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Featuring Gina Sicilia, Parker Hawkins & Rees Shad.

Joe Boyd is one of the most accomplished and eclectic record producers in the story of popular music. As an American living in London, he helped break psychedelic folk rock pioneers The Incredible String Band and worked with Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, and Fairport Convention. He founded Hannibal Records, giving a home to the solo career of Richard Thompson. He’s also worked with Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Toumani Diabate, Geoff and Maria Muldauer, and many more. He was also part of the small cadre of music marketers and labels that created the market category of World Music in the 1980s. Here, Boyd talks about his journey and his epic new book And The Roots of Rhythm Remain.

It’s hard to believe that Nashville’s SteelDrivers have been making their unique brand of hard-core string band music for nearly twenty years. They were the vehicle through which many of us were introduced to the epic voice of Chris Stapleton, back when he and Mike Henderson co-wrote that band’s high impact debut album of 2008. When Henderson and Stapleton had to move on, the band pulled its greatest trick, growing bigger and building a legacy that’s like nothing else in 21st century bluegrass. In Episode 324 of The String, Craig talks with original members Mike Fleming, bass player and baritone vocal, and Tammy Rogers, the fiddler and harmony singer who now leads the way with the band’s songwriting. We talk about the whole ride, up to the new album Outrun, out now on a revived Sun Records.

Featuring Brandon Birkedahl, Kristina Murray & Ross Flora

This episode of The String is a field report from the city that raised me in the 1970s and 80s and gave me my foundation in music, from college rock radio, to youth orchestra at Duke University, to jazz tutelage at a Black Muslim community center. It’s an arts-forward city that in the past decade has become something of a magnet for roots music, building on a history of gospel, blues and string band music, while the new festival Biscuits & Banjos, curated by Rhiannon Giddens, has put itself in a position to be a bridge from the past to the future and give Durham the identity it’s lacked as a national music hotspot.

Andrea Zonn and John Cowan have a few years under their belts as co-lead vocalists in the Nashville supergroup The HercuLeons, and now they have a debut album to complement their regular shows at 3rd & Lindsley. Given that they have significant touring commitments with superstar bands The Doobie Brothers (Cowan) and James Taylor (Zonn), they’ve done well to corral this assembly of musicians and songs. They’re both Music City veterans with rich stories to tell, so we’ve given them each their own episode of The String.

After a three-year tutelage with Old Crow Medicine Show, multi-faceted Appalachian artist Mason Via has set out on his own road. He was raised in bluegrass festival campgrounds and at picking parties hosted by his dad, songwriter and musician David Via. Bluegrass royalty hung out at his home near the North Carolina/Virginia border, and it’s rubbed off. After trying a few musical directions, Via’s self-titled album of this year shows range, depth, and a command of bluegrass and country moods. Meet a 28-year-old you’ll be hearing a lot more about if you follow acoustic roots.

Their name really does say it all, at least as far as their location and point of view. The guys in The Asheville Mountain Boys - John Duncan on banjo, Zeb Gambill on mandolin, Jacob Brewer on bass and vocals, and Marshal Brown on guitar and vocals – don’t go deep into their origin or individual backgrounds in their bio, but they’re resolute in their mission, “to capture not just the style but the spirit of traditional bluegrass.” Their first single was “Another Day,” a Reno & Smiley cover. We welcome them to the Old Fashioned with their newest, a song from the Monroe Brothers, circa 1938 (before bluegrass was even officially born!), called “Rollin’ On.” And it does. Also this week, a flood of new singles and album cuts from: Sister Sadie (from an album coming June 27), Don Rigsby, The Lonesome Ace Stringband, The Tennessee Bluegrass Band, Brad Kolodner, and the Novia Scotia folk duo Maggie And Cassie.

Texas Music Hall of Famer Monte Warden, East Nashville songwriter and country rocker Emma Swift, and "natural showman" Levi Foster hit the stage at 3rd & Lindsley.

Almost three years ago I profiled the young guitarist Luke Black as part of a package about the up and coming flatpickers in bluegrass. He was a student at Berklee College of Music and he'd recently started a progressive band called Mountain Grass Unit based in Birmingham, AL. They were still getting their act and sound together, but the idea - Tony Rice in Colorado was how I took it - felt strong. Well they've been crushing it since then, honing their thing and getting ready for their moment. At least two of them arrived this year - when they played the Ryman Bluegrass series - and when they played the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in June and left fans and journalists raving about what they'd seen. We play a cut from their 2024 EP Runnin' From Trouble. We're excited to hear more. Amy and I also spin a few artists who played Telluride this year, including Chris Thile, Alison Krauss & Union Station, and band contest winners Rachel Sumner and Traveling Light. Also this week, new songs from Rick Faris, Sister Sadie, and Darren Nicholson.