Southern Songs and Stories

It never ceases to delight me how connected we are in the roots music world. Take Maya De Vitry and Joel Timmons, for example. The two have been making music together for five years, and have worked together with Joel’s wife Shelby Means, the bass player in Molly Tuttle’s Band. Molly Tuttle’s partner is Ketch Secor, who was our guest a couple episodes ago. Maya’s partner and bandmate Ethan Jodziewicz has played on record with former Southern Songs and Stories guest Sierra Hull, and forthcoming guest Lindsay Lou. Joel, also a founding member of the Charleston, SC band Sol Driven Train, has known one of my best friends since he was a child.

These connections color wide swathes of the mural of our lives, fostering creative endeavors as well as giving us an array of common reference points to pick up on whenever we meet people who live in or travel through the universe of acoustic, roots and Americana music. They can be the difference between having a career or not, and are overall far more valuable than any one hit song, podcast episode or viral meme could be.

This episode bears witness to the connections listed above, including one that happened much more recently than I had imagined, as our preceding guest Margo Cilker recruited Maya De Vitry to play with her at the Albino Skunk Music Festival only weeks before they were to arrive. This is one of the stories that Maya tells here, and she is joined by Joel Timmons in his own interview in an episode which highlights how important their connection to home is in their songwriting, how beneficial collaborations can be, the importance of leveraging ever-capricious streaming platforms while remaining independent, and more, including music from Maya De Vitry’s performance at the spring Albino Skunk Music Festival in May 2024.

Maya De Vitry performs at the Albino Skunk Music Festival, Greer, SC 05-10-24

photo: Joe Kendrick

Thanks for joining us! We hope you can help spread awareness of what we are doing. It is as easy as telling a friend and following this podcast on your platform of choice, both of which are quick, easy and free! You can find us on Apple here, and Spotify here — hundreds more episodes await, including performers at The Albino Skunk Music Festival like Sierra Ferrell, Shinyribs, Darrell Scott, Lizzie No, and The Ruen Brothers, among many others.

From there it takes just a moment to give us a top rating, and where it is an option, a review! It makes a great difference because the more top reviews and ratings we get, the more visible we become to everyone on those platforms, which means that more people just like you discover and connect with artists like Maya De Vitry and Joel Timmons. 

This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to everyone on staff at Albino Skunk for their help in making this episode possible. Thanks also to Jaclyn Anthony for producing the radio adaptations of this series on WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs — you can link to his music here. This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it. - Joe Kendrick

I have been reading about Plato and Aristotle lately, in Jeffrey Kripal’s fascinating book, The Flip. Early on in the essay, Kripal points to the history of Western intellectual discourse having swung widely back and forth between the visionary philosophy of Plato, and the empirical rationalism of his student, Aristotle. In Plato’s view, our perception of reality involves our brains, but goes beyond our physiology to pull from a kind of exterior consciousness, which is filtered through our senses, bringing us what can become profound discoveries. In contrast, the empirical rationalist view of our consciousness attests that it comes from and ends with our physical selves.

Have you ever tried your hand at art, in one or more of its myriad forms? How did that go for you? Were you wracking your brain to come up with an idea, trying hard to get it all right, or were you letting your mind drift, quietly waiting for inspiration? I have plenty of experience with the former, especially in the early years of Southern Songs and Stories. Those first podcasts were longer, chock full of interviews with not only the subjects of each episode, but also quite often including many guests’ conversations which were excerpted from their own individual interviews, and a kind of encyclopedic approach to the endeavor. Not that I utterly eschewed clearing my mind and letting things come to me, but I came to realize its advantages more over time. That, and I simply improved as a writer and interviewer, and learned firsthand that less can often be more in this medium.

Margo Cilker certainly understands this, and her creative practice echoes a Platonic viewpoint, as she remarked, “My best art comes when I’m not trying too hard, and when I find out what’s on the other side of the song”. Many of her songs involve scenes and characters from small towns, like Santa Rosa, New Mexico, or Tahachapi, California, as well as locales in Upstate South Carolina, where she attended college and where we spoke on the day of her performance at the Albino Skunk Music Festival.

Maya De Vitry (left) and Margo Cilker (right) perform at the Albino Skunk Music Festival in Greer, SC, 05/09/24

photo: John Gillespie

In this episode, we talk about her travels, cultural differences between Appalachia and the American West, working with Maya De Vitry, who performed with her at Margo’s Albino Skunk debut that day and who is slated to appear in her own episode next, Margo’s focus on the lyrics to her songs, and more, including music from her live set as well as her second album, Valley Of Heart’s Delight.

