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Featuring Ghalia Volt, Stephanie Lambring & Singa B. With a special set from Grace Pettis, Natalie Price & Robby Hecht.

It’s one thing to get applause for your songs, and it’s another to get laughs. John Craigie of Portland, OR has quietly built a robust touring career because he’s an excellent songwriter who also keeps his audiences in stitches between songs. His newest album is a collaboration called Pagan Church with TK and the Holy Know-Nothings, the Portland band fronted by admired songwriter Taylor Kingman. We talk about how Craigie developed his stagecraft under the influence of artists like Arlo Guthrie and his friend Todd Snider, as well as his unlikely path to performing while getting a math degree in California. No surprise, it’s a lot of fun. Also in the hour, Dave Wilson and John Teer reflect on 25 years as Chatham County Line and the new directions baked into the new album Hiyo.

This week we say thanks and farewell to mandolinist Frank Wakefield, the eccentric and outrageous mandolinist who died in late April at age 89. The East Tennessee native played with Red Allen and Jimmy Martin. His other claim to fame was being the first influential teacher of David Grisman, who champions Wakefield’s music to this day. We’ve got a block dedicated to his inspiring performances, including his famous original song “New Camptown Races.” Also this hour, new songs from the peerless voices of Danny Paisley and Del McCoury, a raging instrumental between Chris Thile and Michael Daves, and a deep cut from the Nashville Bluegrass Band.

The recent passing of banjo legend Ben Eldridge and mandolinist Frank Wakefield were sad but not entirely unexpected given their ages. But prior to this show we got news that Jim Mills, one of the iconic banjo players of our time and one of the world’s foremost expert dealers of Gibson banjos had died of a heart attack at age 57. It is a deeply sad loss. I learned of Jim’s mastery like so many people during his years with Ricky Skaggs when he went all-in on bluegrass with his Kentucky Thunder band. Jim’s Scruggs-style playing was fierce and precise and inventive. And he’ll be missed. We hear him in this show from two of his solo albums, an early track from his career with the band Summer Wages, and a fiery Skaggs track. Also this week, a hot new single from fiddlers Jason Carter and Michael Cleveland, another new track from songwriter/guitarist Rebecca Frazier, and emerging Nashville band Off The Rails.

Saddle up with WMOT and 3rd & Lindsley for Finally Friday, because we have three great artists lined up to entertain you. Come see gritty, imaginative songsmith Grant Lee Phillips, spiritually attuned artist MELD, and Muhlenberg, KY country guy Grayson Jenkins.

It may be back to school for kids around Middle Tennessee, but WMOT is back at it with Finally Friday and three incredible artists to boot! This week, enjoy music from singing, sax-playing blues award magnet Vanessa Collier, intense and original songwriter Ben De La Cour, and country song slinger Chad Bishop.

This week, we feature artists Nashville-based pop and rock cat Foster McGinty, Kerrville winner and Americanafest showcase artist Olivia Ellen Lloyd and tuneful modern songwriter Remi Goode.

Look who's still at it, at 84 years into his journey. Jim Kweskin was a staple of the 1960s folk and and pre-war music revival. His famous Jug Band included bluegrass standouts Richard Greene (fiddle) and Bill Keith (banjo), plus future folk stars Geoff and Maria Muldaur. His top-flight ragtime fingerstyle guitar was much more refined than the "jug band" moniker implied. And the group was a key influence on the formation of the Grateful Dead and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Kweskin's never dropped out of the scene, and this spring he came with his newest album Doing Things Right, featuring American standards and obscurities done with flair. We spin the novelty tune "Show Me The Way To Go Home." As No Depression noted, "Jim Kweskin plays old stuff. And it never gets old." Also this hour, a show premiere for Meredith Moon, a lovely folk singer and stylist who is set to play our Old Fashioned String Band Throwdown on Sept. 9. New singles come from Ashby Frank, Lori King, and Nick Chandler and Delivered.

The great American folk music tradition continues to flourish in New York City, decades after the hootenanny heyday of Greenwich Village in the 1950s and 60s. We were excited to learn that one of the leading voices in today's scene is none other than Woody Guthrie's grandson Cole Quest. And how cool a name is that? He writes and collects songs and plays resophonic guitar and pedal steel. He and his City Pickers, a bluegrass leaning string band, have won praise from No Depression, Glide magazine and the overseas press. On their new album Homegrown, the group adds new life to great songs like John Hartford's "In Tall Buildings," Peter Rowan's "Dust Bowl Children," and Woody's own "Pastures of Plenty." We feature the great "Philadelphia Lawyer," but it comes last, so you have to listen to the whole show (no skipping!). On the way, you'll hear new songs from Rick Faris, Chris Jones, Jessie Smathers, and the hot fiddling duo of Kimber Ludiker and Deannie Richardson. Amy was still on the road but sent in a block of song picks inspired by her hang at the Canadian folk fest and workshop Nimblefingers.

Singer-songwriter, fiddler and rambling man Joey Berglund has been performing under the moniker Bar Jay Bar for several years, and he's bringing something fresh to the western side of traditional country. Amy Alvey has brought a few songs of his to the mix, and this week, it's his bluesy "Breakdown Mama." I've seen his home base identified as Los Angeles and Sheridan, WY, and it's clear he gets around. Also on stage, where his reputation for acrobatics precedes him. Also this week, an unprecedented 9-minute single, as AJ Lee & Blue Summit take on "The Glendale Train" with imagination and epic solos. Tray Wellington has at last realesed his "Man On The Moon" title single. And we feature a unique track from the overlap of jazz and folk, as Bill Frisell and Tim O'Brien team up with their former teacher Dale Bruning in a session from Boulder a few years back.