In Their Words: “My hometown of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, is a four-and-a-half hour drive from Nashville. My pilgrimages there were always made more romantic by snaking alone in a car down the country roads along the Mississippi. A winter or two ago, I had the radio off listening to the wind rush around with my left hand hanging out of my open window like a wing and this song came to me. I fumbled between the seats and found a broken pen and a crumbled gas receipt. I pressed both firm to my steering wheel and wrote the bulk of this song at 55 mph nearing Paducah.” — Ian Fisher
This week on The Show On The Road, in honor of Black History Month, we bring you a conversation with members of foundational gospel group, The Blind Boys Of Alabama, including longtime singer Ricky McKinnie and beloved senior member Jimmy Carter, who has been with the group for four decades.
Formed in the late 1930s with talent discovered at the Alabama Institute For The Negro Blind, the Blind Boys of Alabama have superseded limitations to bring their own high-spirited version of jubilee gospel throughout the world. Their music was often the backdrop to the Civil Rights Movement as Martin Luther King Jr. toured the south, and Jimmy and Ricky are both amazed and grateful that their message is still ringing true throughout the latest iteration Black Lives Matter movement that grew during the tumultuous last year.
While the members of the band have changed through time, the group has stayed steadfast to preserving a kinetic, church-based music that doesn’t seek to evangelize, but can bring people of all faiths together. Indeed, watching Jimmy and the other bespectacled members walk with hands on each other’s shoulders into the youthful crowds of adoring festival-goers, from Bonnaroo to Jazzfest, is really something to behold.
The Blind Boys’ body of work continues to grow. In the last few decades they’ve gamely collaborated with a wide range of secular artists from Peter Gabriel to Ben Harper to Bonnie Raitt, they made an album produced by Justin Vernon, AKA Bon Iver (2013’s stellar I’ll Find A Way), and they shrewdly reworked the ominous Tom Waits classic, “Way Down In The Hole,” which became the theme for HBO’s The Wire.
Their newest full length album, Almost Home, is a particularly moving treatise on morality and mortality. It features songs written by Marc Cohn, Valerie June, The North Mississippi All Stars and many others and was the last record that longtime member and bandleader Clarence Fountain was a part of before he passed away. He was a member of the Blind Boys of Alabama for nearly sixty years.
As Jimmy playfully mentions throughout our conversation, the Blind Boys of Alabama never let being blind stand in the way of doing what they do best: putting on a show. They’re entertainers at heart and it’s no small feat that they’ve brought a nearly lost form of swinging, soulful (and expertly arranged) gospel from the small southern towns where they grew up, all the way to the White House, where they’ve held court for three different presidents. And they’ve won five Grammy Awards along the way.
Stick around to the end of the episode hear their rich cover of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released.”
Artist:Miko Marks Hometown: Flint, Michigan Song: “Hard Times” Album:Our Country Release Date: March 26, 2021 Label: Redtone Records
In Their Words: “This is our arrangement of an 1854 song by Stephen Foster. Those who know about Foster’s involvement with minstrel shows earlier in his life may wonder why I would include a song of his on my album. Much of his success came through the appropriation of Black culture and music, and for me this felt like an opportunity to take a song of his and reclaim it through my own voice as a Black artist. It was also a way for me to pay tribute to Mavis Staples, whose arrangement of this song is absolutely gorgeous. The lyrics also have particular significance that I think everyone can relate to because of the hard times we’ve been going through this year. I love the melody and the mood. It’s sweet, sad, and hopeful all at the same time.” — Miko Marks
Welcome to the BGS Radio Hour! Since 2017, the show has been a weekly recap of all the great music, new and old, featured on BGS. This week we’ve got new releases from so many amazing artists on the roots scene today, from Luke Combs to Langhorne Slim to Sierra Hull! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode of the BGS Radio Hour.
Luke Combs, of country radio stardom, teams up with bluegrass-favorite Billy Strings this week for a new single. “The Great Divide” was written by the duo for Combs’s bluegrass album, one that he hasn’t completed yet. However, both artists agreed that the time to release this song was now, attempting to shine a light of hope in this tough time.
