in New York City, we talk about his upbringing in Los Angeles and his approach to developing his advanced understanding of foundational American music.

Colin O’Brien is a steadfast friend to the East Nashville acoustic roots and bluegrass scene, known for his banjo and fiddle playing, his flatfoot dancing, and his John Hartford-inspired bowler hat. So it came as a surprise, to me anyway, when he broke cover on his history as a fingerstyle guitar player and his compositional command with a new album. Thirteen, released on Nov. 7, is a mesmerizing solo acoustic journey on 6 and 12-string guitars that evokes the virtuosity and fluid ambience of John Fahey and Leo Kottke, and it was a joy to learn a whole new side of our pal. We share his tune “Shipwreck” this week. Also in the hour, new singles from the Chatham Rabbits of North Carolina and Evie Ladin of California. Historic tracks from the Lilly Brothers and Nashville’s late, great Dreadful Snakes.

Like the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, East Tennessee bluegrass band Seth Mulder and Midnight Run got their start as a house band at Ole Smokey Moonshine in Gatlinburg. Since then the quintet has built an outstanding reputation in the business, and they’re poised to be one of the next major acts. 2023 saw them win their first SPBGMA award for their Song of the Year “My My My,” which we’ve played here. This week we open with their new single “Looking Past The Pain (The Cowboy Song)”. Then we pair that with a classic western number from Don Edwards and Peter Rowan, because that’s how we roll. Also new this week, Alison Brown, Steve Martin and Vince Gill teamed up to make a song about a guitar that hangs on the wall. Andy Leftwich offers a fiddle version of the gospel standard “Talk About Suffering.” And Amy slipped me her duo’s new one, so the second set begins with Golden Shoals playing the fiddle tune “And The Cat Came Back.”

I think we’re going to be hearing the name Max Wareham a lot more in 2025. I first heard of the Boston-based musician playing banjo in the Peter Rowan Band, and Amy Alvey told me he’s related to Peter through his dad, Peter’s cousin. Max is also an author, having released Rudy Lyle: The Unsung Hero of the Five String Banjo to much acclaim in 2022. It’s a deep dive into a musician who worked with Bill Monroe and who was an important influence on the players who knew him. In February, Max will release his debut album Daggomit! featuring Chris Eldridge and David Grier on guitar, Laura Orshaw on fiddle, Chris Henry on mandolin, Mike Bub on bass and Larry Atamanuik on snare drum, Peter Rowan producer. Here we lead off with his single “Hard Times Are Far Behind” whether that’s true or not. Also in the hour, show debuts from western folk singer Bar Jay Bar and South Carolina’s Retro 78. Historic tracks from North Carolina’s Blue Sky Boys and Bill Keith, who gets jazzy on his banjo.