Tag: Compass Records

Ed Helms Chats With Steve Martin & Alison Brown About Their New Album

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

They always say, “Don’t meet your heroes,” but in the bluegrass world, I’ve mostly found that not to be true. Take Steve Martin & Alison Brown, for instance – two of the most recognizable and veritable banjo players alive today. Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to join them (along with Rhiannon Giddens and a formidable lineup of bluegrass, folk, and old-time musicians) onstage at the legendary Hollywood Bowl. It was a night I’ll never forget.

And earlier this month, I had the pleasure of rejoining Steve and Alison in conversation about their new collaborative project, Safe, Sensible and Sane, (out now via Compass Records). It’s a beautiful album filled with original songs, guest appearances from musical friends, and a whole lot of banjos.

Hope you enjoy our conversation!

Ed Helms: First of all, let me just say huge congratulations. An album like this is such a big undertaking and this is phenomenal. I’ve been listening to it basically on a loop for the last couple of days. And my family, my kids are loving it.

Steve Martin: Thanks. Thank you. It’s not easy to rope the family in.

I know! My four- and seven-year-old are extremely critical of anything banjo-related. You won them over.

SM: Awesome.

Right off the bat, what jumps out at me about this album is the title – which immediately strikes me as a kind of direct counterbalance or maybe even a rebuke of these unsafe, nonsensical, and totally insane times that we’re living in. I do think that the album title sets such a warm, funny, and welcoming tone that the music then totally delivers on. Am I getting close?

SM: You’re so far. [All laugh]

Tell me what it is. Walk me through.

SM: I’m almost embarrassed to tell you. Alison, should we confess?

Alison Brown: You told us never to tell, but it’s up to you. [Laughter]

SM: When Alison and I were writing songs together, I had come across a book published in the 1930s on how to improve your letter writing. 80 years old, 90 years old, and it had a list of phrases you can use in your letter writing or business letter writing to brighten up your letters. It said things that are formal phrases, like “thank you for the frank statement of your affairs.” And it went on, things like that.

One of them was “safe, sensible and sane.” I just listed these suggestions and I wrote Alison and said, “I think there’s song lyrics in here somewhere.” Alison organized it, so they kind of rhyme, then Alison wrote this tune for it, and Jason Mraz made sense of it. Because the lyrics are actually nonsense, we have noted that the more we listen to it they actually start to make sense in some way.

That is wild. That is such a weirdly specific rabbit hole of where that came from.

Is the banjo itself something that feels safe, sensible, and sane to each of you in some way? Is it a place of home?

AB: For sure. I think so, certainly speaking for myself. It’s definitely been an anchor for me in my life and I noticed, Steve, watching your documentary, how many scenes the banjo was in the background and realizing that it’s been trailing you your whole life, too.

SM: Yeah. I find you’re right, in the sense that it’s not a “dangerous” instrument like the guitar, sure. Which can be naughty. The banjo is safe, sensible, and sane – but the way Alison plays and the way these great banjo [players] turn it into a kind of extraordinary jazz instrument. It’s too bad that most people probably have an idea of what the banjo sounds like and they’re way off.

I think what you’re saying is that the banjo can be edgy.

AB: it can be edgy, but it can be mainstream, palatable at the same time.

SM: Edgy in the sense of avant-garde, yes. There are some. Didn’t you write a 12-tone banjo song, Alison?

AB: I did. I had a chance to produce and play on a track called “Old Atonal Music” and I actually wrote a 12-tone row banjo solo, which–

Oh my gosh.

AB: Which was then analyzed by the classical community. And fortunately it really was a 12-tone row, so that’s about as edgy as you get.

That’s getting out there.

AB: Boy, are we.

This just got so nerdy so fast.

AB: It sure did. I knew that was gonna happen.

The last time I saw you guys, we had the incredible privilege of joining Rhiannon Giddens at her show at the Hollywood Bowl, and I remember showing up to rehearsal for that and you guys were working on what I thought was just “Cluck Old Hen.” I’m watching you and listening and thinking, “What are these lyrics? What is this? This is so funny.”

Of course, now I know that’s “New Cluck Old Hen,” which is on the album. But what I observed that day in the rehearsal stages was just the rapport that you guys share, which seems so easy and effortless, light, fun, and playful – and well earned. It makes me very curious about the origin of your friendship and was it music immediately? Where did you first connect and what was it you saw in each other?

SM: Go, Alison.

AB: Okay, we were on a Caribbean island at the same time by chance, really just by luck. It was a place that we both vacation regularly with our families and I knew we were gonna be down there at the same time that Steve was gonna be down there. We were gonna overlap for a couple of days and Steve suggested we get together for lunch. Of course, banjos had to be involved, so we had a really wonderful lunch and then sat and spent the afternoon playing banjo together, just sonically clicked really easily.

Because Steve and I both really love finding beautiful melodies in the instrument, we’re both in the same pursuit when we’re playing and composing music. Writing this music, it’s been surprising to me how easy it’s been. It is almost like the tunes were just waiting to be written and we just had to pull them outta the sky.

How long ago was that first connection?

AB: I would say maybe about 10 years ago.

Then was it right away, “Let’s start collaborating!” Or did you guys circle back to each other?

AB: It took me a little while to get up the nerve to see if Steve actually would co-write some music together. [Laughs] I got a chance to do a few shows with Steve and Marty [Short] when the Steep Canyon rangers weren’t able to make shows, so we got a chance to jam some more backstage and play some more clawhammer banjo and three-finger banjo, which is my favorite combination. Like chocolate and peanut butter. Clawhammer and three-finger.

I totally agree. It’s so beautiful. And there are a lot of great players that do both, but usually I think most people assume that a song is in an old-time style or in a sort of three-finger style. So to hear [you] two just beautifully mixed together, you guys are really sharing a language that transcends the style of playing. You’re playing very differently, but there is a fluidness.

I think the song “Evening Star,” which might be my favorite on the album, is such a great example of that, starting out with your three-finger, beautiful lilting rolls and melodic runs. Then Steve comes in picking up the same tune in a [clawhammer] style that feels like a really even, woven-in feel. It doesn’t change the feeling of the song in any way. I think that’s a testament to the connection that you guys share musically.

SM: Our roots and love of the banjo are very similar in the sense of Appalachian sound, the Celtic sound, the modal mountain sound. That’s what gets me. We both like to find those melodies that reside within those tunings and history.

And Alison, as I recall, you sent me this beautiful part and I contributed another part and then Alison found– You can tell the story. You found yourself in Dublin?

AB: Yeah, actually that one, I knew that we were gonna be in Glasgow. I dunno if you have ever become acquainted with the music of John McSherry, Mike McGoldrick, and John Doyle, they have a fabulous trio. They’re completely badass Irish players, Celtic players and I knew that it would sound great to play this tune with them. John Doyle in particular, when he plays rhythm guitar, it’s like riding a big wave. They’re also heroes.

SM: They’re heroes of mine, too.

AB: It’s funny, though, because the genesis of that tune was really Steve telling me about a song he wrote called “Canadian Girl” where he was playing clawhammer in 3/4 time. I’d never even thought about the clawhammer playing in 3/4. But it’s so beautiful. Then I tried to write a melody that could work for both.

I think it’s a real testament to Steve’s banjo playing, too – like you were saying, a lot of banjo players will choose a lane. They’re either three-finger or they’re clawhammer. But Steve’s really unique that he plays both. I think that’s part of the reason why our two banjos go so well together, ’cause he completely understands the three-finger thing. But when he’s playing clawhammer, he brings some of that sensibility to it.

SM: You can also play the modality that you find in clawhammer on three-finger. I remember a song I found on a record recorded by Dick Weissman called “Trail Ridge Road” and it was played with picks, but it had this unique– I just call it modality. I’m sorry to keep using that word, but it had this minor sound that just kept rolling. I always loved it. I think that sound stuck with me forever. I even wrote him once to tell him that.

I think your song, “The Crow,” falls in that category, right?

SM: It is in double C. [It has] that drone sound, ’cause you have two strings tuned to the same note. Yeah, that does have a bit of that in there.

That was one of my favorite songs to learn. I found a transcription in a Banjo Newsletter and I was able to work it up and I love it. Another one of my all-time favorite tunes.

SM: Alison told me that banjo players like to play my songs because they’re easy. [All laugh]

How do you guys collaborate? Walk me through that process. Are you sending each other tracks and just saying, “Hey, here’s an idea.” A little melody or a catch or a hook, and then you’re building on it together? Or do you try to make sure you’re in the same space, just steeping the tea together?

SM: All of the above. Garry [West] and Alison flew out to California, where we spent like three, four days there just writing and recording. We got ideas, initial ideas for songs there. Then we started communicating by text and sending song ideas. It’s the new way to write things. It’s everything.

But we did meet and get that sound of two people together. You’re listening to the other player.

AB: That’s the thing, when I get a chance to sit around with Steve and just play, it always gives me more ideas for where we can take the banjo. Or gives me a new way of thinking about what he’s doing that maybe you could expand on. That’s really exciting. But technology’s totally been our friend, so we’ve done a lot of this by just swapping ideas back and forth and it’s amazing how efficiently you can do that.

How frustrating is it that Zoom, the latency of these video conferences, you can’t quite jam.

SM: You cannot play over the internet! You can’t play, you gotta bounce it back and forth.

That’s [why] I flew down to Nashville to record with Vince Gill, so it’d all be in the same room.

You mention flying down to Nashville to work with Vince and others. This album is so much more than just a double banjo album. It’s this grand collaboration. So many special guests, close friends of yours like Tim O’Brien, Aoife O’Donovan, Sarah Jarosz, Vince Gill, Jason Mraz, Jackson Browne, Jeff Hanna, the Indigo Girls – I’m from Georgia, so that’s a huge one for me. I love, love, love the Indigo Girls.

You two obviously have such a deep well of relationships and friendships throughout music. How did you decide who to rope in on these particular songs? What was that decision-making process like?

SM: I’ve said this before, I’m a talk singer. I sing like Robert Preston, The Music Man. I know Alison sings harmony, but she’s never presented herself as a lead singer, as I know. So we’re forced to find someone to sing these songs. A good example is the song “Michael,” which was written without anybody in mind. The lyrics to that are imperfect in the best sense, in a good sense. Sometimes they don’t quite scan out. Sometimes the rhyme is soft.

Alison was at an event with Aoife O’Donovan and said, “Hey, would you mind singing?” And [Aoife] just understood the song so perfectly. You just go, “Oh, that’s it!” There’s no need to look anywhere. She just really knew how to sing it. You’re looking for people who know how to sing these songs. Like Jason Mraz instantly understood “Safe, Sensible and Sane.” He knew that it was in some way humorous, that none of us could figure out why.

