We take a trip south and west to the Lone Star State for this episode on two great songwriters comparing notes on each other’s latest music, and reaching for a mutual favorite from western North Carolina to talk about in our Three Song Set with Tony Kamel and Kelley Mickwee.

You may remember Tony from our previous episode with his Austin band, Wood & Wire. You can find their episode Grass That Goes Against the Grain here. Kelley was a Shiny Soul Sister in Shinyribs until recently, when she went back to releasing music under her own name for the first time in seven years. She also sang on Tony’s song “Who Am I Kidding?” which she profiles here. Tony picked up on her new single “Boomtown To Bust”, while they both talk about their love for the band Town Mountain’s song “Texas/New Mexico Line” going all the way back to their 2008 album Heroes & Heretics (they were profiled on this series in a 2019 episode here).

Tony Kamel in the recording studio

Kelley Mickwee

Songs heard in this episode:

“Who Am I Kidding?” by Tony Kamel from Back Down Home, excerpt

“Boomtown To Bust” by Kelley Mickwee, excerpt

“Texas/New Mexico Line” by Town Mountain from Heroes & Heretics, excerpt

Thanks to our guests Kelley and Tony, and thank you for listening. What did you think? You can contact us on our social media via Instagram, Twitter or Facebook (all linked in the banner here) and you can also drop a line by emailing [email protected]. Please take a moment and follow the series on the podcast platforms you are using; it will help even more when you give us a top rating and even more so with a good review, because the show’s visibility to everyone using those platforms depends largely on followers, ratings and reviews. Southern Songs and Stories is a part of the podcast lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes of this podcast on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to Corrie Askew for producing the radio adaptations of this series on WNCW, and to Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs. I’m your host and producer Joe Kendrick, and this is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it.