This is the final episode in the series celebrating Earl Scruggs' 100th birthday. My guest for this one is Jim Mills. Jim is a fantastic banjo player, who spent over a decade playing with Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. He's also an expert on pre-War Gibson banjos, so is the perfect person to talk about…
Read MoreThis is part 3 of the celebration of Earl Scruggs' 100th birthday. In this episode we're talking about Earl's influence on the younger generation of players and also celebrating his wonderful guitar playing. You'll hear from: Trey Hensley, on Earl being his main influence on the guitar, as well as getting to meet and play…
Read MoreThis is part 2 of the celebration of Earl Scruggs' 100th birthday. Earl's influence on bluegrass is huge, as you'll hear from my guests this week. You'll hear from: Jerry Douglas, on Earl being one of the first sounds he heard and why starting The Earls of Leicester felt like a calling Alison Brown on…
Read MoreJanuary 6th would have been Earl Scruggs' 100th birthday. To celebrate Earl and his extraordinary influence, I've been speaking to people who knew, played with and have been inspired by him. This is part 1, featuring three amazing banjo players: Tony Trischka Kristin Scott Benson Alan Munde They all share their thoughts on Earl and…
Read MoreFor this week's episode I'm doing something I don't normally do – reposting an old interview. In fact, I don't think I've ever done it before. The reason I'm doing it is that so many of us make resolutions at this time of year to practice more, play better or just improve on our instruments….
Read MoreJanuary 6th 2024 would have been Earl Scruggs' 100th birthday. I'm putting together a very special set of episodes to celebrate. As part of them I spoke to Jerry Douglas, who's organising a spectacular night of music at The Ryman on Earl's birthday to mark the occasion. This is a taster taken from a much…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Noam Pikelny. Noam is probably best known as a member of Punch Brothers, but he joins me this week to talk about his new project, Mighty Poplar. He’s joined in this band by fellow Punch Brother Chris Eldridge and former Punch Brother Greg Garrison, as well as Andrew Marlin of…
Read MoreMy guest this week is John McEuen, founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. I recently put together two special episodes to celebrate Doc Watson's 100th birthday (links below in case you missed those). I interviewed over a dozen guests and John was kind enough to take part and share some memories of recording…
Read MoreThis is a really quick bonus episode I wanted to share with you all. I'm putting together a Doc Watson 100th birthday episode, which is due out in March. I've interviewed lots of amazing guests for that and one of them was the wonderful Tony Trischka. At the end of our chat Tony told me…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Kristina R. Gaddy, who joins us to discuss her fascinating new book “Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History”. We chat about how she came to write the book and some of the key discoveries she made along the way, in particular the banjo’s unknown history as an instrument…
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