I love that the Sullivan Sisters chose this photo in front of the Chicago skyline as the cover of Carolina Bluebird, their debut EP of 2025, because it turns out we have a journey in common. We moved from North Carolina to Evanston, IL and got serious about bluegrass music there on the north shore of one of the greatest cities in the world. I moved for college at Northwestern. For their dad, it was to teach saxophone there. Nice. So, the sisters came up in a musical household and got tons of support as they skilled up on banjo (Luciya) and guitar (Soraya). They started winning contests and playing widely. Now they’ve now scaled their duo up to a five-piece band and found a label home at Dark Shadow in Nashville. We love the clawhammer feel and mountain modal mood of their first single “Devil’s Got A Hold On You,” and there’s more to come as they gear up for an album planned for early 2027. Also this week, new singles from Unspoken Tradition, Dale Ann Bradley, and Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen.

The Sentimental Gentlemen are like stray energy kicked off by Nashville’s historically rich contemporary bluegrass scene. You may recognize them if you follow the top tiers of Americana music, because mandolinist Josh Rilko, fiddler/guitarist Oliver Bates Craven and bass player Geoff Saunders are the acoustic touring band for country star Sierra Ferrell. When she’s off the road, these guys team up with a rotating cast of extra pickers such as Jacob Groopman, Kyle Tuttle, George Guthrie, and Tod Livingston to round out their sound. They’re touring more and now starting to release music of their own. As we saw last fall when they played a showcase at World of Bluegrass, they have a way with Sentimentalizing old folk and rock songs, and this week they offered up Neil Young’s “Love Is A Rose” and we’re excited to share it with you. Also, we lead off with an exciting first single from Bronwyn Keith-Hynes’s next album (“Sticks And Stones”), along with the news that she’s taken the step of shortening her performance name to Bronwyn alone. She can do that because she’s one of a kind.

I’m learning to hear the subtle variations in the way different clawhammer banjo players approach the age-old instrument, but there’s no mistaking the language of Benny Bleu. He’s a contemplative songwriter/composer from the Finger Lakes region of New York. And his bio puts it this way: “As a former geologist, his songwriting is Earth-focused and inspired by the natural world. Benny’s performances are soothing journeys through tunes from his homeland, old songs learned by growing up next to a jug-bandleader, and original modern folk contemplations.” His piece “March of the Mollusk” was released in 2023 as the title track of a solo banjo instrumental album. He reanimates it here with Huck and Gus Tritsch of the Wild Shoats (which got our attention). The result is an old-time groove unlike anything we’ve heard, yet deeply down to Earth. Also this week, some artists getting set to play the Telluride Bluegrass Festival (if they rename it Telluride Bleugrass, maybe Benny will play.) Also new music from Nashville, including newgrass trio Arcadian Wild, banjo picker Taylor Shuck, and charming, country-leaning songwriter Rylie Bourne.

A bunch of experienced Kentucky-based bluegrass musicians who happened to be good friends (and vice versa) started getting together to jam on Thursdays during the Covid pause. So when they decided to put together a formal band, the name Throwdown Thursday came to mind. Newly signed to Mountain Fever Records, the group includes Kati Penn-Jenkins on fiddle and vocals, Justin Jenkins on banjo, Evan Maynard on mandolin and vocals, Ronald Mosley on guitar, Kyle Perkins on bass, and Austin Maynard on harmony vocals. We’re digging the much-loved and covered Shawn Camp and Billy Burnett song, “My Love Will Not Change,” a good showcase for Kati’s voice and fiddling. That arrives late in the show, but on the way, a block of music chosen by Amy (who hosts solo this week) features artists playing at the Mt. Airy, NC fiddle convention and contest. She was excited to see a new album out from the folk duo Mama’s Broke. And she brings New Orleans band The Clover Valley Boys to the Old Fashioned for the first time.

Last fall at the Earl Scruggs Music Festival I saw an early performance by a new trio made up of some of western North Carolina’s outstanding traditional musicians: Billy Cardine on dobro and slide instruments, Anya Hinkle on vocals and guitar, and Mary Lucey on vocals, upright bass, and clawhammer banjo. And at that moment I began to pine for an album we could play on The Old Fashioned. Well, it’s here, the self-titled debut of TANASI, pronounced TAH-nuh-see (even if I get that wrong in the broadcast), billed as a “worldgrass trio channeling global folk traditions through the drive, textures, and close harmonies of an Appalachian string band.” We’ve played a song or two before, but to celebrate the album’s May 8 release we spin “Sweetest Breeze.” Also this week, the title cut from the Steep Canyon Rangers’ new album, a new single featuring Billy Strings from Full Cord, a first-time artist here in North Carolina’s Redbud, and good ole good ‘uns from Jimmy Martin and Cliff Waldron.