Songs heard in this episode:

“I Remember Carolina” by Margo Cilker, performed live at Albino Skunk Music Festival 05/09/24

“Keep It On A Burner” by Margo Cilker, performed live at Albino Skunk Music Festival 05/09/24, excerpt

“Santa Rosa” by Margo Cilker, from Valley Of Heart’s Delight, excerpt

“Tehachapi” by Margo Cilker, performed live at Albino Skunk Music Festival 05/09/24

untitled new song inspired by Neil Young by Margo Cilker, performed live at Albino Skunk Music Festival 05/09/24

Thanks for visiting, and we hope you will follow this series on your podcast platform of choice, and also give it a top rating and a review. When you take a moment to give great ratings and reviews, Southern Songs and Stories and the artists it profiles become much more visible to more music, history and culture fans just like you. You can find us on Apple here, and Spotify here — hundreds more episodes await, including performers at The Albino Skunk Music Festival like Sierra Ferrell, Shinyribs, Darrell Scott, Eilen Jewell, among many others.

This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to everyone on staff at Albino Skunk for their help in making this episode possible. Thanks also to Jaclyn Anthony for producing the radio adaptations of this series on WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs — you can link to his music here. This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it. - Joe Kendrick

Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show is never at a loss for words, and is never not entertaining, however he is, in equal measure, an ambassador of social conscience, too. Our interview concludes with Ketch saying, “[I]t's been a challenging time, and a lot of room … to be bummed out about this stuff. But I, I just got to keep going head on. I play the fiddle for a living, you know, and I and it draws people together. If you're a pied piper, you might as well lead them to someplace better than this.” It was as spot-on a summation of his now quarter century leading his band as any.

Ketch was on this podcast two years ago in the episode titled “Painting A Portrait of 23 Years With Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show”, which is based on our conversation at MerleFest that year. Old Crow Medicine Show’s famous song “Wagon Wheel” is the subject of an episode in this series from a few years before that, on the podcast titled “Wagon Wheel: Anatomy Of A Hit”, and I am attaching that episode to the end of this new conversation with Ketch Secor for everyone who missed it the first time or who might just want to hear it again. That episode details the long, winding road that began with a blues song by Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, and continues through a scrap of a tune that Bob Dylan left by the wayside, to a young buck longing to make it to North Carolina in the late 1990s, eventually becoming the song we all know and either love or loathe today. There is not a whole lot of middle ground with this one, and we go into detail about it, interviewing five expert guests along the way.

Joe Kendrick (left) and Ketch Secor (right) at the PNC Arena in Charlotte, NC 08/09/24

Photo: Will Prim

Songs heard in this episode:

“One Drop” by Old Crow Medicine Show, with Mavis Staples, from Jubilee, excerpt

Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup “Rock Me Mama”, excerpt

Big Bill Broonzy “Rockin’ Chair Blues”, excerpt

Lil’ Son Jackson “Rockin’ And Rollin’”, excerpt

Old Crow Medicine Show “Wagon Wheel”, excerpt

Old Crow Medicine Show “Wagon Wheel” at the Theater of the Living Arts in Philadelphia in 2006, from The World Cafe Live, excerpt

Van Morrison “Brown Eyed Girl”, excerpt

Darius Rucker “Wagon Wheel”, excerpt

Old Crow Medicine Show “Wagon Wheel”, live from Delfest 2018, excerpt

Millions and millions sold, and still counting

Thanks for visiting, and we hope you will follow this series on your podcast platform of choice, and also give it a top rating and a review. When you take a moment to give great ratings and reviews, Southern Songs and Stories and the artists it profiles become much more visible to more music, history and culture fans just like you. You can find us on Apple here, and Spotify here — hundreds more episodes await, including performers at The Earl Scruggs Music Festival like Rissi Palmer, as well as our collaboration with music journalist Craig Havighurst of WMOT, host of the excellent podcast The String, both from last year’s event, as well as our recent episode on a 2024 headliner, Marty Stuart, and the duo Larry & Joe. Speaking of Earl Scruggs, we also recommend our episode titled “The Humble Genius of Earl Scruggs”.

