It was not unexpected but it was exciting to hear that Jim Lauderdale and the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys had teamed up to make an album. They’ve collaborated at events around the country, including our own Old Fashioned Throwdown 2022. And they just get each other’s vibe and humor. We start this week with the title track of The Long And Lonesome Letting Go, which arrived 9/15. We’ve got a couple of bluegrass blocks, featuring in the first case nominees for this year’s IBMA Awards, including winners Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings, as well as a duet by two giants of the mandolin being ushered into the hall of fame – Sam Bush and David Dawg Grisman. I sought out a bunch of banjo instrumentals for the second half of the program. Amy’s cool artist discoveries include Holler Choir and Happy Trails Prospector.

We’ve been obsessed with the SteelDrivers since they exploded onto the Americana scene in 2007 and 2008 as a vehicle for the rustic and bluesy songs of Mike Henderson and Chris Stapleton. With the banjo of Richard Bailey and fiddling from Tammy Rogers, the band was bluegrass but something more. And they’d go one to be global touring artists and Grammy Award winners. I admit I was taken a bit by surprise by their latest release, a pure gospel-grass album called Tougher Than Nails. We lead off with the opening song, “Somewhere Down The Road.” We also had AmericanaFest 2023 on our minds as we pulled music for Show #76, drawing from artists set to play our Old Fashioned party at the outset of the event: Missy Raines and Allegheny, Cristina Vane, Robbie Fulks and the Lonesome Ace Stringband. Now that’s Americana.

Darrell Scott is a hugely important Americana artist who’s been on the bill at many a bluegrass festival without being a bluegrass artist himself per se. Now though, a bit like Robbie Fulks recently, the Nashville-based songwriter and picker has made his first self-proclaimed “string band” album, called Old Cane Back Rocker. The group, with whom he’s been touring for some time, contains Shadd Cobb on fiddle, Matt Flinner on banjo, and Bryn Davies on bass. This show we lead off with the most driving tune, “Banjo In The Holler” featuring Shadd on a fine lead vocal. We’ll feature Darrell’s leads in coming weeks. Also this week, new tracks from Tray Wellington, Balsam Range and Full Cord.

I was inspired this week by gearing up for the Earl Scruggs Music Festival in Polk County, NC. That meant pulling some Michael Cleveland, some Emmylou Harris (she headlined Sunday), and of course some Earls of Leicester. The band with the elaborate pun for a name was conceived in 2013 by dobro star and producer Jerry Douglas to pay tribute to the songs and sound of Flatt & Scruggs, arguably the most impactful and influential bluegrass band of all time. The Earls, who won four IBMA Awards including Entertainers of the Year and a Grammy Award, include magnificent vocals by Shawn Camp and Jeff White and the powerful fiddling of Johnny Warren. Also this week, Amy brought in tunes from Sami Braman, Joseph DeCosimo and the wonderfully named Corn Potato String Band. Throwback tracks come from Lynn Morris and the Nashville 80s supergroup the Dreadful Snakes.

Last week we played a throwback duet between West Coast bluegrass icons Kathy Kallick and Laurie Lewis. Then we discovered that Kathy Kallick was releasing new music in advance of her first new album since 2018. The record will be called The Lonesome Chronicles, as it processes some of the ennui and isolation of the 2020s. Still it’s great to have Kallick’s lovely voice back on record, and she has a sharp band that includes fiddler Annie Staninec, whom we featured recently, plus Greg Booth (dobro, banjo), Tom Bekeny (mandolin), and Cary Black (bass). Other new music this show comes from Donna Ulisse, Sister Sadie and The Henhouse Prowlers. And we say happy birthday to Nashville’s Shawn Camp with a couple of his fine songs.

This week we celebrated the anticipated release of East Nash Grass’s second album Last Chance To Win. Do we understand the cover? No. But do we love the variety and intelligence and musicality of its 11 songs? Absolutely. We’ve been playing singles all along, and here you’ll find the elegant James Kee song “I Almost Told Her.” More in the weeks ahead, because this will be one of our favorites of the year. Also new this week, Nora Brown is back with a duo with Stephanie Coleman, Ralph Stanley II covers the New Riders of the Purple Sage, the Lonesome Ace Stringband brings a fiddle medley, and Danny Burns sings Mindy Smith. Plus deep history from the Country Gentlemen and heroines Kathy Kallick and Laurie Lewis.

Amy enjoyed another year at the Clifftop Festival in West Virginia, one of the nation’s premiere old-time gatherings and contests. Her project with the Old Time Snake Milkers had a podium finish in the Traditional Band contest (yay!). She noticed who won and who the stars of the camp were and let that inspire our second set with AJ Srubas and Rina Rossi, Chance McCoy and the Tall Poppy String Band. Also this week, new singles from Don Rigsby, the Lonesome River Band and the Steep Canyon Rangers. The track from Alice Gerrard may look like a classic, but no, the great NC-based singer is coming with a new album, and this is an a cappella single from it. And we pair Dan Tyminski’s “Ode To Jimmy” with the real Jimmy Martin doing his hit “Hold What Cha Got,” the one that inspired Tony Rice.

My co-host found herself too far off the grid to join me for this one, so I took her fine suggestions – including the divine Bob and Sarah Amos – and wove them into new music from some of our faves and some bluegrass classics. Becky Buller and Jim Lauderdale collaborated on the new single “Wall Around Your Heart,” a great one by Chris Hillman. The Grascals are back with the return of singer/guitarist Jamie Johnson and his song “I Go” that confronts his battles with addiction. I’ve been thinking about Kentucky bluegrass recently and that led to checking out Louisville’s Bibelhauser Brothers who turned in a terrific “What Would You Give” on their current album Close Harmony. And for some reason, the subject of incarceration was on my mind last week, leading to a cell block of prison songs from Del McCoury, Tony Rice, Ronnie Bowman and Barry Abernathy. Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time folks.

The big story of the week was the release of Molly Tuttle’s second bluegrass album in just over a year. City Of Gold features the same Golden Highway band that was introduced on the Grammy-winning Crooked Tree album bringing a new collection of varied, fascinating songs. We’re playing a lot of the album here on WMOT but The Old Fashioned got to premiere the trippy one, so enjoy going down the rabbit hole with “Alice In The Bluegrass.” Also prominent in Show #69 are musical duos. Amy and I just kept finding killer tracks by duos from both the bluegrass and old time camps, including a new single by Darin and Brooke Aldridge and some keening vintage sounding country from Andrew Small and Ashlee Watkins.

In Episode 68 as Amy and I reunite from a distance after more summer travel, I reflect on my stay near Port Townsend, WA where I attended two wonderful old-time concerts at the fifty-year-old camp called Fiddle Tunes and where I got to spend time with bluegrass hero (and now new Hall of Fame inductee) David “Dawg” Grisman. Inspired by that I pulled the classic album Doc and Dawg off the shelf to remind us why it was so influential. New music this week comes from young mando man Wyatt Ellis, Nashville’s Josie Toney, and Jeremy Garrett. Another classic from the grassy files is Dolly Parton singing “Silver Dagger,” while Don Reno and Bill Harrell kick it on “Country Boy Rock and Roll.”