Tag: poetry

BGS 5+5: Kelley Mickwee

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Kelley Mickwee
Hometown: Austin, Texas, by way of Memphis, Tennessee

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

All of the elements. Mother Nature, the universe and the natural world are my religion and informs my spirituality, so I’d say nature inspires everything I do. As far as on the daily, I have to do something outside at some point no matter what the weather or where I am or how busy I get. It could be anything, from digging and planting in the garden, pruning, cutting the grass, and watering the plants to taking long hikes with my dog, Moe. If I am in town, you can usually find me at one of our off-leash dog hiking trails with Moe. It’s very centering and really impacts my mental health and general well being. Especially when the sun is shining. And THAT, in turn, gives me the inspiration, energy and right mindset to sit down with a pen or with my guitar to work on a song. Or do anything, really.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

Not enough. Ha! I learned pretty early on as a songwriter that for me to write the best lines I can, I have to just speak from experience from the first person and be as open and honest as I can or am comfortable. I definitely have many “character” songs about other people or from their stories, especially songs that are co-writes, because then you are sharing a narrative with another writer so who knows how many people/experiences are wrapped up in that one song? But, in general, I tend to write from a first-person experience or relationship. Especially if it’s a song I write alone or start on my own before sharing with a co-writer.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

I think as songwriters, we are constantly getting input from all kinds of sources and storing it away for when we sit down to write a song. This could be anything from a conversation we had, or another song we heard on the radio, or a movie we just watched. I have written several songs from quick lines I wrote down while watching a film or a documentary. And I am always searching for inspiration and guidance from poetry, especially lately. I took an online poetry course in 2020 and it really gave me some new tools to use when writing lyrics.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

This one was easy! A locally sourced vegan meal in London with Paul McCartney. I am actually a pescatarian who doesn’t eat or drink dairy, so not technically a vegan. But…when in London with Paul McCartney!

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

Every time! It is not easy for me to complete a song. Very very rarely do they just roll off the end of my pen, or float down from the sky, just waiting to be written down. I have many songwriter friends who have story after story of songs just spilling out of them and it makes me envious of that feeling. I do have one maybe two that came out, say, in a day. But even those were painful and agonizing at times. Like finishing a thesis that’s due the next day. Gosh! That sounds awful. I just mean, I want every line to count and be the best line it can be and as honest and original as possible. I think that’s where the good stuff lives. And so, if it takes me a bit longer to get there, so be it. Because the end result, a song I am proud of and can’t wait to sing, is SO sweet and rewarding, in all of the ways.

Photo credit: Taylor Prinsen

BGS 5+5: Carrie Newcomer

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Carrie Newcomer
Hometown: Bloomington, Indiana
Latest Album: Until Now (September 10, 2021)
Personal Nicknames/Rejected Band Names: My husband calls me “bunky” sometimes. 🙂 My bands have always been just The Carrie Newcomer Band. My first band was called Stone Soup.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I don’t think it happened for me in one moment. It was a slow turning, a claiming and reclaiming, a deepening. My favorite game as a little girl was called “Makin’ Somethin’.” I was always making songs, stories, and pictures; painting, sewing, and hammering together boards; cooking or putting on plays in the backyard. I was drawn to creating just about anything, and all these years later, I’m still inordinately happy when I’m makin’ somethin’. But it took me a while to truly claim calling myself a songwriter and poet. I went to school for visual art, then later got a teacher’s license. Both are honorable vocations, but I believe I chose them because it felt too risky to follow what I loved the most: music.

During that time, I was writing songs and playing music everywhere. When I finished school, music was calling. So I followed, not really knowing where it would lead me. But even as I stepped fully into a life in music, things continued to unfold. Something good happened to my writing when I gave myself permission to sound like a “Hoosier,” to claim my own authentic Midwestern voice. Something also shifted when I stopped following music business and started following what my songs were about — asking good questions, sensing a spiritual thread, our shared human condition, finding something extraordinary in an ordinary day. My life as a musician also shifted when I stopped believing that I had to be the best singer-songwriter and knew that all I needed to do and be was the truest Carrie Newcomer.

