Podcasts Archive - Page 2 of 8 - The Bluegrass Situation

Lera Lynn: Plays Well With Others

Her recording career began in 2011 with an alt-country album whose title asked: Have You Met Lera Lynn? We hope you’ve met her by now because in the seven years since, the Athens GA-turned-Nashville TN songwriter has emerged as a fascinating and dynamic artist with a grasp of sound and production along with her mesmerizing voice. Her newest record finds her co-writing and collaborating. Plays Well With Others is a set of co-written duets with some important indie artists, including Peter Bradley Adams, Nicole Atkins, JD McPherson and the album’s producer and record label boss John Paul White. We listen to the record in detail and burrow into what the songs say about Lera Lynn’s vision and journey so far.

BGS Radio Hour – Arroyo Seco Weekend Roots Music Preview

Highlights from each day of the second annual Arroyo Seco Weekend, happening in Pasadena, California – just a stone’s throw from BGS HQ in Los Angeles. We’ve got highlights from some of the roots music artist performing on both days, including Shakey Graves, Trampled By Turtles, Hurray For the Riff Raff, and of course some of the headliners including Robert Plant and Neil Young.

The Travelin’ McCourys plus the Opry in NYC

The Travelin’ McCourys began as a side project – an outlet for Del McCourys sons and their bandmates to pursue experiments and collaborations. Over the past eight years, they’ve developed a repertoire and an identity all their own, and with the addition of full time guitarist Cody Kilby, a personnel they at last called official. So now they’ve released their debut self-titled album and launched a limitless future, for now very much in parallel to the iconic Del McCoury Band, arguably the most influential bluegrass outfit of the past 20 years. In this special edition of The String, taped before a live audience at Nashville’s City Winery, Craig talks with Ronnie McCoury (mandolin), Rob McCoury (banjo) and Jason Carter (fiddle) about the past and future of their wide-open view of bluegrass.

Also, guest producers Matt Follett and Brady Watson report on the Grand Ole Opry’s most recent venture to New York City.

The String: Rev. Sekou plus John McEuen

Rev. Sekou is an activist, writer, theologian and community organizer with a dense resume stretching back to before the 2000s. He says he found his calling at age 19 when he visited the Highlander Center, the research and education retreat in East TN where legions of civil rights activists have been trained and where the song ‘We Shall Overcome’ was adapted to the central struggle of the American 20th century. Sekou has been a pastor in New York and Boston. He’s worked on the ground in Haiti after its devastating 2010 earthquake, in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and Ferguson, MO in 2014.

But only in the last few years, in his mid 40s by the way, did Rev. Sekou step forward as a songwriter and singer, as a soul and blues man. He did grow up around music and attended college on a voice scholarship. He’s been in some bands. But it’s clear that in going on tour and recording his two albums The Revolution Has Come and In Times Like These, music has become a new way for Rev. Sekou to speak his truth and inspire his cause. This all made for a fascinating conversation.

Also, an in-depth talk with John McEuen about why, after its 50th year, he parted ways with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and the process of writing his new autobiography, The Life I’ve Picked.

The String: Jeff Hanna and Matraca Berg plus Ashley Campbell

This week, two conversations with country music families at their heart.

THE STRING: GUTHRIE TRAPP

In Nashville, the greatest guitar town in the world, Guthrie Trapp is at the top of the mountain. He can range across every style, improvise with endless invention and subtlety. He can shred or twang or drift elegantly. And most of the time, he’s a sideman and studio player. A player in demand for being able to serve and enhance a song and do no more than what’s called for. But he’s also a mind-bending solo artist. And his second LP as a leader and composer came out this spring. It’s called Life After Dark.

Episode 55 – Parker Millsap

Singer/songwriter Parker Millsap talks about the process of stretching and surrendering that went into his new LP, Other Arrangements.

THE STRING: KIM RICHEY

Kim Richey launched her career later than most, after her old friend and college band mate Bill Lloyd (of Foster & Lloyd) urged her to move to Music City. And after one of the most powerful executives in the music business introduced himself after a show and our guileless heroine had no idea who he was. Kim’s crafty and tuneful mingling of folk, country and jangle pop was well formed when she released her debut album in 1995. Since then she’s explored collaborations with diverse producers but maintained a through line to her sound and vibe that’s made fans all over the world. She’s one of Nashville’s finest and she joins Craig to talk about her career and her new album Edgeland.

Also, songwriter Tim Easton describes the experience of recording direct to lacquer disc in Bristol, just like the Carter Family did in 1927.

Episode 54 – Caitlin Canty

Singer/songwriter Caitlin Canty stops by the studio to talk about and sing some songs off her latest release, Motel Bouquet.

THE STRING: COCAINE & RHINESTONES

If nothing else was left behind about America in the 20th century but the lyrics to all the country songs written by the famous and the obscure, you’d have a pretty good catalog of what happened and how we worked and how we fought, how we loved each other and judged each other and murdered each other. How we socialized and danced and drank and raised families. That’s no small feat for a genre of music. It’s a more vivid and truthful diary of American life than the last 100 years of the New York times. And it’s this granular sense for the music in all its human revelation that has sparked a rush of interest in the story of country music in the 20th century as told by Tyler Mahan Coe. Another reason it’s gotten attention is that it’s not a big doorstop of a book. It’s a podcast. It’s called Cocaine & Rhinestones. Craig sits down to learn the background and vision of this sudden hit.