Red Barn Radio

A curious and fresh combination of grit and humor, Josh Morningstar is knocking down stereotypes with his worn boots and unforgettable raspy voice. He is a small-town boy that originally hails from Funkstown, Maryland, and he carries those roots in a suitcase with him everywhere he goes. His small-town charm is evident in the way he greets people, and in the conversational way that he weaves the stories of his life into his music.

In front of the bright lights and behind the microphone isn't where Morningstar feels most at home. Named the 2018 Texas Radio Songwriter of the Year, he and his Kristofferson signed guitar have knocked out melodies in dingy hotels all across the country. He’s written songs alongside Kendell Marvel, Channing Wilson, Autumn McEntire, and many more. Morningstar was also the writer of several Cody Jinks songs, including his #1 hit “Must Be The Whiskey".

His lyrics force listeners to sit up and pay attention, and his songs are always full of truth-bearing stories. The familial connection Morningstar forges with people continues long after his shows are over. Josh Morningstar has shared the stage with some of today’s most sought after folk and country artists, including Shooter Jennings, Cody Jinks, Tyler Childers, Todd Snider, Colter Wall, and Ward Davis. Morningstar continues to lead the charge on the front lines of a new wave of country music - one full of soulful honesty, the familiar and true twang of an old guitar, and provoking melodies that tattoo stories to the souls of the listeners. His ability to write about tragedies and victories enamor his tribe of self-proclaimed “Crazies”, and the best part of it all is that he’s just getting started.

Sam Foster is a road dog. He lives and breathes the idea that repetition and regularity are the chisels to refine his craft. Hailing from Winston-Salem, Foster emerged on the North Carolina music scene in 2014. He’s brought his brand of tenacity to eager crowds all over the Southeastern United States ever since.

Foster is a little bit country, a whole lotta rock and roll. While drawing much inspiration from legends of country music past and present, Foster’s sound can be more broadly described as rock. His roots run deep into the vein of American music, and he’s continually inspired by folk, soul, rock, and rhythm and blues. After releasing his debut solo album Rough Edges (The First Cuts) in 2015, followed by 2018’s Hardened Hearts, Foster formed Whiskey Foxtrot with singer-songwriter Seth Williams. The result was 2020’s Hard Lines & Headlights - the first and only studio offering from the outfit.

In late 2021, after splitting with Whiskey Foxtrot, Foster formed a backing band and now tours as both a solo act as well as Sam Foster and The Obsolete. Foster is proud to announce the release of Heatwaves, his first record with The Obsolete. Out June 17, 2022, the record retains Foster’s roots in country and Americana but forges ahead into new territory for the leadman.

On “Let Me Out,” “Loud & Clear,” and the eponymous “Heatwaves,” Foster’s lyrics evidence a clear, growing concern with our planet and all the people on it. He digs into local lore with “Memorial Day” and “Get It Tonight,” and reveals his own story with “Seven Alarm” (sobriety) and “Drama Queen” (social anxiety). Heatwaves displays Foster’s full range of musical styles, and is a testament of where Foster is today on his artistic journey.

Sam Foster has shared the stage with national touring acts such as American Aquarium, Seth Walker, Adam Hood, and Trapper Schoepp.

Larry Bellorín hails from Monagas, Venezuela and is a legend of Llanera music. Joe Troop is from North Carolina and is a GRAMMY-nominated bluegrass and oldtime musician. Larry was forced into exile and is an asylum seeker in North Carolina. Joe, after a decade in South America, got stranded back in his stomping grounds in the pandemic. Larry works construction to make ends meet. Joe's acclaimed "latingrass" band Che Apalache was forced into hiatus, and he shifted into action working with asylum seeking migrants.

Currently based in the Triangle of North Carolina, both men are versatile multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters on a mission to show that music has no borders. As a duo they perform a fusion of Venezuelan and Appalachian folk music on harp, banjo, cuatro, fiddle, maracas, guitar, upright bass, and whatever else they decide to throw in the van. The program they offer features a distinct blend of their musical inheritances and traditions as well as storytelling about the ways that music and social movements coalesce.

Composer and guitarist Douglas Lora moves with versatility between classical and popular music, and has been established as one of the most prominent artists of his generation. A member of the Brasil Guitar Duo (with Joao Luiz) for more than fifteen years, and seven-string guitarist of the choro and samba band Caraivana, Douglas Lora has a full touring schedule worldwide, and has collaborated with artists including Paquito d’Rivera, Marco Pereira, Jovino Santos Neto, Ney Rosauro, Marina Piccinini, and many others. In 2011 he joined his brother, percussionist Alexandre Lora, and mandolin virtuoso, Dudu Maia, to form an ensemble dedicated to Brazilian traditional music, Trio Brasileiro.Lora has performed as a soloist with the Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Orquesta Metropolitana of Sao Paolo, and the Orchestra of the Americas. Critics and audiences around the world have praised his recordings with the Brasil Guitar Duo, and distinguished artists and chamber ensembles have recorded his compositions.Douglas Lora studied composition and classical guitar at Faculdade de Artes Alcantara Machado in Sao Paolo and received a Master’s Degree in Performance from the University of Miami. Lora was a winner of the Concerts Artists Guild Award in 2006 with the Brasil Guitar Duo, and has eight recordings and five original film soundtracks to his credit.

The Bringdowns are an Appalachian West Virginia Rock band that have found a niche all their own. The stories in their songs are honest and gritty, and the influences you'll hear in the music, really diverse. 