This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to the staff at PNC Arena, and MerleFest for their help in making this episode possible. Thanks to WNCW intern Will Prim for taking part in the interview. Thanks also to Jaclyn Anthony for producing the radio adaptations of this series on WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs — you can link to his music here. This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it. - Joe Kendrick

When you think of Venezuelan music, perhaps salsa or merengue come to mind. But have you delved into joropo, or llanera music, from the western portion of the country?

When you think of string band music like bluegrass, does anything far outside the region of the southern United States jump out as having a parallel makeup, or a kinship that might lend itself to fusing with that tradition?

I freely admit to never dreaming that combining bluegrass with a Latin style was possible, let alone a good fit. Enter Larry & Joe to put these stylistic puzzle pieces together from a distance of thousands of miles, and across cultural divides that make their partnership jump out that much more. Larry Bellorín grew up in Punta de Mata in the state of Monagas, Venezuela, and is a master of the harp and 4-string cuatro, while Joe Troop is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter from North Carolina. Joe is also known from his work in the GRAMMY-nominated string band Che Apalache. Their story is as remarkable as their music.

I spoke with Larry and Joe at the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, NC, ahead of their performance for the Scruggs’ Center’s Center Stage series in July 2024. They are also part of the lineup at the upcoming Earl Scruggs Music Festival in Tryon, NC over labor day weekend 2024. In our conversation, we talk in depth about the duo’s synthesis of musical styles and cultures, we discover why the harp became so popular in Venezuela, and we get into how their music often has themes of social justice with songs and lyrics about immigration and border issues in particular, and their conviction that cultural differences can be overcome without violence and discrimination. Plus, a tutorial on how to roll your r’s! That, and more music from Larry and Joe is all ahead in this episode. 

Larry Bellorin (left) and Joe Troop (right) in WNCW’s Studio B performance January 18, 2024. photo: Brenda Craig

Songs heard in this episode:

“Gabanjo” by Larry & Joe, performed live on WNCW 01/18/24

“Love Along the Way” by Larry & Joe, performed live on WNCW 01/18/24, excerpt

“Border Wall” by Larry & Joe, from Nuevo South Train, excerpt

“Runnin’ From the Weather” by Larry & Joe, from Manos Panamericanos

Thanks for visiting, and we hope you will follow this series on your podcast platform of choice, and also give it a top rating and a review. When you take a moment to give great ratings and reviews, Southern Songs and Stories and the artists it profiles become much more visible to more music, history and culture fans just like you. You can find us on Apple here, and Spotify here — hundreds more episodes await, including performers at The Earl Scruggs Music Festival like Rissi Palmer, as well as our collaboration with music journalist Craig Havighurst of WMOT, host of the excellent podcast The String, both from last year’s event, as well as our recent episode on a 2024 headliner, Marty Stuart. Speaking of Earl Scruggs, we are especially fond of our episode titled “The Humble Genius of Earl Scruggs”.

This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to the staff at MerleFest for their help in making this episode possible. Thanks to everyone on staff at the Earl Scruggs Center for their hospitality, and to WNCW intern Will Prim for helping prepare me for the interview. Thanks also to Jaclyn Anthony for producing the radio adaptations of this series on WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs — you can link to his music here. This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it. - Joe Kendrick

When it comes to Marty Stuart, there simply is not enough time or space available to address the enormity and the lasting impact of his music, let alone his life story, here in this episode. We would need a whole year’s worth of podcasts to come close, and I doubt that he would be quite that generous with his time. Luckily, he was generous enough to give us 25 minutes of his time, in which he touched on everything from his time in Lester Flatt and Johnny Cash’s bands to his current work with his band since 2003, The Fabulous Superlatives. There was more, like mention of his ongoing photography project with the Lakota people, which for sake of time is left out even here (although you can read the full transcript of our conversation on my Substack page here).

What you will hear in this episode, though, is a master of his art holding court, telling rich tales filled with vibrant metaphors, as only he can. Joining in the conversation is music artist and lifelong bluegrass and country music fan and historian, Tom Pittman. We spoke with Marty Stuart ahead of his performance in Lenoir, NC in June 2024, which precedes his appearance as a headliner at the Earl Scruggs Festival in Tryon, NC over Labor Day weekend, beginning in late August. As with every episode in this series, there is music as well, ranging from Marty Stuart’s bluegrass to his more recent work, often referred to nowadays as cosmic country (spoiler alert — Marty says he does not even know what that term means).