Singer/frontwoman of the Birds of Chicago, Montréal-based Allison Russell brings this Sade cover to the show this week. What she calls an “endlessly expansive and inclusive song of love,” this song brings comfort to Russell – as it does to us, as well.
Nashville-based Jaelee Roberts is one of the quickest rising stars in bluegrass music. Her first single on Mountain Home Music Company, an original song co-written with Theo MacMillan (of Theo and Brenna), brings big promises of more great music to come.
A 5+5 guest this week is none other than Jim Olsen, president of Massachusetts record label Signature Sounds. Celebrating 25 years of the label, and the so many great artists presented by it, Olsen brings us the Golden Age playlist – which includes this jam from Twisted Pine.
Kentucky-based Dale Ann Bradley brought us a new album this weekend! While you may remember her from former BGS Artist of the Month Sister Sadie – an all-female bluegrass supergroup – Bradley is stepping away from the band in 2021 to celebrate this new solo album, just one of so many in her extensive catalog.
“Glory Demon” comes from Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. “It means war,” Matheson tells BGS. But, this is an anti-war song from the Scottish artist, one about how we never learn and life just keeps endlessly repeating itself.
The Black Pumas are our February Artist of the Month here at BGS! You may recognize them from the Biden inauguration, where they performed this song from their 2019 self-titled album. Stayed tuned all month long, where we’ll be featuring exclusive content on the Black Pumas!
This week on The Show On The Road podcast brings us a conversation with Sean Scolnick – known mostly by his alter-ego, Langhorne Slim. Host Z. Lupetin caught up with Slim to talk about his new album, Strawberry Mansion, creative funk, mental health, and more.
From Snohomish, Washington, Hillary Grace Fretland (of FRETLAND) catches up with BGS this week on a 5+5 segment – that is 5 questions, 5 songs. We talked favorite memories from being on stage, influences, and songwriting techniques.
From her upcoming The Moon and the Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers, Valerie June brings us this song that she dedicates to us all. Produced by June and Jack Splash – whose resume includes Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys, and John Legend – this album makes it clear to June why she makes music.
Nashville-based fiddler Mike Barnett brings us this Bill Monroe twist-up from his upcoming duets album, +1. The record was slated for a fall 2020 release, until Barnett suffered from an unexpected brain hemmorage. After multiple successful surgeries, he is doing well and recovering in extensive rehab where he is reconnecting his brain and fingers. So in listening to this piece of amazing music, let’s all send our best wishes to Mike Barnett and his family. You can support Mike Barnett’s recovery here.
From last year’s Whiskey Sour Happy Hour, this week we’re featuring Sierra Hull’s performance of this Sara Bareilles pop-hit. The Nashville-based singer and songwriter just released Weighted Mind (The Original Sessions), an EP made up of the demos for her 2016 release, Weighted Mind.
“Time traveled on a superhighway,” Chicago-based singer and songwriter tells BGS of the world before the pandemic, “but since March, we’ve all been in a traffic jam.” David McMillin of the group suggests that getting a break from all that movement is actually a good thing, however. This song is all about hitting that pause button.
The Jon Stickley Trio is one of the most exciting instrumental, “jamgrass” groups on the scene today. Made up of drums, flatpick guitar, and fiddle, they continue to push the boundaries of instrumental roots music, while being a festival favorite across the nation. This week, they bring us this new single on Organic Records.
At the end of the Show On The Road podcast episode with Langhorne, he graced us with a performance of this song, accompanied by his cat, Mr. Beautiful. What better way to end this week’s show?
