Artist:Hogslop String Band Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Song: “Mississippi Queen” Release Date: October 6, 2023 Label: Tone Tree Music
In Their Words: “‘Mississippi Queen’ is a story about an escaped inmate during the construction of the Richmond-Danville railroad. I wrote it years ago, and we have occasionally worked on it over the years, but we recently came up with a new arrangement of it that felt really good. The main character escapes on foot, follows the Tennessee River south, then across Alabama to find his family in North Mississippi. Ultimately, it’s a story about being separated from loved ones and doing whatever it takes to make it back home, which I think a lot of people can relate to.” – Daniel Binkley, banjo
Artist:Chris Jones & The Night Drivers Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Song: “Step Out in the Sunshine” Album:Pages In Your Hand Release Date: October 6, 2023 Label: Mountain Home Music Company
In Their Words: “Ralph Stanley’s early 1970s Clinch Mountain Boys lineup of Roy Lee Centers, Jack Cooke, Curly Ray Cline, Keith Whitley, and Ricky Skaggs was a golden era for his band, in my opinion, and in my mid-teens their music was a major influence on me as I was just getting serious about playing music. The gospel album they did, Cry From the Cross, was and remains my favorite bluegrass gospel album of all time. It inspired my lead singing and guitar playing, and without consciously trying to do it, I learned to sing the baritone harmony part from Jack Cooke.
“I still have and cherish the original LP that I bought when I was around 15, though the jacket is a little battered and my name is written in brown magic marker on the back — because, you know, other kids in high school were likely to try to steal my Ralph Stanley records. I wanted to record a song from the album that I hadn’t heard anyone else do and that hadn’t become a Ralph Stanley standard, and so I was drawn to ‘Step Out in the Sunshine.’ We rearranged it slightly to fit our sound but it remains a tribute to the Stanley original.” – Chris Jones
Track Credits: Chris Jones – acoustic guitar, lead vocal Marshall Wilborn – bass Mark Stoffel – mandolin, harmony vocal Grace van’t Hof – banjo, harmony vocal
“He was exceedingly cool and easy,” long-time Bill Monroe bassist Mark Hembree remembers about Willie Nelson’s presence at a 1983 recording session where Nelson sang and played with Monroe. “I never had a say in Bill’s mixes, but they had Willie’s guitar way up and as we listened to playback he mentioned it, then turned and asked what I thought,” Hembree wrote in a recent exchange of messages. “I agreed, a little surprised he would ask me.”
People who hear about Willie Nelson’s latest album, Bluegrass, before hearing the music might ask, “Wait, what? What does Willie Nelson have to do with bluegrass music?”
Upon listening, at least two answers come to mind: 1) Much more than you might think. 2) Don’t worry so much.
With tunes by Nelson, one of the best American songwriters, played by notable pickers, the record contains strong music that should sound welcome to fans of Nelson, of bluegrass, and of the field with the loose label, “Americana.”
It’s a given that in more than 60 years of major-label recording, Nelson, 90, has been better known for presenting his own songs, enduring tunes such as “Crazy,” “Hello Walls,” and “On the Road Again,” the last of which is heard here in a new version. But he’s also made his name with notable covers – like “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” “Seven Spanish Angels,” “Blue Skies,” and others – in a welter of styles, including blues, pop standards, and even reggae. Nelson’s core music enfolds ‘40s and ‘50s country, traditional fiddle tunes, four-square gospel, ragtime, some swing flavorings, and definitely a heap of blues. The mix also includes more contemporary pop. Subtract some of that last bit of material, throw in some lonesome mountain banjo and ballads, and you’ll find, in different proportions, foundational bluegrass as designed by chief architects like Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs.
Legacy Records, the Sony division putting out Nelson’s Bluegrass disc, says the style “was given a name by Kentucky songwriter/performer/recording artist Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, whose post-war recordings profoundly influenced Willie’s songwriting sensibilities and the direction of American country music in general.” They go on to say, “Willie chose songs combining the kind of strong melodies, memorable storylines and tight ensemble-interplay found in traditional bluegrass interpretations of the roots (from European melodies to African rhythms) of American folk songs.”
And it’s pretty much on target. But what else speaks to Nelson’s involvement with bluegrass?
Let’s return to the early ‘70s, when he famously abandoned a Nashville scene where he had achieved songwriting fame and a recording career. But Music Row had flagged in creativity and opportunity, he and others thought. And yes, at the end of 1969, his house had burned down. By 1972, Nelson’s persona was changing as his new approach revisited his Texas roots. The year saw new-breed stars like Kris Kristofferson showing up at the first Dripping Springs Reunion, a Texas country music festival. The show, which was to morph int0 a string of outdoor throwdowns known as Willie’s Fourth of July Picnic, presented a bluegrass contingent led by Monroe, with foundational figures Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt leading their post-breakup bands, as well as additional notables including Jimmy Martin.
Jo Walker, executive director of the Country Music Association, told the Austin-American Statesman that the trade group was delighted to hear about the Dripping Springs Reunion. “So many of the rock festivals and similar events have reflected so unfavorably on the music industry that we are particularly happy that your reunion will be a Country Music show.” But with Nelson embracing a new, youth-driven fan base and a long-haired, bandana-ed look, what did country music even mean?
There was a growing correlation, it seemed, between the increased popularity of bluegrass and the emergent outlaw (read: long hair, free-thinking, whiskey-drinking, dope smoking, etc.) movement in country music, led by Nelson and Waylon Jennings. Its bluegrass surge was sparked in part by the Earl Scruggs Revue’s broad acceptance in non-traditional venues like college campuses and hot sales for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken. Back in Nashville, in 1973, wider acceptance of bluegrass also meant that Monroe, his former Blue Grass Boy Flatt, the brilliant wildman Jimmy Martin, and the great brother team of Jim & Jesse McReynolds would join Nelson amid the crowd of stars at CMA’s second annual Fan Fair celebration.
In 1974, both Scruggs and Monroe, as well as Grand Ole Opry stars Ernest Tubb, Jeanne Pruitt, and Roy Acuff appeared on stage singing with another wildman, country-blues rocker Leon Russell. That’s documented in a photograph of this period, likely from a Willie’s Picnic. Quite a lineup.
