My guest on this episode is Bryan Sutton. We're talking about Bryan's new project From Roots to Branches, the follow up to his 2006 album Not Too Far From the Tree, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The new album features a series of duets with musicians from the wold of bluegrass and beyond, plus…
Read MoreIn this bonus episode we're celebrating Tony Rice's best loved albums….as voted for by you! I put out a poll over my social channels as well as some popular Facebook groups and subreddits and collated all the responses. The rules were simple – just pick one album each for these 3 categories: 1. Tony Rice/Tony…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Thomm Jutz. We're talking about Thomm's fascinating new project Ring-a-Bellin', an 18 track album and, for those wanting to dive even deeper into the process behind this new release, a beautiful, hardback Ring-A-Bellin’ companion book, which includes the stories and inspiration behind each song. Thomm talks about the idea behind…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Alex Graf and we're talking all things Manzanita. Alex made the shift from a more jazz based background to flatpicking a few years ago and Tony Rice's Manzanita became one of the absolute cornerstone records for him on that journey. We talk about why it became so important, what Alex…
Read MoreWelcome to this month’s Bluegrass Briefing, a monthly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. Podcast news Brad Kolodner interview Bill Nowlin interview Releases (The Grass is New) Del McCoury Band with Peter Rowan & David Grisman …
Read MoreMy guest this week is Bill Nowlin, co-founder of Rounder Records. Bill joins me to talk about Rounder's extraordinary 50 year legacy as one of the most important, influential and best loved independent labels in American roots music. We chat about how Rounder started, after Bill was randomly assigned Ken Irwin as his college roommate,…
Read MoreMy guest on the podcast this week is Brad Kolodner. Brad is a fantastic clawhammer banjo player. As well as his solo records – 'Chimney Swifts' and the recent album of solo gourd banjo tunes 'Old Growth' – Brad also plays with the band Charm City Junction, as a duet with fiddler George Jackson and…
Read MoreMy guest this week is John Wirtz. John, along with his partner Moira, runs Sore Fingers, a UK bluegrass and old time music camp that celebrates it's 30th anniversary this year. John joins me to chat about how the camp started up and how it's grown over the years to play a major role in…
Read MoreWelcome to this month’s Bluegrass Briefing, a monthly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. Ted Olson interview Doc Watson 100th Birthday Celebration – part 1 – part 2 News and announcements – church street news Punch…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Ted Olson, professor of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University. Ted joins me to celebrate the Rich-R-Tone record label and it's offshoot Folk Star. Rich-R-Tone was founded in 1946 by James Hobart Stanton who, in Ted's words, “was probably single-handedly the most important documentarian of Appalachian music.” Ted has…
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