Southern Songs and Stories

This week marked one month after Hurricane Helene made landfall, hammering a wide swath from Florida straight north into the heart of the southern Appalachians. Soon after the storm hit, it was obvious that doing another “normal” Southern Songs and Stories episode was simply not going to do. Although there are many artists with interviews on hand awaiting their spotlight with a podcast in this series, they will wait one more turn, as we focus now instead on the aftermath of the storm for the music scene in Asheville NC especially. Here are conversations excerpted from over two hours of interviews with The Grey Eagle Music Hall’s Russell Keith and Rachel Shea, along with music artists like Jesse Iaquinto from the band Fireside Collective, as well as Josh Blake, who also is known for the online music resource IamAvl, as well as music professionals like Jessica Tomasin of Echo Mountain Recording Studios, Liz Whalen Tallent of The Orange Peel,  and Jason Guadagnino, formerly of The Salvage Station, which was destroyed in the flooding. 

We spoke in separate interviews in mid October 2024, with only a few weeks' distance between our conversations and the tragedy of Helene in southern Appalachia. You will hear their accounts of the shock of the immediate aftermath as we look forward to what can be restored in the near future, and imagine some potential outcomes for the region’s music scene in the long haul ahead. All that, and a soundtrack of flood songs both historical and metaphorical in this special episode of Southern Songs and Stories. 

Included in this post is a Spotify playlist I made for this episode, with flood songs both literal and metaphorical. Also included is a list of organizations helping people in the region recover from the storm.

Asheville, NC music venue The Salvage Station in the midst of flooding from Helene.

Photo: The Salvage Station

Flood Songs playlist in Spotify

Ways to help and to get help following Helene: the NC Arts Disaster Relief Fund is being run through the North Carolina Arts Foundation to provide funding and assistance to artists and arts organizations

Arts AVL is a well-resourced organization based in Asheville, NC. Most resources on the page linked below have been sourced by Arts AVL as they are at the epicenter of the devastation caused by Helene and are directly connected to local aid efforts as they become available. The Arts AVL Emergency Support Resources page is updated daily.

Preserving a Picturesque America: By purchasing Western North Carolina art, 50% of the proceeds will go directly to the artist, and the other half will go to relief funds to restore the French Broad region. All other purchases, which include PAPA publications, 100% of the proceeds will go to relief.

ReString Appalachia seeks to get as many instruments back into the hands of people who lost them throughout Appalachia due to Hurricane Helene. Supporting this initiative are over 125 of the leading roots musicians, nonprofits, venues, festivals, actors, artists and media outlets. ReString Appalachia is asking for collaborators to lean on their network of musicians, instrument makers, and philanthropic followers in a way that feels authentic. 

This effort is threefold: focusing on finding musicians in need, calling for quality instrument donations, and finding philanthropists to cover the costs through tax exempt donations - thanks to our 501(c)3 nonprofit fiscal sponsor Music in Common. ReString Appalachia is aiming to hand deliver instruments in early 2025.

Beloved Asheville. In 2009, Beloved Asheville began its journey to create a transformational way of life rooted in community and working to create Home, Health, Equity, and Opportunity for all. Beloved Asheville recognizes that these focus areas are fundamental to building a just and equitable society, and is committed to working with the community to find innovative and compassionate solutions to the tough challenges that Asheville, the region, and world face today.

Songs heard in this episode:

“Didn’t It Rain” by Jake Blount, from The New Faith

“Waterbound” by Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi, from They’re Calling Me Home, excerpt

“Muddy Water” by The Seldom Scene, from Act 3, excerpt

“Thompson Flood” by Songs From The Road Band, from Traveling Show, excerpt

“Whippoorwill” by Fireside Collective

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 you.

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 and professionals from Asheville, from western NC, and the whole Appalachian region.  

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 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

The last two weeks have turned so much upside down in my world, and everything started with a tropical storm hitting the Appalachians, while I was at the IBMA Conference in Raleigh. 

Even going into IBMA, I was almost on fumes, having crammed getting prepared for a big week away, arranging a schedule of interviews and earmarking events and panels, as well as producing the latest episode in this series, our last podcast, on Maya De Vitry and Joel Timmons. I hope you check it out if you haven't already. 

Anyhow, it was a frenetic and bittersweet week to begin with -- owing to the fact that this was the last year for IBMA in North Carolina before moving west, to Chattanooga starting in 2025 -- but everything that was good about the conference was quickly shoved aside as the horror of Helene unfolded on the news. Losing contact with my family for a full day leading up to my return, I had the surreal experience of being safe and largely unaffected by the storm in the state capitol, watching footage of devastating floodwaters rise in cities like Asheville, while knowing that my family had no power and no communications in our home in the piedmont, and therefore could not see the extent of the damage two counties to their west. 