Photos: (L to R) Allison Russell by Francesca Cepero; Sierra Hull by Gina Binkley; Valerie June by Renata Raksha
Artist:Joyann Parker Hometown: Minneapolis, Minnesota Song: “What Did You Expect” Album:Out of the Dark Release Date: Feb 12, 2021 Label: Hopeless Romantics Records
In Their Words: “This song is a cheeky response to an experience that my musical partner, Mark Lamoine, relayed to me once about his daughter, who was then around 9 years old. The story goes something like this: Mark’s daughter was invited to play soccer with some boys in the neighborhood. When she went out to the park to play, they then decided against playing with her, saying they ‘didn’t want to play with a GIRL.’ She ran into the house, crying and very upset, of course. Her mother, seeing her in distress, asked what happened and when she found out, got down on one knee in front of her daughter and said something to the effect of, ‘Get used to it, Honey, men lie.’ This was great inspiration for a song for me, so I took it, twisted it so the female narrator was the villain in a relationship and being dishonest with her partner about her intentions, saying, ‘Well, what did you expect?'” — Joyann Parker
In the final chapter of Toy Heart’s three-part tribute to Tony Rice, host Tom Power speaks to several musicians who have been inspired by Tony Rice throughout their career, pickers and artists through whom Tony’s music will certainly live on.
On episode 3 of Toy Heart: Remembering Tony Rice, MacArthur “Genius” and Punch Brothers frontman Chris Thile tells a story about a jam with Tony Rice backstage that changed his musical life. Chris “Critter” Eldridge (pictured), also of the Punch Brothers, talks about the time he spent living with and learning from Tony — not just about music, but about life. Guitarist and singer-songwriter Molly Tuttle speaks about Rice’s influence on her guitar playing and how she sees his music living on even through musicians like herself, who never knew him personally. Finally, in-demand Nashville guitarist, session player, and sideman Bryan Sutton talks about recording with Tony and how he learned to be himself thanks to Tony Rice’s example.
Editor’s Note: Hear Thile at timestamp 01:58; Eldridge at 33:17; Tuttle at 01:03:17; and Sutton at 01:21:09
The humble appearance of the Station Inn could never give away the enormity of its legacy and importance to bluegrass music. Nestled between skyscrapers in an ever-growing city, a single story cinder-block building with its windows painted shut sticks out as a relic from the past — when the Urban Outfitters across the street used to be an empty field of waist-high grass.
For nearly 50 years “the World Famous” Station Inn has played a pivotal role in bluegrass as both a venue and community hub, drawing people to Nashville and making connections that had a major impact on the music. Through the rest of 2021, The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will honor and present the history and legacy of the venue in their exhibit The Station Inn: Bluegrass Beacon.
“The main reason that we wanted to do this exhibit is because the Station is such a vital and important part of not just Nashville music history, but of American music history,” says Peter Cooper, one of the curators of the new exhibit. The Station Inn has a larger-than-life reputation in the bluegrass community, but this new exhibit endeavors to highlight both the importance of the venue’s history and its welcoming atmosphere.
During the mid-1980s, adventurous singer-songwriter and musician Peter Rowan assembled all-star groups he dubbed “Crucial Country” for a series of shows that created a buzz amongst progressive roots music fans and players. In this photo, Rowan (right) is joined by Mark O’Connor on guitar and Sam Bush on mandolin. Photo: Charmaine Latham
It was founded in 1974 by a group of bluegrass musicians and singers — Bob and Ingrid Fowler, Marty and Charmaine Lanham, Jim Bornstein, and Red and Bird Lee Smith — who wanted to provide their fellow musicians and fans with a venue where they could play and hear bluegrass music. At that time the Station was more of a clubhouse where the owners functioned as the house band and guests would come up to jam. They moved to the current location in 1978; three years later, the club was bought by J.T. Gray, who at the time was driving Jimmy Martin’s tour bus.
Gray, who would go on to be inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 2020 and was given a lifetime achievement award by the Southeast Regional Folk Alliance, began booking national touring acts to perform. It would be easy and accurate to show why the Inn is significant by pointing to the artists who have played there, including Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, and essentially any other important name in bluegrass. But the clubhouse atmosphere always remained. Countless (as in absolutely too many to count) threads of bluegrass history, both well-known and overlooked, can all be traced back to chance meetings at the Station Inn. J.T. Gray fostered a welcoming atmosphere that led to many locals and visitors from out of town to meet there, including mandolinist Mike Compton.