Both of those songs have a little international flair to them. “Michael” almost has a samba or Brazilian feel? And then “Statement Of Your Affairs” with Jason Mraz, is it like reggae?

SM: Is it reggae?

There’s something Caribbean there.

AB: It’s definitely Caribbean, yeah.

Really everything sprang from the banjo. The melody for “Michael,” I just wrote that chorus melody as a banjo tune and really could not fathom how you could do anything other than play a newgrass banjo tune with that melody. It was amazing that Steve could set words to it and then he developed this whole story. It was really fabulous.

SM: What I liked is Alison sent me the tune, I listened to it, and it inspired me to a situation, an atmosphere. And she said, “We can change those lines, some of those melodic lines, and shorten ’em.” I say no. That’s what you want, that unexpected line that extends too long or it forces the words to do something tricky. I really like that challenge.

I love your closing number, “Let’s Get Out of Here” [with] Sam Bush, who counts that one in. I’ve heard it said often that Sam Bush is the best drummer in bluegrass. He sets such a great, driving tempo and rhythm.

SM: I couldn’t play without the mandolin! I’d be all over the place, rhythmically.

AB: No, that’s true. There is nothing like Sam’s chop. When Stuart Duncan and I were teenagers, we were presidents of the “Sam Bush Chop Fan Club.” A super nerdy thing.

This is one for both of you. You’re both multifaceted, creative people. You move so effortlessly between different creative disciplines, collaborative contexts, different bands, different musicians, different media and art forms. Obviously, Steve with film and comedy and writing and performing. You’re also a passionate art collector. Alison, you have tremendous business acumen running Compass Records for so long with your husband.

This is a question as a fellow sort of striving, creative person: How do you balance all of it? I always wonder when I see people like you, is this something that you set aside and approach each discipline as a chunk? Or do you feel more like these are constantly interwoven? Is there a seamless overlap of your various disciplines and ideas and you’re just weaving in and out? Or is it more, “I do this for this time” and now, “It’s comedy time. I’m gonna work on this.” How do you break it down?

SM: Go ahead, Alison. I know my answer.

AB: Okay. So mine probably is less interesting, ’cause mine is kinda like that right brain versus left brain thing. I find that sometimes I’ll be doing just banjo for a stretch of time or music or producing a record or getting to go out and play shows. Other times, I’ll be behind the desk doing spreadsheets and financials – that kind of thing. In some kind of bizarre way, the two things inform each other.

I think for me, I spent so many years in school and got an MBA studying finance. I was an investment banker for a while, so there’s part of me that really enjoys doing all that and feels a responsibility to my mom and dad, too, that I do some of that stuff on some kind of regular basis. I have to look analytically at the music business. I think it helps me when I go in the studio to think about positioning a record – whether I’m producing or just writing my own stuff – positioning it for success, because I understand the challenges of the business landscape in a way that if I was just a banjo player, I wouldn’t understand.

Then when I get to go out and play, it’s like a complete relief just to be out and let your mind be a little bit more free. I know you can be structured and disciplined about creating, but it’s a completely different mindset to sit and look at financials than it is to have enough of an expansive view in your mind to be creative for a moment. But, somehow, the two things work together.

SM: I’ll give my answer. Most people have a job. They maybe, let’s say, go to work at nine and they come home at six – or sometimes they work [until] maybe seven or eight. And if they’re gonna do any extracurricular thing, like practice the banjo, they have to do it at night or on the weekend.

But I just wake up. I don’t have a job, so I can have breakfast and have an idea and go pick up my banjo and go play it. There’s a lot of time where you’re just really doing nothing, because you don’t have a job.

I think it really is that concept they used to apply to basketball players, “being in the zone.” Where you don’t have a sense of time. It’s just there and it’s either working or not. And it’s fun, especially at this age where my creative mind is more agile, where I’m not afraid to go other places or think of things. Ideas seem to come without as much angst, because it doesn’t have to be a success. It just has to be fun.

I know Alison hates hearing that. [All laugh]

AB: No, actually. I’m glad to hear that!

SM: The creative part of my life has become really fun. Whether I’m working with Alison or with Marty or live stage shows… or just dinners! Dinners will be fun.

That’s really beautiful and really inspiring and I’m really grateful to both of you for opening up a little bit and talking me through this. Congrats! This is a fantastic album. It’s a really wide pastiche of different ideas and feelings and vibes, and it all works together. So congrats and thank you.

SM: Thank you, Ed. It’s always great to talk with you. And you’re a great player, too. Don’t forget that!

Thanks, guys.

AB: I’m thinking what we need to do is a triple banjo thing!

SM: I’m up for it! We’ll figure it out.

AB: We’ll figure it out.

SM: Fifteen banjo strings. Can’t get enough. You can never have too many.

 

BGS 5+5: Meredith Moon

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Meredith Moon
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Latest Album: From Here to the Sea (released September 12, 2025)

Which artist has influenced you the most – and how?

I’m a bit of a deep-dive Dylan archivist. I’m one of those people who knows every bootleg series and can never get enough of the intricacies and nuances surrounding the various versions of his works. So while I know I’m not unique in this answer, I’d have to say Bob Dylan.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do they impact your work?

I spend most of my time outside in an attempt to maintain my humanity, but I’m pretty sure I’ve spent the majority of my most meaningful/intentional time in nature up in the lake country of Ontario, canoeing in places like Algonquin Park, The Kawartha Highlands, Northwestern Ontario, etc. I’ve gone on quite a few trips that are generally about a week or two in duration; I did one solo trip (with my dog) in Southern Algonquin Park that lasted five nights and six days. When you’re out there, you know exactly why you’re there and everything you need just comes to you. If you know you know! My belief is that when we put ourselves in vulnerable positions we can access something way back in our DNA that sort of guides us on how to survive. So I like doing that every once in a while, just to remind myself that I’m still connected to that.

What’s the most difficult creative transformation you’ve ever undertaken?

Getting sober, hands down. It took me months after quitting drinking to remember that I was still a musician and that I could still craft songs. I think part of that is the sort of “biopic culture” that follows you around as a musician. That we all have to be drunk cowboys in bars in order to have validity within the Americana scene.

However, as soon as I got sober and actually talked openly about it, it turned out that the majority of musicians I looked up to in the scene were actually sober, too, all along. It came back to me eventually, but there was definitely a period of reinvention before I could get anything out.

What is a genre, album, artist, musician, or song that you adore that would surprise people?

I was real big on ’90s grunge as a teenager. Some may be surprised that there’s actually a pretty strong connection between that stuff and traditional American folk tunes – the structure, some of the changes, etc. When I was a kid, I would have songs by Hole next to songs by Odetta and Doc Watson on the same playlist. I just like songs that have a strong melody and focused lyrics. And if you look at the song that way, there isn’t much difference.

If you didn’t work in music, what would you do instead?

My first love was painting and probably always will be. I’ve done photography professionally as well through the years, as well as other crafts. So I suppose if the music weren’t around, I’d just switch to the visual arts.

Photo Credit: Someari Benson-Jaja

Alison Brown Carries on the Legacy of Louise Scruggs

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Alison Brown heard Earl Scruggs playing on the Foggy Mountain Banjo album when she was 10 years old – and it changed the course of her life. More than 50 years later, Brown is the newest honoree at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum.

Yes, the circle really is unbroken.

Brown has received countless awards throughout her career as a groundbreaking banjo player. This time, however, she will be recognized for her many contributions to the business side of music.

The museum states that “The Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum recognizes a music industry leader who continues the legacy of trailblazer Louise Scruggs, a formidable businesswoman who set new professional standards in artist management.”

Michael McCall, CMHOF’s Associate Director of Editorial, said, “We always try to look at the people who are important in country music, but who the public may not know about.”

The forum began in 2007 with a mission to acknowledge Louise Scruggs’ remarkable contributions in light of the fact that “women don’t always get the recognition they should,” McCall said. “The forum is a way to shine lights where they don’t always shine.” Brown is the 17th honoree.

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Marty Stuart once told writer Jon Weisberger that Louise Scruggs “was to the business what Lester and Earl were to the music.” While performing with Bill Monroe, the “Father of Bluegrass Music,” Earl Scruggs introduced audiences to the three-finger style that we now think of as bluegrass banjo. That driving syncopation was one, possibly the primary, feature that separated bluegrass from the other forms of what was then called “hillbilly music.”

Decades later, bluegrass banjo players, almost without exception, cite Earl Scruggs as a primary influence.

While Louise’s impact isn’t as widely known, she was an equal force in the music industry. She turned the management of bluegrass artists from a casual afterthought to a profession. And her instincts and cultural awareness started ripples that are still expanding today as bluegrass, folk, and country meet in the land of Americana.

Louise was born in 1927. Shortly before she died in 2006, she told The Tennessean, “My mother worked her fingers to the bone, and my daddy did, too, and I didn’t want to go out in a field chopping corn.”

She developed office skills to fulfill a desperate determination established during the Great Depression to escape farm life. Those abilities set her on a path that in some ways changed the trajectory of bluegrass music. At the time, the bluegrass world was totally male-dominated on both the entertainment and business sides.

“But Louise was so good at what she did,” McCall said, that she was a total success. She overcame any resistance with her “integrity, and by being both hard and fair in business.”

Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt started an immensely successful band in 1948. But it wasn’t just Lester’s voice and Earl’s banjo that made Flatt & Scruggs household names. It was Louise.

Louise had been working as a bookkeeper when she fell for Earl Scruggs, seeing him on stage as a member of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. After marrying Earl, Louise initially stayed home to raise their three children. In 1955, she took over management of Flatt & Scruggs, becoming the first female manager and booking agent in the music industry.

In addition to excelling at contract negotiation and other financial aspects of talent management, Louise was a visionary. She pursued the potential of various media previously untapped by bluegrass, as well as navigating shifting cultural trends.

When Louise negotiated with CBS for use of “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” and appearances on The Beverly Hillbillies, the sound of bluegrass banjo was heard in living rooms across the nation – well beyond the coverage of the Grand Ole Opry. The theme song to Petticoat Junction kept the momentum going.

With “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” featured in the popular film Bonnie & Clyde, banjo teachers were inundated with requests to take new students.

Louise established Earl as part of the folk revival when she booked him into the first Newport Folk Festival. New York City audiences opened their ears and hearts to Flatt & Scruggs when the band appeared at Carnegie Hall. Louise also encouraged these revered bluegrass musicians to incorporate songs written by contemporaries like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash; Earl even made some recordings with saxophonist King Curtis.

