On this year’s Cayamo, the Black Opry Revue, led by Allison Russell, gave us an uplifting performance of “You’re Not Alone” with moments from Jake Blount, Chastity Brown, Brady Blade, and Yasmin Williams.
Keep an eye out for an interview with Black Opry founder Holly G. in the coming weeks, as well as more Sixthman Sessions from the 15th edition of Cayamo: A Journey Through Song being released exclusively by BGS. The Black Opry Revue will be back on Cayamo in 2024, and while it is sold out you can sign up for the waitlist – next year’s lineup includes folks like Leyla McCalla, Lake Street Dive, the Mavericks, Lyle Lovett, the War and Treaty, and Sunny War, to name just a few.
BGS March Artist of the Month Michael Cleveland and his band Flamekeeper made a special appearance with Blackberry Smoke’s Charlie Starr inside East Nashville’s 3Sirens recording studio for a Sitch Session recording of the Starr-penned “One Horse Town,” which is also featured on Cleveland’s new album Lovin’ Of The Game.
Cleveland first heard “One Horse Town” during the pandemic when Flamekeeper guitarist Josh Richards covered the tune in a Facebook video, and he “fell in love with the song immediately.” Hear Michael and Charlie banter about their online meet-cute in this very special Sitch Session.
Produced in partnership with Compass Records and 3Sirens. Check out more about Michael Cleveland and his upcoming live dates at MichaelClevelandFiddle.com.
Artist: Andrew Gabbard
Hometown: Dayton, Ohio
Song: “Glum and Empty”
Album: Cedar City Sweetheart
Release Date: March 24, 2023
Label: Colemine / Karma Chief Records
In Their Words: “‘Glum and Empty’ is an uncomfortably honest tune. It starts in a moment of desperation and ends with a full resolved reflection. It’s dark and sad but it also feels great to me, like the wind blowing through your hair when you just jam it out on certain parts. We usually jam this song electric and indefinitely when we play it live but for our most recent session we wanted to strip it down to its core. And the way we did it, we couldn’t really hear each other as it was happening so it was 100% faith and vibe and I’m really happy with how real it turned out.” — Andrew Gabbard
Artist: Humbletown
Hometown: Lead, South Dakota
Song: “Vines”
Album: The Path I Chose to Walk
In Their Words: “The song ‘Vines’ is about following your dreams and the danger to your happiness of not doing so. It’s about the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota where I grew up and a tribute to my dad who spent his career gold mining. He was actually very happy mining gold, contrary to the song lyrics. Although my dad made his living ‘digging someone else’s gold,’ he always made sure to pan some gold for himself to keep. We made this video in one of our favorite hiking spots and were so excited to see that in late October the ferns were still alive and the color of the leaves were perfect!” — Dylan Lewis, Humbletown
Rainbow Girls and Anna Moss gave us a sunset serenade in the middle of the ocean on this year’s Cayamo, with their rendition of Bob Marley’s “How Many Times.” We’re not sure any other group has as much fun playing live as Rainbow Girls.
Keep an eye out for more Sixthman Sessions from the 15th edition of Cayamo: A Journey Through Song being released exclusively by BGS in the coming weeks! Cayamo’s sold out for 2024, but you can sign up for the waitlist at cayamo.com — next year’s lineup includes folks like Lucius, the Lone Bellow, Sunny War, Billy Bragg, and Lyle Lovett, to name a few.
On this year’s Cayamo, Joseph – the trio made up of sisters Natalie, Meegan, and Allison Closner – took advantage of a quiet moment on the ship in the empty Bliss Lounge to share a vulnerable and powerful acoustic performance of their (aptly titled) song “Waves Crash” from their upcoming album The Sun. “The whole album is a sort of thinking through of the story that you tell about yourself, to yourself,” Natalie says. “It’s about looking at whatever is diminishing you or making you believe in these limitations you’ve put on yourself, and then finally asking, ‘What if I’m more than that?'”
Keep an eye out for more Sixthman Sessions from the 15th edition of Cayamo: A Journey Through Song being released exclusively by BGS in the coming weeks. Cayamo has also announced their initial lineup for 2024, which includes folks like Lucius, The Lone Bellow, Sunny War, Nikki Lane, and Lyle Lovett. You can sign up for the pre-sale here (open until March 1st at 11:59pm ET) and check out the full lineup (so far) at cayamo.com.
This year’s Cayamo cruise made a stop in the British Virgin Islands, and caught Twisted Pine rolling through “Come Along Jody” on the shores of Jost Van Dyke’s White Bay. Says the group of the song, “We wanted to feature Anh Phung on a ripping bluegrass tune, and this is a particularly gnarly one that we’ve always loved. It comes from the amazing bluegrass fiddler Tex Logan who wrote it for his daughter Jody.” Twisted Pine is Kathleen Parks on fiddle, Dan Bui on mandolin, Anh Phung on flute, and Chris Sartori on bass.
