Episode 207: Monoflora, the fourth album from Asheville, NC quartet River Whyless speaks to the musical values that have made them cult favorites since 2012 - complex harmonies, layered textures and worldly grooves. This conversation reveals an especially deep bond of friendship that's produced creative tensions and ultimately exceptionally enthralling music. Also in this NC field trip episode, part one of a chat with folk artists Valorie Miller.

Episode 206: Growing up in Florida, Joshua Hedley got his heart set on playing the fiddle at age 3 and on moving to Nashville to play in honky tonks in his teens. For years he was a sideman whose obligations ended at the end of the night or the tour. Eventually, he was moved to write and sing his own music, and as soon as he did, some heavy supporters noticed, including Margo Price and the team at Third Man Records, which released his debut Mr. Jukebox in 2018. Now he's followed with the grand sounding Neon Blue, inspired by the vibes of 1990s country. This is a classic modern-day Nashville story.

Episode 205: An influx of superb roots artists from Michigan to Nashville has been good for Music City, with Billy Strings, Lindsay Lou, even Jack White. Rather new to the city are The Accidentals, the highly-skilled and daring roots pop trio from Traverse City. Since emerging five years ago, they've toured like crazy and built a large and loyal fan base. They got on a pandemic co-writing tear with some of the greats, including Mary Gauthier and Tom Paxton. And they made their most ambitious and exceptional album yet with 2021's Vessel. I talk with multi-instrumentalists Sav Buist and Katie Larson about the journey from school orchestra as teens to this run of acclaimed, edgy folk music.

Episode 204: In a great year for bluegrass, two projects stand out. One, from our featured guest, because he's the living patriarch of traditional bluegrass music. Del McCoury has earned every honor and award one can win in his field, and he's built historic bridges from American folk and roots to the realms of jam band rock and roll, thanks to his open heart and a blazing band that for more than 25 years has included his sons Ron and Rob. I sat with Del backstage at the Grand Ole Opry to talk about being in Bill Monroe's band in the 60s and his new recording Almost Proud. The other project covered here is a collection of lost instrumentals written by Bill Monroe himself but revived and recorded for the first time by mandolinist Mike Compton. The former founder of the Nashville Bluegrass Band tells us how he produced the unique project Rare & Fine: Uncommon Tunes of Bill Monroe.

Episode 203: In another conversation with a prominent musical couple, Craig visits the home of Rachael and Dominic John Davis, artists who work together and apart, always enhancing the Nashville ideal with their attention to detail and timeless musicianship. He's most famous for years playing bass in various projects with his boyhood friend Jack White, but he's also been an in-demand sideman and record producer. Rachael is a singer's singer, raised on folk and roots music in small town Michigan. She's released several fine albums on her own and collaborated with numerous other artists, notably her recent trio called the Sweet Water Warblers. This is a delightful and casual conversation.

Episode 202: The String's look at the improv-heavy jamgrass community continues with a band at the heart of it all, Yonder Mountain String Band. Bass player Ben Kauffman and guitarist Adam Aijala talk about how Colorado became their laboratory for a new, dance-friendly, freewheeling take on bluegrass music in the 1990s and beyond. We discuss how they negotiated the departure of founding member Jeff Austin and how two new members in recent years contributed to the varied material on the new album Get Yourself Outside. Also in the hour, a chat with Craig Ferguson, longtime director of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, where Yonder have been kingpins for 20 years and where the jamgrass sound has been celebrated.

Episode 201: Friendly and funny, enthusiastic and energetic, Steve Poltz has released his tenth album Stardust & Satellites as he embarks on another year of intense touring. In a conversation at his home in East Nashville, Poltz speaks with Craig about his surprise embrace of Nashville co-writing, his wild experience writing one of the 90s big hits and the pot brownies that showed him the way to performing solo, which he does so well.

Episode 200: Joan Osborne became a star on the strength of a controversial song and a Grammy-nominated major label debut album in 1995, but when you scan her catalog, it becomes quickly clear that she has one of the most powerful and nuanced voices in popular music. Her range and intimacy is quite clear on her new release Radio Waves, which compiles radio station performances and demos she found in her closets during the pandemic. It becomes a great vehicle to talk about her rich and varied vocal pursuits. Also, a Mardis Gras season visit with Louis Michot, founder and fiddler in the Lost Bayou Ramblers, a powerfully inventive progressive Cajun band near Lafayette, LA.

Episode 199: Guitarist and songwriter Luther Dickinson, founder of the North Mississippi All-Stars, returns to the String to talk about two albums, each with its own story to tell about blues and roots music. Up And Rolling from 2019 was a deluxe CD package with extensive memoir liner notes by Luther and photographs of he and his brother Cody in 1996 just before the band formed. It's a celebration of the hill country blues tradition they inherited. Now they're out with Set Sail, a pandemic-created album with more orchestration and complexity than anything they've done, plus the contributions of singer Lamar Williams Jr. Also, an excerpt from my recent visit with bluegrass songwriting stars turned recording duo Tammy Rogers and Thomm Jutz.

Episode 198: It's a double shot of blues from Alligator Records this week. Christone "Kingfish" Ingram is the most exciting prodigy to hit the electric blues scene in decades. It helps his narrative that the 23-year-old hails from the cradle of the blues, Clarksdale, MS, where the Delta Blues Museum's education programs gave him his start. Now he's nominated for his second Grammy Award with his 2021 album 662. Carolyn Wonderland is more of a veteran (already in the Austin Music Awards Hall of Fame) but a new artist on Alligator at 48 years old. She's a gentle presence off stage and a blistering singer and electric guitarist on stage, and she's recently spent a few years touring the world in the band of English icon John Mayall. We talk about all that and her current disc Tempting Fate, produced with Dave Alvin.