Today, I have released 19 albums. Music still continues to be a choice. A life in the arts means you must be willing to step right up to your next growing edge and lean in. So every day — even in this time of great disruption and uncertainty, when hope feels a bit frayed at the edges, I still choose to live like an artist, approach my life as an artist, and stay true, lean in and always keep “makin’ somethin’.”

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

I have always been a passionate reader. Of course, music has always moved me, but I am even more drawn to the way music and lyrics entwine to create something uniquely powerful. Many of my songs are inspired by literature (non-fiction and fiction) and particularly poetry. Songwriters have many ways they go about writing a song — if you ask 11 songwriters to describe their process, you’ll get 15 different ways they approach songwriting. My process often begins with writing essays, poetry, short stories and character studies. I have three books of poetry and essays: A Permeable Life: Poems & Essays, The Beautiful Not Yet: Poems, Essays & Lyrics and my newest collection Until Now: New Poems that will published as a companion piece with my new album Until Now, on September 10, 2021. I’m also a visual artist (mixed media and small sculpture) and visual imagery is always present in my songwriting. Oh, and I’m a passionate knitter.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

I try to find a place to get quiet. I meditate, I find my inner center so that I feel more grounded when I step on stage. I’m not a natural performer. In fact, I’m pretty private by nature, which is not uncommon for performers. But I love people, and I love music, and I love what happens when we connect through music. There is nothing like it. Music, when it’s really flowing, comes up from something deep and centered and true. It reaches into the heart of the listener where the listener is deep and true. I imagine those of you reading might know what I’m talking about.

During COVID, we all had to learn how to do this heart-reaching in new ways. I turned to online streaming, as my husband Robert Meitus is (lucky for me) one of the co-founders of Mandolin, a high-quality concert streaming service that streamed the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and RockyGrass this year. Streaming was an incredibly different performance experience. If a live in-person show is an apple and recording a performance is an orange, streaming is kind of like a kiwi. It has many similar elements, but it’s also entirely different. The exciting thing I learned was that the spirit of music really can reach further and wider than I ever expected.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

If I had a mission statement for my career it would be, “be true.” My work in the world is to express what it means to be authentically human with all its ache and awe, sense and senselessness. It’s to hold fast to the power of simple kindness, to acknowledge its messiness, and to be honest about where I most need to grow. My job is to lean into unabashed delight and to be with uncontainable grief. Music reminds me that working toward a better, kinder world is not a destination as much as an orientation. My job is to put into music and language the things we feel that have no words, to do my own inner work so that I can bring what I find there to my outer calling. My job as an artist is to pay attention and ask good questions — and, as much as possible — to be kind.

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

Natural imagery is almost always present in my poetry and songwriting. It is where I catch glimpses of something extraordinary (even sacred) in the most ordinary of days. I live out in the wooded hills of southern Indiana where years ago, the glaciers stopped their earth-smoothing slide south, leaving deep ravines and beautiful hills. I have walked these hills for years; these forests, creeks and small lakes have become old friends. On my wide, old-fashioned front porch, I love to sit and watch a big storm come in, to feel the drop in the barometric pressure, a rush of cool air, and then waves of summer rain. I love the quiet of the snowy hills, particularly the ones that are lined with elegant smooth beech trees. In senseless times, I take comfort in what never stops making sense, like trees and songbirds, like how the light changes in autumn and the world quiets in the winter. There is a song on the new album called “I Give Myself To This.” It is a love song about what I choose to release and what I fully embrace out in the natural world.

Photo credit: Elle Hodge

Harmonics with Beth Behrs: Courtney Marie Andrews

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

This week, in the final installment of our Americana April series here on Harmonics, host Beth Behrs speaks with folk singer-songwriter Courtney Marie Andrews, who has just released Old Monarch, a beautiful collection of poetry, and her very first of its kind. Beth’s own deep love of poetry makes for a perfect pair in this episode.

