It is natural that a second generation bluegrass banjo player would have soaked up as much of Earl Scruggs’ style on the five string as possible when starting out; it is just as natural that they would push outside of those boundaries of the territory staked out by their pioneering forebears. In Tony Trischka’s case, part of this instinct to turn bluegrass on its head early on in his career involved doing things like adding saxophone to an instrumental version of “Roll In My Sweet Baby’s...

There are stories where the characters and events are so extraordinary and gripping that one can miss their overall meaning. It can be easy to take stories like the one you are about to hear at face value, and leave their larger context unrealized. But even the most casual reading of the events and people of Madison County, North Carolina from 1863 should raise a lot of red flags about our own worst tendencies. Even a pulp fiction version of the Shelton Laurel Massacre would lend plenty of...

Travis is a musical treasure both for his work as founding member, songwriter and bass player for Infamous Stringdusters as well as for giving us his decidedly non-bluegrass, non-acoustic debut solo record Love and Other Strange Emotions. Hear his conversation with as well as commentary from host and producer Joe Kendrick in this episode, which includes excerpts of his new album.

What connects you to the year 1946? Think of the time immediately following World War II, and perhaps black and white images of men in fedoras and women in long dresses come to mind. Maybe you have parents or grandparents who were born around that time, or maybe you know someone who lived then and has past on. It is an era that now seems quite distant for most of us, a kind of abstraction that can be read about but which remains present only in its dusty tomes and mono records. But like all...

Conversation with the Durango, CO three piece acoustic band Stillhouse Junkies, including commentary as well as excerpts of their new music performed live

Stephen Mougin and Ben Wright speak with host Joe Kendrick from the fall 2023 IBMA conference about their own music as well as the history and future of bluegrass, along with excerpts of their latest music.

Tony Trischka pays homage to Earl Scruggs on the 100th anniversary of his birth with Earl Jam: A Tribute To Earl Scruggs; Travis Book steps out from his mainstay gig in Infamous Stringdusters to release a solo record, Love and Other Strange Emotions.

Delta blues found its voice and audience on the airwaves of KFFA’s King Biscuit Time, a daily broadcast out of Helena, Arkansas. Bluesmen like Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Lockwood Jr., who would go on to become legends, interspersed their own songs with advertising jingles. King Biscuit Time, which launched in 1941, gave unprecedented exposure to African American musicians while selling everyday grocery staples like flour and cornmeal. And it’s still on the air. Reporter-producer Betsy...

Imagine getting your dream job and immediately being scrutinized for your appearance; being asked to wear a wig that was nothing like your natural hair; being quizzed on obscure bits of the history of your field; being asked whether you took the job as a stepping stone to another one. Imagine getting lots of hate mail about the fact that you look different than everyone else with that job. What about being stopped by security when they did not believe that you were really supposed to be in...

Despite bearing a title that might seem to point back to the old world, Nora Jane Struthers’ latest collection Back To Cast Iron finds the Nashville-based artist striding confidently into a more electric, rock and roll kind of territory. In this episode, she addresses this evolution in her sound; she describes having gone from telling other women’s stories to telling her own; husband and bandmate Joe Overton talks about his love of rock bands like Wednesday and Slow Pulp; we hear how both...

A special presentation featuring a recent podcast episode of The Broadside from public radio WUNC In today’s episode of The Broadside, co-host and producer Charlie Shelton-Ormond looks at the influential, exploitative and evolving world of music in Southern prisons. You’ll hear from a historian and incarcerated musicians, one of which is rapper Deon Thomas. As a person incarcerated in the state of Virginia, Deon doesn’t have access to a recording studio. Instead, he’s part of a small group...

We caught up with No Depression editor Stacy Chandler at this fall's International Bluegrass Music Association conference and festival, and she is our guest on this episode which includes conversation, commentary and music excerpts from artists featured in the journal's fall edition.

Shinyribs is a shindig, and a large one at that, but it is also a vehicle for band leader Kev Russell’s unique brand of poetry, which can point to deeper, darker issues at times, especially on his latest album Transit Damage. We spoke with Kev in early October 2023 ahead of Shinyribs’ performance as headliner at The Albino Skunk Music Festival, where we talked about the secret sauce that went into his new album, about making good records in the studio and being equally good live, how starting...

Featuring episodes of the music talk show feature What It Is, which aired weekday mornings on WNCW beginning in September 2007 and running until April 2012. Starting with music writers/editors Jeff Eason and Fred Mills, we added writer, musician and WNCW old-time music host Carol Rifkin to the music roundtable before bringing in many more voices over the series’ nearly five year run. Here, we present two episodes with that original crew of panelists.

For Jonathan Wilson and Bella White, family figures prominently not only in their lives behind the scenes, but also in the musical paths both chose early on. It should come as no surprise that as a boy in rural North Carolina, celebrated producer and artist Jonathan Wilson played in a family band of sorts (he would fill in for various band members in his father’s band at their practices), or that rising star Bella White’s father played in old time and bluegrass bands in Calgary, Canada when...

Call me biased, and I am, but the four days of the 2023 Earl Scruggs Music Festival ranked as one of the best music experiences of my life.

Conversation with and music from one of roots and Americana music's rising stars

Ed Snodderly is a renaissance man -- he is a prolific songwriter with a who’s who of artists performing his compositions; his lyrics to the song "The Diamond Stream" are featured in Nashville’s Country Music Hall Of Fame; he is half of the duo The Brother Boys with musical partner Eugene Wolf going back to their inception in the late 1980s, and this year he gave us his tenth solo album, Chimney Smoke. Ed also teaches songwriting at East Tennessee State University’s Bluegrass, Old-Time and...

Conversation with and live music from the country soul artist Miko Marks

Conversation with the North Carolina by way of Georgia music artist along with commentary and music from his live performance as well as his fourth album and his radio show

It is that time of year again -- the beginning of summer and in the U.S., Independence Day. The July 4th holiday is celebrated in many ways, including in song, like the one that starts off this podcast, Billy Stewart’s version of the George Gershwin and Edward Dubose Heyward classic “Summertime”. With over 25,000 versions recorded in its now almost 90 year history, it is the most recorded song in the world.  What are your favorite songs for the summer and for the holiday? We talk about the...

This story begins with Citizen Vinyl, a combination vinyl pressing plant, recording studio, bar and restaurant in downtown Asheville, North Carolina, in the old Citizen-Times building. Built in the late 1930s, it was originally the home of two newspapers and the WWNC radio station. Wanting to host more events there, Citizen Vinyl reached out to Greg Cartwright, well known for his work in his band Reigning Sound; Greg then invited Amanda Anne Platt, who has been playing with her band The...

It was a warm and picturesque spring day in the South Carolina countryside, just outside of the city of Greer, on the grounds of the Albino Skunk Music Festival, which got its name from some white skunks that were on the property, land which used to be a working farm. Now a largely wooded little valley of twenty plus acres, with one stage and many vintage RVs and campers that have been repurposed as a green room, accommodations, even storage, as well as a 1951 GMC bus that was originally...

We talked for an hour and a half and could have easily talked for much longer, although even in this relatively short time, it felt like our conversation was far greater than the time it occupied, almost like seeing the whole world in a grain of sand. Collaboration was the main topic we discussed, and as you will hear, collaboration for Peter Rowan comes naturally, and goes a lot deeper than just the songs themselves. Sixty years ago, he set foot on a path that would lead to one of his most...