Marty Stuart

Earl Scruggs (L) and Marty Stuart (R)

Songs heard in this episode:

“Lost Byrd Space Train (Scene 1)” by Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, from Altitude

“Shuckin’ the Corn” by Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, from Live At The Ryman, excerpt

“Vegas” by Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, from Altitude, excerpt

“I Need To Know” by Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, from Petty Country, excerpt

“Mojave” by Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, from Way Out West

Thanks for visiting, and we hope you will follow this series on your podcast platform of choice, and also give it a top rating and a review. When you take a moment to give great ratings and reviews, Southern Songs and Stories and the artists it profiles become much more visible to more music, history and culture fans just like you. You can find us on Apple here, and Spotify here — hundreds more episodes await, including performers at the Earl Scruggs Music Festival in recent years like Rissi Palmer, Michael Daves, and Della Mae, as well as a collaborative episode from the festival itself with The String podcast host Craig Havighurst.

This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to the staff at MerleFest for their help in making this episode possible. Thanks also to Jaclyn Anthony for producing the radio adaptations of this series on WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs — you can link to his music here. This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it. - Joe Kendrick

When it comes to artists like Jim Lauderdale and Donna the Buffalo, I think back to a comment that Jerry Douglas made to me in an interview for this series, when he talked about what he called roots music 12 O'clock. Whereas the mainstream comes back around to roots music only so often in this metaphor, for artists like himself it is always roots music 12 O'clock. Like Jerry Douglas, our guests in this episode have always looked to it as their north star, even while they have wound their way around to some of the more prime time hours on the dial in their storied careers. 

Since it debuted in 1988, MerleFest has also shown the world what roots music 12 O'clock means on its now 12 stages over the decades, and is a phenomenon that has become much more than the sum of its parts. It made the blueprint for so many other festivals and events, a format which has gone on to become more and more prevalent as one of, if not the, primary way to experience live music.

I caught up with Tara Nevins and Jeb Puryear of Donna the Buffalo and Jim Lauderdale at MerleFest in late April 2024, where we talked about their extensive history which goes back before even coming to the festival, memories of time spent with Doc Watson, key differences between old time music and bluegrass music, and much more, including music excerpts from MerleFest performances from Doc Watson as well as Donna the Buffalo, and music from Jim Lauderdale and Donna the Buffalo’s collaborative album Wait ‘Til Spring.  

Songs heard in this episode:

“Wait ‘Til Spring“ by Jim Lauderdale With Donna the Buffalo, from Wait ‘Till Spring

“Blue Moon of Kentucky” by Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Alison Krauss et al, from MerleFest Live!: The 15th Anniversary Jam, excerpt

“Conscious Evolution” by Donna the Buffalo, from MerleFest Live!: The Best of 2003, excerpt

“Holding Back” by Jim Lauderdale With Donna the Buffalo from Wait ‘Til Spring

Thanks for visiting, and we hope you will follow this series on your podcast platform of choice, and also give it a top rating and a review. When you take a moment to give great ratings and reviews, Southern Songs and Stories and the artists it profiles become much more visible to more music, history and culture fans just like you. You can find us on Apple here, and Spotify here — hundreds more episodes await, including performers at MerleFest in recent years like Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show, Colin Hay, Bella White and Peter Rowan.

This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to the staff at MerleFest for their help in making this episode possible. Thanks also to Jaclyn Anthony for producing the radio adaptations of this series on WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs — you can link to his music here. This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it. - Joe Kendrick

Back in the day, I discovered the music of Bob Wills when I was a fresh faced college DJ at WXYC Chapel Hill. It was like hearing songs from an alternate universe to me, a kid who grew up listening to FM and AM radio’s menu of pop, rock and rap of the day, sprinkled with music bought from cassette clubs and record stores that ventured as far back as Buddy Holly and what we called beach music (which is its own cultural rabbit hole). Being the future audio producer that I was, our apartment’s answering machine messages were dominated by yours truly, and the soundtracks to these boisterous salutes were often songs that I drew from the ever-expanding roster of gonzo artists I found in the radio station’s album library. It was Will’s trademark, drawn out interjection “Ah ha!” — which so often punctuated his music —that grabbed me, an exclamation which record executives first regarded as something from out of this world. Luckily for all of us, they were quickly proven wrong in their assessment that audiences would be turned off by this refrain. That part of the legendary Bob Will’s story, as part of a compelling overview of his life and music, is detailed in this special collaborative podcast episode, thanks to Nicholas Edward Williams.