A version of the picture found on the web says the shot is from A Poem is a Naked Person, a documentary on Russell by esteemed filmmaker Les Blank shot between 1972 and 1974, but not released until 2015. Nelson appears in the movie to sing “Good Hearted Woman” – also on this new album – playing guitar bass runs that would work fine in bluegrass. He also backs up fiddler Mary Egan, of the Austin “progressive-country” band Greezy Wheels, on an energetic version of the bluegrass-country perennial “Orange Blossom Special.”
In 1974, Nelson went to work in the soul-music capital of Muscle Shoal, Alabama, to record a milestone disc on his road to making records his own way. The album, Phases and Stages, which won over both fans and critics, contains prominent five-string played Scruggs-style on the hit “Bloody Mary Morning,” which also returns on Bluegrass.
The 1983 Bill Monroe session referenced above came after a last minute February 22 phone call from Nelson to let Monroe know he was available to appear on the in-progress Bill Monroe and Friends album for MCA Records. That’s according to a passage in the indispensable book, The Music of Bill Monroe, by bluegrass scholars Neil Rosenberg and Charles Wolfe.
“[Engineer, Vic) Gabany recalls that on February, 22, 1983, Monroe called the studio and asked if it was free that afternoon,” Rosenberg and Wolfe write. “Willie Nelson was in town, and he wanted to rush in and cut the duet with him. Fortunately, it was. Moreover, the Blue Grass Boys were all available, and Haynes was able to round up studio musicians Charlie Collins and Buddy Spicher.”
Monroe’s original tune with Nelson, “The Sunset Trail,” shows the impact of another style, cowboy music, that both men favored. Nelson reaches into his upper range to sing below Monroe, who’s going way up there, as was his wont. “It’s a thrill of my life to be here with you,” Monroe says as he and Nelson exchange praise in the track’s introduction.
In 1990, Monroe accepted Nelson’s invitation to perform at the April 7 Farm Aid IV concert in Indianapolis. “We’re glad to be here with Willie Nelson!” he said to kick off a set marked by powerful singing, crisp mandolin picking, and a little crowd-pleasing buck dancing. The show placed Monroe, 79, in a lineup that included stars such as Elton John and Lou Reid. The Indianapolis Star estimated the crowd at 45,000.
During Monroe’s last years — he died in 1996 — he often spoke to Nelson on the phone, according to a person who didn’t want to be identified, but often spent time at Monroe’s home on the farm outside Nashville during that period. “He valued their friendship immensely,” the person said.
Bluegrass‘s 12 songs contain several Nelson compositions that became standards of his repertoire, along with less familiar tunes that also fit in the recording approach overseen by Music Row’s Buddy Cannon. A songwriter and producer, Cannon is known for delivering big songs, like “Set ‘Em Up Joe” for Vern Gosdin, and chart hits for more recent mainstream acts such as Kenny Chesney, John Michael Montgomery, and Reba McEntire. A frequent Nelson collaborator, Cannon assembled a list of Nashville co-conspirators: Union Station members Barry Bales, on bass, and Ron Block, on banjo; former Union Station member and current rising star Dan Tyminski on mandolin; fiddler Aubrey Haynie; Dobro man Rob Ickes; Seth Taylor also on mandolin; as well as harmonica player Mickey Raphael, who’s worked for decades in Nelson’s band.
The music mostly doesn’t come off as hard-core bluegrass in the mode of, say, the Stanley Brothers. But it leans on the elements that Nelson has in common with the style — lonesome melodies, classic country, swing and blues.
The mournful “You Left Me a Long, Long Time Ago,” from 1964, reflects the straight-country songwriting to which Nelson and others brought a terse, modern beauty in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. It was a time when bluegrass enjoyed a closer co-existence with mainstream country, as opposed to straining against the tight format borders that limit today’s music business. Among the many artists who crossed back and forth freely were guitarist-songwriter, Carl Butler, fiddler Tommy Jackson, and Cajun star Doug Kershaw. They all worked with Monroe.
A new version of “Sad Songs and Waltzes” mourns in tones not too different from Monroe favorites ranging from “Kentucky Waltz” to “Sitting Alone in the Moonlight.” The song also recalls the 3/4 time Lone Star tunes that Nelson might have heard at the Texas Fiddlers Contest and Reunion.
That show got going in 1934 in Athens, Texas, just one year before Nelson arrived on the scene in Abbott, less than 90 miles away.
The fiddle contests that influenced so much of Texas music beginning in the 19th century, had parallels in the 18th century Southeast, where contests featured both the fiddle and the banjo, with its African roots. This music went around, and it still comes around.
The sock-rhythm backing of “Ain’t No Love Around” recalls early Blue Grass Boys recordings such as “Heavy Traffic Ahead,” recorded September 16, 1946, and featuring Earl Scruggs’ first recorded banjo solo. Elsewhere, the laidback favorite, “On the Road Again,” gets a more intense reading from Nelson, with some vocal and instrumental improvisation to spice it up. The mystical “Still is Still Moving to Me” leaves plenty of room for pickers to range far and wide on banjo, mandolin, fiddle and Dobro.
“You give the appearance of one widely traveled,” Nelson sings in “Yesterday’s Wine.” He’s singing from a faraway spot in time, in myth, in history. It’s a stance that’s earned a place on bluegrass playlists for more recent songwriters such as Guy Clark, David Olney, and Gillian Welch.
“Bloody Mary Morning,” from Phases and Stages gets the most recent of several revivals from Nelson, who led a jam-grassy version in the 1980 film Honeysuckle Rose and later sang it in a duet with Wynonna Judd. The song’s forthright tale of fighting the blues by having a highball on a plane seems somehow classier than the constant tales of beer and pickups that populate country radio.
In the end it seems clear that for decades, both Willie Nelson and bluegrass music have served, in different ways, as a conscience of country music. Just as the Solemn Old Judge, WSM radio announcer George D. Hay, commanded, they “Keep her close to the ground, boys,” although their paths have diverged, at times.
In any case, this new collection brings Nelson together with bluegrass pickers for music that might even work to serve that same worthy purpose.
Artist:Patrick Davis Hometown: Formerly Camden, South Carolina; now Nashville, Tennessee Latest Album:Couch Covers (2020); Carolina When I Die (upcoming)
(Editor’s Note: Hear the premiere of Patrick Davis’s latest single, “Wrong Side of the Tracks,” below.)