Nashville band Greenwood Rye has made some changes, adding fiddler Ruth Shumway for example, and moving their residency from the late Jane’s Hideaway (we miss it terribly!) to the downtown hotel venue called the Countrypolitan. Guitarist and singer Shawn Spencer started the group just as the pandemic eased up, and the band has been a staple on the local scene ever since with its stacked harmonies, tight instrumentation and creative mix of originals and covers (Taylor Swift night was always popular). We’ve played songs from their debut album Hideaway in the past, but this week, they bring a wacky and hard-driving new single, co-written by Spencer and Mason Via. Vince Herman and Vickie Vaughn also lend their voices to this literal barn burner of a song. Also this week, we’ve got the first single from the first-ever instrumental Punch Brothers album, a teaser from the Susto Stringband’s Vol. 2 album, and a brilliant new take on “East Virginia Blues” by the duo of Jed Clark and Nathan Beaumont.

By now dear listeners, you know how much fun it is to learn about traditional acoustic artists on the Old Fashioned from Amy Alvey. Her radar is sensitive. She knows what’s good. I have a long list of music I heard through her first, and perhaps at the top of the list is the Canadian folk duo and folk family Pharis and Jason Romero, first (for me) through their 2022 album Tell Em You Were Gold. Up there in Horsefly, BC, they write and record, make banjos, and win Juno Awards and Canadian Folk Music Awards. They’re beloved across their country and in ours as well. This week we tease their next disc, a song-forward collection called These Are The Days That Turn Into Years. It arrives on June 11. Meanwhile one of old-time’s newest outfits, The Big Cricket Stringband, makes its debut on our show. We’ve got a bold new collaboration from Béla Fleck and opera great Renée Fleming (with Dolly). Natalie and Brittnay Haas have some new chamber grass as well.

The 2023 concerts where Billy Strings celebrated Doc Watson at 100 were historic for many reasons, but one tangible outcome was a young guy named Asher Brinson coming away determined to take his music to the next level. He’s a 16-year-old, left-handed guitar picker, as well as a singer and songwriter, and he shines on his debut album Midnight Hurricane. He’s earned the admiration of the bluegrass community, drawing on the talents of Cory Walker, Jason Carter, Sam Bush, Sierra Hull, and David Grier. Lindsay Lou joins in on the title cut “Midnight Hurricane.” And Brinson, a native of the North Carolina coast, knows hurricanes. He’s one to watch and we’re proud to welcome him to the Old Fashioned. Also this week, Jaelee Roberts has a clever new single, Ed Snodderly debuts a new album, and Concord teases a very welcome vinyl re-issue of the legendary Boone Creek debut from 1977.

Stepping away from a successful band and into a solo career is a tried-and-true pathway for many bluegrass stars, and few in recent years have said farewell to such a good gig but garnered so much acclaim and stature in return as mandolinist, singer and songwriter Darren Nicholson. The North Carolinian did 15 years as a founding member of Balsam Range, where he shared in a bunch of IBMA Awards, including two for Entertainers of the Year and two for Album of the Year. Then at the end of 2022, he made his departure official and launched with the album Wanderer in 2023. We’ve played a bunch of singles on the way to his newest release as a leader, Lonesome Trails And Tall Tales. On release week, we open with its luxurious waltzing lament, “I’ve Got No Tears Left To Cry.” Also this week, the first single from the upcoming album by another Carolinian, Laurelyn Dossett, the rising west-coast trio Sweet Sally, and a block of songs inspired by Amy Alvey’s long journey to the Shetland Islands Folk Festival.

My first “bluegrass” album wasn’t really bluegrass but a duet of acoustic guitars and voices on old folk and mountain songs by Tony Rice and Norman Blake. That intimate combo blew me away and kind of changed my life. The format isn’t common but a new duo is embracing it, and they are Geary Allen (of the Burnett Sisters) and John Gooding (of the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys) performing as Geary and John. We’re pleased to present their debut single, “Just Too Lazy,” from an upcoming album on Mountain Fever Records. The Steep Canyon Rangers launch our hour with a new single from what they’re calling a back-to-our-roots album that will be called Next Act, coming May 22. From working man folk territory, check out The Brudi Brothers and their fisherman song called “Silver Wave.” And we’ve got new stuff from Claire Lunch and Jim Lauderdale with the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys as well.