Noah G. Fowler is a welcome addition to the Nashville roots music scene. He’s a Pennsylvanian who’s performed at Americanafest, FloydFest, our beloved Jalopy Theater in New York, and of course good old Dee’s Lounge in Madison. What I’d heard of him was squarely in country territory, but on his new single “Stranger,” he calls in the banjo brigade for a sweet bluegrass track. We’ll be watching for updates in case a string band album may be in the works. Elsewhere this episode, we feature the newest from Becky Buller, her take on New Grass Revival’s “Reach” for an upcoming covers album. Wyatt Ellis partners with Peter Rowan for a two-sided single, and we offer up the Bill Monroe ripper “Memories Of You.” More new stuff comes from Dale Ann Bradley and Joe Mullins. And the historic bells get rung by Jimmy Martin, the Highwoods String Band, and the Coon Creek Girls.

Friends, our holidays were lovely except for one thing. Our carefully hand-crafted Christmas/Happy Holidays edition of the Old Fashioned for 2024 was all cued up and ready to go, like a stocking hung by the fireplace. But we had a miscommunication, and the show, set for Dec. 21 and for Christmas Eve, didn’t air as scheduled. So we ran it on New Year’s Eve, and maybe you heard it! Anyway, this year’s music was all new and quite wonderful. The Rock Hearts delivered a new version of Willie Nelson’s “Pretty Paper.” The Osborne Brothers sang about University of Tennessee football in “Christmas Time On Rocky Top.” Our mandatory “Christmas Time’s A Comin’” came from none other than Dolly Parton. But I’d love to direct your attention to a song that would sound amazing any time of year, the new single “Don’t You Hear Jerusalem Moan” from Boston-based, Jewish-centric newgrass band Jacob’s Ladder. Their interpretive power and vocal harmonies on this one give me goosebumps every time I play it. There’s a magical video on YouTube. We’ll be watching for more from them.

We took some holiday down time to sip our bitters-infused bourbon cocktails to think about the year in old-time and bluegrass music. Because special things happen when the electricity’s cut off and the drummers take five and the performances are made with hands, fingers, voices, and old boxes of wood and wire. Here you’ll find breakout new stars of string band music, a blues revivalist, veterans taking new directions, and important collaborations. We’ll return to these excellent records all in one hour in the Jan. 4 episode of The Old Fashioned.

Colin O’Brien is a steadfast friend to the East Nashville acoustic roots and bluegrass scene, known for his banjo and fiddle playing, his flatfoot dancing, and his John Hartford-inspired bowler hat. So it came as a surprise, to me anyway, when he broke cover on his history as a fingerstyle guitar player and his compositional command with a new album. Thirteen, released on Nov. 7, is a mesmerizing solo acoustic journey on 6 and 12-string guitars that evokes the virtuosity and fluid ambience of John Fahey and Leo Kottke, and it was a joy to learn a whole new side of our pal. We share his tune “Shipwreck” this week. Also in the hour, new singles from the Chatham Rabbits of North Carolina and Evie Ladin of California. Historic tracks from the Lilly Brothers and Nashville’s late, great Dreadful Snakes.

Grammy Award season began on Nov. 8 when the nominations were announced. The American Roots categories are looking good, lining up pretty well with my feelings about the best albums released in the past year. This week we spin tracks from all of the Best Bluegrass Album nominees: Brownwyn Keith-Hynes, Billy Strings, Sister Sadie, Dan Tyminski and Tony Trischka. But we know those folks and I want to turn your attention to a newcomer to the show, though certainly not in bluegrass music – Tim Raybon. He’s a Florida native, brother of Marty Raybon and half of the Raybon Brothers, who earned a CMA nomination for Duo of the Year in the late 1990s. Tim’s band soars here with Osborne Brothers style harmonies on an old Dallas Frazier / Doodle Owens song, “Walk Softly On The Bridges.” Also in the mix, folk singer John R. Miller and banjo composer Hillary Hawke, also spun on the show for the first time.