The venue’s sound-mixing console described by Gray as “the first piece of modern sound equipment we ever bought”
“I rode up [to Nashville] with Raymond Huffmaster, a bluegrass guy from Meridian, Mississippi, where I’m from, because I’d been hanging around him trying to learn how to play,” Compton says. They visited the bluegrass spots in town including the Station Inn, and Compton recalls after heading home, “Pat Enright got in touch with me and said they were starting a band and asked if I wanted to join. So I moved [to Nashville] in 1977 and moved in with J.T. Gray.”
Mike and Pat would continue playing together and later go on to form the legendary Nashville Bluegrass Band, which became a staple act at the Station Inn. A predecessor to that award-winning band was performing at the Station the first time future bluegrass star, Kathy Chiavola, came to town in 1979.
“When that door opened, the room was packed and I saw a vision of heaven,” she says, recalling that first night. “I heard these two voices, Alan [O’Bryant] and Pat [Enright], in their prime. And I lost it. I said, ‘OK. I’m moving here.’ There was a notice on the Station Inn bulletin board that a band of women playing bluegrass were looking for a roommate.” That band turned out to be the Bushwhackers, which featured bluegrass pioneers Susie Monick and Ginger Boatwright. Chiavola eventually joined the Bushwhackers playing bass and singing lead and harmony until Doug Dillard moved to Nashville. As the banjo player from the Dillards (who were famous for playing the Darlings on The Andy Griffith Show), Dillard put a band together and asked Ginger Boatwright to join, and about a year later asked Chiavola, too. Both the Bushwhackers and the Doug Dillard Band would frequently perform at the Station.
Vocalist, bones player, and madcap entertainer Ed Dye (far right) was a colorful presence at the Station Inn during the 1980s and early 90s. He assembled the Nashville Jug Band with a cast of stellar Nashville musicians from rock, jazz, and bluegrass backgrounds, and hosted wildly unpredictable shows. In this photo, he takes the stage with (from left): Sam Bush, Mark Schatz, Tim O’Brien, Alan O’Bryant, David Grier, and Jerry Douglas. Photo: Charmaine Lanham
Chiavola eventually moved into a duplex next to bluegrass bassist Mark Schatz. Together, they would often play the Station Inn with Charlie Cushman, Stuart Duncan, and Bobby Clark as part of a band called The Satellites. Other times, Chiavola would perform at the Inn with an ensemble called the Lucky Dogs which featured Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer (who had just moved to town), and sometimes Sam Bush or Mark O’Connor.
“It was beyond belief,” she says. “Sometimes I remember being on stage at the Station and listening to those guys play. I thought it was the most heavenly sound — I can’t even describe it to you. It was perfect music with so much feeling. You could hear a pin drop. It was so beautiful.”
Schatz, on the other hand, often performed at the Station with Mike Compton as part of John Hartford’s band. Hartford had moved back to Nashville to form a string band after a successful songwriting career in L.A. That California connection later landed him the contract to help with the music for the Coen Brothers’ massively successful O Brother, Where Art Thou? Compton’s 1927 Gibson A-Jr. model mandolin, which he played with the Nashville Bluegrass Band, in John Hartford’s string band, and on the O Brother soundtrack, is included in the new exhibit.
A cigar box used for many years to collect admission fees at the club entrance
Also on display is a small wooden box that was used to collect admission for years, along with some history about former Station Inn employee and local folk icon, Ann Soyars. “Ann embodied what the Station is about,” Cooper says. Soyars worked the door and was “small but fierce.” She was known to throw out rowdy college football players for being too loud, but also welcome regulars and newcomers alike. “Ann’s inclusion in the exhibit is indicative of what we’re trying to do, which is to help people understand not just the facts of the matter, but the spirit of the matter. The Station Inn is an example of musical community building in the most positive way. It’s like Cheers for ‘grassers.”