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On top of her songwriting and poetry, Andrews also had a deep passion for painting, and she and Beth discuss the difference between various artistic outlets and how she moves through a creative block, as well as the joy of creating art simply for the sake of creating art, not necessarily as something to be shared with the world — or with anyone, for that matter.

Growing up in the Sonoran desert of Arizona, Andrews has been influenced by the beauty and vastness of the desert since a young age, and the desert and nature in general continue to inspire her art and spirituality to this day. And as we will never know the answers to the major questions of the universe in this realm, she finds comfort in embracing the beauty in the mysteries of life, rather than in the answers.

Andrews discusses the feeling of recently playing her first live show to an audience since the pandemic began, reads us some poetry from Old Monarch, and so much more on this episode.

Also check out our first two installments of Americana April featuring Fiona Prine and Margo Price.

Listen and subscribe to Harmonics through all podcast platforms and follow Harmonics and Beth Behrs on Instagram for series updates!

This episode of Harmonics is brought to you by BLUblox: blue light blocking glasses, backed by science. Reclaim your energy and block out the unhealthy effects of blue light on your mental and physical health. Take 15% off your order with code “HARMONICS”

Harmonics with Beth Behrs: Beth Behrs & the Brothers Koren, ‘The Moon Will Stay’

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Beth Behrs, host of the BGS podcast Harmonics, is premiering her new album with the Brothers Koren, The Moon Will Stay – now available on Bandcamp.


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The project was originally intended to be purely therapeutic, a merging of Behrs’ personal poetry and the Korens’ music it inspired. But over time, with the growth of the Harmonics community and a decision to be more vulnerable with her listeners, Behrs decided to release the album via Bandcamp, donating the proceeds to three organizations near and dear to her heart:

Songwriting with Soldiers provides weekend retreats across the U.S. for veterans who have served in all conflicts. Since 2012, they’ve connected with hundreds of veterans and military families, and created a safe and inspiring environment to share their experiences and write with professional songwriters, like Mary Gauthier, a guest on Season 1 of Harmonics.

Jewel’s Never Broken program, in partnership with the Inspiring Children Foundation, aides struggling children through mental health support, mentoring, education, and equip them with life skills and tools to earn college scholarships. Jewel will be the first guest on Season 2 of Harmonics, premiering next week.

The Equus Foundation is the only national animal welfare foundation in the U.S. that is 100% dedicated to protecting the country’s horses, and strengthening the bond between horses and people. Their mission is to safeguard the dignity of America’s horses throughout their lives, and to share the ability that horses have to empower, teach, and heal. Equine therapy has had a huge impact on host Beth Behrs’ and her family’s lives — horses have been instrumental in her mental health and loving connection within her family.

Subscribe to Harmonics to stay in the loop for Season 2, premiering on Tuesday, March 9, featuring guests like singer-songwriter Jewel, legendary comedian and entertainer Carol Burnett, renowned singer and actress Kristin Chenoweth, and so many more incredible guests!

Follow @harmonicspodcast on Instagram for more updates on these incredible organizations, and to stay updated on the podcast.

Album Art: Hana Behrs

Harmonics with Beth Behrs: Episode 9, The Brothers Koren

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

This episode almost didn’t happen. I thought long and hard about taking this step to not only be vulnerable with listeners, but also to put out some music into the world that I never intended to be shared — music that was strictly intended as therapy. But, the reason I started this podcast was to explore how creativity is healing, and also to have creatives be open and honest about the messy bits: everything that forms the human experience. None of us get through life without the messy bits. How could I interview everyone else and hear their open and vulnerable takes on healing and the process of their creativity, and not let you hear the same?


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I am so grateful to the Brothers Koren. They have an incredible program called the Songwriter’s Journey, where they help folks to reclaim their “Big Voice” — and to reclaim their power, creativity, and truth through that voice. As musicians they’ve toured with the likes of Coldplay, Pink, and Rod Stewart, but they decided that after so many years in the music industry, they wanted to use their voices, their music and their incredible talents to help others. In this special, co-interview episode we discuss our creative process as we worked together for the past year and a half, after they came into my life at one of the most difficult times for me, especially regarding my relationship to art.

