This week’s Bluegrass Today Weekly Top 20 Countdown comes with a few surprises — a new number one, six brand-new debuts, and ten favourites returning to the chart, including a couple of ties that push us to 22 songs in total.

We’ll hear from rising stars like Mountain Grass Unit, East Nash Grass, and Daniel Grind-staff & The Uptown Troubadours, along with bluegrass heavyweights The Travelin’ McCourys, Junior Sisk, and Balsam Range.

And between the chart action, Mike shares one of his favourite true stories — about listener Tom “Gumby” Carlson, an IT engineer who once wintered over at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. With a handful of borrowed instruments, he taught his fellow scientists to play old-time tunes and led the first-ever square dance at the South Pole — where, of course, everyone stood on the north side of the square!

Music, stories, and a touch of history — all wrapped up in two hours of the best bluegrass anywhere.