Garnet Bowman Archives - The Bluegrass Situation

In this week’s edition of You Gotta Hear This, we shine a light on women in bluegrass!

We begin with “Come Alive,” from Darin and Brooke Aldridge. An four-time IBMA Award-winning vocalist, Brooke beautifully delivers this love letter to the mountain life. Meanwhile, Amanda Cook explores a complicated heartbreak in “Let You Go.” Although she’s an understated singer, all of the emotions are evident in her vocal performance. You don’t have to belt it out in bluegrass to get your point across!

Rising talent Farayi joins with Sister Sadie on “May a Love Like This Find Me,” which is a twist on the social media meme: “May a love like this never find me.” If you find ordinary love to be an extraordinary blessing, you’ll enjoy this one. In addition, Heather Mabe of Red Camel Collective is putting thoughts of love into a gospel song in “My Point of View,” a wonderfully encouraging song at a time we need it more than ever.

Meanwhile, few pop songs from the ’80s capture feelings of frustration better than Men at Work’s “Overkill.” It’s equally compelling as sung by Rosine’s Meredith Lane O’Connor with a vocal assist from the songwriter himself, Men at Work’s Colin Hay. We also have a pretty cool, true-to-life road trip song from Sister Sadie called “Marlboros in Muskogee.” And speaking of traveling, the Travelin’ McCourys offer “She Did Break” with harmonies from one of our favorite female vocalists, Garnet Bowman. And finally, you can’t talk about women in bluegrass without mentioning Molly Tuttle, who reimagines “The Highway Knows” acoustically.

As we say every week, You Gotta Hear This!

Darin and Brooke Aldridge, “Come Alive”

Artist: Darin and Brooke Aldridge
Hometown: Cherryville, North Carolina
Song: “Come Alive”
Release Date: September 25, 2026
Label: Billy Blue Records

In Their Words: “With ‘Come Alive,’ we wanted to capture what the mountains we call home have always meant to us and the deep connection we feel to the place, the people and the traditions that shaped who we are. It’s about the music that has been ingrained in our hearts and souls since childhood, the precious time spent with family, the memories made around a kitchen table or on a front porch, and the songs passed down from one generation to the next. Those are the things that become part of your story and stay with you wherever life takes you. The mountains have a way of reminding us what matters most, and music has always been at the center of that for us. It brings people together, carries our history forward and gives a voice to feelings that sometimes words alone can’t express.

“We hope this song takes people back to a special place, brings a familiar memory to the surface or reminds them of the people and moments that have made their lives meaningful. To us, that’s the beauty of this music. It’s more than a sound or a song. It’s a part of who we are, a connection to where we come from and a tradition worth keeping alive. It’s the kind of music that doesn’t just fill the air. It reaches your heart, stirs your soul and makes you come alive.” — Darin and Brooke Aldridge

Amanda Cook, “Let You Go”

Artist: Amanda Cook
Hometown: Fancy Gap, Virginia
Song: “Let You Go”
Album: Love Through Time
Release Date: October 16, 2026
Label: Mountain Fever Records

In Their Words: “Jeff Partin has written songs for several of my records, and once again, he brought us a beautifully written heartbreak song. There’s something really special about the way Jeff tells a story, and I think this one captures that complicated place of knowing a love has run its course but still having a hard time letting go. The band took Jeff’s song and made it our own, giving it our sound and our style. It expresses another side of love that fits perfectly with the theme of Love Through Time. Love isn’t always about the happy endings. Sometimes it’s about the hurt, the letting go, and finding the strength to move forward.” – Amanda Cook

Farayi, “May a Love Like This Find Me” (Ft. Sister Sadie)

Artist: Farayi
Hometown: Rural Idaho
Song: “May a Love Like This Find Me” (Ft. Sister Sadie)
Release Date: October 13, 2026
Label: Down the Road Records

In Their Words: “When I thought of the concept for this song, I initially thought about how daunting and demoralizing it can feel to try and fail at finding that true, romantic love, but once Deanie, Dani, and I got in the room together, it became apparent that the song was more about gratitude. We chose to explore how love manifests within our ordinary lives in ways that are simple, yet so profound, and in relationships that can easily be taken for granted. Sometimes we already have the profound love we’re seeking.” – Farayi

