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.
Andy Leftwich - Old Hickory
Red Camel Collective - Finding Your Way Home
TANASI - Sweetest Breeze
Jimmy Martin - Blue Eyed Darling
Ken and Brad Kolodner - Hand's Cove
Redbud - All I See Is Grey
Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen - No Life In This Town
Roger Ramsey - Warplanes
Golden Shoals - Trombone Rag
Andy Leftwich - Tom and Jerry
Steep Canyon Rangers - Next Act
Hannah & Nathan - Love and Labour
Oscar Brand and Jean Ritchie - Raise a Ruckus
Rhy Jones, Jeff Miller, Jim Nelson - Old Dan Tucker
Full Cord - Hubris Came To Town
Cliff Waldron and the New Shades of Grass - You Ain't Goin Nowhere
Danny Roberts - My Brown Eyed Darling
