The String

Episode 271: In just five years, including the pandemic shut-down, Nashville native Gabe Lee has grown from an unknown “hometown kid,” as one of his titles proclaims, to a debut last year on the Gran…

Episode 270: In an episode that revisits the netherworld between Americana and jazz, I speak with two extraordinary female drummer/composers who are at the peak of their creative powers. My featured …

Episode 268: The late John Prine’s team at Oh Boy Records in Nashville put the little-known west coast songwriter Tré Burt on the national Americana/folk radar by signing him to a deal and re-releasi…

Episode 267: When Ben Wright, then 28 years old, saw a banjo for sale in the window at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, he had no idea how far it would take him. Not just to gigs at the count…

Episode 266: 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 ca…

Episode 265: Two great male voices in new Americana. Cruz Contreras has been a key player in the East Tennessee music scene for twenty years, steering accomplished roots projects Robinella and the CC…

Episode 263: Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound in Nashville has been one of the key discovery points for roots music in the past decade. And thanks to them, Robert Finley has become a rare and special th…

Episode 262: There's no better forum to survey what's happening at the cutting edge of roots music than AmericanaFest, and 2023's huge edition was no exception. In what's become an annual tradition, …

Episode 260: 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 p…

Episode 259: When East Nashville emerged as a nationally important music scene in the early 2000s, Amelia White was one of the reasons. Like so many others, she’d migrated from elsewhere (Boston and …

Episode 257: When you live in Nashville and chase the essence of country music, you find it's very much alive at residency shows like New Monday at the Station Inn. That's where master musicians Val …

Episode 256: 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, whi…

Episode 255: Ed Snodderly is more than just an exceptional singer-songwriter. He's a culture maker and culture keeper for the rich roots music region of East Tennessee. Raised near Knoxville, he laun…

Episode 254: Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist have built a remarkable creative partnership over the past 17  years, ever since their fates collided at an Austin bar called Momo's. Songwriter residencies blur…

Episode 253: Brennen Leigh moved decisively beyond the pandemic and the end of a long partnership to release three remarkable albums in less than three years. They tell a story of a traditional count…

Episode 252: The story of Peter One is as warming as his music. As a young man in his native Côte d’Ivoire, he latched on to folk and country music more than most of his peers, until he met collabora…