Flatt didn’t appreciate the expanded repertoire and he split from Earl in 1969. Louise quickly helped form the Earl Scruggs Revue with their sons, a “beyond-bluegrass” ensemble enthusiastically received on college campuses and at festivals. They performed with acts like Steppenwolf and The Byrds and they appeared at a major anti-Vietnam War demonstration in Washington, D.C., in 1969.

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The Country Music Association’s CEO Sarah Trahern said of Louise, “She was blessed with charm, intelligence, a puritan work ethic, and a wonderful sense of humor.”

The same can be said about Alison Brown, the 2025 honoree. To say Alison Brown is admired as a banjo player hardly touches the music community’s regard for her talents.

Once she heard Earl play at age 10, Brown never let up on the banjo, winning contests at a young age and working across her entire career to expand the banjo’s role in acoustic music.

She was the first woman to receive an Instrumentalist of the Year award from the International Bluegrass Music Association on any instrument. She has won GRAMMYs and has been nominated for others and she is in the Banjo Hall of Fame.

Kristen Scott Benson, six-time IBMA Banjo Player of the Year – the second woman to receive the honor – recalls hearing Brown’s Simple Pleasures CD. “It was the first time I had ever heard any banjo playing outside the bluegrass realm. I was completely fascinated and my ears were opened to a whole new world of writing and playing.”

These days Brown frequently writes and performs with fellow banjo player Steve Martin and receives rave reviews for numerous other collaborations.

When Brown graduated Harvard with a history degree, she faced the question of what to do next. Realizing that neither the humanities nor banjo playing were money makers, she adopted the attitude of, “A girl’s gotta eat, right?”

She was accepted into UCLA business school and spent three years in investment banking. Then Alison Krauss beckoned her back to professional banjo in the early days of Union Station.

This eventually led her to performing with Michelle Shocked and to meeting her husband-to-be, Garry West. Cut to an Alison and Garry discussion in a Stockholm café about the elements of a good life. They still have the napkin on which they jotted words like performing, recording, having a label, a studio, publishing – and family. That was how the idea for an independent record label was born.

Small World Music began with the goal of distributing music by little-known artists they heard while on tour. Initially, they worked with a tiny Australian company, promoting six products in their catalogue.

“There was a video called ‘Coral Sea Dreaming’ that was visual music – beautiful scenes of coral reefs, set to a new age soundtrack,” Brown described. She and West thought it would be perfect for the Nature Store chain, but the buyer ignored their overtures.

So, Brown said, “We started calling Nature Stores and saying that we’d heard about this amazing video called ‘Coral Sea Dreaming’ – did they have it in stock?” And a few days later, the buyer called them.

“That was one of the first big things that helped our cash flow, leading to the launch of Compass.”

While she had been happy to leave the dry work of entry-level investment banking, she appreciates the knowledge she acquired there and in business school. “Like how to put together a business plan and the financial projections to support it. It also gave me paper credibility,” with investors.

Compass Records has evolved to become one of the most respected independent labels in the industry, specializing in niche markets like Celtic, folk, bluegrass, Americana, jazz and many varieties of roots music.

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The business environment Brown entered when she started Compass Records in 1995 was a far cry from the all-male world that Louise Scruggs operated in.

“I’m a firm believer that we all stand on the shoulders of the people who have come before us. And that’s incredibly true for me as a woman in business. I’ve never had to deal with those kinds of challenges [being undervalued or ignored] as a female.”

Brown and West planned their lives so they could start a business, support their love of music, and raise two children – building in the resources they needed for balance and family time. Technology and changing gender roles made all that possible in a way that wasn’t available in the 1950s. But while she didn’t encounter the same challenges as Louise Scruggs, she finds herself facing more profound obstacles.

“The digital transformation has changed the music business, maybe more than any other industry,” she said. “How do you exist in an ecosystem where you’re creating music and having to give it away for free?”

Brown was recently elected president of the Nashville Chapter of the Recording Academy. She has assumed a leadership role in promoting the rights of artists and labels and she is a determined advocate for equality of broadcast royalties – more important than ever when “streaming pays a third of a penny per stream.”

“That’s a rate conceived by the Copyright Board before people knew that a stream wasn’t a small river,” she said. “I feel like this is a critical time for creators, and I fear that, with so many people in Washington in the pocket of big tech, creators’ interests could very easily become marginalized in this race for AI.

“It’s a precarious moment, but at the same time, I feel like some of the best roots music and bluegrass music that’s ever been made is being made now, and I think it will stand the test of time.

“I think that cultivating your community is the key to succeeding – knowing who your fans and supporters are and making sure they know who you are. And now we have the tools to connect directly with our audience, which we didn’t have when we started 30 years ago,” Brown said.

She also reminds fans that, “If you want to support the artists, buy physical product. That’s still where the artists can make some money.”

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Marian Leighton Levy, who started Rounder Records in the 1970s along with two partners, knows the challenges of an independent label. And she is well aware of how much more competitive the industry has become in the face of consolidation; artists’ ability to produce their own product; and the devastating effect of streaming on creators’ incomes.

Levy said of Brown, “She’s one of the few people who’s been a top-level musician, someone who knows her way around the studio as an engineer and a producer, has started and been running a record company with Garry and somehow or other had as balanced a life as one can have while doing all of those things. And she’s been doing remarkably well for a very long time – it is just incredible what she’s accomplished.”

At the Hall, McCall lauds Brown not only for her success with Compass, but with all the ways she contributes to the industry – from participating in IBMA to the Recording Academy to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum itself.

Brown feels deeply honored to be recognized at the Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum, “having been called Girl Scruggs for so much of my childhood.”

“Louise was such a wonderful, influential force in roots music, being acknowledged as following in her footsteps is incredibly meaningful.”

She sees the forum as a great contribution to the business of music by acknowledging how far the industry has come.

“One of the things that I think is so exciting about the moment that we’re living in is that women are peppered throughout the ecosystem in a way that wasn’t the case 50 years ago. We have women promoters, artists, DJs, running record labels. Now we have this golden opportunity to create the reality that we want to live in, and we can do that by supporting each other.”

Photo courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum.

50 Years of Special Consensus

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

It is positively astounding to me that Special Consensus has been running the road for 50 years. When bass player Marc Edelstein and I decided to make the band a full-time entity, we thought it would be for two or three years and then we would return to “normal life.” Instead of getting the music bug out of my system over the years, traveling throughout our country and around the world only intensified my love of playing bluegrass music.

Been All Around This World is Special C’s 20th band record and our eighth on the Compass Records label. Our wonderful producer Alison Brown has helped raise the bar for the band – resulting in the band receiving eight IBMA Awards and two GRAMMY nominations.

Reflecting on the band’s golden anniversary, I looked back over our body of recordings and selected 15 songs that we are especially proud of – songs that received awards, that did very well on bluegrass music airplay charts, or consistently received (and continue to receive) requests at our live shows.

I appreciate this opportunity to present these songs from every era of the Special Consensus. It has been an honor to play banjo alongside such phenomenal musicians on these songs. I hope you will enjoy! – Greg Cahill, banjo player and founder

“Dream of Me” (1983; not on Spotify)

“Dream of Me” appeared on our Blue Northerns recording, released in 1983, and featured Chris Jones on guitar/lead vocal, Paul Kramer on mandolin/vocals, John Rice on electric bass/vocals and fiddle, and yours truly on banjo. Yes, electric bass! We were quite happy with the band sound for this second band recording – and who would not be happy when hearing Chris Jones sing every time we performed.

“Freight Train Boogie” (originally released 1986, re-recorded for 2000’s 25th Anniversary)

Released in 1986, this title song featured Dennis White on guitar, harmonica, and lead vocals, our honorary band member Ollie O’Shea on fiddle, Tim Wilson on mandolin/vocals, Scott Salak on acoustic bass, and yours truly on banjo/vocals. This song was requested for years, and we were very honored that our friend, the great Jethro Burns, wrote the liner notes for the album.

“Fourteen Carat Mind” (1991, re-recorded for 2010’s 35)

From our Hey, Y’all release, this track featured the fabulous singing of Dallas Wayne and always received a strong response. The song also featured Dallas on bass, Marty Marrone on guitar/vocals, Al Murphy on fiddle, Don Stiernberg on mandolin, and yours truly on banjo/vocals. The folks in Finland admired his voice as much as we did and lured him to their country to record and perform after hearing him on tour there with Special C. He and his wife lived there for seven years.

“Ten Mile Tennessee” (1996)

From our Strong Enough To Bend release in 1996, this featured the smooth lead vocals of guitarist Bobby Burns with Diana Phillips on bass, Colby Maddox on mandolin, and yours truly on banjo. This beautifully written song continues to be requested at our shows to this day and we are always happy to sing it.

“Another Day With The Blues” (1998)

“Another Day With The Blues” was brought to the band by Andrea Roberts, our bass player at the time, and she sang lead on the song that appeared on the 1998 Our Little Town recording. Chris Walz played guitar/vocals, Colby Maddox played mandolin, and I played banjo/vocals. We recorded the song in the key of C and Andrea wanted me to use the capo at 5th fret, but I did not want to do that. She felt it would sound much grassier, given the melody and flow of the song, so I relented, put the capo on the 5th fret, and it was the first Special C song to ever chart on the Bluegrass Unlimited Top 30 songs chart.

“Carolina in the Pines” (2010)

This was a massive “hit” song for Special C, from our 2010 Pinecastle Records release, Route 10. Josh Williams sang lead and played mandolin, Jamie Clifton played guitar/vocals, Tim Dishman played bass/vocals, and I played banjo. This song received so much attention that we are still referred to as the “Route 10 Band” – and we not only keep the song in the band stage repertoire, we recorded it again for the new Been All Around This World release.

“Today Has Been A Lonesome Day” (2005)

This song was always a show-stopper when Ron Spears sang it at the top of his lungs, usually at the end of a set. Although there were several songs on this 2005 Everything’s Alright recording that consistently received requests, Ron’s amazing singing on this song made it an event! Justin Carbone is on guitar, Tres Nugent is on bass, and I played banjo.

“Wild Montana Skies” (2014)

Included on the 2014 Compass Records Country Boy, A Bluegrass Tribute To John Denver recording, this track features mandolin player Rick Faris singing with Claire Lynch. Dustin Benson played guitar/vocals, Dan Eubanks played bass, Rock Ickes played Dobro, and I played banjo. This song became a favorite of our fans and received a lot of airplay. It also won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Recorded Event of the Year award.

