The String

The Great Smoky Mountains of Western NC are ancient but alive. The region gave us Charlie Poole, Doc Watson and now a cadre of diverse and important bands and artists working the many strains of regional roots in the venues around Asheville. Town Mountain is doing that for bluegrass music with a sound that’s old school and songs that tell a new generation’s story. Lead singer Robert Greer is my guest. 

The scene around Asheville boasts dozens of bands and artists, songwriting retreats, the basics of a music business - and most importantly an identity. It’s a scene that as well as anywhere in the nation enriches tradition, cherishing the ancient tones while letting new expression flourish. It’s scenic, sonic and significant. And at the heart of that scene is the bluegrass music of Town Mountain.

The 43 year old singer and guitar player grew up in South Georgia and then Brevard NC where he got to know some of today’s top regional bluegrassers under some very unexpected circumstances. We’ll get into that. And we’ll get into the recent album Southern Crescent as well.

Kim Buie got into the music business through college radio. She’s worked in New York, Los Angeles and Nashville at a variety of record companies including some industry giants and some important indie labels. And she’s touched a lot of genres, working with artists as diverse as Tom Waits, the Butthole Surfers, Etta James and Richard Thompson.

Starting about 15 years ago, she settled into the Americana/roots world as head of A&R for Lost Highway Records, home to Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams and the historically pivotal O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. From there she moved on to the multi-faceted music/talent company Thirty Tigers and then to her current home, Americana benchmark label New West, with John Hiatt, Shovels and Rope, Buddy Miller, Sarah Watkins, Nikki Lane and Rodney Crowell. With Crowell, Kim Buie recently made the leap from A&R to producing, helping to shape the sound of his 2017 album Close Ties.

Later in the hour, a visit on the go with Nashville roots rock hero Will Hoge as he launches two very different things - an album called Anchors and a new business - a ride service with an all electric fleet and dreams of expanding beyond its successful launch in Nashville.

Kim Buie got into the music business through college radio. She’s worked in New York, Los Angeles and Nashville at a variety of record companies including some industry giants and some important indie labels. And she’s touched a lot of genres, working with artists as diverse as Tom Waits, the Butthole Surfers, Etta James and Richard Thompson.

Starting about 15 years ago, she settled into the Americana/roots world as head of A&R for Lost Highway Records, home to Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams and the historically pivotal O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. From there she moved on to the multi-faceted music/talent company Thirty Tigers and then to her current home, Americana benchmark label New West, with John Hiatt, Shovels and Rope, Buddy Miller, Sarah Watkins, Nikki Lane and Rodney Crowell. With Crowell, Kim Buie recently made the leap from A&R to producing, helping to shape the sound of his 2017 album Close Ties.

Later in the hour, a visit on the go with Nashville roots rock hero Will Hoge as he launches two very different things - an album called Anchors and a new business - a ride service with an all electric fleet and dreams of expanding beyond its successful launch in Nashville.

Bluegrass, more than any other genre of music I’ve ever seen, raises and nurtures its next generation of musicians and fans. Through festival culture, picking parties and families, kids get involved early and develop rapidly. And with each decade, it seems the prodigies are younger and better. It’s something else to watch. In this hour, interviews with three rising stars of bluegrass music. They’re young, hungry and really good. Molly Tuttle, Casey Campbell and Billy Strings are my guests.

They have a few things in common. They are all 24 years old. They all grew up in households that were full of bluegrass music. And they’re all in Nashville finding their footing as professionals. That’s about where the similarities stop. They’re from very different parts of the country and they have personal visions for their music. Together they offer a composite look at the present and near future of a genre that keeps regenerating and changing while maintaining its core identity and passion for an original sound and repertoire.

It’s a play in three acts. First Molly Tuttle talks about evolving from a precocious young guitarist to a songwriter/artist/bandleader. Then mandolinist Casey Campbell talks about the power of mentorship and fellowship, something that allowed him to make a duets album with his heroes. And finally, the blazing guitarist and band leader Billy Strings talks about escaping a hard-luck town in Michigan and becoming a musician with a social conscience.

Bluegrass, more than any other genre of music I’ve ever seen, raises and nurtures its next generation of musicians and fans. Through festival culture, picking parties and families, kids get involved early and develop rapidly. And with each decade, it seems the prodigies are younger and better. It’s something else to watch. In this hour, interviews with three rising stars of bluegrass music. They’re young, hungry and really good. Molly Tuttle, Casey Campbell and Billy Strings are my guests.

They have a few things in common. They are all 24 years old. They all grew up in households that were full of bluegrass music. And they’re all in Nashville finding their footing as professionals. That’s about where the similarities stop. They’re from very different parts of the country and they have personal visions for their music. Together they offer a composite look at the present and near future of a genre that keeps regenerating and changing while maintaining its core identity and passion for an original sound and repertoire.

It’s a play in three acts. First Molly Tuttle talks about evolving from a precocious young guitarist to a songwriter/artist/bandleader. Then mandolinist Casey Campbell talks about the power of mentorship and fellowship, something that allowed him to make a duets album with his heroes. And finally, the blazing guitarist and band leader Billy Strings talks about escaping a hard-luck town in Michigan and becoming a musician with a social conscience.