We lost my grandmother at the beginning of the pandemic last year, and even though my grandfather is suffering from dementia, at our family’s memorial service (held via Zoom) he once again became the man we all knew and loved — the man who, at a young age, had instilled in me his deep love of nature — who was now soothing and bringing our family together in our grief. I hope you’ll stay tuned to the end of this episode for the premiere of our song “The Moon Will Stay,” which is a collaboration between a poem I wrote for my grandfather and the beautiful music it inspired in Thorald and Isaak Koren. There are incredible studies about the healing power of music, especially for those with Alzheimer’s and dementia, and I’m so glad I was able to write this for my grandfather and for him to have heard it before we someday will inevitably lose him. But not today — because the moon will stay, and we will always have that. — Beth Behrs

More music from Beth Behrs and the Brothers Koren will be available on Bandcamp later this month. All proceeds will benefit mental health-focused charities.

Follow @harmonicspodcast on Instagram for more updates on how you can download this music and support these important causes!

BGS 5+5: Northcote

Posted on by Editor

Artist name: Northcote (Matt Goud)
Hometown: Carlyle, Saskatchewan, Canada
Latest album: Let Me Roar (out October 23, 2020)
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Matt, Big Cat, Coat

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I was playing solo shows in cafes while in a full-time hardcore band, that’s how it started for me. When the band broke up I moved out west and during that first year of playing solo I would cover Gillian Welch, Chuck Ragan/Hot Water Music and Brian Fallon/The Gaslight Anthem songs in my set. I remember learning Petty and Springsteen songs to fill my set for when I was singing in tourist bars. You can play “The Waiting” and “Dancing in the Dark” for a long time on a Monday night to help nudge along a three-hour set. The artist that has influenced me the most in the last ten years is Dave Hause. He has taken me on the road many times and I have got to see his energy and passion for the job. He plays with the urgency and respect that it could all go away and I admired that because he was/is right. Gillian Welch is the songwriter I come back to the most often and whose records I feel most at home with. John Moreland in the last bunch of years is like that for me as well. Finally, I was in grade 5 or 6 when Shania Twain’s hit songs began to come out and I did perform them lip-synching in school.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

It must have been 2010 or so, maybe earlier. I was playing on my first release as Northcote and was out east in Saint John, New Brunswick. It is a small city and I think I’ve only been back once since. It’s near Fredericton where we usually stop on tour. The venue that day had an alley entrance with brick walls on either side of the alley. The room had a low ceiling and seemed like a small abandoned store. I remember there were things left behind on the floor like folks had left in a hurry. The walls were white and blue like sky. I don’t remember if there was a PA or not. We were packed in the place about 25 of us singing along as I played through my first EP and the singalongs were quite loud. I was surprised and I felt lost and at home all at once. At that time everyone present was a beginner and we were all just giving it an honest try and that is a very sacred place to be in my opinion.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

Before bringing my attention to working as a musician I was studying at a religious college training to be a minister. Over the years the sense of poetry from scripture has stuck with me. I’ve gone from the poems of Thomas Merton to Rumi to listening to Ram Dass then back full circle now. In my twenties I explored more angular and art house influences which are still refreshing at times, but less influential these days. I think my answer is religious devotional writing? My god. For more context, my recent influences are Lovecraft Country (TV), Anderson .Paak’s album Ventura, and Miley Cyrus’ “Slide Away.” The two books open on my desk are Teachings of the Christian Mystics and Thich Nhat Hanh’s How to Connect.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

When we were making Let Me Roar, each morning before I took a shower I would put on the album Trance Friendz by Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm. After that I went to the yoga mat to do some work then made coffee and had a few cigarettes. We had boiled eggs most mornings with bagels. After the work day we made dinner together in the kitchenette and watched the hockey playoffs or a lesser-known horror film. During one film the lead character ate a chicken wing out of the fridge after finding a deceased person. The character said, “Honey garlic, I love it.” From then on in the studio, after describing something we would say, “I love it” in honor of the horror film character.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