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
One of my favorite memories on a stage took place 15 years or so ago, back when the great Guy Clark agreed to play a round in a small Nashville venue with me and my friend Jedd Hughes. Guy and I were writing that week and I told him about the show and then asked if he would want to join and somehow he said sure. There was no higher compliment I could have received than Guy agreeing to sit beside me and Jedd and trade songs and stories for an evening. It was like he accepted us – maybe not as equals, but at least as somehow worthy. It was, and still is, a rather incredible memory. Guy has been gone for a while now, but I will forever carry that night with me.
What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?
When I first arrived in Nashville an old writer sat me down and said, “Patrick, if you have a plan B you should take it, because the music business is a harsh place and if you are not 100% fully committed you will not last.” And after 20+ years I have to say he was right. I have seen many folks come through the music world and if they have any outs, the odds of them sticking with it, which is what it takes to succeed, are almost zero.
If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?
Never give up, never ever give up. (And yes, I know this is a Jimmy Valvano quote… but it should be every musician’s motto as well.)
Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?
I would love to have simple fish & chips with a few Guinness in the corner of a proper pub in the UK or Ireland with Eric Clapton, or maybe Keith Richards or hell, Paul McCartney. Just talk and see where it goes. Those guys are the last of a dying breed and I would love to hear some stories, maybe gain a little wisdom, a song idea, or even just a good buzz.
What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?
I heard “Tangerine” by Led Zeppelin and immediately asked my guitar-playing father if he could teach me how to play that intro. It forever changed my life – the second I realized that I too could play an A-minor and make it sound at least somewhat similar to what Jimmy Page was playing, I was hooked!!
Artist:Charlotte Morris Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; now Nashville, Tennessee Song: “Wild Child” Album:Wild Child Release Date: September 29, 2023
In Their Words: “I’ve never been a person who settles – I always find a reason to leave. I have big ambitions; I get anxious staying in one place for too long; I always feel the need to move onto the next job, the next relationship, the next city. Part of that is freeing – it allows me to see the world, try new things and challenge myself. But part of it is debilitating. Never staying in one situation for too long means never sitting with yourself or allowing yourself to grow in peace. I think that ‘Wild Child’ is a classic folk-country song that almost everyone can relate to at some point in their lives. Feeling drawn to one thing, but knowing that another option might be better for you; or perhaps, choosing between multiple amazing options, but knowing that ultimately you need to make a decision. It’s an experience that everyone has been through, and ‘Wild Child’ is an anthem for the folks with choice-paralysis and a fire in their feet.” – Charlotte Morris
For a musician that could easily play every instrument in a standard bluegrass lineup – plus dozens more – it’s remarkable that Darrell Scott put out a post-pandemic record, Old Cane Back Rocker, that decidedly features a band. A picker’s picker and a songwriter’s songwriter, Scott has in the past recorded and released albums that feature other players only sparsely, fleshed out nearly entirely by his own playing. But this time, he wanted to feature his string band.
This wasn’t a post-pandemic realization either or a discovery brought on by the existential crises of the early pandemic, when communal music seemed like a far distant memory. No, Old Cane Back Rocker was actually tracked in 2019. COVID-19 was not the impetus for this collectively-created record, but rather the pickers themselves: Bryn Davies on bass, Matt Flinner on mandolin and banjo, and Shad Cobb on fiddle each inspired this new release, its track list, and its “out of many, one” approach.
For avid fans of this hit songwriter and country music renaissance man, Old Cane Back Rocker will feel like a return of sorts, a homecoming that reminds of many shows at the Station Inn and performances at bluegrass camps and festivals around the country. But, the album is even more fascinating and engaging when contrasted with Scott’s entire catalog, which showcases a diverse and circuitous lineup of production styles, genres and musical aesthetics.
For a new edition of First & Latest, we put Scott’s latest, Old Cane Back Rocker, up against his first release, Aloha From Nashville. As it happens, there’s a recording of Scott’s Travis Tritt-recorded hit, “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive” on each album, making for the perfect starting point for our phone conversation.
When you first recorded “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive” in the ‘90s, did you expect it would have this longevity? Did you have a feeling you’d still be recording it and performing it or did you think it would be the hit that it’s been?
Darrell Scott: No, hits are hard to distinguish, when you just hear the song – at least for me.
I think a hit has a lot more to do with the business, to make a hit, and it’s not the songwriter. It’s everything that follows after the songwriter. It’s the label. It’s the management. It’s the business connectivity, the promotion, the radio – all that has nothing to do with the songwriter. Zero. I remember saying one time, “A hit is that thing you hear a thousand times.” Repetition has a lot to do with a hit. It’s almost obvious.
Here’s one of the ironies. That song had been recorded three other times on major labels, but was never released before Travis Tritt got it. So tell me this, since it was a hit, why would three acts lose their deal [and not make it to release] with a hit? You see what I’m talking about? What made it a hit was the business machine that makes hits. A song is written by a songwriter. But a hit is made by the powers that be, after the fact.
In my case with that song, I had hurt my back, so I had to be on my back for a week. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t go to sessions. I had to cancel my entire week so that I could lie on the floor, because I couldn’t do nothing else. Honestly, I couldn’t even sit up. After 6 or 7 days when I could [finally] sit up, I was literally just heating rice in a microwave – and considering making soup. Just sitting at the table, which I hadn’t done all week. It was the most blessed thing to do such simple things. And that’s where the song came from.
I wonder what made you want to do another version of that song this time around, with a string band? Because this is a song you’ve recorded and put out in quite a few manifestations.
DS: There’s one really simple answer for that. We recorded this album in August of 2019. In September of 2019, I’d heard two or three months in advance that a cornfield, a corn maze – like those pumpkin farms and apple pickings and that style of thing. There’s one north of Nashville that I heard was going to put my image in their corn maze. They cut my image and then the words, “It’s a great day to be alive” in their corn maze.
I thought, you know what? That, I can’t pass that one up. We’re going to have to make a video of that, and of us doing that song, rather than just lip-syncing to the one from ‘95 – which is actually when I recorded it. Wait, maybe even ‘94, but somewhere way back there. Instead of using that track, it was like, “Hey, I’m recording a string band album. I’m just going to put this in the string band’s hands and we’ll throw it down.”
I think we premiered that video back in the day! Well, the song certainly does beg the question: Does “a great day to be alive” look the same to you now as it did back then? Or, what does “a great day to be alive” look like to you now?
DS: Man, anything that makes you grateful, is a great day to be alive.