“She Took The Tennessee River” (2018)

This track comes from the 2018 Compass Records recording Rivers and Roads, which won the IBMA Award for Album of the Year and was GRAMMY-nominated for Best Bluegrass Album. Becky Buller and Jon Weisberger wrote the song and Becky played fiddle on the track along with Nick Dumas on mandolin/vocals, Rick Faris on guitar/vocals, Dan Eubanks on bass, and I played banjo. We were honored to have Bobby Osborne join us for a verse on this one.

“Squirrel Hunters” (2018)

Also from our Rivers and Roads album, “Squirrel Hunters” was one of John Hartford’s favorite tunes to play and, with the help of his daughter Katie, our producer Alison Brown, and some technology, John introduces the tune and plays the first fiddle solo on the recording. Rick Faris is featured on guitar, Nick Dumas on mandolin, and Dan Eubanks on bass along with Alison Brown on twin banjo and 10 String Symphony (Christian Sedelmyer and Rachel Baiman) on fiddles. This recording won the IBMA Collaborative Recording of the Year Award.

“Alberta Bound” (2023)

From our Great Blue North Compass Records release, this song spent a few months in the number 1 position on the Bluegrass Unlimited Top 30 Bluegrass Songs chart and shared the very first IBMA Video of the Year Award with Authentic Unlimited. We consistently receive requests for this song that features mandolin player Michael Prewitt on lead vocal with Greg Blake on guitar/ vocals, Dan Eubanks on bass/vocals, me on banjo along with our Canadian friends Ray Legere on fiddle and Pharis and Jason Romero, John Reischman, Patrick Sauber, and Trisha Gagnon on vocals. The song also won the IBMA Collaborative Event of the Year Award.

“Snowbird” (2023)

Also from the Great Blue North, this recording is one of our most requested songs and also appeared on the Bluegrass Unlimited Top 30 Bluegrass Songs chart. The recording features IBMA 2023 Male Vocalist of the Year Greg Blake on lead vocals and guitar, Michael Prewitt on mandolin/vocals, Dan Eubanks on bass/vocals, Claire Lynch on harmony vocals, and me on banjo. Beautiful song!

“What Am I Doin’ Hangin’ ‘Round” (2025)

Alison thought this Michael Martin Murphey song made popular by The Monkees would be a great showcase for Chris Jones’ smooth vocals. All of us loved the idea and we had a blast in the studio recording this one with Greg Blake trading lead vocals with Chris, and Rick Faris and Dallas Wayne joining Dan and Brian on harmony vocals.

“I’m Always On A Mountain When I Fall” (2025)

We really wanted to showcase Dallas Wayne’s fabulous vocals on the new project and what better way to do that than by featuring him on a song made popular by Merle Haggard. Dallas sang in country music clubs in Chicago for years before joining Special C and he left the band to lead a country band in Finland. When he stepped up to the mic and launched into the first verse, we all were literally spellbound. It was truly amazing to watch and hear him so effortlessly deliver such an incredible performance.

“Wish We Had Our Time Again” (2025) 

This was the grand finale of sorts for our 50th anniversary album. Even though it’s about a past relationship, the sentiment in this John Hartford-penned song somehow seemed perfect for us. Standing next to former bandmates Chris, Dallas, Robbie, Rick, Josh and Ashby in the studio – people who have remained best friends over so many years – along with my more recent best friends Dan, Greg, and Brian, literally brought tears to my eyes. Made me realize how fortunate I have been to have these phenomenal musicians and producer Alison as best friends forever in my 50 years of making music “all around this world.”

Photo Credit: Karen Murphy

Meet This Year’s Steve Martin Banjo Prize Winners

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

On Tuesday, December 17, actor, comedian, and banjoist Steve Martin and the board of his Steve Martin Banjo Prize – now in its fourteenth year – announced this year’s winners of the $25,000 prize. Founded in 2010, the Steve Martin Banjo Prize for Excellence in Banjo has since awarded more than $500,000 in unrestricted prize funds to banjo players across the genre and style spectrum. The inaugural awardee in 2010 was modern banjo luminary Noam Pikelny; in successive years the list of recipients has grown rapidly, including such players, leaders, and composers as Rhiannon Giddens, Terry Baucom, Don Vappie, Jake Blount, Victor Furtado, Eddie Adcock, and many more.

This year, the prize’s two recipients are banjo pickers on the cutting edge of the instrument’s bright future in two distinct styles, Allison de Groot (one of the foremost old-time, clawhammer/frailing banjo players of her generation) and Tray Wellington (a Scruggs-style picker with a striking postmodern, newgrass approach.)

“Exploring had always been part of my personality since I was a kid,” Wellington explained via press release. “Music is the same way for me. Since I started playing banjo at 14, I had ideas for how I could constantly expand my musical vision and make my personality shine through banjo. Every day I am still on that journey and cannot wait to continue this pursuit.”

And exploration is certainly a hallmark of Wellington’s approach to the instrument. His right-hand approach is decidedly traditional, it’s powerful and assertive with limitless drive. While his left hand is mind-bending in its virtuosity, combining influences and textures from envelope pushers like Pikelny and Béla Fleck, he pulls an equal measure of inspiration from outside of bluegrass and roots music, as well.

Take for instance his rendition of Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness.” A layperson or bluegrass passerby might not ever expect a Kid Cudi cover performed at a roots music festival, let alone a straight-ahead bluegrass festival, but in almost every instance and context this writer has heard Wellington and band perform the number, the reaction from his audiences is electric. A buzzing excitement ripples through the crowd, murmuring recognition spreading like the most virulent contagion known to man (banjo) always does.

His live performances and through-composed instrumental pieces are out of this world, like his original “Moon in Motion 1” and “Spiral Staircase” from his most recent EP, Detour to the Moon. His 2022 full-length debut, Black Banjo, was critically acclaimed and well-received in bluegrass and beyond, combining new acoustic, jazz, Americana, and ‘grass together in his own particular blend. The project was something of a statement of perspective for Wellington, but that point of view has been anything but static since Black Banjo.

A nominee for multiple IBMA Awards – and 2019 winner of their Momentum Instrumentalist Award – Wellington is certainly right at home on bluegrass festival stages, but his music is expansive, broad, and fully-realized no matter the context. It’s clear he makes his musical and repertoire choices for himself first and foremost and following that, for a forward-thinking, equally broad audience to whom he’s directly bringing his songs and story.

This is the power of a picker like Wellington, to energize and electrify an audience – whether diehard banjo fans or new initiates – with a sound totally his own. It’s exactly how Earl Scruggs became the legendary figure of American music that he is today, by causing thousands of “What the hell is this magic?!” reactions from his listeners and bringing countless scores into the music with that inimitable sound alone.

For her part, de Groot is also a committed borderless musical explorer: “It still feels just as exciting as it did the first day I picked it up,” she relays in a press release. “I feel like I could live 100 lifetimes and explore the banjo.”

Meanwhile, her voice on the instrument would already seem to indicate multiple lifetimes lived on the banjo. A veteran of groups such as Bruce Molsky’s Mountain Drifters, the Goodbye Girls (with Lena Jonsson, Molly Tuttle, and Brittany Karlson), and duo outfits with folks like Nic Gareiss and Tatiana Hargreaves, de Groot has an absolutely idiosyncratic approach to old-time, clawhammer, and frailing styles.

Perhaps her most jaw-dropping achievement – to this banjo player, at least – is how melodic, intricate, and grounded her playing is. De Groot plays with the precision of a three-finger player and with a very similar rhythmic foundation, making it particularly compelling when she leans into melodic intricacies usually left to bluegrass strains of banjo playing. Her execution of Irish tunes on old-time banjo, too, are fantastic and baffling. How does she do it??

There may not be a more lyrical clawhammer banjo player around today, though de Groot has excellent company (Cathy Fink, Brad Kolodner, Victor Furtado, Nick Hornbuckle) in this rarest of niches she inhabits. Don’t get it twisted, though, this is a picker with grit; this frailing has teeth. At the same time, her playing never strays toward iconoclastic banjo pitfalls like showing off or territorialism or horse-measuring contests.

Her style is incisive, deliberate, and bold, and at the same time liberated by her commitment to listening and making music in partnership with her collaborators, whoever they may be and whatever styles they may dabble in. While the prize and the visibility it lends are beyond well-deserved, it’s clear that de Groot’s reputation as a superlative banjo technician is already well known across musical communities – take, for example, her and Hargreaves’ recent collaboration with guitarist and composer Yasmin Williams on “Hummingbird.”

As evidenced by this short primer on each of these fine banjo pickers, Wellington and de Groot are excellent choices to receive the Steve Martin Banjo Prize as selected by the award’s board – which currently includes Steve Martin, Alison Brown, Béla Fleck, Noam Pikelny, Anne Stringfield, Tony Trischka, Pete Wernick, Johnny Baier, Kristin Scott Benson, Roger Brown, Jaime Deering, Dom Flemons, Paul Schiminger, Chris Wadsworth, and Garry West.

Both Wellington and de Groot are young players poised to open minds and open up the instrument in exciting, engaging, and innovative ways – because that’s what the banjo has always been about.

Today, December 17, at 5:30pm ET / 2:30pm PT, viewers can tune into Deering Live to enjoy a livestream celebrating the two winners featuring Alison Brown as co-host and including interviews and performances. Tune in here.

Photo Credit: Allison de Groot by Phil Cook; Tray Wellington courtesy of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize.

Woody Platt Seamlessly Steps Into His Solo Career On ‘Far Away With You’

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

After over 20 years behind the wheel of Western North Carolina-based bluegrass and roots band Steep Canyon Rangers, founding member Woody Platt is forging a new path ahead as a solo artist with his debut album, Far Away With You.

Released on October 11, the 10-song project sees the GRAMMY and IBMA Award winner teaming up with a variety of collaborators – from the North Carolina writers whose songs litter the collection to guest spots from legends like Del McCoury, Tim O’Brien, Sam Bush, and Darrell Scott. The album also showcases covers from Georgia bluesman Blind Willie McTell (“Broke Down Engine”) and rockers Kings of Leon (“Beautiful War”) that showcase Platt’s ability to take songs from far outside the bluegrass space and capture them within it, casting these familiar tales in an entirely new light and making them new all over again.

“This album is a big step for me,” Platt tells BGS. “When I left the Steep Canyon Rangers, it was only to slow down and be home more. I didn’t really have a plan to make a record or to have any sort of solo career, but when you spend half your life on the road and playing music, it just becomes a little bit of who you are.”

