The WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour Podcast

BABY GRAMPS is an energetic humorously entertaining performer with an endless repertoire. He plays a National Steel guitar, and sings his own unique arrangements of rags, jazz, & blues from the 20's & 30's, and many originals with wordplay, humor, and throat singing. According to an article in Seattle Metropolitan Magazine, Baby Gramps is acknowledged as one of the top 50 most influential musicians in the last 100 years. This past year Baby Gramps was asked to be part of three films.

LULA WILES is the trio made up of Isa Burke, Eleanor Buckland, and Mali Obomsawin and came of age in Boston, in the practice rooms of Berklee College of Music and the city’s lively roots scene. Anchoring the band’s sharp, provocative songcraft is a mastery of folk music, and a willingness to subvert its hallowed conventions. They infuse their songs with distinctly modern sounds: pop hooks, distorted electric guitars, and dissonant multi-layered vocals, all employed in the service of songs that reclaim folk music in their own voice. ‘What Will We Do’ is the trio’s sophomore album and out Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

WoodSongs Kids: The Grandview Pickers are an up-and-coming bluegrass band from Grandview, Tennessee.

SCOTT MULVAHILL is a world-renowned upright bassist, multi-instrumentalist,frontman and singer-songwriter. For the past decade, Mulvahill has left his unique mark on the intersecting worlds of Americana, bluegrass, folk, jazz, rock & roll, and roots music. Already acclaimed for his work alongside icons like Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby, he turns a new page with ‘Himalayas’, a versatile solo album that celebrates the full spread of his abilities.

NEW REVEILLE is a Raleigh, North Carolina Americana band whose distinctive talents find common ground in traditions that stretch back to and beyond early America. On that foundation, through their varied gifts, they build a unique sound that encompasses the virtues of music that came before and the promise of what it might yet become. Rolling Stone Country named them as one of the “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know,” and described their sound as, “Twangy, truck-driving music that runs on classical gas.” The band’s latest album is ‘The Keep’.

WoodSongs Kid: Lafayette Saxophone Quartet are accomplished high school musicians hailing from Lexington, Kentucky.

SUGARAY RAYFORD is a Texas-born soul blues singer nominated for two blues music awards in 2019 including B.B. King Entertainer of the Year. Possessing a magnetic personality, and an old school vocal style that echoes Muddy Waters, Otis Redding and Teddy Pendergrass, Rayford is also a stellar dancer with moves reminiscent of the Legendary James Brown. ‘Somebody Save Me’ on Forty Below Records is an ambitious album that slides gracefully between the new blues of Gary Clarke Jr. and Fantastic Negrito, the rock & soul stylings of The War & Treaty and the vintage Daptones soul of the late Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones, bringing a fresh take to classic sounds.

LIZ BRASHER makes her own kind of southern music. She's a soul singer. A guitar-playing rocker. A one-woman girl group. A gospel revivalist who sings the praises of secular bands like the Box Tops. It's a diverse sound rooted in the influence of Brasher's two homes: her adopted hometown of Memphis, where she recorded her debut LP, Painted Image, for Fat Possum Records; and her childhood stomping grounds in rural North Carolina, where she was raised in a musical, multi-ethnic household.

WoodSongs Kid: George Fields is a twelve year old banjo picker from Stamping Ground, Kentucky.

CHERISH THE LADIES are the long-running, Grammy-nominated, Irish-American super group that formed in New York City in 1985 to celebrate the rise of women in what had been a male-dominated Irish music scene. The group has since toured the world, played the White House and the Olympics, recorded 17 outstanding albums including a live recording, “An Irish Homecoming,” which was simultaneously videotaped for a Public Television Special that aired across America and won an Emmy. Under the leadership of All-Ireland flute and whistle champion Joanie Madden, named by The Irish Voice Newspaper as one of the Top 25 most influential Irish Americans of the past quarter century, these ladies create an evening that includes a spectacular blend of virtuoso instrumental talents, beautiful vocals, captivating arrangements, and stunning step dancing

THE TIM O'BRIEN BAND features the five piece acoustic lineup of Tim on vocals, guitar, mandolin and fiddle, Mike Bub bass and vocals, Shad Cobb fiddle, Jan Fabricius vocals, and Patrick Sauber banjo, guitar and vocals. Tim has walked many musical paths in his career from singer songwriter and honky tonk crooner to Celtic troubadour and old time cultivator. Tim first toured nationally in the 1980s with Colorado bluegrass band Hot Rize. Kathy Mattea scored a country hit with his song and soon more artists like Nickel Creek and Garth Brooks covered his songs. Kathy Mattea Tim lands with two feet squarely back in bluegrass on the band’s new self titled debut album.

WoodSongs Kid: Caleb Moore is a nine year old piano player from Lexington, Kentucky.

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CATHERINE BRITT is an award winning Australian singer/songwriter. Raised in regional Australia (Gunnedah, NSW), Catherine made the move to the home of country music at just 17 years old after recording her debut album, which garnered the attention of Elton John and RCA Records. The critical acclaim for her albums and reputation as a performer has seen Catherine tour and perform with some of the biggest names in music, including Sir Elton John, Don McLean, Keith Urban, Dolly Parton, and more. Her recent album, ‘Catherine Britt & The Cold Cold Hearts’, is an album that rattles and rolls with life, energy and honest, autobiographical songwriting.