In addition, the exhibit features other artifacts from both the building and the musicians who have performed there including a fiddle played extensively by Tammy Rogers with the SteelDrivers, Mike Bub’s Kay M-1 double bass, which he played with many groups at The Station Inn — including Weary Hearts (Chris Jones, Butch Baldassari, Ron Block), the Del McCoury Band, and the Sidemen (Terry Eldridge, Jimmy Campbell, Ronnie McCoury, Gene Wooten, Ed Dye, Kristin Scott Benson, and Larry Perkins). Seats from a tour bus used by Lester Flatt, which serve as seating in the venue, are on view as well.
The Station Inn’s cash register
Generations of performers’ children have grown up in the Station’s green room and backstage and have gone on to perform on stage as adults. Newspaper has been put down on the bar to admire someone’s new puppies. Great care has been taken to lovingly craft the perfectly reheated pizza. Beers are shared by locals and honored guests after the doors are closed to the public. (And I have hidden fancy decaf coffee and a pour-over in the back that I take out when I visit.) To this day the Station Inn is a community gathering place where friendships, bands, and lifelong loves of bluegrass are formed. It embodies not only the authenticity of the music but of the community. And often, everyone knows your name.
Editor’s Notes: The Station Inn has endeavored to safely present live music throughout the pandemic. They have reopened to live audiences at a limited capacity and live stream performances through their web portal stationinntv.com.
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will present The Station Inn: Bluegrass Beacon until January 2, 2022. The museum is currently open to the public at a limited capacity.
Photo of Station Inn and artifacts: Emma Delevante for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Other photos: Charmaine Lanham
Artist:Fort Frances Hometown: Chicago, Illinois Song: “Fits and Starts” Release date: February 5, 2020
In Their Words: “The past year has been stuck on pause. Before the pandemic, time traveled on a superhighway at a million miles an hour, but since March, we’ve all been in a traffic jam. There have been plenty of huge challenges in that standstill, but the break from a consistent surge of momentum has actually been good in some respects. It’s been a chance to reflect and recognize that we’ve all been fooling ourselves as we speed through life seeking somewhere new. ‘Fits and Starts’ is a song about making the concept of time meaningless so that it feels okay to keep holding that pause button.” — David McMillin, Fort Frances
Artist:Allison Russell Hometown: Montréal, Québec, Canada Song: “By Your Side” (Sade cover) Release Date: January 29, 2021 Label: Fantasy Records
In Their Words: “An endlessly expansive and inclusive song of love — it could be the love between lovers, the love of a parent for a child, the love for an elder who is not long for this world. … It feels like it has always existed and always will — it feels like an expression of our collective unconscious. It comforts me and invokes a melancholy yearning all at once. I was singing this one to my seven-year-old daughter, Ida, like a lullaby. I couldn’t get through it without crying. This pandemic has been devastating for our little ones. I’ve returned to this song almost daily during these hard months. ‘By Your Side’ may have lost the Grammy back in 2001 but it has won the test of time. Sade lights the way for so many of us. I remember how electrified I felt the first time I heard her and saw her on television — a mixed heritage black woman like me — not fitting easily or neatly into any box, transcending them all. A living, breathing Goddess. I sing this in homage and gratitude. I hope to have the privilege of meeting her one day. Sade’s voice gives me strength and hope.” — Allison Russell
Artist:David Huckfelt Hometown: Spencer, Iowa Song: “Hidden Made Known” Album:Room Enough, Time Enough Release Date: February 26, 2021 Label: Gambler’s Dharma Records/Fluff & Gray Records
In Their Words: “‘Hidden Made Known’ is about having faith in the basic intelligence of the universe, and what to do next when you lose it. From Wounded Knee to Sault Ste. Marie, tenderness is on the run, ‘Here be monsters’ all over your Google maps, even your sure things fall through. Meanwhile, sparks of the dharma shoot out from little children, lakes and rivers all day long, saying ‘Be gentle.’ Don’t see many of these long-form poem-songs these days, we don’t seem to have the attention for them — but every line felt like it could be another song. Walk out of doors, slip through a crack in the live stream feed, find a glitch in the system and mine it until things feel wild again.” — David Huckfelt
Photo credit: Charlie Stout
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRejectRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