That big step has come with even bigger adversity in recent weeks as Platt has joined others in recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene pounded his home region. While his property and most of the city of Brevard were spared catastrophic damage, countless other communities nearby were not. Though recovery will likely take years, Platt is determined to help for the long haul with both power tools and his baritone bluegrass bops.

During a break from hacking away at a fallen tree with his chainsaw to get a neighbor’s bridge reopened, Platt spoke with BGS about the mixed emotions leading up the release of Far Away With You, how Western Carolina informs his music, his song selection process, and how fatherhood has impacted his outlook on music.

What’s it been like for you balancing promoting and preparing for an album release while simultaneously helping your community recover from Hurricane Helene?

Woody Platt: I’m not going to lie to you, I’m conflicted. This is the first time I’ve ever focused on a record that is a solo project with my name on it. With that comes a general sort of concern, anxiety, and excitement, and I’m proud of it, but at the same time I’ve been conflicted about trying to promote something that’s so singular and personal during this huge storm event that’s got so many people in such a bad situation.

Originally, I thought there’s no way the album release show can go on, but when you think about it a little bit more, you realize that music is a great way to bring people together, create a healing environment, and use it as a platform to continue to create awareness and raise money. There’s so many benefit concerts and there always has been, but that just gave me some peace of mind that if we can transition this into being less about the album and more about the community at large and the health of the community, these two things can coexist in a really good way. Being further and further away from the storm and as more people are getting power back, I think it’s a good chance for people to come together and contribute to a greater sort of healing process.

Aside from the pivot to the release show turning into a benefit, what do you hope to accomplish with Far Away With You?

The reason I first started playing music was to play bluegrass music, so this album for me represents a return to my roots. I never stopped playing bluegrass music, but when I was with the Steep Canyon Rangers we evolved and developed more of an Americana sound, so this [album] has been a good way for me to get back to basics and playing the music that originally got me fired up about creating a band and performing in the first place. Also, there’s a lot of great songwriters here in my home community, including my wife Shannon [Whitworth], which has allowed me to tap into some of the local talent to put a spotlight on them as well.

Do you see yourself getting back on the road for any tours or solo runs in support of this record or anything else you may do in the future?

I see shows always on my calendar, but tours, not so much. I don’t envision long runs of shows, but I do see myself playing a festival here, a concert there. I’m also doing a fair amount of work with Shannon, which is sort of separate from this. Between the two, I feel like I’m actually playing more music than I thought it would be. I didn’t have any expectations of what was next after years of touring, but every time I look at my calendar I have some work to do. It’s all been really organic. I’m not out there chasing it or pushing it very hard, but if an opportunity presents itself then I’m usually pretty willing to take part in it.

As you just mentioned, most of the songs on the album are penned by other songwriters. How do you go about deciding what work from others to incorporate into your shows, or in this case, an album?

I’m really drawn to songs, melodies, and just the feel of a composition. I didn’t start this project with a goal to find the songs just within this community, but when a song speaks to you, it speaks to you. Because of that, there was no real roadmap of what the final 10 songs would be. I just went with my gut and the songs that meant something to me or moved me for one reason or another, and this is where I ended up. It was only when looking back on them at the end that I realized that most of them came right out of Brevard.

I was so lucky when I was with Steep Canyon Rangers to be in a band with some really great songwriters. It set the bar pretty high for what I look for in a song, leading to this album where every song is one that I love to play and sing.

From songwriters to nature, how do the mountains of Western North Carolina inspire and inform your music?

We live in such a beautiful place. One of my favorite things about it is all the water. It’s no secret that I’m a lifelong, serious fly fishing angler and I get in the river a lot, like more than most. There’s a real sort of music to the river, so when I’m in the water there’s a lot of inspiration that washes over me. There’s a lot of sounds and what you see is not what you hear and the way it surrounds you is all very inspiring and helps to clear my mind. It’s always been a way for me to reset, which leads to loads of creativity and inspiration.

That’s interesting you bringing up water, because I agree it can be peaceful and relaxing, but as we’ve seen it can also be powerful, destructive, and deadly. Quite the duality.

That’s very true. I just spent the morning in the river with some other guys trying to clear a neighbor’s bridge. Right now the rivers don’t feel as peaceful as they have. There’s a lot to be done, but it’s amazing how rivers can heal themselves and how water can be healing in general.

Sticking with that concept of duality, I can’t help but get a similar sentiment from the song “Like the Rain Does,” which lyrically plays out like a love story (“you’ve got me falling like the rain does”), but is also flexible and ambiguous enough to tie into the recent storms y’all have experienced.

I absolutely love that about music. A song might be written for one particular perspective, but the listener might take it in a totally different direction based on personal experience or, like you said, a recent natural disaster that can sort of change what a song means to you. I’ve always liked that about songs and feel that many of the songs on this record have that sort of ambiguity and openness to interpretation while others are more direct.

Another song I’ve really enjoyed is “Walk Along With Me,” an original of yours that combines your life at home as a father with your love of music. How did it come about?

“Walk Along With Me” was one I wrote in 2015 shortly after our son was born. Shannon and I would work different shifts and I would put our little boy in a Moby [Baby] Wrap on my chest, staying up real late with him while she got some uninterrupted sleep, sort of like a night shift. I wound up writing a lot of songs with this classical guitar nestled against his back, which was really inspiring, because I’d never really thought of myself as a songwriter. I was a part of a lot of song creation, but not as a first writer of songs.

With this one in particular, I was emotional about all of the sudden becoming a father, so I thought about my life and the experiences that I’ve had and how that translated into how I would be as a father. And, how close I would keep my child or how far I would let them go, the ebb and flow of wanting to keep your arms around them and be by their side while also realizing that they’ve got to blaze their own trail. Being a father is ultimately what led me to slowing down my touring. It really changed my whole life, having a son and starting a family and that song is just one example of how I felt about it at that time.

Given that your son is eight years old now, has he started catching the musical bug himself yet?

He really is. Just this morning he was getting ready for school and he had his own music on in his room. He’s also been singing a lot and is getting quite good on the drums. He takes drum lessons from [Aquarium Rescue Unit and Leftover Salmon’s] Jeff Sipe here in town. We were at a little jam not too long ago and he found a cajon and next thing I knew he was a part of the jam and was holding it down pretty well. We’ve tried not to push music on him, but I think just being around these rehearsals at the house and these shows that we play is causing it to seep into his bones.

You’ve mentioned your wife Shannon a couple of times now. What does it mean to you to not only have her by your side for encouragement, but also to lean on as a songwriting partner?

It’s wonderful. She’s super creative [and] also a painter in addition to being a multi-instrumentalist, a songwriter, and a great singer. We play and write a lot together now, but when she was touring with her solo band or with The Biscuit Burners and I was touring with Steep Canyon Rangers we’d oftentimes just put our instruments by the door and not get them out when we got home. We were working so hard with our other groups that when we got together, we were just hanging out. Now that we’re both not playing as much we’re doing a lot more together. It’s been a lot of fun to write together and have her as a good sounding board, and vice versa. We’ve come to a really good place of musical compatibility and creativity.

What has music taught you about yourself?

I was never naturally made for this type of thing. For a long time I didn’t even realize that I had the talent and the capability to carry a show. Because of that, I usually show up over-prepared – I’m not the kind of guy that can just show up and jump on a show, I have to be studied and be ready. That preparation and drive to be good has helped to keep me humble and honest about it. I’ve always felt like at any minute this could all go away. It’s not only aided in keeping my head down and staying focused, but it’s also kept me playing and enjoying music for all the right reasons.

Photo Credit: Bryce Lafoon

Woody Platt’s Release Show Became a Hurricane Benefit, Raising Thousands

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

On October 11, singer-songwriter Woody Platt stood onstage at 185 King Street, a cozy music venue in the depths of the small mountain town of Brevard, North Carolina. And what was supposed to be an album release party for Platt’s Far Away With You became a fundraiser for flood victims of Hurricane Helene, which devastated the region last month.

“I was conflicted about even having a show,” Platt says. “But, then I remembered that music is healing, helpful, and great for the community. It’s also a wonderful way to raise money.”

Dubbed “Rescue Carolina,” the sold-out benefit concert was a genuine celebration of togetherness after the traumatic events and during ongoing struggles of Asheville and greater Western North Carolina. Platt and his wife, acclaimed singer-songwriter Shannon Whitworth, came up with the idea for “Rescue Carolina.”

“Why don’t we use our platform, this show, and our relationships in the community to figure out what’s the quickest and more direct use of these donations to those who need help?” Platt says.

Woody Platt and band as seen from 185 King Street’s backyard. Photo by David Simchock.

At last count, the GoFundMe page for “Rescue Carolina” has raised more than $107,000 and counting. The funds will be doled out to an array of hyperlocal nonprofit organizations, small businesses and residents in need.

“There are many individuals that lost their homes and businesses that were totally destroyed,” Platt noted. “It’s pretty bad out here.”

A Brevard native who still calls Transylvania County home, Platt is the founder and former frontman for the Grammy-winning Steep Canyon Rangers. Formed almost 25 years ago while students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Rangers are a marquee act in the Americana and bluegrass realms.

“It was just us jamming in the college dorm rooms,” Platt recalls. “And then, all of a sudden, we got excited and hit the road.”

In 2022, Platt decided to step away from the Rangers in a genuine effort to spend more time with his wife and young son. And to simply slow down, maybe go fly fishing more – another lifelong passion that’s now parlayed itself into a private guiding service led by Platt.

“I have a habit of turning all my hobbies into careers,” Platt chuckles. “You know, I did 23 years with the Rangers and did enough years on the road to pay my dues out there.”

And yet, even though Platt stepped off the bus, literally and figuratively, the music hasn’t stopped. Quite the contrary. It flows seamlessly and endlessly through the heart and soul of the troubadour like the ancient rivers and creeks in Southern Appalachia.

Standing room only – inside and outside – at 185 King Street for Platt’s release show and Rescue Carolina benefit. Photo by David Simchock.

You’re no stranger to philanthropic causes and have always been involved with charities. Why is it so important to continually be involved in these efforts? Because it can take a lot out of you to do it.

Woody Platt: Yeah, it does, man. Honestly, I come by it real naturally. My whole life, my family has always been at the forefront of fundraising. My mom started the local Boys and Girls Club chapter here. And not just started it, but raised the money for a really significant facility that now services hundreds of kids. It’s a way of life for my family. I really don’t know any other approach than to get in the trenches and try to give back, you know? I mean, I’ve been really lucky, in my life and my career, to have had a lot of community support. And it’s very natural to want to turn back around, if you can, and give back.

And we’re still not out of the woods with efforts here in Western North Carolina. Not by a long shot. Everyone’s just kind of dazed at this point, where it’s like a kind of a “Twilight Zone” thing.