If you look at that song, there’s two things I notice in that song. First of all, the things that this person is grateful for are simple things like rice in a microwave, making some soup. They’re pondering, “Hey, I know it’s hard out there in the world, but today’s a good day, and tomorrow may not be.”
It’s just taking that moment, when you realize, “Hey, it is a great day to be alive. I am glad to be alive.” There’s no shame in saying such a thing. And that’s still the case. You know, that wasn’t just in 1994 or ‘95 or ‘97. Any day that you can feel that way is a great day.
You have this uncanny ability to take your listeners into a small, tiny moment like that, a split second moment of gratitude or of grief or of just big feelings and turn it into this whole big song. And what I’m thinking of now is “Inauguration Day” / “The World Is Too Much With Me.” And I’m so glad that ended up on the new record, because I went back to that Facebook video of that song, dozens of times after I first saw it.
DS: I’ve alluded to it so far in our talk, but songs have a life of their own, and they have a timing of their own, and they don’t have a shelf life or preservatives. You know, almost anything’ll start showing mold in about three to four days here in Tennessee. And songs don’t have that kind of shortness.
I try to gravitate towards songs. On a good day or night, to have a song that’s timeless is the goal for me. One that doesn’t just burn out in the second listening or in three months or something like that. That’s what I try to go for. I’m trying to see a bigger picture than, “So-and-so will like this song” while I’m writing it. “Oh, my publisher will like this” or, “I’m going to pitch this to so-and-so.” If you’re thinking that while writing a song, you just sold the song down the river. You don’t have that song any longer, you have a commodity.
I’m not a commodities writer, I’m a songwriter. From an experiential point of view. So, “Inauguration Day” is simply how I felt on inauguration day.
Well, and I felt myself returning to that song over and over. Even though it’s a very specific and very topical song, the repeated line, “The world is too much with me, too much today,” it just feels like such a mantra.
DS: Right? Because some could feel the same way about– uh-oh, I’m blanking on the current president… Biden! But see, some people could feel that about any inauguration day, the day that Biden got in or the day any other president got in and that’s fine. But I absolutely wrote it on Trump’s inauguration day. I couldn’t do anything else, to tell you the truth. The world was too much with me that day. All I could do was I escaped over to my dad’s cabin. I have my dad’s Kentucky cabin here on my Tennessee property, and that’s where I went. I just crawled into a hole, pretty much, but inside the cabin was a five-string guitar that’s supposed to have six. I just played it with a bar, like a Dobro thing.
I came back to the house where there was a signal [to record the video] and there was wind in the microphone and all sorts of unprofessional things. But I then recorded that song within five minutes of being back at the house, having just written the song. That’s what I do. I follow my inclination. There again, I’m not writing a hit. I’m writing from a reaction in that case, just like “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive” was a reaction to seven days of lying on a concrete floor.
It’s not my only skillset, but it shows up [in songs] like that. I’m just writing out of a need to write. I need to write. On inauguration day, I had to. I couldn’t do anything else, so I did that and that’s how it felt. It felt like the world was too much with me.
So the other two First & Latest tracks we’re here to talk about are “Title of the Song” from Aloha From Nashville and “Fried Taters” from Old Cane Back Rocker. I feel like the through line here is pretty obvious, the sense of humor that you have in your songwriting and in your music making.
DS: Right, because that’s another part [of my writing,] I do have a humorous side. I have a sarcastic side. I have a pointed, jabby way of observation, because – here’s what’s at the top of the page, above “songwriter” or “musician” and “singer” is observer. I’m first and foremost an observer. Part of that observation is being comedic or pathetic.
That whole first album of mine, Aloha From Nashville, “aloha” means hello and it means goodbye. I wasn’t sure which it was going to be, it being my first record I put out in Nashville. I took a lot of pot-shots at Nashville and the music industry within that album, and that’s why I called it Aloha From Nashville.
“Title of the Song,” it’s just a comedic song that’s so true that it’s almost doesn’t need to be said, except I went ahead and said it, you know? Writing a song about writing a title for a song, we all know the formula. It’s poking fun at that situation. The comedy is there, in both the writing and the production.
The reason I put comedy on this last record with “Fried Taters,” is it’s the same humor, it’s the same comedy. This one’s an instrumental, but I have a voiceover thing going on that’s making the snide commentary, that is kinda the same commentary as 1994 or ‘95, with “Title of the Song.” On “Fried Taters” it’s literally the words of a famous musician in jazz who really put down country music, audibly and frequently. Those are literal quotes from that person. I littered them throughout our little instrumental, to have that attitude.
Was that a tune by you? Did the melody come from you? Was that a band tune?
DS: I had the progression, that I wrote. Matt Flinner is such a great composer, who plays the mandolin and banjo in this group, he has so many records and compositions. He’s an educator, he teaches. He’s just a marvel as a composer. I knew that I could just flip [the chord progression] over to Matt. It had an A section and a B section, but that was about it. So he’s the one who put the melody to it. It’s a co write, but we never sat together with it. I did the chords and sent it off to him and he sent me back the melody and we were ready to record it.
I definitely appreciate you, more than almost anybody else, getting Matt Flinner to play banjo. He is so good on banjo.
DS: Yeah, he’s such a great banjo player and I’m so pleased that he plays it for me. I think probably, the only other time that he played banjo was in Leftover Salmon. Matt Flinner is such a great banjo player and many of us know this about him. I’m so lucky I get him to play banjo on every single gig, I mean, he may be on banjo more than he is on mandolin on our gigs. He’s a fabulous banjo player. I play banjo, too, but I know what a really great banjo player is. Matt’s got the composer ability. He’s got the band leader ability. He’s got the sideman ability, obviously the mandolin and the educator ability, but then he gets in there and and plays banjo that well.
What a lot of people think of first when they think of you is like, a one man band or that you’re a multi-instrumentalist or utility player, but clearly it was so important for you to have a band with you on this album. Why did you intentionally want to make this a collective work, rather than just hiring a band to back you up or playing it all yourself?
DS: Yeah, well, because I wanted this to be a band. I’ve played with these guys now for eight or 10 years. I don’t even know. Anytime a festival wanted me to have, in essence, a bluegrass band or bluegrass instrumentation, these are the very people I’d take. Every single one of them. We did a Live at Station Inn album and it’s the same people. If RockyGrass hired me, or Grand Targhee, or MerleFest, or something like that, this is who I would bring. But we’d never made a studio album. So I knew I had to do that.
