My guest this week is Sarah Jarosz. Sarah joins me to talk about one of my favourite albums, 'Blue Heron Suite', which is getting a physical reissue on November 22nd. We chat about how the record developed out of a FreshGrass commission, what that process was like, the central themes that underpin the album, the…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Sierra Hull. Since I spoke to Sierra for the podcast back in January 2023 she's been ridiculously busy touring and recording. We chat about the extended tour she's been on for Bela Fleck's My Bluegrass Heart (which she describes as one of the highlights of her musical life), her current…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Daniel Patrick, host of the excellent Mandolins and Beer podcast. Daniel has interviewed dozens of great mandolin players for his podcast, but today we're going to talk about his new record Around the Clock, which features him playing with eleven of his heroes, including Tim O'Brien, Ronnie McCoury and Sam…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Roger Siminoff. Not only is Roger an authority on instrument making, the physics of music and tap tuning, he's also an expert on the life and work of Lloyd Loar. Loar worked at Gibson in the early 1920s and oversaw the production of some truly remarkable, game changing instruments –…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Jacob Jolliff, who joins me to talk about his wonderful new record Instrumentals 2: Mandolin Mysteries We talk about the process of writing the record and how many of the tunes began on piano rather than mandolin, plus the great band Jacob assembled to record and tour the album. We…
Read More2023 is the 20th anniversary of the release of Mike Marshall and Chris Thile's album of mandolin duets 'Into the Cauldron'. To mark the anniversary and celebrate the album, and the influence it's had on a whole generation of mandolin players, I've put together two very special episodes. This is part 2, featuring interviews with…
Read More2023 is the 20th anniversary of the release of Mike Marshall and Chris Thile's album of mandolin duets 'Into the Cauldron'. To mark the anniversary and celebrate the album, and the influence it's had on a whole generation of mandolin players, I've put together two very special episodes. This is part 1, featuring a brand…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Sierra Hull. I caught up with Sierra before the London show on her UK tour with Justin Moses. We chatted about how spending so much time at home over the course of the pandemic changed her outlook on things and about some of the collaborations she's been part of over…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Harry Clark, a recipient of the 2022 IBMA Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year award. Harry plays mandolin with East Nash Grass as well as in Dan Tyminski's band, both of which have new records due out in 2023. He also played in the band for Bronwyn Keith-Hynes' fabulous record 'Fiddler's…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Jarrod Walker, best known to most of you as the mandolin player in Billy Strings' band. We chat about all sorts of stuff, including what Chris Thile taught him about learning fiddle tunes, how he almost ended up selling instruments for a living rather than playing them, the pros and…
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