LOCKWOOD BARR is a Tiburon, Calif. native songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Her successes include CMA Emerging Artist, an Independent Country Music Association Award as banjo player for the Nashvegas Ramblers, and a 2016 Music Row Magazine Discovery Award for her song “Forgotten How to Cry.” With a mother who performed with John Hartford and the Dillards, a dad who taught her banjo, and a cousin, Al Barr, who fronts the Dropkick Murphys, she can’t remember a time she wasn’t around music. With bluegrass in her blood and determination second to none, she has crafted a unique sound that is here to stay: unapologetically bold yet playfully relatable.

WoodSongs Kid: Candice Gunn is 8 years old, lives in Benton, Kentucky and loves to yodel.

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BUTTON is a new trio made up of John Cowan (Doobie Brothers/New Grass Revival), Ed Toth (Doobie Brothers/Vertical Horizon) and Keith Howland (Chicago). Plus, Lou Pardini (Chicago) joins this hillbilly progressive rock super group in a rare broadcast featuring new music from their debut album.

AMYTHYST KIAH is a professed Southern Gothic, alt-country blues singer/songwriter based in Johnson City, Tennessee. Her commanding stage presence is only matched by her raw and powerful vocals—a deeply moving, hypnotic sound that stirs echoes of a distant and restless past. Accoutered interchangeably with banjo, acoustic guitar, or a full band (Her Chest of Glass), Kiaht’s toolbox is augmented by her scholarship of African-American roots music. Provocative and coolly fierce, her ability to cross the boundaries of blues and old-time through reinterpretation is groundbreaking and simply unforgettable. She has two new releases this year: a solo project on Nonesuch Records produced by Joe Henry and Songs of Our Native Daughter the new roots music supergroup featuring her, Rhiannon Giddens (Carolina Chocolate Drops) Allison Russell (Birds of Chicago), and Leyla McCalla (Carolina Chocolate Drops).

JOE ROBINSON is considered uniquely gifted as a virtuoso guitarist and singer/songwriter. He walks a tightrope between the instrumental music that has put him in the spotlight and a unique fusion of vocally based rock, blues, jazz, and R&B that is entirely his own. Born in the backwoods of Temagog, on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, Australia, his six-string ability and compositional insight have already earned him a worldwide following. Robinson’s talents were further recognized by Guitar Player magazine as part of a cover story entitled “Youthquake 2017: Ten Mind-Blowing Young Guitarists.” He'll perform songs from his new album 'Undertones'.

WoodSong Kid: Bella Guerrie is a 13 year old singer/songwriter from Denver, Colorado.

Tommy Emmanuel & John Knowles are two of the world’s greatest guitarists. Both are masters of their instrument, honored by the iconic Chet Atkins with the rare designation of CGP (Certified Guitar Players). Emmanuel has twice been voted “Best Acoustic Guitarist” by readers of Guitar Player Magazine and honored as both a “Member of the Order of Australia” and an official “Kentucky Colonel”. Knowles is a Grammy winner, a member of the National Thumb Picker’s Hall of Fame, and editor of the respected FingerStyle Quarterly. They will be performing songs from ‘Heart Songs’ their new guitar duet project.

Grace & Chelsea Constable are viral sensation guitar playing sisters from Jonesborough, Tennessee.

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ROAN YELLOWTHORN front woman Jackie McLean, accompanied by producer and multi-instrumentalist Shawn Strack, delivers ethereal indie-rock songs with a singer/songwriter heart. Musically, they are a combo of pop, indie rock and folk featuring Jackie's poetic lyrics backed by Shawn's exquisite mastery of keys, strings and more. Her skills as as a poignant storyteller is fitting, she grew up around music and songwriting being the daughter of legendary 1970's singer-songwriter Don McLean. They recently released ‘Indigo’, their first full-length album, on Blue Élan Records.

CHELSEA WILLIAMS made a name for herself as a musician in Los Angeles in a less than traditional way. She managed to sell nearly 100,000 copies of her independently released records the old fashioned way, by playing on the street. She’s performed on The Today Show and has opened for big names such as the Avett Brothers and Dwight Yoakam, and she’s even had a high-profile guest shot on a Maroon 5 video, dueting with Adam Levine on the group’s No. 1 smash “Daylight (Playing For Change).” He debut album ‘Boomerang’ on Blue Élan Records is a transcendent mix of Americana, indie-folk and lush pop that places the young artist front and center among the preeminent performers of the day.

WoodSongs Kid: Fiddle Frenzy is a performance group of fiddlers from Blair School of Music in Nashville, Tennesse, ranging in age from 7-17.

Folksinger Michael Johnathon and The Ohio Valley Symphony celebrate the music and stories of America's front porch, from Appalachia to Woody Guthrie, Buddy Holly to George Gershwin, Irving Berlin to Vincent Van Gogh and more. Conducted by Tim Berens and recorded at the historic Ariel Opera House in Gallipolis, Ohio.