I was invited to perform at the Alianait Arts Festival in Iqaluit, Nunavut, a few years back. I wasn’t feeling very good those days and the opportunity to go up North was a bright light for me and is a precious memory that I will never forget. One night up North there was a dinner party hosted by folks in the community. There was a spread of local food and I can’t remember what all was served, but I tried some and enjoyed the warmth and hospitality. There was boxed wine on the rocks and we saw the evening sun. One of those nights some people from the festival invited me to a hall where musicians from the festival were sitting in a circle singing and laughing and telling stories. Since that trip up to play the festival, my wife and I have moved, I quit drinking, we made the new Northcote record and I found meaningful work at my day job in Victoria.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Ha8VdD55SEGNJcKWiUAhM?si=IkUWvU1GR6OGDOnMt8ul1g

Photo credit: Matt Postal

BGS 5+5: Native Harrow

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Native Harrow (Devin Tuel and Stephen Harms)
Hometown: Just outside of Philadelphia
Latest album: Closeness
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): A good band name we didn’t use is “Tuel & Harms.” As for personal nicknames, well, those are secret and too embarrassing to share.

Answers provided by Devin Tuel

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Though I could list about 50 artists, I feel the most honest answer is Neil Young. I used to listen to Live at Massey Hall while I rode the M1 bus up and down First Avenue from my college to the Lower East Side. Listening not just to the brilliant songs and guitar playing, but also to the way he held attention, to the way he tuned, to his grumbling, and his storytelling. I was transfixed by that record.

I grew up listening to Neil. My Dad is a huge fan. He took me to see him perform when I was young and I remember being on the edge of my seat the entire show, mouth agape. I felt so electric after seeing that. And thru the many years of my own career I have looked to him for inspiration, for guts when I can’t find mine, and for a “What would Neil do?” approach to difficult situations. He seems to have a reverence for nature that I share and I have always felt he could appreciate an open field just as I do.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

This past year and much of 2019 we have been in the UK more than the States supporting our release of Happier Now with Loose. We have played in so many beautiful spaces and met many wonderful people. These are some of our favorite memories of touring to date. And in January we played a sold-out show at Paper Dress Vintage in London during the Americana UK Fest, and as I was singing the opening notes of our first song, “Can’t Go On Like This,” I realized there were people in the audience singing along with me. If any musician ever says they don’t care about that, they’re lying. It’s the most special, heartwarming, exciting thing ever. Someone loves your song enough that they want to sing with you. That’s the best.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I grew up dancing — I was a ballerina with a Pennsylvania-based ballet company for about 13 years. So since a very young age I have been exposed to theatre life and the world of the performing arts. I still find seeing ballet so moving I often end up in tears. The classical music I grew up dancing to feels deeply rooted in my muscles and bones. It is so evocative of human emotion and passion and can take your spirit on such a journey. I think that is something we are always trying to achieve with our albums. We want to take you on a journey where the listener is transported away for a while and when the last notes ring out, you are slightly changed by what you’ve just experienced.

Certainly poetry has long been an art form that I have drawn inspiration from. I am deeply connected to nature and thus very moved by the poetry of the natural world — Whitman, Wordsworth, Frost, Keats, etc.

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

Stephen and I take two walks daily that wind up and down the rolling hills near our home, past fields of sweet grass and hay, dense forest, and old farm houses. Whether the sun is shining or grey clouds and rain accompany us, it’s so necessary to turn off and just be in nature. I am always making a reference to the weather, the season, or birds on several songs on each album we’ve made. The song “Turn Turn” on Closeness begins with “Turn, turn, watch the weeks go by, moving slowly ‘cross the field ‘til the grass is greener….”

I have written poetry for over a decade and almost all of it is nature-based! There is endless inspiration and it is ever-changing, full of life and full of mystery.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

Hardly ever! I am honest when it is about me. Which for better or for worse has kept our songs raw and truthful. The best material I have to draw from is that which is stirring in my own heart and before my own eyes. So I try to tell it honestly and rarely rely on fiction to save my face.