Keep an eye out for more Sixthman Sessions from the 15th edition of Cayamo: A Journey Through Song being released exclusively by BGS in the coming weeks – we have plenty more moments like these to share! Cayamo has also announced their initial lineup for 2024, which includes folks like Lyle Lovett, Lucius, Nikki Lane, the Mavericks, and Sunny War. You can sign up for the pre-sale here (open until Feb. 26th at 11:59pm ET) and check out the full lineup (so far!) at cayamo.com.
Artist: Ben Garnett
Hometown: Arlington, Texas
Song: “The House on Wisteria” (Feat. Brittany Haas)
Album: Imitation Fields
Release Date: March 17, 2023
Label: Padiddle Records
In Their Words: “‘The House on Wisteria’ is a tune that took me a long time (several years) to write, as is often the case with pieces that I know are going to be important to me. Distantly inspired by various forms of Scandinavian folk music, I wanted to funnel the serious, haunting temperament often found in that music into a personal catharsis of a time come and gone. A time of formation and growth that can only be valued and loved by looking back in time. I couldn’t think of anyone better to help with this vision than Brittany Haas, with her vast knowledge of different folk musics, and who can so effortlessly craft an immense amount of life and spirit in each musical space she’s a part of. The album recording features a slightly different ensemble, with Paul Kowert on bass, Brittany Haas on fiddle, and my old friend Matt Young on snare drum/glockenspiel, all of whom I think inhabit the space of this piece beautifully.” — Ben Garnett
Artist: Wood Box Heroes (Barry Bales, Jenee Fleenor, Seth Taylor, Matt Menefee, Josh Martin)
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Made Up My Mind”
Release Date: February 2, 2023
In Their Words: “Most of our population’s minds are made up, closed off, and sealed shut by opinions dictated by the popularly held beliefs of the day. This song is for those of us who dare to question and willingly wander, all alone, far from the beaten path, into the forests, up the rocky heights, through the raging rivers… free from the social metallurgists whose chains of unlimited limits are tailored specifically for breaking our spirits. Out there, in the great unknown, away from the guidance of the ‘wise,’ impossibilities turn into miracles, and we may even start to see that, like the song suggests, most of the things of this world that we believe are helping us along are, in reality, stealing our joy and making up our minds for us! From there, once we have realized we’ve got to unlearn to truly learn, then we can ‘set our eyes on that blue sky, breaking up ahead’ and make up our minds, to make up our own minds.” — Josh Martin, Wood Box Heroes
Photo Credit: C-Shelz Photography
Artist: John Fizer
Hometown: Berkeley, California
Song: “Lady Lying Lovely”
Album: Treasure Man
Release Date: January 20, 2023
Label: Scissor Tail Records
In Their Words: “John Fizer is a stellar songwriter, singer and acoustic guitarist. Often compared to Dylan, I hear a little Willie, but John is very, very much himself. I love this track. It was recorded in 1977 at the legendary Mountain Ears Studio in Boulder and captures John’s true spirit, in his prime, a hopeless romantic smitten by life. It’s a crack band. Ray Bonneville on harmonica is simply the one you want. Erik Johnson killed it on Fender fretless bass, an instrument this world needs more of. Brad Hayes is on electric guitar, everything he touches turns to gold. Brian Brown’s powerful drums and Elin and Judy on background vocals complete the dream. John Fizer is the dreamer.
“He is brilliant (he does the Sunday NYT crossword in 20 minutes) and has a fascinating story. I learned he started out playing the same Lower East Side folk scene as Dylan in the ’60s and has a song out on the Smithsonian Folkways CD Original Folk. When John learned that I am an immersive audio pioneer, with credits including a 3D sound remix of Jimi Hendrix and 3D sound designer for the LA production of the musical The Who’s Tommy, he handed me an old third-generation audio cassette tape and asked if I could make it sound better. When I listened, I was blown away. Such amazing songs, singing and guitar playing.
“I had cleaned up John’s old cassettes, making them sound as good as possible. Over the course of a year, on four different occasions, I asked John if he had the original master tapes. Each time he said ‘No.’ But one day, out the clear blue, John showed up with a 15-inches-per-second, quarter-inch, half-track, real deal master of some of his songs he recorded with the smokin’ hot Ray Bonneville Blues Band backing him. Now I knew the world was going to hear his music the way John intended: big, fat, analog and on vinyl.” — James Johnson, album producer