Then the other part of it, I wanted it to be a band, but not just in the instrumentation. I want Matt to bring in a tune. I want Shad [Cobb] to bring in a tune. I want participation. I want everybody to sing harmonies, every chance we get. I very mindfully made this a band record – sound, input of songs, and stuff – because I know how to put together a solo album and all that. I’ve done it. I wanted this to be this band, because I know their abilities beyond just being sidemen.
I think bluegrass fans know that you’re a picker’s picker. But sometimes your albums, they’re so song-centered that that fact can fall to the wayside, despite the fact that you’re always improvising and using that vocabulary. So with this album and having the band right in the title, it felt like a return in some ways.
DS: Well, that’s what I wanted and why I wanted to do it with these people, it has everything to do with these exact people.
Here’s one of those ironies of our town or this music. So you what’s supposedly called a “sideman” like Shad Cobb, but Shad can lead his own band. He’s got boxes and boxes of songs and tunes. Matt Flinner has cases of songs and tunes. He used to tour with his trio and they would write a song per day, each of them. And that night they’d perform it!
This is what I’m talking about. These people, they do stuff like that. Where’s the hit making in that, you see what I mean? Just going back to that silly idea that the hit is everything. No, driving 300 miles and having a new tune that night times three people in the band, that’s news to me! Not what’s number one this week.
AmericanaFest is HERE! The annual festival, business conference and roots-music extravaganza will once again take over Nashville beginning today, September 19, through Saturday, September 23. While of course we’re most looking forward to our event presented with Queerfest, the Good Ol’ Queer Country Jamboree, on Saturday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., the entire week is filled to the brim with must-see, must-hear, must-do events, panels, showcases, parties and hangs.
As we do most years, below we lay out a variety of items starred by BGS staff on our AmericanaFest apps – which, BTW, is a festival and conference essential. You can add performances, panels, and keynotes to your own personalized scheduled complete with lineups, panel rosters, details and more. Plus, you’ll be able to easily see which events require special tickets or advance RSVP directly in the app and which are accessible with your conference badge or festival wristband. Download the official app on the app store here. Download via Google Play here.See the full AmericanaFest daily schedule in your browser here.
We want to hear from you, too! Which AmericanaFest events and shows are you most excited for? Which of the more than 200 showcasing bands and artists are at the top of your lists?
Panels, Parties,& Events
Check-in and pass pick-up begin today, Tuesday, September 19, at 12 noon at the Westin Nashville in the Gulch, but most panels and conference programming gets rolling tomorrow, on Wednesday. If you thought ahead, you already RSVP-ed to the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum’s conversation and performance by two of our faves, Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal, this afternoon at 3 p.m. They’ll chat about their careers plus the 30th Anniversary re-issue of The Wheel – hear a track from that project on BGS here.
There are quite a few more conversations, panels and events we’re eyeing this week around Nashville:
Roots & Branches – Kentucky Music – WED. SEPT. 20 10:00 AM @ The Westin Vanderbilt III
Kentucky poet laureate Silas House – who recently wrote the story behind Tyler Childers’ sensational new music video – will chat with fellow Kentuckians and musicians S.G. Goodman, Kelsey Waldon and Nat Myers about “the history, legacy and current state of Kentucky’s music and the way it has helped to shape American music…” The bluegrass state means more to American roots music than just bluegrass and these folks know it. An enlightening conversation is sure to be had.
Where the Action Is: Americana Artists and Activism – WED. SEPT. 20 11:00 AM @ the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum Ford Theater *RSVP REQUIRED*
Moderated by veteran BGS contributor Jewly Hight and hosted by the Country Music Hall of Fame, this conversation will feature performances by Adeem the Artist, Mya Byrne, Autumn Nicholas and Allison Russell, all artists who leverage their music making in Americana spaces to advance activist causes, social justice and representation and inclusion. The event promises to connect the present and each of these artists to this vibrant tradition in roots music and folk.
Hillbillies and Hot Dogs – WED. SEPT. 20 11:30 AM to 2:00 PM @ Compass Records *RSVP REQUIRED*
Our friends at Compass Records and No Depression host one of the best hoedowns every year at AmericanaFest, replete with hot dogs and the recording studio that birthed the Outlaw movement. Hear music by Robbie Fulks, Kelly Hunt, Mattie Schell and the business queen of banjo herself, Alison Brown.
NMAAM Songwriters Rounds – WED., THURS., FRI. SEPT 20, 21, 22 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM @ National Museum of African American Music
A music conference and festival in Nashville is the perfect time to visit the National Museum of African American Music, which opened during the pandemic and has slowly but surely built momentum and an audience for the history, culture, and tastemaking of African American music. And situated right in the heart of Nashville’s lower Broadway neighborhood, it’s the perfect venue to make such points. NMAAM’s daily writers rounds will feature artists and songwriters like AHI, guitar phenoms Joy Clark and Yasmin Williams, BGS One to Watch Julie Williams and more.
An Intimate Conversation with Nickel Creek & Sarah Silverman – WED. SEPT 20 1:00 PM @ RCA Studio A *RSVP Required*
You read that right! Nickel Creek and Sarah Silverman in conversation at RCA Studio A moderated by Jewly Hight!? Pinch us! Clearly one event not to miss this week. RSVP is required, hope yours has been submitted long ago!
Indigenous Americana – WED. SEPT 20 4:oo PM @ the Westin SoBro I & II
You are still on stolen land. While you occupy the historic lands of the Cherokee, Shawnee and Yuchi this week, set aside time to appreciate, ingest and center Indigenous music makers, their songs and their stories. This panel conversation on the future of the thriving Indigenous music community will feature Amanda Rheaume, Crystal Shawanda, Nicole Auger of the Indigenous Music Summit and Trenton Wheeler. More events for/about Indigenous music below.
Kentucky Bluegrass, Past and Future – THURS. SEPT. 21 2:30 PM @ the Westin Gulch I & II
From our friends at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro, a conversation about the arc of bluegrass in the bluegrass state featuring BGS contributor Craig Havighurst, Bluegrass Hall director Chris Joslin, fiddler Jason Carter, the legendary Sam Bush, educator and picker Scott Napier, and Jessica Blankenship of the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame.
