Leftover Salmon played their first formal show on New Year’s Eve in 1989 in Boulder, CO, an event that might be to Colorado Jamgrass what Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys at the Grand Ole Opry in 1945 was to bluegrass. And Salmon is still crushing it almost 35 years later. I saw them in late March leading the music at the opening weekend of Jerry Garcia – A Bluegrass Journey at the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in Owensboro, KY. So they came right to mind when we were amusing ourselves with a set to mark 4/20, the date this show premiered. We could have drawn from a lot of weed-friendly recordings, but we went with Billy Strings, Sam Bush, and Jesse McReynolds, who made one of the greatest Grateful Dead cover albums. Also this week, a locomotive of a new single from the Travelin’ McCourys, a new album from Junior Sisk, and a gorgeous “Weeping Willow” by the Lilly Brothers and Don Stover from back in the day.

Becky Buller grew up in a bluegrass-picking family in the midwestern environs of Minnesota, and over the past decade, she’s built on that base to become a beloved leader in the genre. As far as I can tell, she’s the only artist to ever win IBMA Awards as an instrumentalist (fiddle), vocalist and songwriter. Now she’s taken on her most ambitious and vulnerable act of songcraft yet, composing a concept album about her long battle with depression. The album Jubilee comes out May 17, and we preview it again this week with the single “Alone.” New music also comes this week from Liam Purcell and Cane Mill Road and the duo Brand New Box Of Matches, making their Old Fashioned debut.

Carley Arrowood was a touring fiddle player before she was a band-leading artist, so we’re celebrating the release of her second album Colors with her crack fiddling in the original tune “Molasses Ridge.” Young and ready for her time in the spotlight, Arrowood is a western NC native who did five years pulling the bow for Darin & Brooke Aldridge before throwing her mix of musicianship, singing and songwriting into 2022’s debut Goin’Home Comin’ On. Meanwhile she’s won IBMA Momentum Awards for her fiddling and singing. Watch for her on the charts and on the road. We’ve got more albums dropping as well, from Cris Jacobs, Adam McIntosh, and Authentic Unlimited. What a year so far. Bask as well in historic tracks from the Bluegrass Album Band, Cajun fiddler Luderin Darbone, Doc Watson, and the iconic Jim & Jesse.

Greg Blake grew up in West “By God” Virginia and quietly assembled one of the most distinguished careers in today’s bluegrass scene. He proved his picking acumen by winning the Winfield Flatpicking Championship. He spent ten years with the progressive band Jeff Scroggins and Colorado. And for the past three years, he’s been the big lead voice in the iconic Chicago-based band Special Consensus, with whom he’s won or shared numerous awards. He’s also maintained a solo career as a songwriting recording artist, and we grabbed a semi-recent single to single him out with “Tennessee Rain.” Also this hour, the first new music in a while by superb guitarist and singer Rebecca Frazier and a new artist TOF premiere to kick things off as Kentucky’s Kenny D. Thacker sings of “Hillbilly Dreams.”

April is big for weddings, and we’re seeing quite a lot of pairing up out there in bluegrass land, maybe not forever but for special projects that are making the Spring a lot more tuneful. We open this week for example with one of Tony Trischka’s recent collaborations on his upcoming Earl Scruggs tribute album. Here he brings on Molly Tuttle for a sweet version of the old moonshining song “Dooley.” Pictured here are Alison Brown and her friend Steve Martin, a man who’s made me laugh for fifty years but whose banjo skills are quite serious. Their release is a tribute to folks like us who DJ the BG, called “Bluegrass Radio.” Another pair with some hot blue music is Junior Sisk joined by Dan Tyminksi for “A Man Like Me.” Also this week, a new instrumental group called EZRA, a show premiere from Nashville's Jack McKeon, and a new single from the Wood Box Heroes.

