Mason Via
The String
Episode 330: After a three-year tutelage with Old Crow Medicine Show, multi-faceted Appalachian artist Mason Via has set out on his own road. He was raised in bluegrass festival campgrounds and at picking parties hosted by his dad, songwriter and musician David Via. Bluegrass royalty hung out at his home near the North Carolina/Virginia border, and it rubbed off. After trying a few musical directions, Via’s self-titled album of this year shows range, depth, and a command of bluegrass and country moods. Meet a 28-year-old you’ll be hearing a lot more about if you follow acoustic...
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Cody Jinks
The String
Episode 329: Few fully independent artists in any genre have been able to grow to the scale and influence that Cody Jinks has pulled off in the outlaw country space. He sells out iconic venues like Red Rocks in Colorado with a sound that layers his boyhood influence from Lefty Frizzell with the edge of the thrash metal rocker he once was. The Fort Worth native “put in the reps” for countless years in bars and honky tonks, nearly going broke, before albums like I’m Not The Devil and Lifers vaulted him to the big time in the years before the pandemic. He’s now out with In My Blood, an...
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Southern Avenue
The String
Episode 328: While it’s one of the great music cities in the world, the story of Memphis, TN is generally told as one about Elvis, BB King, Isaac Hayes, and possibly Justin Timberlake - artists from the history books or well on in their careers. Roots music fans might know more contemporary talents like songwriters Amy LaVere and John Paul Keith. Many others simmer along in that city’s bars and clubs, but one has to go there to get up to speed on the talent pool. is different - a breakout band from Bluff City with national acclaim, a renowned record label, and a musical voice grounded in...
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Mike Farris
The String
Episode 327: To hear Mike Farris sing - an experience a bit like being pinned to the seat of an accelerating - is to believe that he was born to the stage, motivated from childhood, and destined for soul/gospel glory. Yet in Episode 327 of The String, we learn that A) Mike is lucky to be here at all and B) that a singing career was not remotely on his own radar until he was approaching his 20th birthday. And the two are related. In his teens, Farris almost died from drug abuse. Music was part of his rescue. And I’ve never heard him go as deep on these subjects as he does in this hour....
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Andrea Zonn
The String
Episode 326: Andrea Zonn has been on my list of possible Music City star musicians to be a guest on the show for some time, but her new project the HercuLeons and their debut album of the same name sealed the deal. She’s been a leading studio and road musician since the 1990s, when she sweet talked her way into a touring spot with burgeoning country star Vince Gill. Her background is in classical violin, so she’s respected in town for her versatility and her gorgeous voice. She’s also a songwriter and recording artist with two fine albums to her credit. Now, working with her old friend...
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John Cowan
The String
Episode 325: In 1972, a 19-year-old bass player and natural born singer from Kentucky and Indiana auditioned for an emerging band called New Grass Revival. Over almost 20 years, John Cowan would be the voice of that ensemble, through mega tours supporting Leon Russell, improbable country radio success, and the emergence of a whole new genre of roots music they gave a name to. NGR got Cowan into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame, but there’s so much more - a mighty solo career, abundant collaborations, and a steady gig in the Doobie Brothers. Now his latest project is the new band The HercuLeons, a...
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The SteelDrivers
The String
Episode 324: It’s hard to believe that Nashville’s SteelDrivers have been making their unique brand of hard-core string band music for nearly twenty years. They were the vehicle through which many of us were introduced to the epic voice of Chris Stapleton, back when he and Mike Henderson co-wrote that band’s high impact debut album of 2008. When Henderson and Stapleton had to move on, the band pulled its greatest trick, bringing on great new voices, growing bigger, and building a legacy that’s like nothing else in 21st century bluegrass. In Episode 324 of The String, Craig talks...
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Larry & Joe
The String
Special Episode: The story of how global banjo explorer Joe Troop (formerly of Che Apalache) met Venezuelan harpist and all-around folk music master Larry Bellorín is testimony to the magic of global culture and a cautionary tale about the stark turn US policy has taken against working asylum seekers this year. Over three years as the bilingual, genre-fusing, and multi-instrumental duo Larry & Joe, they’ve toured widely and made two albums together to great acclaim among folk music lovers. They’re one of the most charismatic and culture-crossing acts to come out of roots music in the...
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Music City Postcard: Durham, NC
The String
Episode 323: This episode of The String is a field report from the city that raised me in the 1970s and 80s and gave me my foundation in music, from college rock radio, to youth orchestra at Duke University, to jazz tutelage at a Black Muslim community center. It’s an arts-forward city that in the past decade has become something of a magnet for roots music, building on a history of gospel, blues and string band music, while Biscuits & Banjos, the new festival conceived by Rhiannon Giddens, has put itself in a position to be a bridge from the past to the future and give Durham the...
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Vincent Neil Emerson
The String
Episode 322: Texas songwriter Vincent Neil Emerson graduated from playing on the streets and in the bars of Fort Worth to tours with Colter Wall and American Aquarium and then a well-received debut album (2019’s Fried Chicken And Evil Women). That inspired none other than Rodney Crowell and Shooter Jennings in turn to take an interest in producing the young country troubadour, resulting in a self-titled release in 2021 and the more recent The Golden Crystal Kingdom of 2023. They heard what I hear - an artist pxrocessing his past and making his struggles universal, a singer with an honest...
info_outlineEpisode 310: It would be hard to name any songwriter in Nashville’s long history whose work has been recorded by more stars across more genres of music than Gary Nicholson. The Texas native came to Nashville in 1980 after stints in Ft. Worth and Los Angeles, and not only did he amass an impressive string of country music hits with Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, and more, he became Music City’s go-to soul and R&B man, conjuring songs for Bonnie Raitt, Etta James, BB King, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and even Ringo Starr. Now at 74 the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer has turned his own performing/recording life to songs of conscience and social protest, as on his new album Common Sense.