Tag: BGS Podcast Network

The String – Katie Pruitt

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Katie Pruitt has been known as a phenom ready for big things in Nashville for a few years now. With patience and enough maturity to get the music exactly as she intended, Pruitt has now made her debut on Rounder Records.


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The album Expectations is a bold, ambitious, and succulent collection, and vividly honest as well, with songs documenting a difficult journey from a conservative family in Georgia to a proud gay woman in Music City. This is a 25-year-old singer, songwriter, and guitarist poised for big things. Also in the hour, the journey of Arkansas born fiddler Jenee Fleenor. She was named CMA Musician of the Year and she’s releasing her first recordings of her own music after years supporting others.

The Show On The Road – Jamestown Revival

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week on The Show On The road, we feature a conversation with Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance, two Texans and expert harmonizers who for the last decade have toured the world as Jamestown Revival.

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Right before all tours got sent home, host Z. Lupetin was able to hop on the Jamestown Revival tour bus (sorry for the engine hum) to discuss their intimate new record, San Isabel, and their journey from meeting as curious singing teenagers in Magnolia, TX to their move out west and back home again. While their previous record, The Education of a Wandering Man, saw them harnessing the muscular roots-rock that can be heard at their powerful live shows, San Isabel strips everything back to their intimate two-voices-around-one-mic, “southern and Garfunkel” sound that brought them together in the first place — and has rightfully won them hordes of fans coast to coast.

They say sibling harmony can’t be compared and we’ve had several sets of twin bands on the podcast, but what about soul-brother harmony? If one thing is clear just sitting on the bus and listening to them weave their stories and songs together, it’s that Clay and Chance were born to sing together.

San Isabel was laid down at Ward Lodge Studios overlooking the San Isabel National Forest in Buena Vista, Colorado and often includes the natural sounds of the nature all around them. Give it a listen — it’s peaceful and powerful and raw and maybe just what we all need right now.

Alison Brown – Toy Heart: A Podcast About Bluegrass

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Banjoist and record label head Alison Brown speaks with host Tom Power from her studio at Compass Records headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee. They begin with her early records made with Stuart Duncan, “finding her people,” and winning the Canadian National Banjo Championship (as an American).

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Brown then headed to Harvard, and playing banjo became “something you’d talk about at cocktail parties.” She describes the moment she decided to leave investment banking and commit to music full time, her cocktail napkin dream, and playing with Alison Krauss, Indigo Girls, and Michelle Shocked.

Power and Brown talk women in bluegrass, women in banjo, and the First Ladies of Bluegrass. The story they dive into together is ultimately about figuring out what makes you happy, and pursuing it bravely, against all odds.

The Shift List – Chef Dyan Solomon (Olive et Gourmando, Foxy) – Montreal

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week, The Shift List closes out its miniseries focusing on the food of Montreal with chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author Dyan Solomon. 

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If you’re from Montreal, Dyan Solomon needs no introduction. She’s the co-owner of multiple restaurants there, including Foxy, one of the city’s essential fine dining establishments. Back in November 2019 she released the Olive + Gourmando cookbook, a collection of 150 recipes from the namesake cafe that put Solomon on Montreal’s culinary map when it opened back in 1999. 

Host Chris Jacobs checked in with Chef Dyan via email the other week to see how her restaurants have been affected by the stay-at-home orders in Canada. She replied with cautious optimism, saying that while all of her restaurants are are closed until further notice, they are surviving and trying to remain positive about the future.  

If you’ve listened to the last two episodes of The Shift List with Chef John Winter Russell of Restaurant Candide, you’ll know that he highlighted the work that’s being done to help support the Montreal Restaurant Workers Relief Fund, an organization set up to provide emergency relief to restaurant employees who are facing economic hardship due to COVID-19. Coincidentally, the fund was set up by Kaitlin Doucette, the Sommelier at Solomon’s fine dining restaurant Foxy, and donations are still being accepted at mtlrestorelieffund.org.

The Show On The Road – Kat Edmonson

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week on The Show On The Road, we bring you a two-part conversation between host Z. Lupetin and folk-jazz visionary Kat Edmonson. The first part was captured backstage before a show at Largo in LA, right before the beginning of the COVID-19 shutdown. In the second part, Z. caught up with Edmonson during her anxious but creative quarantine in New York City. 


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Initially turning heads for her dreamy and futuristic interpretations of great songbook classics like Gershwin’s “Summertime,” which have been listened to over ten million times and counting, Edmonson broke through with playful original works a decade ago, self-producing one of Z.’s all-time favorite records, Take to the Sky. She quickly found powerful fans in folks like Lyle Lovett, who she toured with wildly. Major label releases followed. Edmonson soon migrated from her home state of Texas to Brooklyn, with her elfin chanteuse look and sparkling vintage sound (think Blossom Dearie with some Texan muscle).

Z. and Edmonson sat down to discuss her newest record, Dreamers Do, which may just be the shot of pure cinematic nostalgia we all need right now. Does she cover Mary Poppins, Alice In Wonderland, and Pinocchio and somehow make them deeply cool, sonically subversive, and somehow brand new again? She sure does.  

The Shift List – Chef John Winter Russell (Restaurant Candide) – Montreal, Part 2

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week on The Shift List, part two of our conversation with John Winter Russell, chef and founder of Restaurant Candide in Montreal.

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This episode was recorded a few months back, before the world was thrown into chaos, and it serves as a reminder of how integral chefs and independent business owners are in shaping the culture of our cities.

Restaurant Candide is named after 18th century writer/philosopher Voltaire’s book of the same name, inspired particularly by the last line of the book: “Let us cultivate our garden.”

This line is the guiding force to Russell’s food, as he works closely with producers local to Montreal and creates four-course meals inspired by those ingredients, crafting dishes that are produce forward, but not exclusively vegetarian.

