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Hayes Carll is such an admired veteran of the Texas songwriting tradition that his visage is painted on a sign along with Townes Van Zandt at the Old Quarter Cafe in Galveston. Over ten albums, he’s matched cleverness with insight and tenderness with roadhouse rock and roll. In this self-effacing interview, Carll talks about his apprentice years at that storied bar, his adjustments after being signed to a Music Row label, and his vulnerable new album We’re Only Human.

This week has a fun WMOT twist, in that opener Golden Shoals includes our Old Fashioned co-host Amy Alvey on fiddle and vocals, alongside her longtime touring partner Mark Kilianski. Also on the bill, classic roots rock purveyor Chris Berardo, and Texas Americana cat Jeff Crosby.

Shawn Camp arrived in Nashville almost 40 years ago as a 20-year-old guitar picker and fiddle player hoping to find a niche. As he graduated from touring sideman to songwriter to respected recording artist, he found himself working with his heroes. He quietly became an avatar of traditional country music and bluegrass done right. His work with Guy Clark was especially potent, and at long last, their song cycle about a fascinating character from Camp’s youth, has been released on the new concept album The Ghost Of Sis Draper.

We feature Minnesota roots songwriting veteran Amanda Grace, Western NC musician and poet Reed Turchi, and golden-throated alt-country singer KP Hawthorn (pictured).

Ken Pomeroy, who turned 23 days after this interview, is a fresh voice not just from the Oklahoma lineage of great roots songwriting and musicianship, but also from a new generation of Native American voices in popular music. She talks about her Cherokee heritage and the stewardship that comes with it, plus her emotional bond to music in this introspective hour. You’ll also hear incisive and often sad songs from her acclaimed national debut Cruel Joke, out this spring on Rounder Records.

Rodney Crowell let it slip in the middle of this interview that it was the eve of his 75th birthday. One of America’s greatest (and most commercially successful) songwriters is now three quarters of a century old, a steady patriarch. He continues to do excellent work, evidenced by two fine albums in a row, 2023’s The Chicago Sessions and the brand new Airline Highway. In both cases he collaborated with younger producers and musicians, spreading his wisdom around and drawing on their ideas and spirit. In his second appearance on The String, Crowell talks about maintaining his writing discipline, working with Jeff Tweedy and Tyler Bryant, and waking up to Louisiana R&B music as a teenager.

Amy Alvey is a fiddle instigator. She tours and performs of course, but she also teaches in person and on-line, and she organizes old-time jams, including our annual Old Fashioned String Band Throwdown pre-party, pictured here. (We'll be back at Dee's by the way on Tues., Sept. 9 by the way so make plans to join us from 4:30 on.) Anyway, Amy extends her mission to share American fiddling with the people this week in a special episode. She made a list of the tunes that she teaches as core old-time repertoire and then found great examples of those tunes spanning present day recordings and old archival tracks. From "Fire On The Mountain" to "Lonesome Road Blues" to "Reuben's Train," this show will build your own experience with this great body of work, as well as the many regional and individual fiddle styles there are out there.

Guitarist, singer and songwriter Eli West works with a quiet designer's mind in the Pacific northwest, and everything we hear from him has a rare depth and gravity. He's an avid collaborator who attracts greatness, having worked with Bill Frisell, John Reischman, Dori Freeman and others. I was taken with his album Tapered Point Of Stone in 2021, where West's musicianship blended organically with great east coast musicians Christian Sedelmyer (fiddle) and Andrew Marlin (mandolin). So it was exciting to see West release his new Shape Of A Sway album arrive in July. We've selected the gracefully swinging "Ever Lovin' Need To Know" for this week's roundup of new music. But we open by celebrating the first single in ages from our beloved old-time quartet The Onlies, followed by a sentimental new song from Hall of Famer Larry Sparks. The novelties continue with Kentucky's Carla Gover, fiddle wizard Darol Anger, and trad torchbearer Junior Sisk.

Vickie Vaughn keeps stepping up her game across the board. She’s been a charming and sincere member of the Nashville bluegrass community for years, lending her bass playing and harmony vocals to a range of artists as a side player and some premium bands as well, including High Fidelity and Della Mae. In 2023, she was named IBMA Bass Player of the Year and then she repeated a year later. This year she’s been rolling out new music as a featured artist, on her way to releasing an album on Mountain Home Music this November. We’ve spun her twist on Bruce Robison’s “Leavin’” and now she shines on the emotional ballad “Mama Took Her Ring Off Yesterday.” We knew she could really sing; now we really get to hear it. Also this week, a square dance number from Lonesome River Band, a new one from Jaelee Roberts, and a swinging instrumental from Andy Leftwich.

Leslie Jordan, the Nolensville, TN-based songwriter not the late comic actor and singer, makes a major statement in her pivot from a robust career in Christian folk/pop to storytelling Americana with The Agonist. It’s a song cycle that fleshes out the story of her late grandfather, a conflicted and complex man who left his family in Indiana when Leslie’s mother was four years old. Through a unique collaboration with a collection of his posthumous journals and writings, she builds a world and a character, holding him accountable while investing his story with dignity. It’s beautifully produced with Kenneth Pattengale and is one of the most impressive albums of 2025.