Yeah. I’ve used that term “Twilight Zone” so many times. There’s normalcy and there’s work. People still have to pay the mortgages and do the things they’ve always done. But, you don’t have to look too far to just see somebody in total devastation. You turn the corner and everybody’s all happy up on [a] hill, and then you just go a hundred yards down and you start seeing the devastation. I hope we don’t have to see this again. I tell you what, I hope this was truly a thousand-year flood.

Casey Driessen (fiddle) and Bennett Sullivan (banjo) perform as part of Platt’s band. Photo by David Simchock.

Obviously you scheduled the album release party prior to the flooding and it was aiming to be a special night. But, it just felt like way more of a special occasion. What did that night mean to you?

There were so many layers to that. The first layer was that I’ve never in my career done a Woody Platt concert, just a show that has my name on it. I’ve always done band shows or collective shows with other musicians, but I never just had a show that was sort of centered around music that I made and recorded. So, that in itself, even leading up to the event, had a special feeling to me because that’s a long time coming. And then, you had the hurricane and how the show quickly needed to pivot to a fundraiser – put the record in the backseat and the fundraiser in the front seat. And it kind of created some anxiety, but excitement. During the show, I [played] a lot of the songs from local songwriters right here in Transylvania County. And I invited them all to come and sing a snippet of their song in its original form before I did my version of it back-to-back throughout the night – that made it even more familial and really Transylvania County-centric. It was a special night.

You’ve been playing music for a long time, but it feels like this fresh avenue with the new album. But, how is this all going to work moving forward? Are you going to tour, play with a band, case-by-case gigs?

Well, one of my favorite things about music right now, Garret, is that when I play, it’s just solely about the joy. Not that music wasn’t joyful before, but it’s just coming from a really easy place right now. I’m not worried about the money as much or worried about the tour and all the gigs that you need to put together when you’re full-time on the road. You need to put together a robust [touring] schedule and that can weigh on you a little bit. It’s just the nature of the music business.

So, I feel like I’m playing music from a really free place, and that’s made it so fun that I’ve kind of wanted to do a little more of it. Shannon and I have a band together, and we have sort of a fixed lineup where we play [out] a little bit. This project and this band that I played with the other night, we’re going to play some, but not much. Just enough to scratch that itch and enjoy music in its just simplest form, which to me is just wonderful. I do anticipate a handful of gigs, but there’s no sort of pressure attached to it. It’s a fun place to be.

Shannon Whitworth and Woody Platt soundcheck before the show. Photo by David Simchock.

Well, it’s where you’ve always wanted to be.

A hundred percent. And that’s where it started early on. You know, with the Rangers, we got so many offers and were so busy for so long. It was incredible and such a fun ride, but it’s one of those things [to be on the grind].

The Rangers are such a freight train with their touring. Then you wonder, “Should I step off the train?” or “What’s going to happen when I step off the train?” But, you stepped off the train and you found stability in your life.

Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. Somebody asked me just yesterday, “Did you anticipate making a record? Did you anticipate playing these gigs with these different guys and developing a new repertoire?” And honestly, I didn’t. I just knew I needed to step off that train and the rest would unfold naturally. And that’s what’s happening, you know? And I was so flattered to get tucked in with Compass Records and work with [label owners] Alison [Brown] and Garry [West].

You talk about being in a free space, and that’s the way I felt listening to the album. It felt very light and that you had a kick in your step, like momentum was moving forward. There’s no heaviness on the record.

And I’m glad. I just wanted it to come from a really easy place, and get to sing with Shannon. We sing together all the time, but we’ve recorded together very little. And so, with having her there, I wanted it to be easy, fun, fresh, happy and all the things.

And that’s where you’re at right now.

You better believe it, man.

A huge crowd watches from 185 King Street’s cozy backyard. Photo by David Simchock.

When you first left the Rangers, I remember you telling me that the goal was: more time with family and more fishing, with one foot still in music.

The goal was family first. I only got one little boy, and I felt like I was missing a lot of that. When I go to the studio now, it’s like a day job, where I come right home. And when I go fishing, it’s just a few hours and I come home and sleep in my own bed. I’ve got a nice balance of those three things you mentioned. Still being front and center with the family, enjoying [fishing], and keeping the music in a good place — it’s kind of a dream come true at this point.

(Editor’s Note: Though Rescue Carolina has reached their GoFundMe fundraising goal, donors can still give to continue to support hurricane relief in Western North Carolina here.)

Photo Credit: All images by David Simchock.

MIXTAPE: Rebecca Frazier Celebrates the Here and Now

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

I’m honored to create a playlist for BGS. I’ll share a Mixtape inspired by the theme of time and celebrating the here and now. I grew up in Virginia by the water and my musical life has been influenced by the seasons and the tides. Life (so far) has been a counterpoint of going with my gut and enjoying the moment while also considering intention and the bigger picture. But I’ve learned that I am more in touch with myself as an artist when I can remain in the present. The songs I’ve selected tend to resonate with my intuitive sense of joy and unconditional love – that deeply rooted part of ourselves that is free and unburdened.

It’s celebratory for me to share two tracks from my new album, Boarding Windows in Paradise, out now via Compass Records. Produced by Bill Wolf – who’s known for his work with Tony Rice and Grateful Dead – the album features the talents of Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, Barry Bales, Ron Block, and a constellation of other bluegrass stars. The writing and recording process for the album brought me to a place of learning to create my own paradise through daily intention and action, and I’m grateful for this experience. – Rebecca Frazier

“High Country Road Trip” – Rebecca Frazier

I grew up on the water, so I love going with the flow and being taken for a ride. But I’ve got that philosophical side, where I’m also asking, “Where is this leading?” This song is meant to capture that moment of joy somewhere in the middle; that elevated feeling of loving the lightness of not knowing what’s around the bend and not necessarily trying to create a specific outcome.

“It’s a Great Day to Be Alive” – Darrell Scott

This song brings back great memories of living in Colorado and seeing Darrell Scott singing this one at music festivals out west. His song quickly became an anthem for savoring the present: “It’s a great day to be alive, the sun’s still shining when I close my eyes.”

“Sailin’ Shoes” – Sam Bush

This one is another anthem on the bluegrass festival scene. It’s about cutting loose and feeling liberated. When Sam Bush goes into his signature chop to kick it off, fans start to cheer like wild and dance in recognition. The freeing and soaring feeling of sailing – we definitely feel that when John Cowan joins in with his soaring vocals. As the lyric expresses, “Everyone will clap and cheer when you put on your sailing shoes…” Sam sings and plays it with abandon and you can’t help it but smile (or dance!) when you listen to this classic Little Feat cover.

“All I Want” – Joni Mitchell

“Applause applause, life is our cause.” Joni’s lyric speaks volumes about her expression of letting go. She sings about that feeling of dancing and unleashing herself in a dive bar, falling in love, and letting the best in herself emerge by forgetting about herself for a moment. “I want to have fun, I want to shine like the sun… I want to make you feel free.”

“Time in a Bottle” – Jim Croce

“I’d save every day like a treasure and then, again I would spend them with you.” This classic is a poignant reminder about the essence of time and what seems to have mattered most at the end. Croce sings about savoring time with a loved one and realizing that the metaphorical box of wishes and dreams can only be answered by memories of time spent with a loved one.

“Nick Of Time” – Bonnie Raitt

This song brings back powerful memories from the ’90s, when Bonnie Raitt received well-deserved acclaim as an artist after years of hard work as a blues musician. The message of time passing and realizing that we have almost missed a great life experience-but found that fruition in the nick of time-resonated with a wider audience. Her relaxed and soulful vocals portray the hopeful message in a calming way.

“Days Like This” – Van Morrison

In his relaxed and soulful way, Morrison sings about those rare worry-free days when the pieces effortlessly come together in a satisfying way: “When all the parts of the puzzle start to look like they fit, there’ll be days like this.”

“Cat’s in the Cradle” – Harry Chapin

This classic may be a tear-jerker, but it’s also a celebration of time. We’re reminded by Chapin to spend meaningful time with our loved ones now and not to wait for a speculative future time when our “schedule” is free. The lasting image of an adult son who’s now too busy for his dad – after spending years as a small child asking his dad to spend time together – is a powerful reminder about life’s priorities.

“Thunderclouds Of Love” – Tony Rice

Classic, powerful Tony Rice at his finest. This description of a thunderbolt moment can light up any heart, and Tony’s guitar solo takes us there with flashy, bluesy fireworks. Jimmy Headrick’s lyrics set the scene for Tony’s soulful and punchy baritone vocals: “I have been praying four nights on end for someone who could make me live again, and all at once from the darkness of my heart they came to light.”

“Alabama Pines” – Jason Isbell

This one snuck onto this list, because it always brings me into the present moment. Isbell’s writing and singing is just that good. Whatever you were thinking about or worrying about, it all tends to go out the window. Suddenly you’re driving in Alabama and seeing all of the imagery he describes, feeling all of the emotions he expresses.

“Help Me Make It Through the Night” – Kris Kristofferson

Kristofferson’s is my favorite version of this classic and I’ll admit that he also happens to be my celebrity crush. While he’s portraying relishing this moment, this night, I think many women are wondering if he really needs to ask for help with that cause? In all seriousness, he does pull us into the present with his poignant lyric: “Yesterday is dead and gone, and tomorrow’s out of sight.”

“Duck’s Eye” – Charles Butler

Banjoist Charles Butler is one of my favorite composers and this tune pulls me into an effortless feeling of gliding over an oceanic vastness. The call and response melodies bring the listener into a trance-like state, and the simple melody pulls the listener to that perfectly placed “eye” of the composition, echoing the David Lynch reference of Butler’s inspiration.

“Make Hay While the Moon Shines” – Rebecca Frazier

When I wrote this song with Bob Minner and Jon Weisberger, we wanted to express the feeling of unleashing ourselves and savoring the moment once the moon rises. We’ve all been told to “make hay while the sun shines,” but it’s just as important to put down our work and allow ourselves to be free and true to our inner selves.

Photo Credit: Scott Simontacchi

First & Latest: 34 Years Later, Alison Brown Still Finds ‘Simple Pleasures’ on Banjo

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

In 1990, when banjo player Alison Brown released her debut album, Simple Pleasures, she had no idea where her career could or would lead. GRAMMY nominations, IBMA Awards, touring and performing with Alison Krauss, Michelle Shocked, the Indigo Girls, Steve Martin, and many more, founding a record label that would become a keystone in roots music – none of these impressive accomplishments were on her horizons, literal or hypothetical. Brown just wanted to play the banjo.