I got home and endured one whole night and half of the next day without power, so count me very lucky. We had no damage to the house, just a mess with limbs down and debris blown all over the place. 

As I say this, the aftermath of the storm is still unfolding. It destroyed so much that it is beyond comprehension -- as my WNCW colleague Scotty Robertson, who lives in Asheville, told me: it is like walking around in a fever dream to see the havoc wreaked practically everywhere, especially anywhere near water. 

Many WNCW folks live in the mountains where communications were cut off for days, so it was an immediate challenge to fill in their shows with episodes from our archives. That process started with contacting everyone, which is more than two dozen hosts, to find out how they were immediately after the storm passed. Luckily, everyone was safe and most had little or no damage to their homes. 

Even during the storm, but especially following it, WNCW kicked into a news and public information mode, acting as a conduit for information on how to help those in need, as well as how to get help in the wake of Helene. I interviewed a Charlotte public radio reporter in Linville first, then wound up being interviewed by USA Today for an online article, jumped on a press call with FEMA, and later on took an interview with WXPN in Philadelphia (thanks Dan Reed!). Everything became Helene. A torrent of emails giving information on supply distributions, ways to apply for aid, news on closures, you name it -- all of it coming from many directions. Calls, texts and social media, all day long: Helene. Essentially a mode of taking in the disaster from all fronts for purposes of reporting on it, largely engulfing my workday.

It hit me very soon, even before it was over, that this podcast would have to take a beat. All the interviews that I got at IBMA -- great conversations with author David Menconi, musician and label exec Ty Gilpin, and banjo innovator Tray Wellington -- would have to wait. Those were added to a pre existing line of interviews from the likes of Steve Earle, and all the interviews I got at the Earl Scruggs Music Festival, from Lindsay Lou, Twisted Pine and The Faux Paws. Yeah, sorry y’all. It was obvious that doing anything like the usual episode was not going to work in light of the tragedy in my own back yard. 

Rob Daves (left) and Joe Kendrick (right) at Bonnaroo, June 2013

But don’t despair, you will get to hear all those artists’ episodes, Lord willing! In the meantime, get set for an episode focusing on the aftermath of Helene in western NC and Asheville specifically, as I interview artists and professionals like Jesse Iaquinto from Fireside Collective, Liz Whalen Tallent from the Orange Peel, Josh Blake of IAMAVL, Russell Keith of The Grey Eagle and others in the music community. It may become more than one episode -- that remains to be known, as I am still conducting interviews and may wind up with enough material that one episode is just not enough. 

We will see, and wish me luck, because there is more than the storm that has knocked us on our heels around here. A week after Helene arrived, a dear friend of mine departed the world: Rob Daves. Rob was WNCW’s voice of the overnight music mix, the alternative show ARC Overnight, for the better part of 20 years. He was beloved by staff and listeners alike, and even though he had battled some health issues in recent years, it was still shocking to lose him. Whatever oxygen was left in the room following Helene was quickly sucked up by the void of Rob’s loss, and we miss him greatly.

With ARC Overnight, we are trying to pull that together with the help of Alex Nudd, who is a familiar voice to the wee hours, among other WNCW hosts including longtime volunteer Harry Strider. ARC totals 25 hours each week, spread over six nights, and that’s a lot of music to play. Not to mention a lot of work screening, reviewing, and generally taking care of the scores of singles, albums and events that we field weekly. Rob was also music director and programmer for ARC, so all the albums and singles in what we call the rotation for that show he selected and shepherded. That’s a big job on top of big shoes to fill, impossibly big, for all things overnight on WNCW currently. But we’re working through it. 

Next week I start teaching a radio DJ and podcast production class at the community college that WNCW calls home, Isothermal, and that’s going to demand a lot of attention for the next 8 weeks. But that’s a good problem to have!

Let me leave you with one of Rob Daves’ favorite artists, who calls Asheville NC home, Angel Olsen. I hope Angel made it through Helene okay, and I think she must have, because she announced on October 9th that she is part of a new benefit compilation titled Cardinals At The Window - her song “Can’t Wait Until Tomorrow” (live from Echo Mountain) is part of that massive compilation containing a whopping 136 previously unreleased tracks to benefit flood relief efforts in Western North Carolina. All proceeds go to the aid organizations Beloved Asheville, Community Foundation of Western NC, and Rural Organizing and Resilience.

Cardinals At The Window is out now, on bandcamp. Go get you some!

And the song I am going to play is not that new song but one of Rob’s favorites from Angel’s last full album, 2022’s Big Time. I’m Joe Kendrick, saying so long for now with the title track to Angel Olsen’s Big Time to close out this Southern Songs and Stories update. 

Songs heard in this episode:

Angel Olsen “Big Time” from Big Time

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 you.

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 Angel Olsen, and great DJs like the late Rob Daves. 

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

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