Tag: The String

The String – Will Kimbrough and Steve Earle

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Will Kimbrough, 30-year veteran of Nashville TN is up to so many musical projects, it took a whole segment to cover them all. He’s in three bands and an acoustic duo. He writes with and for Jimmy Buffett. He’s been on the road over recent years with Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris, two of his heroes. He produces great records. And, lest we forget, he’s a dynamic performing songwriter and guitarist, steaming ahead with a busy year of touring and a new album, the grooving and highly thought provoking I Like It Down Here.

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Also in the hour, an excerpt from a recent catch up with the mighty Steve Earle, who’s just released his long awaited tribute to his late great friend Guy Clark. Full conversation is at WMOT.org.

The String – Music City Postcard: Tulsa, OK

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This special field trip edition of The String tours the exciting music scene in Tulsa with visits to Cain’s Ballroom, Russell’s Church Studio, currently under renovation, the Woody Guthrie Center, the Bob Dylan Archive and iconic honky tonk The Colony.

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Tulsa, OK has an important musical past but also a dynamic present built on the legacies and impact of Bob Wills, Leon Russell, J.J. Cale, Woody Guthrie and more. We meet locals who are championing the next wave of Tulsa music, including singer/songwriter and producer Jared Tyler. See WMOT.org for photos, a playlist and more resources.

The String – The Managers Episode

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

In this special hour, a roundtable talk with two outstanding artist managers from the world of roots and Americana music.

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Denise Stiff went from college event booking to working for agencies and through that world took on management – first of Irish singer Maura O’Connell and then Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, and Sarah Jarosz – among others. It’s a kind of defining list of magnificent talent to emerge from bluegrass and roots. Michelle Concesion came from advertising, but eventually her love of music drew her to helping artists and it seemed destiny that she’d take them on as clients and start her own firm, Nashville-based Market Monkeys. She has worked with the multi-dimensional songwriter Susan Werner and Canadian folk star Rose Cousins. Her current roster includes prog-bluegrass band Della Mae, NC songwriter Sarah Siskind, and English folk singer John Smith.

The String – Seth Walker and Steve Conn

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Two gentlemen of Americana who share a soulful feel and a chill vibe while writing songs that cut to the bone.

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Seth Walker talks about his years in Austin, New Orleans and Nashville and some of the new approaches to recording that made his new album Are You Open so special. Louisiana native Steve Conn shares his story as a keyboardist, accordion player and songwriter, culminating in the candid, funky and wonderful Flesh And Bone, out now.

The String – Michael Cleveland and Nefesh Mountain

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Michael Cleveland is the record-setting, 11-time winner of the IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year award. He’s a traditionally grounded player who’s reaching into new terrain as a 38-year-old phenomenon.

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He’s also been blind since birth and he’s overcome a lot, a story told in the new documentary Flamekeeper. Rounding out the hour, the married duo bandleaders Eric and Doni of Nefesh Mountain, a New York-based band that boldly and brilliantly fuses bluegrass and Jewish music. They sing in Hebrew and English. The melodies are beguiling and ancient-feeling. The musicianship is excellent. They talk about their four-year adventure together as the first band of their kind.

The String – Yola

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

The British singer songwriter known as Yola made her first significant stateside impression at the 2016 AmericanaFest in Nashville. She returned the following year and won the Artist of the Year honor at the AMA’s UK counterpart awards.

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Her charisma, her intelligent update of country soul and her astonishing voice made her an instant favorite of music fans and critics. Soon offers to record began flowing in, but the one that seemed to have the greatest potential for reaching a new level was Dan Auerbach and his Easy Eye studio and label in Nashville. The resulting debut LP Walk Through Fire is an exquisite album with classic textures and an unmistakable esthetic. We first spoke with Yola as part of a round-up review of AmericanaFest 2017, so with this in-depth conversation, she becomes the first-ever repeat visitor to The String! Also this hour, a talk with Erika Wollam Nichols, general manager of The Bluebird Cafe and instigator of a new documentary about the famous venue that premieres this week at SXSW.

The String – Colin Linden

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Colin Linden – guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer – is one of Nashville’s most interesting musicians. You may have seen him in the Americana Awards house band, or as a key live musician on the TV series Nashville or in the dynamic Canadian country rock band Blackie and the Rodeo Kings.

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He wasn’t born into the blues but he sure found the music early and made it his own, through a very early meeting with Howlin Wolf and a pilgrimage through the Deep South in his teens. He’s also been a long-time band leader and producer for Bruce Cockburn. We talk about all that, as well as the project he’s just completed with fellow blues musician Luther Dickinson and others, a suite of vintage love songs called Amour. Plus, a visit with the new owner and proprietor of a revived historic studio in Nashville, the former home of Cowboy Jack Clement.

The String – Mindy Smith

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Fifteen years ago, Mindy Smith rocketed from local sets in Nashville to the national stage in a matter of a few months on the strength of a duet on “Jolene” with Dolly Parton and the January 2004 release of her debut album One Moment More.

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She became the first winner of the Americana Music Association Emerging Artist award, and wide audiences embraced her empathic songs and translucent voice. The years since have seen periods of high profile touring and periods of quiet. She’s preparing to step back out and working on a new album. On the occasion of the 15th anniversary release of One Moment More on vinyl, we catch up about her life and path and a recent discovery.

The String – Bill Lloyd

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week, the long, diverse career of Nashville’s Bill Lloyd.

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From country hits as a writer and artist to collaborations with leading lights of rock and pop, Bill is a dynamo. And he’s got a fantastic new album out called Working The Long Game.   He met fellow writer Radney Foster and they shot to fame in 1987 as Foster & Lloyd, with a sound that swam upstream from the country radio mainstream. In more recent years, he’s led the band the Long Players, Nashville favorites that perform live cut-by-cut covers of full classic albums. He keeps up a steady run of solo albums that blend top-flight Nashville songcraft with the timeless sound of pop music.

The String – Ruthie Foster

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

If Americana values all American roots forms and the fusion thereof, then nobody’s more Americana than Austin singer/songwriter Ruthie Foster.

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She grew up singing in church in rural TX, developed a variety of skills in bands while serving in the US Navy, then became a folk troubadour who slips from country to soul to blues to gospel with ease. She has been one of if not the flagship artist for Austin’s excellent Blue Corn Music record label since 2002. She’s been featured on a guitar blues tour with Jorma Kaukonen and Robben Ford, and that’s just one fragment of a rich collaborative life. She’s won the Blues Foundation’s Koko Taylor award for best traditional blues female singer SIX times, and she’s nominated again this year. She’s also a charming person who radiates kindness.