She had recently left her job in investment banking and wanted to give her musical career a legitimate go of it. Tasking herself with intentionally writing an album’s worth of original tunes, over the years from 1988 to the project’s release on Vanguard Records in ‘90, Brown pushed herself sonically, aesthetically, and compositionally. The result was demonstrably spectacular and effortlessly cutting-edge.

Simple Pleasures, which was produced by David “Dawg” Grisman and included Alison Krauss, Mike Marshall, Joe Craven, and more among its cast of collaborators, would help launch Brown’s now decades-long career as a bluegrass and roots music multi-hyphenate and business leader. Simple Pleasures broke the ground, fertilized it deeply, and helped cultivate one of the most innovative and forward-looking careers ever accomplished by a five-string picker.

Now, some 34 years after its original release, that debut album has been reissued – on vinyl and digital, with a handful of digital-exclusive bonus tracks recovered from a cassette tape of demos. The project is a delightful time capsule and a perfect representation of the vast and varied musical ground Brown has covered over the intervening years. She may not have known it then – she readily admits, as a picker in her twenties, she was just taking this “banjo thing” day by day – but Simple Pleasures would lay the groundwork for all of her many successes in the music industry and in bluegrass.

For a special edition of First & Latest, we spoke to Alison Brown by phone about her first release and her latest – which just so happen to be the same album, the original and the new reissue. It’s essential listening for bluegrass, banjo, and roots music fans.

Simple Pleasures was originally released in 1990, 34 years ago. I wanted to start by asking you about your frame of mind now versus then, about what’s changed in the interim. What’s changed regarding how you view yourself as a creator and as a banjo player? Looking back, in retrospect, do you recognize the person you were then? What do you remember about your frame of mind when you first put the album out?

Alison Brown: It was this time in my life during which I was writing this music and then trying to get a record deal; I had just left my investment banking job and had taken this bizarre leap of faith, which I didn’t necessarily get a lot of support for. My parents weren’t saying, “Hey, I think you should quit your investment banking job to play banjo.” [Laughs] It really was a leap of faith.

I just couldn’t stop thinking about the banjo. So, I gave myself the challenge of seeing if I could write an album’s worth of music that would hold up and just try to make a record. And then, in the course of working on that, I wrote these tunes and joined Alison Krauss & Union Station. By the time we recorded the tunes, I’d been in her band for a year. I was really at the beginning of what has become my career path since then, but when I was doing it, I didn’t really know how it would be received or if it would get any props or even if it would be any good. All the validation that came on the heels of releasing this, and then everything since then, has made me a much more confident musician than I was when I wrote the music and recorded the record.

Before this album, were you already writing tunes? Was that something that you always did? Or was this an intentional practice shift for you? Was making an album of your own tunes something you had always been working towards or was it part of that purposeful transition from investment banking to banjo?

That is a really good question. I had never written much music up until that point, but I’d always wanted to. Stuart Duncan and I did a record called Pre-sequel. That was like a teen record, but we had a couple original tunes, stuff like “Possum Gravy on Grandma’s Beard” and “The Great Lasagna Rebellion.” It was like teen stuff.

Anyways, I really had wanted to challenge myself to see if I could write some “real music” – that isn’t really quite the right word, but some more substantial tunes and some tunes that really took the instrument maybe to a new place, which took my voice to a new place. That was a lot of this exercise and those 12 tunes. I didn’t know if I could write them or even if they would be any good, but that was like the beginning of this kind of process of self discovery.

When you look at the credits list – Mike Marshall and David Grisman and Alison Krauss and more – you can see some of the fingerprints of you and your community, but it was a kind of a longer process of you writing and getting to the point of recording, right?

I’m trying to remember… yeah, probably from the time I started writing the tunes was maybe middle of 1988 and then we recorded them beginning in 1990. So yeah, there was definitely some time in there–

Was there some extrapolating in your head of, “What are these songs going to sound like? Who is going to play them?” What do you remember about deciding on how you were going to make the tunes and who was going to make them with you? Because I have a feeling that was just as important a part of the process as having the material to record.

Once the door opened for me to work with David Grisman, to produce the record and play on it, then I was pretty much like, “What do you think, David?” But I knew I wanted to have Alison on the record and I knew I wanted to have Mike, ‘cause I love his music no matter what he’s playing. I’m the head of the “Mike Marshall Plays Guitar Fan Club.” [Laughs] I love his guitar playing. And Mike was in the Bay Area, so that made perfect sense.

But then, in terms of bringing in the flute or percussion, I hadn’t really thought about those things. When I listen to this record now, it’s surprising really how much of a footprint the record created for what we’re doing now. ‘Cause we’ve got a rhythm section and flute in the band. In some ways, it feels like after all this time we’ve come full circle, at least back to the seed that record planted, sonically, for the music.

That’s so interesting, to be able to look back and trace that throughline, when at that point it may have felt like a one-off to have those instruments and those styles represented in the music. And now it’s present through lots of your work.

Yeah, it is really interesting. There’s obviously things that weren’t included [on Simple Pleasures]. We’ve had piano in the band pretty much since the beginning and we didn’t have piano on that record, obviously. But I don’t know, somehow that doesn’t seem as much of a template thing, the idea of percussion elements and certainly the flute. David really brought that – and the idea of incorporating cello. I’m not sure I was really thinking about those things. My thinking was probably more in the bluegrass-rooted box.

One of the things that’s definitely changed from the original Simple Pleasures to the reissue over those 30-some years is these bonus tracks that you’ve added – such a time capsule. I wanted to ask you about their… I want to say provenance, but I don’t mean to be that formal. Like, how did you hold onto the demos over time, did you always have them in your back pocket?

You know, as we were working on re-master I kept thinking I knew I had a cassette of the demos. I just dug around and I found it! That’s where the actual takes came from, but that between-take talking, to me, is my favorite part of the whole thing. Just hearing Mike and David and Richard Greene, who produced those demos, talking to each other – I just think that’s the coolest thing. That came off the 2-inch tapes that we had. But the 2-inch tapes, we didn’t have the final mixes of the demos. So, it just worked out that we dumped the cassette tapes into this computer and tried to sweeten it a little bit and that’s what we used.

Looking back, this was a big transition point for you with a GRAMMY nomination, winning IBMA Banjo Player of the Year as the first woman to win an instrumental award. Of course this would end up a seminal album and was a really important kickstart for your incredible career. But at that point, back in 1990, were you worried about it? What was your frame of mind as far as expectations for what this album could do and where it could go?

I’m sure that I had no expectations. [Laughs] It was just something that I really wanted to do myself. I wanted to see, could I write a bunch of music and would it stick together? And, can I get some great people to play on it? I was just happy that all those things came together and I got it on a label.

It was just so cool to be on Vanguard Records. The Welk Music Group had bought that catalog and they had just started signing artists. I was one of the first artists they signed to the Vanguard imprint. All that was enough, but then to get a GRAMMY nomination was completely a surprise. I didn’t expect that at all, or the IBMA recognition. That validation was huge, obviously, and it would be for anybody, but for me it was just so huge. I actually took my parents with me to Radio City Music hall for the GRAMMYs and that went a long way toward them accepting my career 180. [Laughs]

It seems like this was definitely proof of concept for, “I can do this banjo thing. I can make banjo records. I can do this as a career.”

And in retrospect, I completely agree. In the moment, none of those things [were certain]. That’s what they say, “Hindsight’s 20/20.” And that’s so true; when you’re in the moment, you just don’t know how it’s going to turn out. Then it turned out great! I feel so lucky every day that I get to play music or create music or help somebody else create music, all that is just such a gift. Because it was not a foregone conclusion, I could easily have gone back to investment banking or something else with my tail between my legs. I’m just so grateful that isn’t the case.

At this point in your career, people think of you as a multi-hyphenate, as somebody who runs a label, is so active in the industry, and picks a really mean banjo. But this project predated Compass Records by several years. Were you already planning that sort of multi-prong, multi-hyphenate approach then? Or do you think it would be a surprise to 1990 Simple Pleasures Alison that you are the multi-hyphenate you are now?

Yeah no, I did not know it was [in my future], I think I was really just taking it a step at a time. At that particular point in time, my goal was just to write tunes and play in Alison [Krauss’] band. Then, when I left her band, I was really at this juncture again. My parents kept saying, “We really think you’d enjoy going to law school!” I was on the edge of applying to Vanderbilt Law School when I got a call from Michelle Shocked looking for a band leader for her world tour in 1992.

So no, I definitely didn’t have the multi-hyphenate, as you put it, plot hatched at all yet. That’s really something that came during that time that I spent with Michelle and then Garry West, who was playing bass in the band [with her as well]. We connected on a personal level, on a business level, and we started talking about “the good life.” Like, how do you make a life out of music? That’s when we started envisioning the different spokes of the wheel, and one of them was a record label and one of them was playing banjo and touring. That 1990s Alison was really just taking in a day at a time.

There’s this quality that musicians talk about a lot, almost to trope-ish levels, of not liking listening to themselves, not liking going back and hearing their own musical ideas or their own creativity from the past. It can be cringey! When you hear your young adult voice on the banjo now, what’s your reaction? Do you bristle at it? Do you feel inspired by it or do you have a moment where you’re like, “I can’t believe that I played that or I did that”? You’ve been inhabiting these tunes to remix and re-master them, not just rubber stamping a reissue. What does that feel like, to be going back and forth between who you are now and who you were then?

I really thought it was going to be like a lot of cringey stuff, like listening to those tracks and thinking, “Oh god, why did I play that?” Instead, I had a completely different feeling, because I felt like I could hear and really remember both the joy of figuring out that I could do this thing and the uncertainty of, “I don’t know if it’s any good or if it’s going to connect with anybody at all.” I can hear both of those things, but at the end of the day, what I felt most was just wishing I could reach back in time and give myself a pat on the back [and say,] “It’s going to work out okay and you’re on the right path.”

Because I think that’s the thing, we’re all looking for our true path. Sometimes it’s really hard to see, and for me, it was definitely hard to see. I really thought that I would be like a respectable business person and instead – well, I hope I’m a respectable business person, but it’s certainly not what I expected to be! [Laughs] I really thought, banker, lawyer, doctor, that kind of thing.

Your portfolio as a banjo player, label head, and producer is so diverse. And I wondered if you feel that’s directly correlated to being a woman who plays the banjo, or if you think there’s something else that’s driven that or informed that? Because I firmly believe marginalized folks in roots music – really anyone who’s not a straight white man – we often have to have very diverse career paths just to make a living, to make ends meet.

