Episode 227: This week dwells on origins and growth with two artists who've had very different journeys but who had to get resourceful in their own way. Amy Ray put the Indigo Girls on the map with her partner Emily Saliers in part through a relentless focus on activism and support of causes they cherished. They were given the Americana Lifetime Award for Free Speech in September. Tami Neilson grew up in a family band playing gospel and country in and around Canada, but she had to start over from square one when she moved to New Zealand to get married 20 years ago. She found multiple ways to stand out and make her own scene, driven by her outstanding voice and her provocative feminist anthems.

Episode 226: The 5 Spot is a nightclub at the heart of East Nashville's music community, and for 12 years, Derek Hoke was at the heart of the 5 Spot. His showcase series Two Dollar Tuesdays offered newcomers a chance to play and music lovers 4-5 artists to sample in a cozy scene, many of whom would become the next wave of Americana stars. Hoke came from South Carolina with a ton of humility and eagerness to learn the ropes of Nashville, and he's created a fine body of work as a songwriter/artist, including his new album Electric Mountain. Nashville insiders will love this one.

Episode 225: When you serve a community on a good radio station, you get a feel for the soul of that place, and for me over these many years, that place is Nashville. So I thought it would be fun to join forces for a week with a friend of mine who has a similar gig in western North Carolina who has developed expertise and perspective on the amazing music scene around Asheville. He's Joe Kendrick, host of Southern Songs And Stories. We met up at the Earl Scruggs Music Festival over Labor Day weekend to talk about culture, history and the artists we're loving these days from our respective markets. We're calling it Southern Strings And Stories, and we hope you enjoy it.

Episode 224: It's a double Dan special as I visit with two movers and shakers who've contributed perhaps more behind the scenes than most musicians of their stature. Daniel Tashian is a Nashville lifer who's worn all the hats - songwriter, artist, band-leader and producer. He won a Grammy for Kacey Musgraves's Golden Hour and collaborated with Burt Bacharach. Now he's co-written the classic country rock album Night After Night with Paul Kennerly. Then it's Dan Knobler, recently in-demand Americana producer for luminaries like Erin Rae, Rodney Crowell and Allison Russell. His new project is whimsical and gorgeous - a multi-artist album of great cover songs chosen by his four-year-old son. It inspired a great conversation about how we maintain our youthful love for music.

Episode 223: Americanafest 2022 is in the books, and as usual, I took advantage of all the visiting talent to collect a bunch of interviews with artists from stars to newcomers. Here, I speak with three fascinating emerging artists who will be shaping the scene for years to come. Tray Wellington is a new voice on the banjo from rural Appalachia, but his take on Scruggs style is modern and devoted to jazz as much as bluegrass. Nora Brown is a new phenom in old-time music based out of Brooklyn. Her new Long Time To Be Gone album is gorgeous and deep. And Austin, TX-based Taylor Rae has found extraordinary radio support for her indie debut album Mad Twenties.

Episode 222: Kentucky natives Linda Jean Stokley and Montana Hobbs have been musical partners for about a decade. They met as college students at Morehead State University, where they both more or less wandered into the school's distinguished traditional music program. They formed the duo The Local Honeys and have gradually built a following and a sound that rides the line between old-time traditional folk and the new electric Americana sound on their superb 2022 self-titled album on La Honda Records. I loved the record so much I took a field trip to the farm country around Lexington to visit with the artists on their home turf.

Episode 221: Cristina Vane discovered American roots music from a greater distance than most converts. She grew up in capitals of Europe, identifying as a "third culture kid" and struggling with her identity. The slide blues guitar and Appalachian banjo became important icons of her journey to America and her burgeoning career as a singer songwriter who doesn't imitate the blues but who takes inspiration from it for her own personal style. We talk about her experience at Princeton, her solo travels roughing it across the US, her guitar tutelage at McCabe's in Santa Monica and her success in Nashville, including her acclaimed album Make Myself Me Again.

Episode 220: Early James pushed himself to find a singing voice and songwriting style all his own, and it certainly got the attention of Nashville's Dan Auerbach. The Birmingham, AL artist was invited into Dan's Easy Eye Sound studio to write and produce his debut album Singing For My Supper in 2020. That release was acclaimed by stymied by the pandemic. Not so the new one, Strange Time To Be Alive, with its surreal, suggestive language and fevered country noir soundscape. I sit with the 29-year-old James in the same room where he cut these two special and unique recordings and talk about Alabama, stage fright and Howlin' Wolf.

Episode 219: This time I catch up with two dynamic women from Nashville with albums that are journalistic in nature, chronicling change and life passages. Nicki Bluhm is a national jam roots star thanks to hear years leading The Gramblers and numerous collaborations with the likes of Phil Lesh and Little Feat. On her new Avondale Drive album she ruminates on the end of her marriage and building a new self in Nashville. Lera Lynn, a veteran of the show, returns with Something More Than Love, largely about the tradeoffs and blessings of being a new mother. They make a fine pairing of candid conversations.

Episode 218: Of all the 1960s California folk rockers, Richie Furay had a quieter but most interesting career. He co-founded two iconic bands in Buffalo Springfield and Poco. He wrote and sang a landmark country rocker in "Kind Woman," the track that brought steel guitar man and eventual frontman Rusty Young into the Poco fold. And then in midlife Furay moved to Colorado to become a pastor, leading a church for decades, while touring and recording as the Richie Furay Band. Now he's released a Nashville-made covers album called In The Country with tracks from the hit parade of Keith Urban, Garth Brooks and others. Also in the hour the Milwaukee to Nashville journey of Sista Strings, the musical vehicle for Chauntee (violin) and Monique (cello) Ross. They've been visible on stage in the past year with folk stars Allison Russell and Brandi Carlile. And they have big plans for their own sound.