Who Are the Gatekeepers of Americana Anyway? – THURS. SEPT. 21 4:00 PM @ the Westin Gulch I & II
If your immediate reaction to this panel title is skepticism, this is definitely for you! The roster of Omar Ruiz-Lopez (of Violet Bell), Rissi Palmer and Yasmin Williams immediately indicate this conversation will critically unpack and explore the construction of Americana as a format, just how multi-cultural the music really is, and why that strength is worth spotlighting while we dismantle systems of gatekeeping and exclusion.
Transgender Artists Arriving and Breaking Through in Americana – FRI. SEPT. 22 1:00 PM @ the Westin Gulch I & II
Just a few short years ago there were almost no LGBTQ+ spaces at AmericanaFest, so we’re ecstatic to see a trans-specific space like this opened up at the conference. Hear from Ally Free, Cidny Bullens, Mya Byrne, Paisley Fields and moderator Marcus K. Dowling on historic and current challenges and opportunities for trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming Americana musicians.
From ‘Queer Jolene’ to ‘Pay Gap’: Teaching Social Issues Through Americana in the Classroom – FRI. SEPT. 22 3:30 PM the Westin Gulch III
Using two songs as a springboard, scholar-musician Nadine Hubbs and showcasing artist Beth Bombara will be joined by Aimee Zoeller, Ethan Anderson, and renowned writer/thinker Tressie McMillan Cottom to discuss the use of Americana music and texts to teach and highlight current issues of race, class, gender, sexuality and identity in university and college classrooms and academic spaces.
Americana Honors & Awards
Keb’ Mo’ attends the 20th Annual Americana Honors & Awards in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images for Americana Music Association)
The marquee event of the week, the 22nd Annual Americana Honors & Awards will take place on Wednesday evening beginning at 6:30 p.m. See the full list of honorees and nominees here. The awards show promises appearances and performances by so many Americana friends and neighbors: Adeem the Artist, Allison Russell, Brandy Clark, Jessi Colter, Marty Stuart, Nickel Creek, William Prince, Sunny War and many, many more. Recipients of this year’s Lifetime, Trailblazer and Legacy Awards include The Avett Brothers, George Fontaine Sr., Bettye LaVette, Patty Griffin and Nickel Creek.
Good Ol’ Queer Country Jamboree at Soho House Nashville
A rare opportunity to utilize the gorgeous facilities of Soho House Nashville at this members-only and conference passholders-only event! Plus, enjoy the absolute best in queer country being made today as we celebrate the announcement of BGS’s new outlet, Good Country, coming in 2024! Space is limited, so make sure your RSVP is in for the Good Ol’ Queer Country Jamboree featuring music by Adeem the Artist, Jett Holden, Amanda Fields & Megan McCormick, Chris Housman and special guests.
The Good Ol’ Queer Country Jamboree Featuring Adeem the Artist, Amanda Fields & Megan McCormick, Jett Holden, Chris Housman, and more. Saturday, September 23, 3 p.m. – 6 p.m. Soho House Nashville
Showcases, Artists & Bands
Here are just a handful of the showcases, lineups, artists and bands we’ve got our eye on this week:
Americana Proud: A Voice for All – TUE. SEPT. 19 8:00 PM & 9:30 PM @ the City Winery
Hosted by singer-songwriter Autumn Nicholas and Nashville-based drag queen Vidalia Anne Gentry, Americana Proud will bring two showtimes of their highly-anticipated showcase to the City Winery on Tuesday evening, the first at 8 p.m. and another immediately following at 9:30 p.m. Hear from artists and musicians such as ISMAY, Jobi Riccio, Kentucky Gentlemen, Palmyra and many more.
Bourbon & Bluegrass – FRI. SEPT. 22 4:oo PM to 6:30 PM @ the Vinyl Lounge
Join us and our friends from Visit Owensboro and LogStill Distillery for one of our most favorite pairings, bourbon and bluegrass presented by BGS! Fresh off of our rollicking time in Kentucky at Bourbon & Beyond, we’ve still got a hankering for whiskey and tunes – this time from Mama Said String Band and the Owensboro Bluegrass Band. Join us Friday afternoon at the Vinyl Lounge in Wedgewood Houston!
Willi Carlisle
We can’t get enough of this lonesome troubadour’s poetic, old-timey country. He’s in and out of Nashville quick this week, so catch Willi Carlisle’s official showcase at the Vinyl Lounge on Thursday, Sept. 21 at 8:00 p.m. (Read our most recent feature on Carlisle here.) Now THAT’S good country!
Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper
Fiddler Michael Cleveland burnt down our BGS Stage at Bourbon & Beyond last weekend when he brought on his friend and ours, Billy Strings, as a surprise guest. Later that evening during Strings’ main stage set, he brought Michael out in front of 40,000 roaring fans. We LOVED that moment – don’t miss his official showcase with his band, Flamekeeper, at Analog at the Hutton Hotel on Thursday, Sept. 21 at 9 p.m.
Jessi Colter
This legend of country has a new, Margo Price-produced album, Edge of Forever, out on October 27, so it’s the perfect week to check her off your live performance bucket list. Colter will have an official showcase at 3rd & Lindsley on Wednesday, Sept. 20 at 10 p.m., plus she appears as part of Mojo’s Music City Mayhem on Thursday, Sept. 21 between 3 and 6 p.m. Also some good country.
Della Mae
We’ve been keeping up with Della Mae lately – from Earl Scruggs Music Festival to Bourbon & Beyond to AmericanaFest! – and we’ve loved every second. If you haven’t heard their new four-person lineup, it’s worth checking out this week. If you’re not in Nashville at the conference, stream their newly released Neil Young cover instead. (Below!)
Liv Greene
AmericanaFest is all about discovery and if you haven’t discovered this singer-songwriter yet, this week is your chance. Hear Greene’s award winning songwriting – which is equally winsome and pining while gritty and bluegrassy – on three different occasions throughout the week: Tuesday, Sept. 19, 8 p.m. at Americana Proud at City Winery; their official showcase on Thursday, Sept. 21 at 10 p.m. at the City Winery Lounge; and during the Tribute to the Songs of 1973 Part 3 on Friday, Sept. 22 at 10 p.m.
