Arts and Entertainment

Ashley Monroe moved to Nashville just after 10th grade from East Tennessee with a single-minded drive to sing and write country music. Her career would be the envy of many - including Grammy nominations, several major label albums, and Pistol Annies, an influential supergroup - and yet many in roots music haven’t recognized her as among the greats of our time. Following recovery from blood cancer, Monroe reached deep into herself, producing her most ambitious and daring project yet, Tennessee Lightning.

Texas icon and rocking country songwriter Joe Ely died on Dec. 15, at the age of 78. Besides a robust, international solo career, he was part of the legendary band The Flatlanders with Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock. He was a core artist from the dawn of the Americana format. Here, author and Grammy-winning producer Tamara Saviano, a long-time friend of Joe, shares a personal profile of a force of nature.

Duos and special projects dominate our list of favorite traditional acoustic Americana in 2025. Of course I mean Amy Alvey and myself, hosts of The Old Fashioned on WMOT. Just as we love collaborating on our show and on this annual list, collaboration is a hallmark of string band culture. So topping off our Old Fashioned Dozen are four projects that brought artists with interesting histories together, in some cases in unique and historically significant locations.

The heart and soul of Roots Radio is our playlist. And as we are fond of reminding you during our fund drives, we don't play singles over and over, opting instead for breadth and variety. So it's always fascinating to see what songs became most frequently spun during the year. That's what this list is about - 2025's Most Played Songs on WMOT.

When we love an album, we go deep, listening beyond the singles and going our own way, like we do. This year, we gave the most on-air love to Hayes Carll, Paul Thorn, Alison Krauss, Molly Tuttle, and Larkin Poe. Here's our list of the top album spins on WMOT 89.5 FM in 2025, plus a link to Listener's Choice Voting (that's you), which opens today!

For nine years here at WMOT, I’ve been proud and privileged to select and remark on thirty albums from the closing year that meet several criteria. Some made national news and did well on the Americana radio chart or at the various roots music awards. Some were critically and popularly acclaimed and just obviously excellent. And others have been records I felt were under-rated but special and worthy of more attention. Typically here in these remarks, I’ve dwelt on what I mean by Essential and Outstanding. This year, I want to go deeper on that other key element: Americana.

Her name is made of flowers. And she’s been spreading bouquets of joy and open-hearted country and rockabilly for more than 50 years. She is Rosie Flores, sounding great and enjoying the stage as much as she ever has as she cruised past her 75th birthday during Americanafest 2025. A couple days after that, we sat down to talk about her (outstandingly) supportive parents, the Los Angeles alt-country scene of the 1980s and 90s, and her new album Impossible Frontiers.

Raul Malo, perhaps the finest singer to ever champion Pan-American roots music, has died at age 60 following a brutal battle with cancer. The Mavericks, formed in Miami in 1989, shook up the country music business in the 1990s with its classic influences and timeless songwriting. And despite two breaks, they came back as one of the greatest live acts of the last 20 years. Malo also made more than a dozen solo albums and contributed to key projects. Craig Havighurst filed this appreciation.

On Friday and Saturday nights, the Mavericks and a huge lineup of Americana stars danced the night away, playing songs in tribute to the band's founder and lead singer Raul Malo. As he faced down late stage cancer from a hospital room, the community rallied to send a message of love, appreciation and gratitude. Guest writer John Walker of Music City roots sent this report from night two at the Ryman Auditorium. (Update: Raul Malo died at home just before 9 pm on Monday. A full appreciation is forthcoming.)

What Chet Atkins was to Nashville country, what Jerry Garcia was to West Coast rock, Steve Cropper was to Memphis and the foundations of Southern soul - a key architect of an American sound that changed the world. The legendary guitar player - a member of the Roll Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Musicians Hall of Fame - died Wednesday at age 84.