Photo credit: Parri Thomas

WATCH: Colter Wall, “High & Mighty”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Colter Wall
Hometown: Swift Current, Saskatchewan
Song: “High & Mighty”
Album: Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs
Release Date: August 28, 2020
Label: La Honda Records/Thirty Tigers

In Their Words: “’High & Mighty’ is a Saskatchewan saddle bronc song written by Lewis Martin Pederson III. LMP hails from around Abbey, Saskatchewan, not far from where I grew up. He’s known for rodeoing, his poetry, and in the ’70s he put out three great records (that I know of). Saddle bronc riding is my favourite rodeo event and upon hearing Pederson’s album Rodeo No.1 Sport, I immediately knew I wanted to cut it on a record.” — Colter Wall

Photo credit: Robert Stilwell

The String – Adia Victoria

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Adia Victoria taps the lineage and resolve of the early Blues queens with a sound made for “the now” on her 2019 album, Silences.

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Victoria’s journey from South Carolina to Atlanta and then to Nashville reads like no other artist of recent memory. She works hard to set herself apart from the institutional trappings of the indie music business. Critically acclaimed and sharply thoughtful, this made for a fascinating and challenging conversation.

Photo credit: Daniel Jackson at Newport Folk Fest 2019 for BGS

BGS Long Reads of the Week // June 12

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Don’t look now, but we’re approaching the mid-point of June and another week has passed us by. YIKES! Luckily, we have another week’s worth of long reads for you, too!

The long-winding catacombs of the BGS annals and archives have so much to offer. As we share our favorite longer, more in-depth articles, stories, and features to help you pass the time, take a minute to follow us on social media [on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram] so you don’t miss a single #longreadoftheday pick!

This week’s long reads travel from the canyon drives above Hollywood to Pavement to a former Oregon poet laureate to everyone’s favorite five-stringed instrument. Check ’em out.

Stephen Malkmus of Pavement Ventures Down Acoustic Road on New Album

Stephen Malkmus, of the bristly, brainy 1990s indie rock band Pavement, joins a host of fellow alt-rockers in dabbling with folk and acoustic sounds. On a brand new album, Traditional Techniques, which was produced by Chris Funk of the Decemberists, Malkmus expands on the flickers of folk interest that have permeated his career, though he may not claim mastery of any of them. [Read our #CoverStory interview]

Sara Watkins Wants Us to Ride Along on Watkins Family Hour’s brother sister

Earlier this week we celebrated Sara Watkins’ birthday (June 8, for the record) with a revisit to our recent Artist of the Month interview where she walked us through her recent Watkins Family Hour album, brother sister. For the first time in their lifelong musical careers, Sara and her brother Sean focused on creating music centered on their own duo. brother sister was the result. [Celebrate Sara’s birthday with a read]

Aoife O’Donovan Finds Her Heart in the Verse of Others

Aoife O’Donovan’s latest EP, Bull Frogs Croon (And Other Songs), arrived in March. Our Cover Story unspooled the inspiration she gained via poet Peter Sears, the former poet laureate of Oregon, whose verse is utilized in three songs O’Donovan wrote and arranged with Teddy Abrams and Jeremy Kittel. The project is rounded out by a Hazel Dickens cover and a classic folk song, giving listeners a sampling of each of O’Donovan’s folky expertises. [Read the interview]

The Byrds’ Chris Hillman Reflects on Laurel Canyon and Why He Had to Leave

A new, two-part documentary, Laurel Canyon, traces the comings and goings of several generations of folk rockers down Sunset Boulevard and up into the hills. Chris Hillman (The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers), one of the canyon’s earliest and most famous residents, about the new film, the community, the music, the neighborhood, and why he had to leave. [Read the full story]

Mixtape: Ashley Campbell’s Banjo Basics

With her classic 2018 Mixtape banjoist and singer/songwriter Ashley Campbell reinforced the deeply held BGS belief that– MORE!! BANJOS!! From songs by her late, legendary father Glen and her godfather Carl Jackson to classics from folks like J.D. Crowe, John Hartford, and the Dixie Chicks, this mix has a little bit of everything and a whole lot of five-string. [Read & listen]