“Writing this one with Farayi was one of my favorite days in a room in a long time. The idea underneath it is that being well loved is usually pretty unremarkable. It doesn’t announce itself, but it’s everything. That’s a harder thing to write than heartbreak, because there’s no drama in it. But we kept chasing it until it felt true. There’s a lot of real life in this song.” — Dani Flowers, Sister Sadie

Red Camel Collective, “My Point of View”

Artist: Red Camel Collective
Hometowns: Walnut Cove, N.C. (Tony and Heather Mabe); Wirtz, Va. (Johnathan Dillon); Oakboro, N.C. (Curt Love)
Song: “My Point of View”
Release Date: October 14, 2026
Album: Finding Your Way Home
Label: Pinecastle Records

In Their Words: “We needed a gospel song for our upcoming record, so I was thumbing through ideas I had saved on my phone. I ran across the lines ‘you’re doing better than you think, and you’re stronger than you know.’ Those words just hit me right in the heart and I instantly knew, this is a gospel song. It came together so quickly. It flowed right from my heart. We are so excited for folks to hear this tune and our upcoming album, Finding Your Way Home, coming early 2027!” – Heather Berry Mabe, Red Camel Collective

Rosine Feat. Colin Hay, “Overkill”

Artist: Rosine Feat. Colin Hay
Hometowns: Nashville, Tennessee (Rosine); Topanga, California (Colin Hay)
Song: “Overkill”
Release Date: October 23, 2026
Label: Compass Records

In Their Words: “Colin has said that when he wrote ‘Overkill’ in the early ’80s, he was trying to make sense of how fast everything was changing around him during the ascent of Men at Work. At a different scale, that feeling hits home for us too: starting Rosine, getting married, and building a life and a band at the same time has been incredibly rewarding and beautiful, but it’s also brought sleepless nights and long stretches of introspection and self-questioning. Having Colin join us on this song reminds us that most of the people we look up to have faced fears similar to ours and have led lives where each day feels like a new adventure.” — Forrest O’Connor and Meredith Lane O’Connor, Rosine

“When I came up with the song ‘Overkill’ some 46 years ago, I had personal struggles. Whenever I sang the song, it helped me. Soothed my soul, so to speak. It lives inside me and has been my constant friend all this time. When I hear Rosine play the song and Meredith sing it, it lifts my spirits, makes me feel useful. It’s become their friend too. It connects us, like an electric current. That’s what music does, there’s nothing like it.” — Colin Hay

Sister Sadie, “Marlboros in Muskogee”

Artist: Sister Sadie
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Marlboros in Muskogee”
Release Date: October 6, 2026
Label: Down the Road Records/Exceleration Music

In Their Words: “We left Nashville for a tour through Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona honestly kind of dreading it. We knew we were about to drive thousands of miles in three days, and that part of this job feels a little ridiculous sometimes because the travel is most of the work. Then you get up there and play for an hour, maybe 75 minutes, and that’s the part everybody sees. But somewhere along the way, that trip turned into one of those experiences none of us would have missed for the world. We didn’t sit down and decide we were going to write a road song. We went on the road, lived all of these little moments together, and a song came out of it. ‘Marlboros in Muskogee’ feels less like we were trying to make up some glamorous story about life on the road and more like we just paid attention to what was actually happening while we were in it.” — Dani Flowers

“We told our co-writers [Jon Randall Stewart and Jessi Alexander] about the entire trip, and then wrote the song with them. And they got exactly what we were looking for. When we played it for the girls, we were all sobbing because it is exactly what it’s like on the road with us. This song is the story of this band.” — Deanie Richardson

The Travelin’ McCourys, “She Did Break” (Ft. Garnet Bowman)

Artist: The Travelin’ McCourys
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “She Did Break”
Release Date: October 13, 2026
Label: McCoury Music