One thing I do notice is that big opportunities that opened up for me early on, they were all created for me by other women. That’s really not lost on me – whether it was Alison Krauss or Michelle Shocked. It wasn’t a male band leaders inviting me in. I think that’s really significant and that’s one of the things that I think is interesting about the times we’re in now, the fact that there’s much more diversity – even though it’s not as much as we would like to see. But there are women peppered throughout the ecosystem of the bluegrass community. We’re really in a position to empower and bring up the next generation, where we weren’t so much before. That makes it a really exciting time. I know that’s something that I love to look for opportunities to do.

If I’m producing a record, I want to bring those other voices into the room and let’s raise the next generation. ‘Cause when you come out of investment banking, you can see how adept the guys are at bringing on the next generation of guys, but women in corporate situations just historically haven’t [had the same access]. There are many reasons, it’s not their shortcoming. I think it’s just the circumstances, but now it doesn’t have to be that way. I find that particularly exciting.

34 years later, these folks who played on Simple Pleasures are still part of your community and are collaborators of yours. Back then, were you thinking, “All right, these are my ride or dies! We’re going to go the distance together.” Or was it like, “I can’t believe I get to be in a room with these folks and I hope we can do it again”? How does it feel now to look back and have decades-long relationships with these folks that you made the album with and to have that community be such a present part of the music that you continue to make and the records that you put out?

It’s amazing to look back and to think about the fact that I’ve known Mike Marshall since, gosh, I think I was a teenager the first time I met Mike? To have 50-year-long relationships with some of these people, it’s an amazing thing and it’s such a gift. I think one of the best things about our community is that people can have careers that extend over decades and you can have friendships with people that extend over half a century or more. I’ve known Stuart Duncan since he was 10, so I’ve known him for half a century. It’s crazy and wonderful too. And it’s such an amazing aspect of our community.

I don’t know if it’s the same in other kinds of music, but I think the intergenerational aspect of bluegrass music and roots music just creates for some amazing lifelong friendships. I think it’s not uncommon for people to start when they’re 10 years old – or, Stuart started playing this music when he was six or seven. When I met him when he was 10, he was already a hotshot fiddle player. The fact that you can get into this music as such a youngster, keep playing it, and there’s room for you even when every hair on your head is gray, it’s just a great thing. I think in popular music the window is more narrow.

But in this music, people want to see you play your music whether you’re six or whatever age. How old was Bobby Osborne? He was 92! The record that I did with Bobby, Original, we was 86/87-years-old when we recorded that record. You wouldn’t see an 87-year-old pop artist probably making a record.

You Gotta Hear This: New Music From John McEuen, Tom Paxton, and More

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

This week, banjoist and Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founding member John McEuen kicks off our You Gotta Hear This round up with a track from his brand new album, The Newsman: A Man of Record. Check out his adaptation of a Robert Service poem, “The Cremation of Sam McGee” below.

Plus, we’ve got track premieres from gritty country outfit Tylor & the Train Robbers, from Claire Lynch singing Tom Paxton for an upcoming album, Bluegrass Sings Paxton, from the Stetson Family contemplating mortality, and from the Onlies a rendering of a classic old-time ballad.

Don’t miss our video premiere from Max McNown, too, which posted to BGS just yesterday. It’s all right here and, if we do say so ourselves, You Gotta Hear This!

John McEuen, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”

Artist: John McEuen
Hometown: Oakland, California
Song: “The Cremation of Sam McGee”
Album: The Newsman: A Man of Record
Release Date: April 12, 2024
Label: Compass Records

In Their Words: “Using sound effects, music I composed, and some ‘recording tricks’ with instruments, I concocted the back up for one of my favorite poems, ‘The Cremation of Sam McGee.’ My (late) older sister would sometimes tell her 8-10 year old brother, me, this favorite Robert Service poem from 1906, captivating me with the story of a place unknown. I later found it in my high school English book and fell in love with it again. It takes me away to that strange time in these miners’ lives, and while starting kind of morose, manages (in my opinion, anyway) to reach a ‘happy ending’ with Sam finally getting warm! Trying to make the ‘definitive’ version of this classic was a challenge. It is one of my best ‘works.’ I am hoping each time a listeners hears it they will hear something different show up in the mix, as I planned it to be ‘with surprises’ like that.” – John McEuen

Claire Lynch, “I Give You The Morning” (by Tom Paxton)

Artist: Claire Lynch from Bluegrass Sings Paxton
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Song: “I Give You The Morning”
Album: Bluegrass Sings Paxton
Release Date: April 12, 2024 (Single)
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “Claire Lynch has one of the most recognizable and expressive voices in bluegrass. We knew we wanted to have that voice on the album and her choice of ‘I Give You The Morning’ was a great call — it’s got an old-fashioned ballad construction, a deliciously unusual yet natural rhythm to the first lines in each verse, a captivating melodic rise in the refrain, and an evocative lyric. And, the band has just the right balance of strength and delicacy to complement those same qualities in her approach. It’s a performance that brings out so many aspects of what makes Tom Paxton’s songs so memorable, and I can’t think of a better way to introduce this project to listeners!” – Jon Weisberger, co-producer

“Since the early 1960s, when bluegrass and the emergent folk revival first crossed paths, arguably no songwriter from the latter world has seen more of their songs adopted by the former than Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Tom Paxton. From early covers of his epochal ‘The Last Thing On My Mind’ by Bluegrass Hall of Famers, The Dillards and the Kentucky Colonels, to regular performances of ‘Leaving London’ by IBMA Entertainer of the Year Billy Strings, to Ashby Frank’s version of ‘Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound,’ which landed a place among the 30 most-played tracks on bluegrass radio in 2023, Paxton’s creative visions have echoed in bluegrass studios, on bluegrass stages and in bluegrass jam sessions for generations.

“Now a broad-ranging group of artists in and around bluegrass are paying explicit tribute to this vital legacy in a new Mountain Home Music Company collection — Bluegrass Sings Paxton — that places these classic songs alongside less familiar, but no less finely crafted material from the Tom Paxton songbook, including new songs written especially for the project.” – Mountain Home Music Company

Track Credits:
Claire Lynch – Lead vocal
Darren Nicholson – Mandolin, octave mandolin
Deanie Richardson – Fiddle
Chris Jones – Acoustic guitar
Kristin Scott Benson – Banjo
Nelson Williams – Upright bass

Tylor & the Train Robbers, “Workin Hands”

Artist: Tylor & the Train Robbers
Hometown: Boise, Idaho
Song: “Workin Hands”
Album: Hum of the Road
Release Date: April 12, 2024 (single); May 3, 2024 (album)

In Their Words: “I wrote this one around a guitar riff I had been playing with for a while. The riff is busy, but something about it stuck in my head and I decided to write a song to match it. I wanted to keep the intensity of that guitar part and extend to every instrument in the band, pushing us all musically. Everyone in the band worked to find the right parts that brought it all together. The vibe is inspired by bands like Barefoot Jerry and the Amazing Rhythm Aces, it’s unpredictable and keeps you on your toes. It’s definitely not a song I would ask someone to sit in with us on unless they came prepared, but it’s become a favorite for us to play live. I think it really showcases the musicianship of everyone in the band.” — Tylor Ketchum

Track Credits:

Tylor Ketchum – Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar
Jason Bushman – Bass Guitar and Harmony Vocals
Tommy Bushman – Drums and Harmony Vocals
Rider Soran – Lap Steal Guitar
Johnny Pisano – Electric Guitar
Cody Braun – Hand Claps and percussion
Katy Braun – Hand Claps
Jonathan Tyler – Hand Claps and percussion

Recorded at Yellow Dog Studios in Wimberley, Texas.
Producer – Cody Braun
Engineer – Adam Odor
Mixed by Jonathan Tyler.
Mastered by Adam Odor.

The Stetson Family, “Make Me Ashes”

Artist: The Stetson Family
Hometown: Melbourne, Australia
Song: “Make Me Ashes”
Album: The Stars, If You Look Closely
Release Date: April 19, 2024

In Their Words: “‘When it’s time to meet my maker, come the fire or the hole…’ – the words ‘fire or the hole’ come from a conversation I had with a woman who was the owner of a Vietnamese restaurant in Melbourne where my family and I went every Wednesday night for many years. When my mum passed away, Lisa, the lovely Vietnamese owner, asked me in broken English, ‘Does your mum have the fire or the hole?’ Meaning, ‘Will she be cremated or buried?’ I loved her humble way of asking, it was so heartfelt. It got me thinking about when it’s my time, will I have the fire or the hole? This song lets people know I’ve chosen the fire.” – Nadine Budge

Track Credits:
Nadine Budge – Writer, lead vocal, rhythm guitar, resonator guitar
John Bartholomeusz – guitar, harmonies
Colin Swan – banjo, harmonies
Greg Field – fiddle, mandolin, harmonies
Luke Richardson – double bass, harmonies

The Onlies, “Matty Groves”

Artist: The Onlies
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee; Durham, North Carolina; Whitesburg, Kentucky
Song: “Matty Groves”
Release Date: April 12, 2024

In Their Words: “A couple years ago, our friend Sonya Badigian sent a recording of Doc Watson playing this song and recommended we learn it as a band. Before going into the studio, Leo spent many weeks singing the long, epic poem which tells the story of Matty Groves stealing Lord Daniel’s wife and the dramatic duel that later ensues. This story dates back to 17th century Northern England, closely related to Child ballad #81, ‘Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard.’ When we got together to work up an arrangement, a driving fiddle melody emerged to accompany the lyrics. We recorded it late at night in a small studio in Eunice, Louisiana, with the help of incredible engineer Joel Savoy and the unmistakable bass groove of Nokosee Fields.” – Sami Braman

Track Credits:
Leo Shannon – lead vocal and guitar
Vivian Leva – harmony vocal and guitar
Sami Braman – fiddle
Riley Calcagno – banjo
Nokosee Fields – bass

Max McNown, “Worry ‘Bout My Wandering”

Artist: Max McNown
Hometown: Bend, Oregon
Song: “Worry ‘Bout My Wandering”
Album: Wandering
Release Date: April 12, 2024
Label: Fugitive Recordings x The Orchard

In Their Words: “‘Worry ‘Bout My Wandering’ was probably the most difficult song for me to write as it’s so personal. It came from being far away from my family and thinking about my mom and wondering how she feels about my life and the direction it’s taken. Shooting the video in my beautiful home state of Oregon was very important to me… I just always want to make my family and hometown proud.” – Max McNown

More here.

Photo Credit: John McEuen by Henry Diltz; Max McNown by Benjamin Edwards.