Jaimee Harris
You know what Jaimee Harris’s music is? Good country! It’s all over this AmericanaFest lineup, for sure. Harris will have your heart firmly in hand with her grounded, earnest and effacing nostalgia. It feels so country and effortlessly Americana, but with endless queer, subversive wrinkles. Get acquainted with Harris and her latest album, Boomerang Town, at several different performances during the week: Tuesday, Sept. 19, 8 p.m. at Americana Proud at City Winery; Thursday, Sept. 21, 4:30 p.m. at the Lone Star Shindig at the Bobby Hotel; Friday, Sept. 22, 1:20 p.m. at Bowery Vault for SHC East Coast Social Club; her official showcase on Friday, Sept. 22, 8 p.m. at the City Winery Lounge; Friday Sept. 22, 11 p.m. at the Basement East for A Tribute to the Songs of 1973; and Saturday, Sept. 23 at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge at 1 p.m.
Lola Kirke
All of Lola Kirke’s exes live in LA, so luckily she’s in Nashville this week! Kirke was a highlight of our BGS Stage last week at Bourbon & Beyond in Louisville before heading to AmericanaFest, where you can see her at SiriusXM Outlaw’s Americana Most Wanted guitar pull on Thursday, Sept. 21 at 12 p.m.; also see her official showcase at the Blue Room on Thursday, Sept. 21 at 10 p.m.; and at Imogene + Willie’s Round Up – a free, unofficial, buzzworthy event certainly worth a drop-by at least – on Friday, Sept. 22 at 7:15 p.m.
Native Guitars Tour – Voices of Native Americana – THURS. SEPT. 21 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM @ The Blue Room
Native leaders in music, art and fashion will bring authentic songs and stories to the Blue Room at Third Man Records on Thursday afternoon. Hear from Dach Martin, Jir Anderson, Levi Platero Band, Mike Bruno & the Myriad Mountains, Mozart Gabriel, Olivia Komahcheet, Rico Del Oro, Sage Bond and Scotti Clifford. From Native blues to crooning country and everything in between.
Emily Nenni
Get your boot scootin’ in while you’re in Nashville with honky-tonker Emily Nenni, whose country & western picked up a few tricks and twists in California’s Bay Area before landing in Music City. Nenni will jam a handful of Nashville shows into a packed tour week that takes her away from and back to AmericanaFest in the blink of an eye. Hear her at Honky Tonk Tuesday at the American Legion in East Nashville on Tuesday, Sept. 19; plus an appearance at Musician’s Corner at Centennial Park on Friday, Sept. 22 at 4:35 p.m.; and her official showcase at Eastside Bowl on Saturday, Sept. 23 at 10:30 p.m.
Autumn Nicholas
Nicholas has already appeared on this preview in a few places, and rightly so, as the North Carolinian Black Opry alumnus continues to build momentum behind their stratospheric voice and introspective, emotive songs. Hear the voice Nashville has been buzzing about for months – and that will open for Jason Isbell at the Ryman this fall – throughout the week: Tuesday, Sept. 19 at Americana Proud at City Winery, 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. shows; “Where the Action Is” panel at the Country Music Hall of Fame on Wednesday, Sept. 20 at 11 a.m.; and their official showcase at the Basement on Friday, Sept. 22 at 8 p.m.
Queer Cowpoke Roundup – SAT. SEPT. 23 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM @ the Groove
On your way to/from the Good Ol’ Queer Country Jamboree at Soho House on Saturday, stop by the Groove record shop in East Nashville for another LGBTQ+ centered event, the Queer Cowpoke Roundup! With music by Austin Lucas, Julian Talamantez Brolaski, Julie Nolen, Melody Walker, Mercy Bell, Secret Emchy Society, Shawna Virago and Wiley Gaby plus a special tribute to the legacy of Lavender Country and Patrick Haggerty to kick it all off.
Jobi Riccio
We are sweet on Jobi Riccio’s new album, Whiplash, a showcase of powerful, talented songwriting done up in checkered gingham and starchy denim and the perfume of broken in leather. We’ve had our eye on Riccio for a few years now, so it feels gratifying to watch the music industry discover and get behind the Berklee graduate. Hear Riccio perform during the Americana Honors & Awards on Wednesday night, but also elsewhere during AmericanaFest: Tuesday, Sept. 19 at Americana Proud at City Winery at 9:30 p.m.; Thursday, Sept. 21 at WMOT Day Stage at Eastside Bowl at 4 p.m.; and her official showcase will be at Exit/In on Thursday, Sept. 21 at 8 p.m. (Plus, Riccio’s social media tease a “to be announced” appearance on Friday, September 22, so keep your eyes peeled.)
The Shindellas
Americana is all about making music outside the lines, about exploring the rootsy fringes of these genres we all hold dear. The Shindellas are one of the most exciting groups to come out of Nashville in recent memory, but because of their glitz, polish and crisp production values they’re rarely categorized as Americana – which they certainly can lay claim to, through blues, R&B, soul and so much more. Their new Louis York-produced album, Shindo, drops in October, so make sure you catch them this week on Saturday. You’ll be glad you did! See the Shindellas at the 11th Annual Thirty Tigers Gospel Brunch at the City Winery, Saturday, Sept. 23 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.; and their official showcase at the Basement East on Saturday, Sept. 23 at 7 p.m..
Dan Tyminski
The man, the legend, he needs no introduction to the BGS reader (except, perhaps, when introduced as his mononym, Tyminski). Hear Dan fresh off his Bourbon & Beyond appearance on the BGS Stage with his new bluegrass band lineup, who are certainly worth a listen, at their official showcase on Thursday, Sept. 21 at 10 p.m. at the Analog at the Hutton Hotel. This new lineup of pickers backing up the famed voice of George Clooney on O Brother, Where Art Thou? are one of the most exciting things to come from Tyminski, musically, in the last handful of decades.
YasminWilliams
If you’ve never seen Yasmin Williams play guitar, prepare to have your mind blown. Her approach to the instrument doesn’t just wow her audiences, it wows her fellow guitarists as well, from Bryan Sutton to Tommy Emmanuel. We’ve been fans of Williams for more than a few years, since before her Shout & Shine appearance even, and we’re glad to catch her again this week at AmericanaFest: “Wide Open Spaces – The Rise of Ambient Americana” Panel, Thursday, Sept. 21, 1 p.m. at the Westin Gulch I & II; “Who are the Gatekeepers of Americana Anyway” Panel, Thursday, Sept. 21, at 4 p.m., the Westin Gulch I & II; NMAAM Songwriters Round Friday, Sept. 22 at 12 p.m.; and her official showcase Thursday, Sept. 21 at the Blue Room at 9 p.m.
