Search results for

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.

Featuring Kelley Mickwee, Zach Wildee & Beau Jennings.

Nobody’s changed the game in bluegrass music in the past decade more than Billy Strings. He moved from his home state of MI to Nashville a bit less than ten years ago with an insider reputation as a hot young picker who embodied the spirit of Doc Watson. Since then, he’s taken good bluegrass to arena scale and written a ton of great new songs for the canon. His newest album Highway Prayer is, I think, his best yet – at least his best album of bluegrass music. Few experiments or digressions. So many hot performances and songs. We spin our first song from the disc, the very trad sounding “It Ain’t Before.” Also this hour, some superb fingerstyle ragtime blues from Lakota John, a TOF band premiere with the Asheville Mountain Boys, a new duo from Mo Bandy and John Meyer, and top-shelf old-time from our friends George Jackson and Brad Kolodner.

It is so very good to see old-time and folk hero Jody Stecher so engaged and fruitful at age 78. The Brooklyn native and two-time Grammy nominee became an influence on a legion of roots heroes, including Jerry Jeff Walker and Jerry Garcia. Now he’s collaborating with Boston bluegrass band Mile Twelve, releasing two LPs in about a year. The newest is charmingly titled Instant Lonesome and The Twinkle Brigade and we’ve got a tune from that. From the bio: “The band is on fire, ignited by the spark of Jody’s impassioned singing and guitar. The format is recognizable as old-style blues-tinged, old-time flavored bluegrass but nothing here is generic or predictable.” Also this hour, Nashville’s Thunder And Rain, Rhonda Vincent, Willie Watson and Larry Cordle singing a Bob Seger song from a new bluegrass compilation.

The bluegrass family was shocked in mid September to get the news that mandolinist and singer David Davis, leader of the Warrior River Boys, had died in a car crash at the age of 63. Inspired by Bill Monroe at an early age, he worked with band leader Gary Thurmond until Thurmond retired and handed the reins of the WRB over to Davis. He lived his whole life in his native Alabama, but he toured the nation and recorded for Rounder Records, including the must-own 2018 album Didn’t He Ramble, covering songs from the catalog of Charlie Poole. We offer Davis singing the classic “Blues Stay Away From Me.” Also this week, two exciting album releases: Rebecca Frazier leads off the show with “Hurricanes” from her new Boarding Windows In Paradise (unnervingly prescient given the news) and the first formal project by Mike Compton and Joe Newberry called Home In My Heart. Amy brought in new music from her duo Golden Shoals. And there’s a nice run of neo-old-time from Showman and Coole, Water Tower from LA and The Devil Makes Three.

Anya Hinkle is one of the standout folk artists of the past few decades in Western North Carolina, making her own space and sound in the overlap of old Appalachian, singer-songwriter and bluegrass. I just saw her perform at Scruggs Fest with a trio she’s rolling out next year called Tanasi. But she’s also one of so many victims of Hurricane Helene, which slammed our beloved mountain region with incomprehensible rainfall and tropical storm winds, leaving countless victims of flooding, landslides and wind damage. We turn our attention to the region in this episode, and Hinkle’s “Hills of Swannanoa” already a favorite song of mine, hit really hard, so it’s part of a block of artists from the Asheville area. Hinkle herself is safe, but a 100-year-old tree fell on her house. There’s a lot to do. Please visit Blue Ridge Public Radio for updates and options for sending aid.

Americana music has been most conspicuously represented in the last few years by songwriting, band-leading artists, including Jason Isbell, Sierra Ferrell, and Billy Strings. Flash back to the origins of the alt-country and Americana movement, and the conversation was more often about bands, such as Son Volt, Whiskeytown, and the Old 97s. Such outfits made well-written roots music that rocked with that collective commitment that makes bandcraft so fascinating. This week I present two veteran and venerable roots rock bands that came along in the second Americana wave, bands that have weathered changes and renewed their vows - Austin’s revived Uncle Lucius and Raleigh, NC-based Blake Christiana of Yarn.

Irene Kelley’s bright and pretty voice and thoughtful songs have graced bluegrass and roots music since the 1980s when her career got going with a Ricky Skaggs/Sharon White duet that made the country charts. Since then she’s had hits and cuts by Alan Jackson, Loretta Lynn, and many bluegrass artists, while releasing a half dozen albums of her own. She’s also made a good bit of music with her daughters Justyna and Sara Jean, and now they’re taking that to the scene formally as the new group Women Of Kelley. They debut here with their first single “Lining Track,” inspired by African American work songs and written with Shannon Sanders. Also this hour, a ripping new version of “Blue Night” from Nashville mandolin player and singer Ashby Frank, the first guitar instrumental album by East Nashville scene maker Colin O’Brien, and the long-sought collaboration between string bands Hawktail and Vassen of Sweden. Also, Amy Alvey sets up a set of Cajun and zydeco music inspired by her time at the Black Pot festival.

One of my highlights of 2024 was finally getting to see Minneapolis folk rocker Humbird, an artist whose three recordings display an unusual degree of sonic imagination and bandcraft, even beyond her serene and appealing voice. On her newest, Right On, songwriter Siri Undlin conjures ghosts, protests monoculture and environmental neglect, and investigates relationships. In this conversation, taped the morning after her official showcase at Americanafest 2024, we talk about her passion for folklore, the warm embrace of the Minneapolis DIY music scene, and the benefits of bare feet when using guitar pedals.

Featuring Lewis Stubbs Junior, Suzie Chism and Tiffany Williams & Dalton Mills.