Nobody’s changed the game in bluegrass music in the past decade more than Billy Strings. He moved from his home state of MI to Nashville a bit less than ten years ago with an insider reputation as a hot young picker who embodied the spirit of Doc Watson. Since then, he’s taken good bluegrass to arena scale and written a ton of great new songs for the canon. His newest album Highway Prayer is, I think, his best yet – at least his best album of bluegrass music. Few experiments or digressions. So many hot performances and songs. We spin our first song from the disc, the very trad sounding “It Ain’t Before.” Also this hour, some superb fingerstyle ragtime blues from Lakota John, a TOF band premiere with the Asheville Mountain Boys, a new duo from Mo Bandy and John Meyer, and top-shelf old-time from our friends George Jackson and Brad Kolodner.

Anya Hinkle is one of the standout folk artists of the past few decades in Western North Carolina, making her own space and sound in the overlap of old Appalachian, singer-songwriter and bluegrass. I just saw her perform at Scruggs Fest with a trio she’s rolling out next year called Tanasi. But she’s also one of so many victims of Hurricane Helene, which slammed our beloved mountain region with incomprehensible rainfall and tropical storm winds, leaving countless victims of flooding, landslides and wind damage. We turn our attention to the region in this episode, and Hinkle’s “Hills of Swannanoa” already a favorite song of mine, hit really hard, so it’s part of a block of artists from the Asheville area. Hinkle herself is safe, but a 100-year-old tree fell on her house. There’s a lot to do. Please visit Blue Ridge Public Radio for updates and options for sending aid.

The bluegrass family was shocked in mid September to get the news that mandolinist and singer David Davis, leader of the Warrior River Boys, had died in a car crash at the age of 63. Inspired by Bill Monroe at an early age, he worked with band leader Gary Thurmond until Thurmond retired and handed the reins of the WRB over to Davis. He lived his whole life in his native Alabama, but he toured the nation and recorded for Rounder Records, including the must-own 2018 album Didn’t He Ramble, covering songs from the catalog of Charlie Poole. We offer Davis singing the classic “Blues Stay Away From Me.” Also this week, two exciting album releases: Rebecca Frazier leads off the show with “Hurricanes” from her new Boarding Windows In Paradise (unnervingly prescient given the news) and the first formal project by Mike Compton and Joe Newberry called Home In My Heart. Amy brought in new music from her duo Golden Shoals. And there’s a nice run of neo-old-time from Showman and Coole, Water Tower from LA and The Devil Makes Three.

It is so very good to see old-time and folk hero Jody Stecher so engaged and fruitful at age 78. The Brooklyn native and two-time Grammy nominee became an influence on a legion of roots heroes, including Jerry Jeff Walker and Jerry Garcia. Now he’s collaborating with Boston bluegrass band Mile Twelve, releasing two LPs in about a year. The newest is charmingly titled Instant Lonesome and The Twinkle Brigade and we’ve got a tune from that. From the bio: “The band is on fire, ignited by the spark of Jody’s impassioned singing and guitar. The format is recognizable as old-style blues-tinged, old-time flavored bluegrass but nothing here is generic or predictable.” Also this hour, Nashville’s Thunder And Rain, Rhonda Vincent, Willie Watson and Larry Cordle singing a Bob Seger song from a new bluegrass compilation.

I attended the Earl Scruggs Music Festival for the third straight year to conduct some on-stage interviews, take in favorites like Marty Stuart and the Earls of Leicester, and hopefully discover some new artists who’d sound good on The Old Fashioned. Well, mission accomplished with The Wilder Flower, a western NC trio featuring Danielle Yother on guitar, Madeline Dierauf on fiddle, and Molly Johnson on banjo that formed in 2020. Their soulful and harmonious take on Appalachian music suggests that the traditions of the region aren’t lost on younger generations, but we knew that. We play their recent single “Rambling.” I also saw Shadowgrass, a gang leaning forward in bluegrass, and their string jam cover of the Dead’s “Mr. Charlie” sounds great. Chris Jones brings a new single about American paranoia and conspiracy mongering to launch the show. Brenna MacMillan continues to tease her next recording with the single “Black Bear.” And we reach back to the 90s with the brothers McCoury.