The Bringdowns have developed some new music, and Matt always has interesting projects going on around his home of Beckley West Virginia. 

For 40 years Andrew Farriss has written, produced, and performed music all over the globe. Andrew Farriss has written for or produced various other acts, such as Yothu Yindi, Tom Jones, Alisan Porter, Tania Kernaghan, and Jenny Morris.  His personal awards include: Producer of the Year at the ARIA Music Awards for his work on Jenny Morris’s album Shiver which went triple platinum. Inducted into the Australian Songwriter Hall of Fame in 2016.

In 2015, Andrew Farriss was awarded a Coombs Fellowship with The Australian National University in Canberra, where he lectured and mentored students, culminating in the Soundbites Concert where Andrew shared the stage with ANU student musicians.  Andrew was highly honoured by the Australian Government, on Australia Day January 26, 2020, as an AM, which means Member of the Order of Australia.

Never stepping away from being a creative songwriter, Andrew has spent time writing for himself and others in Nashville and Australia over the past 10 years, and has now embarked on a solo career. Offering his first single release, Come Midnight, in 2019, which topped the country charts on radio stations all over Australia, his follow-up single Good Momma Bad was released at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in 2020. Andrew’s debut self-titled album – featuring a collection of eclectic songs with a unique blend of Rhythm, Roots and Country influences – was due for international release late 2020. Due to the ever-evolving situation globally with COVID-19, the album release date has been postponed. Never one to sit idle, Andrew wanted to continue to share his music with fans, and will now release an EP this October. The Love Makes The World EP is a Folk, Ballad, Contemporary and Experimental release and focuses on humans and their relationships with each other, and also the earth.

The Louisville newgrass-fusion jam band Hot Brown Smackdown's fusion of jam and funk and bluegrass has been drawing crowds all summer at music festivals, and their fan base grows every time they play. They’ve also been writing some new music for their soon to be finished new album. They just shared their amazing new tune, “Empire,” recorded at Louisville’s Deadbird studio with engineer Tom Curtis. It’s the first music release from the group since violinist Ellie Ruth Miller joined the band. Check it out, and then join us next week for a full show with Hot Brown Smackdown.

Riley Baugus grew up In the Blue Ridge of Allegheny County North Carolina with a family and in a community of Old-Time music fanatics. Though when he was ready to start playing banjo, his family wasn't in a spot to buy him one, he and his dad were able to drum up some DIY instructions from the Foxfire book series and make one of their own.

Riley then became entrenched in what he found to be the soul of old time music, which are the vast array of stories told by the songs.

While Riley's discography features only two solo endeavors playing banjo, he has collaborated and contributed both as player and vocalist to more than 20 other recordings, making guest appearances on albums by the likes of Willie Nelson, Allison Krauss and Robert Plant

In the holler where John Haywood grew up in Floyd County, KY, he was surrounded by family, aunts and uncles and mostly older boy cousins who worked out their testosterone on sports and roughhousing. John found art, in the form of painting and drawing. Heavy metal music grabbed the attention of his middle school brain, and his parents got him a guitar at age 12. John's journey is a fascinating one, especially what brought him to the banjo and then back to the mountains, in Knott County where he lives now with his wife and kids and also owns and operates a Tattoo shop in Whitesburg.

Riley Baugus and John Haywood know each other, have played together, and also know the history of their instruments and the tunes they play and sing. We can't wait to have them both here to share their music with you. That's the first program of Red Barn Radio's 21st Season.

Nick Dittmeier & the Sawdusters understand that to stay relevant, country and Americana—like any long-running musical genres—must be unceremoniously leveled from time to time. Blasted by a cold steel wrecking ball, and reassembled into new forms atop the rubble. And what better moment for a scheduled demolition than with all of planet Earth in a holding pattern, straddling the deep

“At the height of the pandemic” Dittmeier says, “it became clear to me that—with everything we’d been through—there was going to be a different mind coming out the other side. As a band, we decided we weren’t going to try to go back and replicate who we were, or the reality we were living before covid. A lot of people were fixated on getting back to quote-unquote normal, but to me it

Forcing themselves out of their comfort zones, Dittmeier & the Sawdusters began stripping back their roots-rock bluster and leaving room for new textures: drum machines, loopers, synths. Heavy Denim finds Dittmeier and the Sawdusters fearlessly reinventing their sound. The album is in the tradition of Dire Straits’ spacey, synth-anchored early-’90s country curveball On Every

Dozens of musicians been members of The 1937 Flood of Huntington, WV, over the years since it stumbled into existence back in the hippy-dippy mid 1970s. As writer Dave Lavender of the Herald-Dispatch has noted, "The Flood doesn't rest on its laurels as West Virginia's most eclectic string band. Born in the 1970s when fiddler Joe Dobbs met Dave Peyton and Charlie Bowen, the Flood has played recent gigs with everyone from the Huntington Symphony Orchestra to Marshall University tailgate parties.

The band, which also features Doug Chaffin, Sam St. Clair, Michelle Walker and Randy Hamilton, plays everything from folk classics of John Prine and Bob Dylan to the blues of Mississippi John Hurt.

"Throw in some Dixieland jazz, some Irish fiddle tunes, a great sense of humor, some pure mountain melodies from the likes of such state treasured songwriters as Hazel Dickens and yes by God, the best kazoo playing between here and say Kalamazoo, and you got the 1937 Flood," adds Lavender.