My guest on the podcast this week is fiddle player Andy Leftwich and we're chatting about his new album Aced. Andy talks about his love for instrumental music, including how hearing Mark O'Connor's The New Nashville Cats as a child inspired him. He also talks about contest fiddling and his 15 year stint with Ricky Skaggs and…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Darol Anger, who joins me to discuss his new album 'Diary of a Fiddler 2 – The Empty Nest'. We chat about the original 'Diary of a Fiddler', released in 1999, and how the second volume celebrates and deepened Darol's connection to the fiddle community, in particular the players he's…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Maddie Denton, fiddle player with East Nash Grass. I caught up with Maddie at IBMA World of Bluegrass in Chattanooga, the day after she was named IBMA's Fiddle Player of the Year! We chat about East Nash Grass and their wonderful new record 'All God's Children' and about musical communities,…
Read MoreMy guest on this week's bitesize episode is Gabe Witcher. This extract comes from a longer conversation I had with Gabe in June 2023, directly after he'd played his final shows with Punch Brothers at Telluride. Gabe talks about first meeting Chris Thile at a festival when they were kids; playing football together before they…
Read MoreMy guest on the podcast this week is six time IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year Jason Carter. Jason recently ended his 33 year run with the Del McCoury Band and we talk about that extraordinary journey, from the fascinating story about how he got the job in the first place, to the decision to…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Darol Anger, one of the leading lights of progressive string band music over the last 50 years. Through his work with the David Grisman Quintet, the Turtle Island String Quartet, bands like Psychograss and New Grange and his long standing collaboration with Mike Marshall (not to mention his own wonderful…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Becky Buller. Becky is the winner of 10 IBMA awards, including the 2016 awards for Fiddler and Female Vocalist. She's the first woman in the history of IBMA to receive the Fiddle Player of the Year award and the first person ever to win in both vocal and instrumental categories….
Read MoreMy guest on the podcast this week is Brittany Haas, fiddle player with Hawktail and, now, Punch Brothers! I interviewed Gabe Witcher last June, a few days after he played his final shows with Punch Brothers at Telluride. Almost exactly a year later to the day I spoke with Brittany to chat about joining the…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, who returns to chat about her great new record 'I Built a World', which comes out on Friday May 24th. This is Bronwyn's first record as a lead singer and we chat about her song choices, the musicians she chose for the record, the wonderful line up of…
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