The experience of eating at Restaurant Candide is unique and only something that can be experienced in Montreal. From the restaurant’s location, set in an old gothic church basement, to the warm interior that utilizes refurbished pews, and exposed brick along the walls that look into the kitchen. The restaurant is a defining part of the fabric of Montreal’s restaurant scene, not only in 2020, but overall.

Thankfully, Russell feels that he and his staff will weather COVID-19 and should be able to resume business at the restaurant once restrictions are lifted, and in the meantime he’s given back to restaurant workers affected by job losses in Canada by offering beer deliveries every Friday. If you live in Montreal and are craving some craft beer delivered to your house, send an email at [email protected]. All proceeds will go to the Montreal Restaurant Workers Crisis Relief Fund.

The String – Jessi Alexander and Jill Andrews

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This Spring, many of the outstanding women of roots music have released new albums, and here we catch up with two of them.


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Jessi Alexander, native of Jackson TN, moved to Nashville at 18 and landed songwriting and record deals. She’s a hitmaker behind the scenes who rarely surfaces with her own heartfelt country music, but she sure does so on Decatur County Red, anchored in stories of her Tennessee coming-of-age. Jill Andrews is more urbane and silky in her sound, but the personal journey she shares on the album and book Thirties is full of challenges and the clarity that comes with time and triumph.

Béla Fleck – Toy Heart: A Podcast About Bluegrass

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

On this episode of Toy Heart, Béla Fleck talks to host Tom Power from his home studio and for the first time, he tells his story in bluegrass.

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Fleck started out in New York hearing Earl Scruggs for the first time, learning from Tony Trischka, and then making the decision to go (new) south to learn from J.D. Crowe. He auditioned for Bill Monroe, but eventually found ‘his people’ and joined New Grass Revival. He tells of mistakes the band made along the way, the hard decision to leave that band and start the Flecktones, recording with his hero Earl Scruggs, and how he found his way back to bluegrass after all. He also unveils the one change he thinks anyone can make to their practicing to become a better musician.

The Shift List – Chef John Winter Russell (Restaurant Candide) – Montreal, Part 1

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week on The Shift List, a conversation in quarantine with John Winter Russell, chef and founder of Restaurant Candide in Montreal.

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Host Chris Jacobs first had the chance to speak with Russell at Candide before COVID-19 related travel and gathering restrictions went into place, and decided to reconnect with him recently via phone to see how Russell is facing the challenges of being an independent chef and restaurant owner during a global pandemic.

In the episode, the pair talk about some of the music Russell’s listening to in quarantine and the food he’s making at home, but he also talks about some of the ways he’s been able to give back to the restaurant workers affected by job losses in Canada, as well as a recent opportunity to create menus for the food banks of Montreal.

If you live in Montreal and are craving some craft beer delivered to your house, send an email at [email protected]. All proceeds will go to the Montreal Restaurant Workers Crisis Relief Fund.

We’ll be airing our non-quarantine episode from Candide in Montreal on April 21.

BGS Podcast Network: Weekly Roundup // April 10

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Anyone else’s sanity being held together by a thread spun from music and podcasts? Here’s our roundup of the latest episodes released via the BGS Podcast Network – to help keep everything safe, sane, and running smoothly.

Make sure to follow along on our social media [Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram] and right here, where we’ll consistently gather our new releases, as well as some past favorites:

Toy Heart – Alice Gerrard

Old-time legend and Bluegrass Hall of Fame member Alice Gerrard sits down with Tom Power at her kitchen table in North Carolina. She tells stories of how she and other college students from the northern U.S. found bluegrass and old-time, meeting her Hall of Fame partner Hazel Dickens and making some of the greatest records in the genre.

She goes on to describe her split from Hazel, her work since, and in tender moments, she shares the last time she ever spoke with Hazel and what she sang to “sing her back home.”

The Show On the Road – Joey Dosik (Vulfpeck)

Host Z. Lupetin talks with Joey Dosik, a silky-voiced songwriter and freaky-talented multi-instrumentalist who writes lush, romantic jams that transport listeners to R&B-tinted, old school FM radio gold. Some may have learned of Dosik’s talents with DIY, future-funk ensemble Vulfpeck, who went from recording an album of complete silence to a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden – with no record label in sight.

As we honor and celebrate two lost musical greats this week, it’s comforting to remember that we have constant new waves of amazing artists like Dosik coming up who can honor and further their message, whose songs in many ways combine the honest earnestness of John Prine’s best early work with Bill Withers’ deep, church-flavored, down-home groove.

The String – Caleb Caudle

Caleb Caudle’s childhood musical fascinations (English punk, folk, and Bob Dylan, to name a few) went far beyond anything his school peers in rural North Carolina cared about. Since entering the music industry fray as a singer/songwriter in the mid-200s, Caudle has released seven studio albums, with his latest, Better Hurry Up, cut in 2019 at the Cash Cabin in Hendersonville, TN – surrounded by the spirit of Johnny and June – just days after he and his wife made their move to Nashville.

Craig Havighurst sits down with Caudle – as well as bass playing sideman turned impressive singer/songwriter, Adam Chaffins – in the most recent installment of The String.

The Show on the Road – Theo Katzman (Vulfpeck)

Adhering to strict stay-at-home pandemic orders, host Z. Lupetin records an intimate phone conversation with Theo Katzman, the Cheshire Cat of soulful pop-rock and one of the most visible members of the mysterious funk supergroup, Vulfpeck.

In January, he celebrated the release of his cheeky, super catchy, unabashedly romantic, and pop-driven new solo album Modern Johnny Sings: Songs in the Age of Vibe, and his expertly-crafted songs and lifting falsetto vocals have that rare spark that can brighten anybody’s dull quarantine in no time.