WATCH: Elder Jack Ward, “The Way Is Already Made”

Artist: Elder Jack Ward
Hometown: Itta Bena, Mississippi, and Memphis, Tennessee
Song: “The Way Is Already Made”
Album: Already Made
Release Date: August 20, 2021
Label: Bible & Tire Recording Co.

In Their Words: “I can just about sing anything anyone else sings. I never bragged on myself, but this was a gift from God and the Bible says, ‘A gift comes without repentance.’ In other words, you don’t have to be a Christian to be able to sing. If you’ve got that God-given gift you can do it — your choice if you want to sing rock ‘n’ roll, blues, gospel — but I choose the right side.” — Elder Jack Ward


Photo credit: Matt White

LISTEN: The Isaacs, “Turn! Turn! Turn!”

Artist: The Isaacs
Hometown: Hendersonville, Tennessee
Song: “Turn! Turn! Turn!”
Album: The American Face
Release Date: August 13, 2021
Label: House of Isaacs

In Their Words: “When selecting cover songs for our project, The American Face, one of my first suggestions was the song ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ Growing up in New York City in the ’60s, I was a big folk music fan. I had a folk album out on Columbia Records in 1968, so I followed so much of that scene. The song was taken from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 and seemed like such an appropriate song for nowadays. It was written by Pete Seeger in 1959 and released in 1965 by the Byrds. Once my family and I listened to the song, we just knew we had to record it. We wanted to do the song with The Isaacs feel to it. So, we tried to build the song with harmonies throughout the lyrics. It certainly brought back so many memories to me personally… living through the music era in the ’60s, which was such a turning point in history. An exciting time in many ways.” — Lily Isaacs


Photo credit: Frederick Breedon

Artist of the Month: Amythyst Kiah

Amythyst Kiah is having a moment with Wary + Strange, an album that positions her among today’s most compelling singer-songwriters. Although she is an East Tennessee native, her personal lyrics somehow feel universal — this isn’t an album about rivers and mountains, but instead touches on identity (“Black Myself”), grief (“Wild Turkey”), and unsolicited advice (“Soapbox”). Written from a place of questioning and reckoning, a gently-played song like “Firewater” would satisfy anyone who enjoys an acoustic aesthetic, as well as those who draw confidence from the music of others.

“A lot of these songs come from a moment in my 20s when I was grappling with trauma while also trying to navigate the experience of being a Black and LGBT woman in a white suburban area in a Bible Belt town,” says Kiah, who moved to Johnson City after growing up in Chattanooga. “I’ve had moments of feeling othered in certain aspects of my life, and it took me a long time to figure out who I wanted to be and how to move through this world.”

With that perspective and a guitar in hand, she’s been sharing her music on stages ranging from the Grand Ole Opry to Newport Folk Festival to Jimmy Kimmel Live, where she performed “Black Myself.”

Upon announcing the record, she noted, “‘Black Myself’ is the first song I’ve written that was confrontational. I’d always made it a point to sing songs that anybody could relate to, but this was something that had been welling up inside me for a long time, and working with three other Black women in Our Native Daughters put me in the position where I finally had the courage to put those words out. The reception of the song so far has given me hope that there are people out there who are ready to confront the shared trauma of racism, to look within ourselves and see how we might be perpetuating racist beliefs, and to do what is needed to create equality for all people.”

Next month, Kiah (pronounced “KEE-uh”) is in the running in multiple categories for the Americana Music Honors & Awards. (As a solo artist, she’ll compete for Emerging Act of the Year, while “Black Myself” is up for Song of the Year. Our Native Daughters is also up for Duo/Group of the Year.) With this incredible career momentum, she’s criss-crossing the country in the months ahead: After a gig with Brandi Carlile and Sheryl Crow at the Gorge in Washington, she’ll be everywhere from Maine to Mexico, with a MerleFest gig in the mix too. Enjoy new music and some crowd favorites in our BGS Essentials Playlist with Amythyst Kiah below. And don’t miss our two-part Artist of the Month interview. Read part one here. Read part two here.


Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither

WATCH: Charlie Worsham, “Half Drunk”

Artist: Charlie Worsham
Hometown: Grenada, Mississippi
Song: “Half Drunk”
Album: Sugarcane EP
Release Date: July 16, 2021
Label: Warner Music Nashville

In Their Words: “‘Half Drunk’ tells the story of the first time I told my wife I loved her. I’d just been fired by my publisher and my manager had quit management that week, but I was singing that day in one of my favorite rooms in all the world, the Station Inn. Powered by Yazoo Pale Ale, applause, and a sense that this girl I was crazy about might just be more special and more permanent than the whole music industry thing, I turned to Kristen, said those three magic words, and she said ‘I love you too.’ I hope this song inspires a lot of drunken making out and maybe a few last-time-saying-I-love-you-for-the-first-time moments.” — Charlie Worsham


Photo credit: Jason Myers

Sam Williams Carries His Country Music Legacy to Late Night Debut

On his primetime television debut, Sam Williams makes a powerful statement. Grandson of the legendary Hank Williams and son of Hank Williams Jr., the rising recording artist previewed his debut album, Glasshouse Children with a riveting performance from his grandfather’s old house in Franklin, Tennessee. In an extended one-shot capture, Sam Williams does his name proud with a beautifully-written song called “You Can’t Fool Your Own Blood.” Out of a less-than-usual childhood and recent family tragedy, he has emerged with a style that is both poetic and hard-hitting, pulling no punches in his blend of honesty and vulnerability.

With an undoubtedly heavy burden of expectation, Williams blossoms in this realm of singer-songwriters who are more forlorn than raucous, standing with the likes of artists such as Donovan Woods and Ruston Kelly. Although his television debut was one for the books, perhaps the more exciting news is of the debut full-length record, set for a release later this summer on UMG Nashville. Music from Sam Williams has undoubtedly been a long time in the making, but the good news for us is that it’s almost here. Watch his performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert below.


Photo credit: Claire Joyce

LISTEN: Phil Leadbetter, “I Will Always Love You”

Artist: Phil Leadbetter
Hometown: Knoxville, Tennessee
Song: “I Will Always Love You”
Album: Masters of Slide: Spider Sessions (Various Artists)
Release Date: June 25, 2021
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “I always loved this tune. I remember the first time I heard Dolly sing this live, it just killed me! Not only her voice, but the lyrics to the song were so heart-wrenching. I saw her many times telling the story about how the song came about. The story is a very sad one. I used to drive around and listen to that song from several of Dolly’s compilation albums, and it always had such a great melody that I kept hearing in my head over and over. I started messing with it, and liked the direction it was going. In 2010, I got a brand new Scheerhorn guitar. I was at a friend of mine’s home, and I was curious to see how the guitar sounded. I started noodling around and playing different songs to see how the new guitar sounded. My friend told me that I should seriously think about keeping the track. The track got lost over the years, but one day while looking through a bunch of files, I found it!! Me and my engineer worked on it, and I had thought about using it a few years back. So happy I saved it so it could be part of the Masters of Slide album.” — Phil Leadbetter


Photo courtesy of Phil Leadbetter

LISTEN: Hannah Juanita, “Hard Hearted Woman”

Artist: Hannah Juanita
Hometown: Chattanooga, Tennessee
Song: “Hard Hearted Woman”
Album: Hardliner
Release Date: June 11, 2021

In Their Words: “Well, I’m glad I don’t feel like a ‘Hard Hearted Woman’ anymore! But that is how I felt coming out of my last relationship. Turning 30, moving back to Tennessee, and leaving the life I had built out West behind definitely had me feeling alone… but it was the good kind of alone. I may have felt hardened to love, but I was so ready and excited to do my own thing and make music. I remember well the night I wrote this song. All my friends were out honky-tonkin’ around Nashville, but I felt heavy-hearted and went home because it was time to sit down with my guitar and get this song written. It had been rolling around in my head for too long.” — Hannah Juanita


Photo credit: Jody Domingue

LISTEN: Tray Wellington, “Pond Mountain Breakaway”

Artist: Tray Wellington
Hometown: Originally from Ashe County, North Carolina and now calls Johnson City, Tennessee home
Song: “Pond Mountain Breakaway”
Release Date: May 28, 2021
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “I actually wrote the main riff to this song while playing electric guitar — but then, while playing banjo the same day, I tried it out with more of a bluegrass feel, and thought, ‘Wow, it would be cool to write a fast, upbeat instrumental around it.’ When recording, I got to the session late because my car broke down on the way, and while I was trying to think of a name for the tune during the actual recording session, Wayne Benson, who plays mandolin on the track, asked me, ‘Where did you break down?’ I replied, ‘A place called Pond Mountain,’ and he said, ‘Call it “Pond Mountain Breakdown.” I thought that was a great idea, but as I was thinking about it later, I realized that I don’t get a full breakdown vibe from this tune — and when I thought that a little variation in bluegrass titles wouldn’t be a bad thing, I decided to make a slight change to ‘Pond Mountain Breakaway.’” — Tray Wellington


Photo credit: Rob Laughter

BGS 5+5: Bill and the Belles

Artist: Bill and the Belles
Hometown: Johnson City, Tennessee
Latest Album: Happy Again
Personal Nicknames: I renamed myself Spike (inspired by the bulldog with a spiked collar in Heathcliff) in the first grade and all the kids called me Spike for a few months. That was a big win. — Kris Truelsen