In Their Words: “I had the idea and title for the song ‘She Did Break.’ I wrote it with Adam Hood and Donnie and Chris Davisson. It was so great to hear where we took the idea and went with it. It’s an age old topic of the wandering of a man in a relationship and the heartbreak it leaves behind. I’m proud of how it turned out and the ‘icing on the cake’ was adding Garnet Bowman’s beautiful voice on it.” — Ronnie McCoury

Molly Tuttle, “The Highway Knows” (Acoustic)

Artist: Molly Tuttle
Hometown: Palo Alto, California; Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “The Highway Knows” (Acoustic)
Album: So Long Little Miss Sunshine (Acoustic EP)
Release Date: September 4, 2026
Label: Nonesuch Records

In Their Words: “I recorded this acoustic version of ‘The Highway Knows’ last fall after having so much fun reworking it with an acoustic trio for a couple shows we did last year. On my album version from So Long Little Miss Sunshine, there are drums, keys and all sorts of other textures which we stripped away for this version. People seemed to respond to hearing these songs done acoustically so I wanted to put out these versions that were a little truer to how the songs first sounded when I wrote them and played them around the house. This version features Mair on mandolin and vocals and Vanessa McGowan on bass and vocals.” — Molly Tuttle

Photo Credit: Joshua Black Wilkins (Sister Sadie); Ebru Yildiz (Molly Tuttle)

Most likely to succeed? That’s of no interest to the Likely Culprits, an easygoing group of bluegrass cut-ups who just released one of the most entertaining albums out of Nashville this year.

With four of the band’s members bantering inside a forgotten conference room at IBMA, they readily confess that their name derives from an ongoing conversation within the band: Who’s the most likely to end up behind bars? It’s currently a seven-way tie between Brandon Bostic, Ronnie and Garnet Bowman, Melonie Cannon, Ashby Frank, Deanie Richardson, and Austin Ward. The informal happy hour vibe of this conversation lends itself to proceed on a first-name basis.

“We’re all pretty rowdy,” Deanie says. “We’re all a bunch of hillbilly rebels and we were like, ‘Well, one of us probably get arrested eventually.’ And it was just, which one of us was going to go to jail, and who’s the likely culprit?”

Turns out, that unpredictability is the album’s greatest strength. When pulling together its dozen tracks, they wanted to ensure that all five of the band’s vocalists had a chance to sing, and that nobody’s favorite song was left out. The result is something like listening to a stereo with a seven-disc changer, but with a throughline of excellent musicianship and a high caliber of songwriting.

For example, Melonie unearthed album cuts from Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams, Brandy Clark, and Matraca Berg, while Ashby reconfigured pop star Gavin DeGraw’s melodious “Where You Are.” After years of singing it at the band’s Station Inn shows, Garnet finally recorded “Tennessee Blues,” a deep cut from Keith Whitley. That tearjerker is immediately followed on the album by Brandon’s version of Dave Matthews Band’s “Gravedigger.” Listening to the self-titled album as a complete body of work, it somehow fits.

There might be a shorter version of how the Likely Culprits all met, but here’s one way to tell the story: Deanie and Melonie have been friends since childhood, and when Melonie married Deanie’s brother, they’d host guitar pulls with their mutual friends. Garnet would come to those parties, forging a bond among all three women that’s lasted 25 years. In the years ahead, she would marry Ronnie, who cultivated his bluegrass reputation in the ‘90s with the Lonesome River Band and as a solo artist. He also produced Melonie’s solo albums with her father, Buddy Cannon.

Meanwhile, Ashby met Garnet and Melonie when he was playing in Ronnie’s band. Later on, when Deanie and Ashby crossed paths a party, they recognized that they’d found kindred spirits in each other. Then, as happens in Nashville, they had an idea to form a band, admittedly with no real intentions of taking it on the road. Instead, the priority would be simply making good music. So, together they rounded up Melonie and Garnet, while Ashby recruited two of his friends, Brandon and Austin. And just as the band was hitting its stride, Ashby took a temporary job as a musician on a cruise ship.

“We were having so much fun, it was like, man, we don’t want to stop,’” Garnet recalls. That’s when Deanie asked Ronnie to take Ashby’s spot, not sure if he’d even want to.

