Arts and Entertainment

Charles Wesley Godwin was rolling along as one of the hottest new voices and touring artists on the blurry edge of country and Americana music when a family tragedy sent him spiraling. The Morgantown, WV native and lifer rekindled the faith he was raised on and sought songwriting collaborations for the first time. The result is Christian Name, a portrait of a man leaning on God and old fashioned values to find a way forward.

The harp, a truly ancient invention, had been a bit player in popular music, but here and there, artists bring the oft-typecast instrument into the Americana space. When Mikaela Davis released her new album Graceland Way last spring, it got Craig Havighurst wondering about the challenges and rewards of the instrument - one he grew up around. So he sought out Davis for a talk, and in this episode he pairs that conversation with power folk artist Lizzie No, whose most recent studio album Halfsies has been a critical favorite. It’s the most highly strung String maybe ever.

Over more than 20 years Pieta Brown has quietly built one of the most esteemed careers in the singer-songwriter space. She’s quiet in conversation as well, but there’s no mistaking her depth. As she reflects on her luminous new album Dreamin’ Of, Brown speaks about the indirect influence of her famous dad Greg Brown, about her relationship with roots rocker Bo Ramsey, and about how her Iowa home in the midwest has led to some of her richest collaborations.

Arena-packing star Billy Strings was named IBMA Entertainer Of The Year for the fifth time at the 37th annual IBMA Awards in Chattanooga on Thursday. More surprising was the ascent of East Nash Grass with two major trophies in Album and Instrumental Group of the Year. Other winners included singer Jaelee Roberts, fiddler Andy Leftwich, Vocal Group Authentic Unlimited, and bass veteran Mike Bub.

The name taken in 1984 by the Nashville Bluegrass Band was obvious, even audacious. But the quintet more than lived up to it, helping to define the sound of their namesake genre like few other bands of the 80s and 90s, propelled by the compelling lead vocal pair of Alan O’Bryant and Pat Enright. This week in Chattanooga, the NBB will be formally inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, but Enright won’t be there, as he passed away in August. Craig offers an appreciation of the singer and the band.

The Deslondes, named for the street in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans where they lived back in the day, has been one of Americana’s most impressive and creative bands for more than a decade. While fully committed to that ongoing project, their gravel-voiced baritone singer and writer Riley Downing has taken his most impressive step yet as a solo artist with Landfill Poetry on Oh Boy Records. He speaks with The String about his late break into folk music, record collecting, and yes, that job he had on a garbage truck.

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Laurelyn Dossett, contemporary folk singer and songwriter from North Carolina, has had her songs recorded by Levon Helm and the Carolina Chocolate Drops. But her work as an artist over the past 20 years has been more regionally bound. Now with the new album How Many Moons, produced in Durham with Hiss Golden Messenger’s MC Taylor, Dossett emerges as one of the best veteran songwriters you may not have heard of.

Roots music tells its story to the world mostly through its leading festivals like this weekend’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Telluride, and Merlefest. But the music wouldn’t be around with a story to tell decade after decade without organic support at the literal grass roots, and in that realm, few were as effective and genuine as John Murray “Hippie Jack” Stoddart, Jr., who died on Sept. 25 at his home in Crawford, TN.

In the late 1990s, Bryan Sutton was a young phenom who dropped jaws across the country as the lead guitarist in Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. And he was more than a flash in the pan, becoming the most in-demand studio session acoustic guitar player in Nashville and a ten-time IBMA Guitar Player of the Year. The latest in his string of solo recordings is an anthology of guitar duos with friends, peers, and heroes that he’s recorded on his own over two decades.