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The story of how global banjo explorer Joe Troop (formerly of Che Apalache) met Venezuelan harpist and all-around folk music master Larry Bellorín is testimony to the magic of global culture and a cautionary tale about the stark turn US policy has taken against working asylum seekers this year. Over three years as the bilingual, genre-fusing, and multi-instrumental duo Larry & Joe, they’ve toured widely and made two albums together to great acclaim among folk music lovers. They’re one of the most charismatic and culture-crossing acts to come out of roots music in the past decade. Here in a special episode of The String, they tell their story in an interview that took place in Knoxville, TN in March.

I keep hearing in the news about a border crisis, but all we know is that some of the hottest stringband music in the world comes from north of our border with Canada, and that’s what rocks our second set this show. We’ve got two tracks from the brand new album Up The Hill And Through The Fog by Toronto’s Slocan Ramblers, along with the duo of Pharis and Jason Romero and the Lonesome Ace Stringband. We’ve got hot summer tracks from NC’s Fireside Collective and the duo we needed of Laura Orshaw and Trey Hensley, singing George and Tammy style. We dip into history with the New Kentucky Colonels and get weird with Stash Wyslouch. And Amy reminded me of how much I love Any Hinkle’s “Hills of Swannanoa” from 2021. Such a fearsome track!

Featuring Colin O'Brien, Ethan Samuel Brown & Kiely Connell.

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.