That. Was. Fantastic. WMOT’s experienced and passionate (and woman run) team pulled it all together, lined up great music, got a little lucky with the weather, and our people turned out for a truly exceptional Roots On The Rivers. All afternoon and evening on Saturday, the grounds of Two Rivers Mansion rang with authentic music that touched some core genres in the Americana universe - modern folk, rock and roll, bluegrass, newgrass, and the blues. Our members and fans turned out in record numbers. And the artists generously embraced our Roots Radio community with very nice words live on the air for WMOT between their scorchin’ songs.Photographer Kristen Drum was on the scene for us again, and here are some highlights of our day.

This episode of The String is a field report from the city that raised me in the 1970s and 80s and gave me my foundation in music, from college rock radio, to youth orchestra at Duke University, to jazz tutelage at a Black Muslim community center. It’s an arts-forward city that in the past decade has become something of a magnet for roots music, building on a history of gospel, blues and string band music, while the new festival Biscuits & Banjos, curated by Rhiannon Giddens, has put itself in a position to be a bridge from the past to the future and give Durham the identity it’s lacked as a national music hotspot.

Saturday’s WMOT festival gives us a fresh reason to pause and think about the fuzzy quantum energy particle that is Aaron Lee Tasjan. He’s a shapeshifter, a rocker and a folkie, a singer and guitar player for the ages, and a mensch beloved by his Nashville community. In the dozen years he’s been in Nashville, he’s released a wildly daring and diverse string of albums. Among them: the jangling alt-country of In The Blazes, the Glamericana of Silver Tears, two different versions of his Beatles-ish rock and rolling Karma For Cheap, and last year, the delicious and sometimes snarky synth-pop opus Stellar Evolution. A bit of all those moods will work their way into ALT’s set on Saturday for Roots On The Rivers. It was time to catch up with our restless friend.

Texas songwriter Vincent Neil Emerson graduated from playing on the streets and in the bars of Fort Worth to tours with Colter Wall and American Aquarium and then a well-received debut album (2019’s Fried Chicken And Evil Women). That inspired none other than Rodney Crowell and Shooter Jennings in turn to take an interest in producing the young country troubadour, resulting in a self-titled release in 2021 and the more recent The Golden Crystal Kingdom of 2023. They heard what I hear - an artist processing his past and making his struggles universal, a singer with an honest voice and a distinct point of view. He paused during his ongoing touring to sit down with WMOT after a show at Skinny Dennis.

Musical diversity is one important touchstone for our lineups at Roots On The Rivers, and as co-host of The Old Fashioned, I maybe want to say that we’ve been a little light on bluegrass music over these past few years. That all changes on Saturday, May 31, when we bring you two stars of the genre from different generations and styles, the iconic Sam Bush and breakout fiddler, singer and songwriter Bronwyn Keith-Hynes. In case you aren’t up to speed or up to date with this artistic mutual admiration society, here’s a briefing.

Atlanta native Kristina Murray moved to Nashville in 2014 with a fresh and original debut album and steely determination. The country singer and songwriter carved out a respected space at honky tonks like Santa’s Pub and the American Legion. When hard work and critical acclaim for her two releases didn’t launch her career to a new orbit, it felt like defeat. That, plus the pandemic, fueled some challenging times and emotions that inspired her new one, Little Blue, a lovely, lament-filled album on New West’s Normaltown imprint. Murray is due for new waves of attention, and we talk about how hard that is to manifest in this edition of The String.

I’m With Her, the sublime and award-winning trinity of Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, and Sara Watkins is back with their second album, after an eight year interim since their debut See You Around came out to great acclaim. The new Wild And Clear And Blue, written over several years and produced by multi-instrumentalist indie folk guru Josh Kaufman, arrived last Friday, and it’s sure to be one of the most celebrated recordings of 2025. Craig reviews the album and speaks with Sara Watkins about this special relationship, plus her ever-evolving work with Nickel Creek and the Los Angeles Watkins Family Hour collective.

JD Clayton is one of the first emerging artists to release music in an era of new leadership at the historic Rounder Records in Nashville. He’s an open-hearted guy who got the songwriting bug growing up in Fort Smith, AR and who then found his songs and his way on stage led to organic growth. His 2023 album Long Way From Home got him out on the road in a big way and led to some high profile opening shows. He produced his new album Blue Sky Sundays, a fresh and catchy take on country rock, with his brotherly band. He seems to embody the ethos of his feel-good song “High Hopes & Low Expectations.”

Carter Vintage Guitars, a Music City landmark, has settled into a routine after some big changes. Its founding owners sold the business to the North American Guitar company, who moved in 2024 to a larger space just across the street from its original home on Eighth Ave. South. They kept or adapted nearly all of the features of the old shop, including extensive mail order sales and a video series. WMOT intern journalist Shauna Reynolds reports.

Toronto’s Jeremie Albino is a powerful roots rock singer and songwriter whose early love of blues and old rock and roll comes through in his self-effacing, easy grooving songs. After releasing three albums and touring hard, a call from Dan Auerbach opened up new avenues for him through the production of his late 2024 album Our Time In The Sun. Craig spoke with Jeremie in Nashville before his recent performance on WMOT’s Wired In.