My name can be tricky for people (it’s like Kahlúa, but “kuh-LEE-uh”) and nicknames weren’t much of a thing until Game of Thrones came out and Khaleesi happened. — Kalia Yeagle

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

It’s a no brainer: Jimmie Rodgers. He’s been one of our main inspirations for years. His effortless skill in combining the sounds of the blues, jazz, and country will forever be inspiring. My favorite songs from Jimmie are the syrupy love ballads with strings and horns that lean towards being straight pop music of the time like “The Hills of Tennessee” or “Miss the Mississippi and You.” Brilliant stuff. Though I still sing many of his songs, more than ever I use his music as inspiration to break rules and to find the courage to make something unique, not tied to genre or emulating somebody else, but rather trying to be original. — Kris

Jimmie Rodgers was a huge influence on this band. More broadly, that big field of “early country music” (or whatever else you want to call it) is so full of genre-busting sounds and earnest musical experiments. Forming this band, we were very inspired by the folks that used what they had in creative ways, and worked with real fervor. — Kalia

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

A little over six years ago at the opening of the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, Virginia, we shot the pilot episode of Farm and Fun Time, the PBS television show we host. At sound check I stood at the side of the stage and watched Ralph Stanley sing the entirety of “O Death” in an empty theater. It was literally just me, the sound engineer Josh, and Ralph Stanley in this tiny 100-seat theater. It was absolute magic. — Kris

Similarly, another impactful not-quite-on-stage moment for me was when we shot an audience-less Farm and Fun Time from Kris’s front porch during the pandemic. This was early on enough that folks were still figuring out how to get the most out of livestreams, but late enough that we were all feeling scared about what the pandemic meant for our families and communities, and what it meant for our relationship with live music. Sitting on Kris’s front porch listening to local legend Ed Snodderly sing his songs smacked me good, right in the heart. It had been months since I’d experienced live music, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt so grateful and moved. — Kalia

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

I’m informed by art that says what it means, and simple, impactful works that don’t feel overwrought. That’s because my head’s a pretty busy place, and I sometimes struggle to distill my thoughts and emotions. I also think that artists can see art everywhere, so yes of course a beautiful piece of writing or gut-wrenching brushstroke can stir up the feels. And so can the chalk drawings neighbor kids make, the way this lampshade shoots light up the wall, or the angles this broom maker created when they gathered the bristles. I’m a pretty emotion-full person, but there have been periods of time when making music was just a motion and not emotion. I’m working on treating music-making more like those little moments of surprising beauty, by staying present and approaching things more playfully. — Kalia

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

Well, a lot of songs end up in the trash after being reworked to death, but I’m getting better at knowing when to move on and putting less pressure on myself to produce, which inevitably makes the work I do finish stronger. The toughest song I’ve ever written that successfully saw the light of day was probably a jingle I wrote for the regionally beloved soda pop company Dr. Enuf. It’s an herbal, lemon-lime sort of thing like Kentucky’s Ale-8. People in East Tennessee lose their minds for “the Dr.” Not to mention it’s got vitamins. It took me ages to get the jingle honed in just right, but when I did I really nailed it. The hook goes “It’s the lemon-in’, lime-a-nin’, rich in vitamin, original pick me up.” I’ve written over 50 jingles and this one is undoubtedly my favorite. — Kris

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

Write songs that defy boundaries, keep evolving, have faith, and quit working so damn hard all the time. — Kris

Ask, “How is your work serving others? How is it serving you?” And always celebrate growth and abundance. — Kalia


Photo credit: Billie Wheeler

LISTEN: Graber Gryass, “Your Body’s Border”

Artist: Graber Gryass
Hometown: Memphis, Tennessee
Song: “Your Body’s Border”
Album: Spaceman’s Wonderbox
Release Date: May 21, 2021
Label: Outer Orbits

In Their Words: “‘Your Body’s Border’ is a meditation on boundaries in song. From the pensive bouzouki that opens the tune to the first couplet, ‘you’re as old as the crow, fresh as an embryo,’ one can tell this song isn’t supposed to make linear sense and acts more like poetry than storytelling. The voyage is one of discovery — and the discovery is about the joys of being in love, working through stereotypes and clichés (‘if you get sweet and sour with me’), the lengths we go to find love, the transitory nature of national identity, and the repurposing of influence (notice the John Donne homage, ‘my love, my new found land’). Fiddle, banjo, mandolin, two guitars, bouzouki, and upright all play it cool, rather than hot as expected, letting the song take center stage.” — Graber Gryass


Photo credit: Eric Brice Swartz