Look at us! 100 episodes of The Old Fashioned, done and dusted. And as we approached this self-congratulatory landmark and thought about how to mark it, we got struck by the idea of celebrating bluegrass and old-time in an even more focused way – by spinning selections from the GOATs of the string band genres – or at least one impulsive stab at the greatest of all time. We start of course with Bill Monroe and then we check out the first great fiddler of the Grand Ole Opry, Arthur Smith. Flatt & Scruggs and the Stanley Brothers had to be here, as did Jimmy Martin and the Osborne Brothers. Amy pulled in Hazel and Alice, and Ola Belle Reed and John Hartford. I needed to play Bela Fleck’s “Whitewater” as a way to get into the era of bluegrass that seduced me. And we end with Ricky Skaggs, the dominant bluegrass patriarch of our time. Of course we missed other legends and another attempt at an hour of GOATs might look quite different. But that’s the beauty of it. We’re back next week with all the latest releases!

As we approached our 100th show, I got the goofy idea of festooning our 99th episode of The Old Fashioned with songs about Nines. After all, bluegrass seems to bring that number up often, starting with “Nine Pound Hammer,” so I pulled Tony Rice’s iconic version from the great Manzanita album. Then we were off to the races with the “Wreck Of The Old No. 9” by Doc and Merle Watson, a great version of “99 Year Blues” from the Rock Hearts and Amy’s pick, the hard driving band Hard Drive with “49 Cats in a Rain Barrell.” Because why not? There IS new music, from Thomas Cassell and Crandall Creek, plus a show-closing block of great banjo led bands featuring Cory Walker, Alan Munde, Jeremy Stevens and Kristin Scott Benson.

Banjo player Terry Baucom was everywhere that mattered in bluegrass in the late 20th century. In the 1970s, the North Carolina native co-founded Boone Creek with Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas, a band whose impact on the music was bigger than its two albums would suggest. In the 80s, the so-called “Duke of Drive” was an original and longstanding member of Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver. Then in the 1990s, he co-founded IIIrd Tyme Out with Russell Moore. That’s an astonishing track record. He passed away last December and when mandolinist Ashby Frank issued the single “Knee Deep In Bluegrass,” a Baucom tune as a tribute, we made a block around it with some key Terry Baucom performances. He will be missed. Also this week, a new Donna Ulisse album, an understated David Grier instrumental, and the great Black fiddler Earl White.

A few years ago I was talking to banjo player Kyle Tuttle at IBMA World of Bluegrass in Raleigh and he was telling me about his vision for what I recall as some kind of world/rock/bluegrass fusion and I suggested calling it the “Monroehavishnu Orchestra” and that made him laugh. His new solo album Labor of Lust isn’t exactly John McLaughlin’s Inner Mounting Flame, but it’s an adventuresome bluegrass album spiked with enlightening ingredients and masterful picking. Kyle had a tremendous 2023 touring with Molly Tuttle’s Golden Highway (and landing another bluegrass album Grammy Award). He starts 2024 with his own statement, and we’re here for it. Also this week, new songs from Tray Wellington, Darren Nicholson and Daniel Ullom and a show debut from Chattanooga’s Randy Steele. Archival tape rolls with Lynn Morris, the Mississippi Sheiks, and the iconic Old and In The Way.

I’m not about to start a “song of the week” designation for this show, but if I did, hypothetically, just this once, I’d give the blue ribbon to the new single “What’ll I Do With The Baby-O,” a traditional tune associated with Jean Ritchie and often considered a children’s song. Well the artist here, Jesse Smathers of Floyd, VA, doesn’t kid around in this fiery, ferocious bluegrass version. We hear Hunter Berry on fiddle and Corbin Hayslett on banjo absolutely burning. Jesse comes from an old musical family from North Carolina and has worked with James King and, since 2015, the Lonesome River Band. But his solo work can be found on his solo, self-titled debut album, made in the year following the pandemic. We’ll keep our ears on this IBMA Momentum Award winner. Also this week, a block devoted to Black History Month with Rhiannon Giddens and other former Carolina Chocolate Drops. Becky Buller and her label Dark Shadow let us premiere her new single "Jubilee" featuring Aoife O'Donovan. Darin and Brooke Aldridge offer a killer new version of “The Price I Pay,” while the Price Sisters mark their new release Between The Lines.