The String

Around 1970, a teenaged Tommy Emmanuel of New South Wales Australia wrote a fan letter to his guitar playing idol 10,000 miles away in Nashville. And Chet Atkins wrote him back with encouraging words. A couple of decades later, Tommy was performing and recording with Atkins, who recognized him with the honorary title of Certified Guitar Player. 

Tommy is an extraordinary fingerstyle guitarist, that’s for sure. In that he’s not alone, though he is clearly among the top in the world. What he has going for him that sets him apart is his gifts as an entertainer and communicator. And so this explains how a kid from Australia could climb a long international ladder of success, culminating in one of the most prestigious live gigs in the world. It’s documented on the new CD, Live at the Ryman. 

We’ll talk about this gorgeous recording in the hour ahead, but also about Chet Atkins and Doc Watson and the unique challenges of making hall filling magic with six strings and a few fingers.

Also, how two new bluegrass museums are aiming to transform the experience of bluegrass pilgrims to Owensboro and Rosine, KY. 

One of the things I love about Nashville is a profound and pervasive respect for Music City’s studio and road musicians. Without them, the stars go out. The music stops. So from time to time here we zoom in on the lives and careers and thoughts of these working pickers. In the hour ahead, a bass player whose five decade journey has included work with Jerry Reed, Johnny Cash and Dan Auerbach. He’s the great Dave Roe.

 Roe arrived in Nashville in 1980 from his home state of Hawaii. He set songwriting dreams aside in favor of steadier work as a bass playing sideman. He lived mostly on the road working for a variety of bands. And then in 1993 he got the job for which he’d become best known. Slapping the upright bass for Johnny Cash.

One of the things I love about Nashville is a profound and pervasive respect for Music City’s studio and road musicians. Without them, the stars go out. The music stops. So from time to time here we zoom in on the lives and careers and thoughts of these working pickers. In the hour ahead, a bass player whose five decade journey has included work with Jerry Reed, Johnny Cash and Dan Auerbach. He’s the great Dave Roe.

 Roe arrived in Nashville in 1980 from his home state of Hawaii. He set songwriting dreams aside in favor of steadier work as a bass playing sideman. He lived mostly on the road working for a variety of bands. And then in 1993 he got the job for which he’d become best known. Slapping the upright bass for Johnny Cash.

Few artists have pursued as many musical directions with as many impressive collaborators as Ruby Amanfu. It’s not inaccurate to call her a Nashville singer songwriter but that old familiar term vastly overlooks Ruby’s complexities and subtleties. She’s a stylist and a visionary who challenges the distinctions between roots, pop and soul. You might well have seen her on national TV dueting with Jack White but that’s just one of her many fascinating pursuits.

In 2015, Amanfu released Standing Still was hailed as a magnificent collection of covers including works by Bob Bob Dylan, Brandi Carlile, Kanye West and more. With a stunning cover portrait and a gorgeous soundscape assisted by sought-after producer Mark Howard, it was the most complete statement to date by an artist who’d been on her way for years. Now she’s at work on a new album that will bring her songwriting into the mix as well.

Few artists have pursued as many musical directions with as many impressive collaborators as Ruby Amanfu. It’s not inaccurate to call her a Nashville singer songwriter but that old familiar term vastly overlooks Ruby’s complexities and subtleties. She’s a stylist and a visionary who challenges the distinctions between roots, pop and soul. You might well have seen her on national TV dueting with Jack White but that’s just one of her many fascinating pursuits.

In 2015, Amanfu released Standing Still was hailed as a magnificent collection of covers including works by Bob Bob Dylan, Brandi Carlile, Kanye West and more. With a stunning cover portrait and a gorgeous soundscape assisted by sought-after producer Mark Howard, it was the most complete statement to date by an artist who’d been on her way for years. Now she’s at work on a new album that will bring her songwriting into the mix as well.

On the cover of his breakthrough album Silver Tears, Aaron Lee Tasjan is a zen looking rhinestone cowboy, blazing with light in a mirror ball suit. On the stereo, his music blazes with quirky observations, lush romanticism and psychedelia. He’s one of the most fascinating country rockers in Americana music, and this hour he sits down with a Nashville DJ who knows him well.

Since moving to Music City in 2013  Aaron Lee Tasjan has grown in stature and renown in two simultaneous, mutually reinforcing ways. In traditional fashion, he’s been praised by critics and curators, landing media spots like Daytrotter sessions and NPR. And on the inside track, he’s become a beloved enabler of the EAst Nashville music renaissance, collaborating and supporting lesser-known artists and side musicians. People just really really like the guy. He’s self-effacing and mellow. So it’s almost shocking when you see him on stage, his mirrored suit sparkling, making moody, sensuous, tuneful country rock and roll.

The album’s uptown artsy qualities become a lot more comprehensible when you learn that Tasjan came to Music City after many years establishing himself in New York, where he was in several well loved bands, including - as a sideman anyway - glam punk icons the New York Dolls. And that’s all after turning down a scholarship to study jazz guitar at the Berklee College of Music. This is one multi-faceted musician.