Ronnie explains, “Not that I don’t enjoy being in the band now, but I enjoyed not being in the band back then, because I could actually go to a place where I wasn’t expected to play, and I could see these guys play. I mean, I loved them. And by the time Ashby left, I knew all the songs.”

“I knew he was having fun coming and hanging out, drinking a few beers without the pressure of getting up there,” Deanie says. “But he said he would do it and then it just felt amazing. It felt like it should. He’s one of my heroes and I love him to pieces. Just to get him on stage with us was a big dream of ours. So I’m honored he agreed to do it. Ashby eventually came back from the boat and we thought, ‘Well, let’s throw everybody in there.’ And we did. We played a few shows and said, ‘Let’s do a record, why not?’ So here we are with the record.”

So, what makes the Lonely Culprits click anyway? To borrow a title from the album, “Everybody’s Got Something They’re Good At.” Deanie is an exceptional fiddler, while Melonie and Garnet possess warm, instantly identifiable voices. Ronnie sings and plays guitar, and also serves as co-producer (with Buddy Cannon). Brandon provides vocal, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar, and Ashby sings and plays mandolin. Austin keeps the Likely Culprits moving along on upright bass.

Though it sounds like a long-lost Harlan Howard composition, “Everybody’s Got Something They’re Good At” happens to be a Ronnie Bowman/Dale Dodson original, with Garnet singing lead. (Lee Ann Womack recorded it first but her version never came out. Alison Krauss plays fiddle on this version.)

Just after that throwback country tune, Ronnie sings another of his compositions, “Won’t Do That No More,” with such poignancy that it’s no surprise at all that he’s won multiple IBMA male vocalist awards. He’s also an accomplished songwriter who has placed major hits with Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, and Chris Stapleton.

It’s worth mentioning, too, that Deanie earned an IBMA award this year as a member of Sister Sadie. She’s also toured, along with Brandon, in Patty Loveless’ band. Asked what it feels like to have a lead vocal that keeps changing, she immediately replies, “Oh my gosh, I love it because with Sister Sadie it’s bluegrass. With Patty Loveless, it’s country. But with these guys, it’s all of it.”

That bond has only strengthened since the band’s first show at Station Inn in 2012. It remains a special spot for the band, who listened to the album in its entirety for the first time over the club’s sound system. (Yes, they rang the bell.) They’ll also play an album release show there on November 15.

Thinking back to those days, Brandon recalls, “I moved to town and I didn’t know a single person. I took a job playing in a bluegrass band and moved up on a whim. I thought, ‘I’ve got to get out of the house, I’ve got to meet some people.’ So I started hanging out at the Station Inn and I found a group of people that are my family now. We’re all pretty much on the same page and we’re like-minded with music and what we like and what we don’t like. Playing with them, it’s like coming home all the time.”

One of the band’s biggest champions is Jamey Johnson, the country singer-songwriter who made it his mission to get the Likely Culprits’ new album into the world. He’s also invited them to open a series of shows this week in the Southeast, part of his ongoing effort to support female artists in country music.

While Jamey’s fans are devoted to his singular approach to songwriting, it’s just as likely that they’ll appreciate the perspective from these seven musicians, too. Because Melonie is already a familiar presence at his shows as a harmony vocalist – and because Jamey comes to all the band’s shows — there’s a certain comfort zone already in place for the Likely Culprits, one that doesn’t involve prison guards or enforced curfew.

“This is us sitting in a living room with somebody saying, ‘Ronnie, pick a song,” Deanie says. “Ronnie might pick one, and Garnet might pick ‘Tennessee Blues,’ and Brandon might pick ‘Gravedigger.’ It’s what we do, man. It’s great. I love these guys. I’d go all over the world with them.”

“I would too,” says Brandon, says as Ronnie chimes in with a “Yeah.”

“Same here,” Garnet concludes. “We all feel the same way.”

Photo courtesy of the artist

Tag: Garnet Bowman

You Gotta Hear This: Molly Tuttle, Sister Sadie, and More Women in Bluegrass