Welcome to this episode of American Songcatcher, with the story behind the King of Western Swing, Bob Wills. One of the most influential and iconic bandleaders and musicians of the 1930’s-1950’s, Bob came from a humble life of a poor sharecropping family, and was deeply influenced by old time and breakdown fiddle through his Texas state champion family of fiddlers in his father and uncle. Bob also loved all the turn of the century and 1920’s black music, and this confluence of cultures would help him create the craze that became Western swing, and the details of his journey to get there will surprise you. 

Bob Wills publicity photo circa 1946

American Songcatcher is one of my favorite podcasts, and it is also part of the programming lineup at public radio station WNCW. Tracing the roots of American music from its cultured past to artists playing it forward, folk musician, musicologist and host Nicholas Edward Williams takes listeners on a unique documentary-style podcast experience. Dive into the stories of centuries-old Traditional songs and migrants who carried their musical heritage here, and uncover the lives of pioneers and integral musicians who created and shaped styles such as Bluegrass, Ragtime, Jazz and Swing, Country, Gospel, Blues, Old-Time, and the Folk music that's derived from it all. Here's to the songs of old, may they live on forever.

Thank you for visiting us and giving this special episode a listen! This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to Corrie Askew for producing the radio adaptations of this series on public radio WNCW, and to Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed out theme songs.

This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it. - Joe Kendrick

In the first of two episodes from MerleFest in April 2024, we highlight two artists making their debuts at the festival, Nick Shoulders and Adeem the Artist. Following this episode are two artists who have made MerleFest a regular stop over its history — 24 and 26 times, respectively — Jim Lauderdale and Donna the Buffalo.

Gallery images above: (left to right) Nick Shoulders, Adeem the Artist, Adeem the Artist performing at MerleFest 2024, Nick Shoulders’ comic in his series “Country Music History”

Nick Shoulders is from Arkansas, while Adeem the Artist, who now lives in Tennessee, has lineage from North Carolina going back seven generations. As with so many roots music artists, the place where their roots are found is central to their art, and you will hear more about that from both in our conversations here, including excerpts of their latest music.

Songs heard in this episode:

“Hoarse Whisperer” by Nick Shoulders, from All Bad

“Plot of Land” by Adeem the Artist, from Anniversary, excerpt

“Appreciate’cha” by Nick Shoulders, from All Bad, excerpt

“Arkansas Troubler” by Nick Shoulders, from All Bad, excerpt

“Rotations” by Adeem the Artist, from Anniversary, excerpt

“There We Are” by Adeem the Artist, from Anniversary

Thanks for visiting, and we hope you will follow this series on your podcast platform of choice, and also give it a top rating and a review. When you take a moment to give great ratings and reviews, Southern Songs and Stories and the artists it profiles become much more visible to more music, history and culture fans just like you. You can find us on Apple here, and Spotify here — hundreds more episodes await, including performers at MerleFest in recent years like Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show, Colin Hay, Bella White and Peter Rowan.

This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to the staff at MerleFest for their help in making this episode possible. Thanks also to Corrie Askew for producing the radio adaptations of this series on WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs — you can link to his music here. This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it. - Joe Kendrick

Hymns and gospel songs have flowed into, and very often, back out of out of every style of music with roots in the American South. From the music itself to its context in worship through choirs, instruments ranging from piano to organ to praise bands, and communal singing, the gospel tradition is, if not front and center in one’s life experience, then at the very least somewhere along the spectrum of influence for everyone native to the region. We touch on this often in episodes of Southern Songs and Stories, with guest artists who lean heavily on the gospel tradition (like The War & Treaty and Darin and Brooke Aldridge), and others who were brought up in church settings and whose music is often informed by gospel music (like Paul Thorn). Gospel music has tremendous depth and width, and here, we focus on one of its many branches, a little known tradition thriving in places like Washington D.C. and Charlotte, NC: the trombone shout band.