This week, I cede the microphone to my friend and Nashville radio colleague Gina Frary Bacon for an in-depth conversation with Tasjan. She’s a DJ on independent radio station WXNA and a career TV producer who’s had plenty of experience herself with the New York music scene. 

Also, Berklee College of Music's Panos Panay on the latest in Music, Money and Metadata. 

On the cover of his breakthrough album Silver Tears, Aaron Lee Tasjan is a zen looking rhinestone cowboy, blazing with light in a mirror ball suit. On the stereo, his music blazes with quirky observations, lush romanticism and psychedelia. He’s one of the most fascinating country rockers in Americana music, and this hour he sits down with a Nashville DJ who knows him well.

Since moving to Music City in 2013  Aaron Lee Tasjan has grown in stature and renown in two simultaneous, mutually reinforcing ways. In traditional fashion, he’s been praised by critics and curators, landing media spots like Daytrotter sessions and NPR. And on the inside track, he’s become a beloved enabler of the EAst Nashville music renaissance, collaborating and supporting lesser-known artists and side musicians. People just really really like the guy. He’s self-effacing and mellow. So it’s almost shocking when you see him on stage, his mirrored suit sparkling, making moody, sensuous, tuneful country rock and roll.

The album’s uptown artsy qualities become a lot more comprehensible when you learn that Tasjan came to Music City after many years establishing himself in New York, where he was in several well loved bands, including - as a sideman anyway - glam punk icons the New York Dolls. And that’s all after turning down a scholarship to study jazz guitar at the Berklee College of Music. This is one multi-faceted musician.

This week, I cede the microphone to my friend and Nashville radio colleague Gina Frary Bacon for an in-depth conversation with Tasjan. She’s a DJ on independent radio station WXNA and a career TV producer who’s had plenty of experience herself with the New York music scene. 

Also, Berklee College of Music's Panos Panay on the latest in Music, Money and Metadata. 

The dream of a democratic internet has become a dystopia of unregulated monopolies. Creators are being devastated - deprived of their income and control by a handful of tech behemoths. That’s the analysis of Jonathan Taplin in the new book MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS: How Facebook, Google, and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy. Taplin is director emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California. He’s had a wide-ranging career that began in the 1960s as road manager for Bob Dylan and The Band, movie producer for Martin Scorsese, and - as a consequence - he was the executive producer of The Last Waltz, the landmark 1976 concert film documenting the final show by that The Band.

Our conversation took place before a live audience at Nashville’s City Winery in March 2017 as part of a book tour stop presented by Nashville’s Who Knew speaker series. Taplin outlines his case against Google, Facebook and Apple and offers some ideas to tilt the playing field back toward the interests of creators.

Also in this hour, an unaired interview with Col. Bruce Hampton and a historic return to the Ryman Auditorium by Emmylou Harris. 

The dream of a democratic internet has become a dystopia of unregulated monopolies. Creators are being devastated - deprived of their income and control by a handful of tech behemoths. That’s the analysis of Jonathan Taplin in the new book MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS: How Facebook, Google, and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy. Taplin is director emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California. He’s had a wide-ranging career that began in the 1960s as road manager for Bob Dylan and The Band, movie producer for Martin Scorsese, and - as a consequence - he was the executive producer of The Last Waltz, the landmark 1976 concert film documenting the final show by that The Band.

Our conversation took place before a live audience at Nashville’s City Winery in March 2017 as part of a book tour stop presented by Nashville’s Who Knew speaker series. Taplin outlines his case against Google, Facebook and Apple and offers some ideas to tilt the playing field back toward the interests of creators.

Also in this hour, an unaired interview with Col. Bruce Hampton and a historic return to the Ryman Auditorium by Emmylou Harris. 

He’s a singer and a songwriter, a fiddle and mandolin master, a band leader and a valued collaborator.  Tim O’Brien has few peers in his influence on American roots music over the past 40 years. He formed the band Hot Rize in 1978 in Boulder CO with banjo player Pete Wernick, guitarist Charles Sawtelle and bass player Nick Forster. That quartet became arguably the most popular and influential bluegrass band of the 1980s and Hot Rize inspired a vibrant bluegrass scene in Colorado with its own strains and sounds. When the IBMA inaugurated its award show in 1990, Hot Rize won the first Ent of the Year prize.

There’s been much more - a varied solo career, duo albums considered folk masterpieces with his sister Mollie, an album called Red on Blonde that set the gold standard for Bob Dylan cover records and numerous collaborations with musicians from the US and the UK. Along the way he’s had songs recorded by Garth Brooks, Alison Krauss and others. He co-founded the Earls of Leicester, the Flatt & Scruggs inspired band that’s become the toast of bluegrass. He’s been a case study in excellence and steadiness.

Tim OBrien’s newest album mingles original and cover songs dedicated to the state where it all began for him - West Virginia. It’s called Where The River Meets The Road.