Lindsay Lou grew up surrounded by community folk music in Michigan, and when she connected with a scene and a band in East Lansing where she completed college, she set her plans for a career in medicine aside to hit the road and connect with her original dreams. But it’s pretty clear from her ravishing voice that she was born to sing, and she made quite an impression, especially in western newgrass circles, as the leader and songwriter of Lindsay Lou and the Flatbellys. Living in Nashville since 2015 though, change was inevitable, and she processes some big life shifts and stylistic evolution on her new album Queen of Time. It’s the most ambitious and enthralling release of her career, and there’s a lot to talk about.

One might imagine that after 17 years singing country music and releasing ten albums, an artist would have shared all of her secrets with her audience, but Eilen Jewell says only in the aftermath of 2020 and a bunch of disruptive change and loss well beyond the reach of the pandemic, that she was ready to get real in ways she never had before. "It's the most personal album I've ever made,” she says in Episode 284 of The String about her album Get Behind The Wheel.

There’s a lot of man between Robert Finley’s cowboy boots and the crown of his signature black cowboy hat almost seven feet above. When he gets in full swing on stage, his long legs and arms are in constant motion, gyrating amid a parade of greasy funk beats. He’s an absolutely magnetic figure, with a toothy smile and bright eyes despite the glaucoma blindness that ended one chapter of his life but in a way opened up a new one. He’s that rare delight - a great American roots musician - and a person living with a disability - who grabbed the world’s attention in his 60s.

Episode 262 of The String is Craig's annual survey of emerging talent showcasing at AmericanaFest 2023, which took place between Sept. 19-23. They’re (mostly) working out of markets other than Nashville. They span honky tonk to exotic southern pop to innovative old-time music. And while no three-artist sampler can truly convey the range of creativity in American roots music, these artists ought to make you feel good about Americana’s future.

She’s the hit Nashville songwriter who never moved to Nashville, staying instead in her hometown near Boston. She’s the power mom who wrote timeless country award winners like “Girl Crush” and “Humble and Kind” while raising five kids. Now she reflects on her own story more than ever before on her new album 1988. It’s the fourth in a row she’s made with producer Dave Cobb and a testament to the fact that while McKenna’s won three Grammy Awards, she’s the same humble and kind woman who got dragged to her first open mic back in the early 1990s.

Darrell Scott emerged in the late 1990s as one of Nashville’s most complete folk/roots artists. He had the butter of James Taylor and the grease of Lowell George in his voice. He could pick numerous instruments like a practiced master. And his songs were stunning from the get go, including his widely-recorded “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” and his crowd favorite “Great Day To Be Alive” on his debut project. Now, Scott lives mostly on a farm two hours from Nashville tending the land and playing 60-80 dates a year. Recently he issued Old Cane Back Rocker, his first studio album since 2016 and his most bluegrass leaning project ever. I road tripped to Darrell’s farm to record this week’s atmospheric conversation.

When East Nashville emerged as a nationally important music scene in the early 2000s, Amelia White had a substantial role in that play. Like so many others, she’d migrated from elsewhere (Boston and Seattle) to find a nurturing community full of collaborators and enablers. She was included on a seminal anthology of East Nashville songs. And she set up a rhythm of writing, recording and touring domestically and increasingly overseas. Now she’s heading back to showcase at AmericanaFest 2023 and getting set to release an album this winter produced by Americana great Kim Richey. Amelia dropped by the studio for a friendly conversation that surveys her journey, with music from across her career.

For a band that released its independent debut album in 2017, the Teskey Brothers have come a long way. From our perspective here in Nashville, that would be 9,700 miles, the distance from their home town of Warrandyte, New South Wales, Australia. Raised on classic soul and R&B music, Sam and Josh Teskey started making music together as kids and became staples of the Melbourne music scene. They didn’t have huge aspirations, but when their first record impressed folks close to home, they took their classic Stax/Muscle Shoals sound to the world and the world replied. This year they’ve toured Europe for five months and played major sold out venues, including the Ryman Auditorium behind their current album the Winding Way. Guitarist, songwriter, singer and recording engineer Sam Teskey is my guest.

Val Storey is one of those singers you discover when digging into Nashville’s layers, and you wonder how the whole world doesn’t know about her voice. She’s always been too country for the major country labels, though she’s done a lot of session harmony singing over the years. The in-crowd knows to check her out at New Mondays, the weekly Station Inn show she performs with her old friends Carl Jackson and Larry Cordle. Now Cordle has produced Storey’s first-ever solo secular album, Share Your Secrets With Me. Val and Larry came to the studio to talk about their histories and the choices that went into making one of the year’s best country records.

Vince Gill and Paul Franklin, titans of Nashville music, first recorded together in 1989 and have been friends even longer than that. Gill is of course a Country Music Hall of Famer, while Franklin is in a different Hall of Fame - for the pedal steel guitar. Over the years in the studio and on stage, they've made the most of the euphoric blend of the voice, guitar, and steel, which is where Gill says he locates the very heart of country music. Ten years ago they made Bakersfield, honoring the songs of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Now they've teamed up for Sweet Memories: The Music of Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys, a set that covers the great singer's phases from old-school honky tonk to luxurious countrypolitan. I visited Vince's home studio for a wide-ranging conversation.