Southern Songs and Stories

This week marked one month after Hurricane Helene made landfall, hammering a wide swath from Florida straight north into the heart of the southern Appalachians. Soon after the storm hit, it was obvio…

The last two weeks have turned so much upside down in my world, and everything started with a tropical storm hitting the Appalachians, while I was at the IBMA Conference in Raleigh. 

Even going into I…

It never ceases to delight me how connected we are in the roots music world. Take Maya De Vitry and Joel Timmons, for example. The two have been making music together for five years, and have worked …

I have been reading about Plato and Aristotle lately, in Jeffrey Kripal’s fascinating book, The Flip. Early on in the essay, Kripal points to the history of Western intellectual discourse having swun…

Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show is never at a loss for words, and is never not entertaining, however he is, in equal measure, an ambassador of social conscience, too. Our interview concludes wi…

When you think of Venezuelan music, perhaps salsa or merengue come to mind. But have you delved into joropo, or llanera music, from the western portion of the country?

When you think of string band mu…

When it comes to Marty Stuart, there simply is not enough time or space available to address the enormity and the lasting impact of his music, let alone his life story, here in this episode. We would…

When it comes to artists like Jim Lauderdale and Donna the Buffalo, I think back to a comment that Jerry Douglas made to me in an interview for this series, when he talked about what he called roots …

Back in the day, I discovered the music of Bob Wills when I was a fresh faced college DJ at WXYC Chapel Hill. It was like hearing songs from an alternate universe to me, a kid who grew up listening t…

In the first of two episodes from MerleFest in April 2024, we highlight two artists making their debuts at the festival, Nick Shoulders and Adeem the Artist. Following this episode are two artists wh…

Hymns and gospel songs have flowed into, and very often, back out of out of every style of music with roots in the American South. From the music itself to its context in worship through choirs, inst…

It was the last gig of a late winter tour, and Daniel Donato was ready to exhale. His band was, too, having had the rare treat of seeing their wives the night before, as they prepared for one more sh…

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 wou…

There is a decidedly darker mood in the United States than ever in our lifetimes, it seems. In just one example poll recently, one in five Americans agreed that violence is necessary to get the count…

It was one of the first cold days of the fall in the western NC mountains when I trekked up from Spindale to Brevard to talk with Travis Book ahead of his show in town that night. Spindale is perhaps…

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 p…

Here at Southern Songs and Stories, we take some liberties from time to time with what we put forward as songs and stories that fall under the umbrella of the American South. After all, we have featu…

It was day five of the IBMAs and I had been up until four that morning, but Stephen Mougin and Ben Wright might have even seen the sun come up that day after they hosted yet another late night music …

Here at Southern Songs and Stories, there is never a shortage of stories to draw from a seemingly bottomless well of music artists; we only scratch the surface of what we would love for you to hear o…

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 …