Poster graphic and photo of Keb’ Mo’ courtesy of the Americana Music Association.
Lead images: Yasmin Williams by Kim Atkins Photography; Amanda Fields & Megan McCormick by Lindsey Patkos; Adeem the Artist by Shawn Poynter; Michael Cleveland by Amy Richmond.
Artist:Ross Cooper Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Song: “Love Like The Old Days” Album:Lightning Heart Release Date: September 29, 2023
In Their Own Words: “Aaron Raitiere and I were both on the same flight coming back to Nashville and sat together, opened up our journals, and wrote this song in a couple of hours. We’d been struggling to get a date on the books to write, so that plane ride was kind of a ‘stars-aligning moment.’ I wanted to write a song about my wife and the type of relationship that our folks have. The type of marriage worth writing about. This song fell out. I knew it was going to be a special song from the moment we finished it. And the cherry on top of all of it was I got my wife, O’Neal (who swears up and down that she ‘can’t sing’), to sing harmony on the track, and she sounds beautiful. Now it’s all full circle, and we have a song we get to share together. Some songs are easy to write… like they were waiting to get written. ‘Love Like The Old Days’ feels like that song for me.” – Ross Cooper
Artist:Cidny Bullens Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Song: “Little Pieces” Album:Little Pieces Release Date: September 14, 2023 Label: Kill Rock Stars
In Their Words: “‘Little Pieces’ is the very first song I wrote after I started transitioning. It took months to even notice what would or what eventually did start happening to me. The ‘old’ me was falling away piece by piece, but I could not yet see the ‘new’ me. In this song I ask myself the question, ‘What will I become?’ Knowing that whatever that was going to be — I had gone too far to turn back. I think every human has this experience at some point in their lives — a decision or choice that we make to change our reality from one thing to another. No matter how big or small, there is most likely some fear that accompanies the ‘not knowing’ of that choice.” — Cidny Bullens
The avant-garde, southern rock icon Col. Bruce Hampton had a belief that defined his career: don’t take yourself seriously – take what you do seriously. That saying holds strong for East Nash Grass, a group who have entertained the crowds at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge (in Madison, Tennessee) with incredible bluegrass and charming stage antics every Monday night for nearly six years.
Bluegrass music has a longstanding tradition of bands performing recurring shows. In the 1970s, J.D. Crowe & the New South rose to popularity while performing five nights a week at the Red Slipper Lounge in Lexington, Kentucky. Meanwhile, the Seldom Scene was gaining traction in the Washington, D.C., area with weekly performances at the Red Fox Inn and later the historic Birchmere. Performing that much allowed those bands to not only grow musically, but to grow their own, almost cult-like fanbase.
While the members East Nash Grass – Harry Clark (mandolin), Maddie Denton (fiddle), James Kee (mandolin), Gaven Largent (Dobro), Jeff Picker (bass), and Cory Walker (banjo) – are getting ready to celebrate six years of performing Monday nights at Dee’s, their sophomore record Last Chance to Win is charting No. 4 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Chart, they’re booked at festivals all over the country, and they’re nominated for IBMA’s New Artist of the Year award.
BGS recently caught up with James Kee and Cory Walker to discuss the new album, the origins of the band, and the longstanding residency at Dee’s.
East Nash Grass started with a rotating cast in 2017, playing every Monday night at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge. Can you tell me about the origins of the group, and when the lineup came together as something more than a weeknight pickup band?
James Kee: We had a lot of lineup changes in the early days – we solidified that lineup by 2018 or so, but it wasn’t as strong as the current lineup. We had Maddie [Denton] then, but Cory started playing with us full time in 2019, as did Harry [Clark]. And when that happened, East Nash Grass became serious. We just gelled together. It was super comfortable musically, and also professionally.
Cory Walker: I got a gig in 2015 or ’16, at Arrington Vineyards, and came up with the band name then. There was such a resurgence of bluegrass in the East Nashville area. Putting together the band, if I couldn’t get this one person on mandolin, there were five others I could call. Then, Harry and I met this guy that worked at Dee’s and wanted to put together a weekly bluegrass show. So that’s how we were associated in the very beginning. But I wasn’t playing every Monday night, and around that same time Harry moved to Lexington for a couple of years to play with the Wooks.
You’ve definitely become known for your unique stage presence and antics, between (and often during) songs, and you take that same energy from Madison to stages all over the country. How has playing a weekly gig for six years shaped the way you perform?
CW: I’ve played with so many people who use the same old formula. I don’t want to be a mouthpiece for the thing that has always worked. That’s one of the things I love about playing in this band, turning peoples heads upside down. It’s fresh air.
JK: We’ve each been a sideman in all these different bands, and so many can suck the air out of the room between songs. They’re great, but we really wanted to loosen up from that. I have the same irreverence for the “same old” that Cory does.
How has your stage presence been received in more traditional performance spaces?
JK: It’s not for everyone, but never any negative experiences. Often, they’re not sure what to think. People might think we do something different than other bands, but we do a lot of the same, just in our own way. We got on the Ryman stage and thanked Tim Allen – twice.
CW: But, he was there… this is really new territory, as far as the stage show. I love to go back to the Dee’s stream from the past week and watch the clown moments, where somebody does something off the wall and then everyone else responds to it in some way. In any other band scenario, that person would be fired, immediately.
Your performances are always unique, but so is this new record. How did you choose material, and go about recording Last Chance to Win?
JK: We knew there were some songs that people wanted us to record, that we’d already been doing. That was “Slippin’ Away,” “How Could I Love Her So Much,” three or four songs. We went in and cut those and got used to the environment, this particular studio and this first album with Jeff [Picker] on bass. I brought a lot of material to the first record, and I wanted to see what everybody else would bring to this one. It ended up having this old-time vibe that just naturally occurred, and so we ended up finishing out the record with more songs that fit that.
Everyone in East Nash Grass seems to get their own voice, despite each of you having worked for countless solo artists. What’s it like to all come together and cultivate your own fanbase?
CW: Having a band where everyone has a say really makes people care more about the music and want to stick around. Even though we’ve all worked for bigger acts, we’re getting in together at the bottom floor. The people at our release show were primarily our age and younger. Those people will stick around, too.
Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Raitz
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRead 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.
