The Yolo County Breakdown

This week Rocky has a few brand new tracks - one from Benson and one from Alan Bibey that also features Sierra Hull and Ronnie McCoury. A feast for mandolin lovers! Plus oldies from Martin, Watson, and Monroe and an obscure duet from Richard Greene and Tony Rice that is as adventurous as Richard gets!

Rocky spins great music from the Stanley Brothers, East Nash Grass, Phil Leadbetter and lots more. New tracks from newgrass trio Tanasi and bluegrass songster Mason Via are here as well. Enjoy!

Rocky is back from vacation, and the bluegrass flows on! Mark O'Connor dazzles with a live track, Sarah Jarosz struts her stuff, and a classic duet from Bill Monroe and Doc Watson take us all the way back to the forefathers. Enjoy!

Hall of Famer and 15-time Grammy winner Ricky Skaggs drops by to have a chat with Rocky! In 1977, Ricky left J.D. Crowe's band along with Jerry Douglas and formed Boone Creek - a short lived but highly influential band that would record 2 albums together. Their first album is getting reissued on vinyl, and Ricky and Rocky discuss this and more!

Two absolute legends join Rocky this week. One plays the banjo like no one else on earth, and one sings with a voice that comes from another planet altogether. Bela Fleck and Renee Fleming are two artists at the absolute top of their fields and they have partnered up for a new album called The Fiddle and the Drum. This week they join Rocky and have a conversation you will not want to miss.

Ralph Stanley plays the traditional and the Kronos Quartet plays the avant-garde, but Rocky doesn't care. He plays them both! Plus a whole lot more in between - even including one from the Boss! Bruce Springsteen on the Yolo County Breakdown? Yes indeed and yesirree.

The latest guitar barn burner from Bryan Sutton and Jake Stargel, Tom T. Hall's take on Rank Stranger, and a great song from Steve Martin and Edie Brickell all feature on this week's Yolo County Breakdown. Plus one of the darkest of all the bluegrass murder songs ever written - delivered through the hands of the Osborne Brothers. Too scary to play during Halloween time, se we do it now!

This week Rocky has a brand new duet from Mason Via and Lucinda Williams along with the latest from mandolin phenom Wyatt Ellis and Junior Sisk's old outfit the Red Camel Collective. Lots of bluegrass festivals starting to happen! It's summertime and the pickin' is easy!

With the official beginning of summer almost here, Rocky brings the heat with barn burner instrumentals from Wyatt Rice, Flatt & Scruggs, and the freshman debut of the Tony Rice Unit. But lots of singers are featured too, including Claire Lynch, Iris DeMent and Mason Via. Stay cool bluegrass fans!

Hall of Famer and 15-time Grammy winner Ricky Skaggs drops by to have a chat with Rocky! In 1977, Ricky left J.D. Crowe's band along with Jerry Douglas and formed Boone Creek - a short lived but highly influential band that would record 2 albums together. Their first album is getting reissued on vinyl, and Ricky and Rocky discuss this and more!