Music fans have seen and heard him on stage for years with Buddy Miller, Emmylou Harris and others. He’s the guy with the pork pie hat (which the evidence will show he was wearing before it was a fad) playing the organ and the accordion. He’s also a successful producer and songwriter. His story is fascinating. His journey of faith is personal and challenging. And he’s one of Nashville’s deep thinkers and understated musical heroes. Phil Madeira is my guest.

Madeira grew up in Barrington, Rhode Island in a religious family. His father was a Baptist minister - albeit a moderate one he says. In his 2011 memoir God On The Rocks, Distilling Religion, Savoring Faith, Phil says he was obsessed from an early age with the blues and gospel music of the deep south. He played drums, then guitar and keyboards, and his first working band was several years on the road with Christian rocker and guitar player Phil Keaggy.

In Nashville, where he’s lived for more than thirty years, Madeira migrated from Christian music to Americana, sometimes in tandem with his friends and collaborators Buddy and Julie Miller. Madeira’s songs have been recorded by Alison Krauss, Garth Brooks and Bruce Hornsby among many others. His highest profile achievement to date however may have been producing the 2011 anthology Mercyland: Hymns for the Rest of Us.

The project included contributions from a multitude of top tier artists. Emmylou Harris, Shawn Mullins, Dan Tyminski and others took on the producer’s challenge to write about God as Love and nothing more. It was hailed by critics, spawned a remarkable live event at the 2012 Americana convention in Nashville and ultimately inspired a second volume in 2016.

Also this hour, a conversation with John Lomax III of Nashville, grandson of John Avery Lomax, one of America's foremost folklorists and song hunters. On the occasion of a new release of a cappella songs by John's father called FOLK, we talk about stewardship of a huge music legacy. 

Music fans have seen and heard him on stage for years with Buddy Miller, Emmylou Harris and others. He’s the guy with the pork pie hat (which the evidence will show he was wearing before it was a fad) playing the organ and the accordion. He’s also a successful producer and songwriter. His story is fascinating. His journey of faith is personal and challenging. And he’s one of Nashville’s deep thinkers and understated musical heroes. Phil Madeira is my guest.

Madeira grew up in Barrington, Rhode Island in a religious family. His father was a Baptist minister - albeit a moderate one he says. In his 2011 memoir God On The Rocks, Distilling Religion, Savoring Faith, Phil says he was obsessed from an early age with the blues and gospel music of the deep south. He played drums, then guitar and keyboards, and his first working band was several years on the road with Christian rocker and guitar player Phil Keaggy.

In Nashville, where he’s lived for more than thirty years, Madeira migrated from Christian music to Americana, sometimes in tandem with his friends and collaborators Buddy and Julie Miller. Madeira’s songs have been recorded by Alison Krauss, Garth Brooks and Bruce Hornsby among many others. His highest profile achievement to date however may have been producing the 2011 anthology Mercyland: Hymns for the Rest of Us.

The project included contributions from a multitude of top tier artists. Emmylou Harris, Shawn Mullins, Dan Tyminski and others took on the producer’s challenge to write about God as Love and nothing more. It was hailed by critics, spawned a remarkable live event at the 2012 Americana convention in Nashville and ultimately inspired a second volume in 2016.

Also this hour, a conversation with John Lomax III of Nashville, grandson of John Avery Lomax, one of America's foremost folklorists and song hunters. On the occasion of a new release of a cappella songs by John's father called FOLK, we talk about stewardship of a huge music legacy. 

Glen Campbell, who died this week at age 81, rose from a sharecropper family in Delight AR to the pinnacle of American pop culture. He was a singer for the ages and a musician's musician. In this re-posting of a String episode from the Fall of 2016, Craig talks about Glen Campbell with his daughter Ashley, long time sideman and friend Carl Jackson and the filmmaker who documented Campbell's final tour and his life with Alzheimer's disease. 

Glen Campbell, who died this week at age 81, rose from a sharecropper family in Delight AR to the pinnacle of American pop culture. He was a singer for the ages and a musician's musician. In this re-posting of a String episode from the Fall of 2016, Craig talks about Glen Campbell with his daughter Ashley, long time sideman and friend Carl Jackson and the filmmaker who documented Campbell's final tour and his life with Alzheimer's disease. 

Mac Gayden was a Nashville native, with family roots that go back to the founding of the city. But his upper crust upbringing was no hindrance to his passion for African American music as a teenager. He snuck into R&B clubs on Jefferson Street in the 1950s and soaked up the late night sounds on WLAC radio. When he started working in studios and writing songs, he found himself comfortably and happily in the overlapping zone between soul, blues, country and R&B. Besides writing Everlasting Love with his colleague Buzz Cason, a song taken to the top ten by Robert Knight, Gayden wrote one of the signature songs of Nashville’s Night Train era. He plays guitar on it too. The Clifford Curry hit “She Shot A Hole In My Soul”

Other accomplishments: Gayden came up with a combination of wah wah pedal and slide guitar for a J.J. Cale record that became a famous technique. And he was a founding member of Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry, supergroups that let Music City’s best studio pickers stretch out and tell the story of the real Nashville in the late 60s and early 70s.

My radio colleague Gina Frary Bacon arranged a sit down with Gayden to talk about his musical life and philosophy then and now.