According to historian Tom Hanchett, no one seems to know when the trombone shout band tradition began. In the Pentecostal Holiness churches such as the House of Prayer For All People, which is central to our story here, brass bands go back at least a century, but in the early twentieth century, featured a full range of instruments rather than massed trombones. It was a time when brass band music was big everywhere in America, among blacks and whites alike. The House of Prayer took the praise band template and transformed it, with a new and unique instrumental configuration and style, around the 1940s. The history gets murky as to exactly where this happened and who gets credit, but by 1960, trombone shout bands had become synonymous with the United House of Prayer for All People.

Trombone shout band at the United House of Prayer For All People, Charlotte NC (photo: Daniel Coston)

Fast forward to 2024, when Henry Louis Gates Jr. became the face of the PBS documentary series, Gospel. In a series of events described in this episode, the impact of that series reverberated throughout the public television and radio world, eventually making its way to public radio station WNCW. From there, host and producer Kevin Washington and I produced a radio special on gospel music in this region of North and South Carolina especially; I would then, reluctantly at first, go on to help produce a live event at the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, NC that showcased and delved into even more of the region’s gospel music past and present. That event led to my discovery of trombone shout bands, courtesy of Tom Hanchett. From there, it was only a hop, skip and a jump over to producing this podcast. I think you will enjoy finding out about where we landed.

Songs heard in this episode:

Cunningham Spiritual Return, live at The United House Of Prayer in Charlotte, 04/09/24, excerpt

“He’s Still Alive” by Golden Angels Choir, live at The United House Of Prayer in Charlotte, 04/09/24, excerpt

“Keep Oil In Your Vessels” by Clouds of Heaven, from Saint’s Paradise: Trombone Shout Bands from The United House of Prayer, excerpt

“Spiritual Conversation” by Clouds of Heaven, from Saint’s Paradise: Trombone Shout Bands from The United House of Prayer

I hope you enjoy your time here, and that you will follow this series on your podcast platform of choice, and also give it a rating and a review. When you take a moment to give great ratings and reviews, Southern Songs and Stories and the artists it profiles become much more visible on those platforms to more music, history and culture fans just like you. You can find us on Apple here, and Spotify here. This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks also to Corrie Askew for producing the radio adaptations of this series on WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs — you can link to his music here. Thanks for listening! - Joe Kendrick

It was the last gig of a late winter tour, and Daniel Donato was ready to exhale. His band was, too, having had the rare treat of seeing their wives the night before, as they prepared for one more show, a late night performance in Asheville, NC. As Daniel told me, they were all in high spirits, and I knew this bode well for their performance, which dovetailed with the Billy Strings concert in town earlier that evening. Thanks to my friend Greg Gerald, I got to take in Billy Strings’ show before we scooted from downtown to west Asheville for Donato’s set.

Earlier that evening, I spoke with Daniel in the green room at Salvage Station, named for the site’s former use as a salvage yard, in February 2024, where he spoke in depth about his conviction that his life’s work is a service to listeners, his ever-present muse, playing with Bob Weir, and surprisingly to me at least, being an angry kid who was an avid wrestler not all that long ago. Still in his 20s, Daniel Donato has quickly made a name for himself as a kind of musical mystic, a master of the telecaster and a favorite in the burgeoning cosmic country scene. 

Joe Kendrick (L) interviews Daniel Donato (R) at Salvage Station in Asheville NC ahead of his show 02-18-24. Photo: Greg Gerald

Songs heard in this episode:

“Dance In the Desert” by Daniel Donato, from Reflector

“Lose Your Mind” by Daniel Donato, from Reflector, excerpt

“Darlin’ Corey” by Daniel Donato, live at The Grey Eagle 03/12/2022, excerpt

“Sugar Leg Rag” by Daniel Donato, from Reflector

Thank you for stopping by! We are glad that you took time to listen, and hope you can help us by spreading awareness of what we are doing. It is as easy as telling a friend and following this podcast on your platform of choice. From there it takes just a moment to give us a top rating and a review. It makes a great difference because the more top reviews and ratings we get, the more visible we become to everyone on those platforms, which means that more people just like you find musical kinship with artists like Daniel Donato. I would love to hear your comments about that sort of thing and all things Southern Songs and Stories -- you can drop me a line at [email protected], or hit me up on our Facebook or Instagram pages, and I will be glad to reply.

This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio here.

Thanks to Jason Guadagnino at The Salvage Station for helping make this interview possible, to Greg Gerald for hosting me after the show and for taking photos of our interview. Thanks also to Corrie Askew for producing the radio adaptations of this series on public radio WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs.  This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it. - Joe Kendrick