Whether it's rock, folk, country or blues, Darrell Scott, the 4-time Grammy nominated Nashville songwriter, has written hits for artists all the way from Brad Paisley and the Dixie Chicks to Del McCoury, Sam Bush and Keb Mo; contributing songs to three of 2016's best albums alone. He has the rare ability to make just about any instrument talk - listen to his vocals and songwriting to hear him contain every emotion between joy and pain within one verse in his singing and in his pen. Nowadays he's taking the outsider role even more seriously; after 23 years in Nashville he spent 2016 devoting himself to a self-sufficient lifestyle in the country while simultaneously putting together 'Couchville Sessions,' his best album in years.

Scott is a great performer and where he shines like the sun is as a songwriter. Folk Alley and the crew from BeeHive Productions caught up with Darrell at the 2017 30A Songwriters Festival to talk about songwriting and the mystery of successful collaboration, including with the late Guy Clark.

We all have people in our lives who inspire us, encourage us, and who push us to dream, hope and create. For musicians Guy Davis and Fabrizio Poggi, two of those inspirations where the great bluesmen, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Earlier in 2017, Davis and Poggi released a tribute album, 'Sonny and Brownie's Last Train' and came to Beehive Productions studio in Saranac Lake, NY for an exclusive in-studio performance and to talk more about two of their musical heroes.

We all have people in our lives who inspire us, encourage us, and who push us to dream, hope and create. For musicians Guy Davis and Fabrizio Poggi, two of those inspirations are bluesmen Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Earlier in 2017, they released a tribute album, 'Sonny and Brownie's Last Train.' Guy Davis explains the concept of the recording: "Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry were two musicians whose work will not be surpassed, let alone improved on. This musical opus, was produced by Fabrizio Poggi. It features our combined musical talents, and is not meant to compete with the originals. It's meant to be a love letter to Brownie and Sonny signed by the both of us. They were two of my favorites."

In March 2017, Davis and Poggi came to Beehive Productions studio in Saranac Lake, NY for an exclusive in-studio performance and to share their tribute to Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

Sometimes, working really is hard. That's what Rayna Gellert discovered when she self-produced her 2014 album, 'Old Light' " including creating songs with lots of guest artists and many recording sessions. For her follow-up solo effort, her 2017 release, 'Workin's Too Hard,' Rayna teamed up with Kieran Kane to pare back the creative process with an end product that is fresh and filled with an energy that the freedom of simplicity provides.

Rayna and Kieran visited BeeHive Productions Studio in Saranac Lake, New York in March, 2017 to perform recent collaborated including one from Kieran's 2016 EP, 'Unguarded Moments', the title track to 'Workin's Too Hard, and a new song.

Rayna Gellert grew up in a musical family, and has spent most of her life immersed in the sounds of rural stringband music, heartfelt gospel songs, and old ballads. After honing her fiddle skills playing at jam sessions and square dances, Rayna fell into a life of traveling and performing. From 2003 through 2008, Rayna was a member of the acclaimed stringband Uncle Earl, with whom she released two albums on Rounder Records and toured like mad. In 2012, Rayna released her first solo album, 'Old Light: Songs from my Childhood & Other Gone Worlds,' on StorySound Records.

Kieran Kane is a Top Ten songwriter and performer who has decades of experience as a musical storyteller and collaborator. After mixed experience as an artist on the Atlantic label, Kieran joined with friends to create the Dead Reckoning Records collective. He is also a talented visual artist.

For Rayna's follow-up solo effort, her 2017 release, 'Workin's Too Hard,' she teamed up with Kieran Kane to pare back the creative process with an end product that is fresh and filled with an energy that the freedom of simplicity provides.

Rayna and Kieran visited BeeHive Productions Studio in Saranac Lake, New York in March, 2017 to perform recent collaborations, including one from Kieran's 2016 EP, 'Unguarded Moments', the title track to 'Workin's Too Hard, and a new song.

by Kelly McCartney (@theKELword) for Folk Alley

When you think about it, songwriters do an amazing thing. Taking a limited number of notes and a limited number of words, they craft infinite expressions of emotion. They turn the mundane into the sacred, the personal into the universal. It's a wonder, really, that there are so many different ways to say - or sing - ”I love you” - or “I hate you” - but there are. And Caroline Spence keeps finding incredibly poetic ways to do just that.

On her wonderful new release, 'Spades & Roses,' the Virginia native burrows into her own heart and emerges with 11 fantastic tunes. Some lean into everyday metaphors in order to get their points across; others turn simple phrases sideways to do the same. (Not sure how “All the Beds I've Made” hadn't been written yet, but now it sure has... and beautifully so.)

Spence's style meanders in the middling area between contemporary folk and traditional country, and her talent runs wide enough to do that very, very well without getting bogged down by the pretensions or protections that some genre-loyalists endure. Tack on her sweetly aching voice, one that falls just shy of Patty Griffin's, and, well, it's easy to see why she's much-beloved by the folks who have given her a listen.

Caroline Spence stopped by Folk Alley's pop-up studio at the 2017 30A Songwriters Festival for an exclusive performance and conversation about her new album, 'Spades and Roses.'

After releasing her album All or Nothin' and being nominated for Emerging Artist of the Year by the Americana Music Association in 2015, Nashville based country rock outlaw Nikki Lane and her band spent most of their time on the road, playing for ever-increasing crowds, working to expand their fan base, and just generally ripping things up. No surprise, then, that she got tired.

So when she went into a studio to record a new album (her third), she wasn’t pleased with the results – it was technical perfection, she says, but it wasn’t the record she wanted to make.

When her partner – musical and life – Jonathan Tyler suggested she try again with no outside producer, she was initially hesitant. But after tracking a song or two, she knew she was well on her way to a record that is, she says, the best thing she has done so far.

Highway Queen is a mixtape of an album, one with both tearjerkers and barn burners, and at the 30A Songwriters Festival in Florida earlier this year, Nikki Lane and Jonathan Tyler shared stripped down versions of a few of the new tunes.