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Featuring Steve Fox, Robby Hecht & Kyshona

Leftover Salmon played their first formal show on New Year’s Eve in 1989 in Boulder, CO, an event that might be to Colorado Jamgrass what Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys at the Grand Ole Opry in 1945 was to bluegrass. And Salmon is still crushing it almost 35 years later. I saw them in late March leading the music at the opening weekend of Jerry Garcia – A Bluegrass Journey at the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in Owensboro, KY. So they came right to mind when we were amusing ourselves with a set to mark 4/20, the date this show premiered. We could have drawn from a lot of weed-friendly recordings, but we went with Billy Strings, Sam Bush, and Jesse McReynolds, who made one of the greatest Grateful Dead cover albums. Also this week, a locomotive of a new single from the Travelin’ McCourys, a new album from Junior Sisk, and a gorgeous “Weeping Willow” by the Lilly Brothers and Don Stover from back in the day.

In Show 106 Amy and I ponder authorship in folk music and some of the disputes and errors that can arise. I love the song “The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore,” which I first heard sung by Norman Blake. Some claim Tom T. Hall wrote it. But we spin the original version by its true author – the great Kentucky folk singer Jean Ritchie. Another critical tribute we offer this week is for Seldom Scene co-founder and banjo master Ben Eldridge. He passed away on April 14 at age 85, and the impact of his innovative playing will always be immense. Besides a couple of Seldom Scene numbers, we hear from his key influence Bill Keith, and his son Chris Critter Eldridge of Punch Brothers. Also in the hour, a new single by Colorado band Jake Leg, who’s got a debut album coming May 11 that I’m looking forward to. Our first block includes a double shot of NC banjo man Tray Wellington, a new single of his own and a tune by his new string band New Dangerfield.