The String

Sammy Brue and Jonathan Bernstein Remember Justin Townes Earle

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 351: Justin Townes Earle, blazingly gifted and deeply troubled, died of an accidental drug overdose in 2020 at the age of 38, after a life bes...

David Wilcox

10 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 350: Since breaking out with his 1989 major-label album How Did You Find Me Here, North Carolina's David Wilcox has been a consistently excell...

Voices From Folk Alliance 2026

06 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 349: For its 38th annual conference, Folk Alliance International returned to New Orleans, home of their largest-ever event (2020's draw of 3,6...

Kristina Train

02 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 348: Kristina Train is a singer and songwriter who should be on more people's radar. Her remarkable resume was built in the jazz world (Blue N...

Rachael & Vilray

16 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 347: Rachael Price became an American fixture as the dynamic and flawless lead singer of roots/pop phenomenon Lake Street Dive. Long before sh...

Molly Tuttle

11 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 346: To say that a lot has happened since Molly Tuttle last appeared on The String in 2019 would be an understatement. She's won two Grammy Aw...

Jacob Jolliff

13 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 345:  Last year, The String got a new opening theme tune. "Vera" comes from New York based mandolin virtuoso, composer and band leader Jacob ...

Ashley Monroe

18 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 344: Ashley Monroe moved to Nashville just after 10th grade from East Tennessee with a single-minded drive to sing and write country music. He...

Rosie Flores

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 343: Her name is made of flowers. And she's been spreading bouquets of joy and open-hearted country and rockabilly for more than 50 years. She...

Daniel Donato

02 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode #342: Daniel Donato became one of Nashville's more revered electric guitar players during his three years playing four nights a week at Robert...

Luther Dickinson Returns

24 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 341: Since co-founding the history-making, history-preserving North Mississippi Allstars almost 30 years ago, Luther Dickinson has taken his g...

Robert Randolph

20 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 340: Robert Randolph had no plans or dreams to take his fiery talents on the pedal steel guitar beyond the New Jersey church where he grew up ...

Marcus King

12 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 339: South Carolina guitar wizard and powerhouse singer Marcus King has come through the valley of shadows, breaking self-destructive habits a...

Tift Merritt plus Tony Kamel

04 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 338: North Carolina songwriter Tift Merritt became an instant star of Americana music when she emerged in the early 2000s with Bramble Rose (2...

Ken Pomeroy

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 337: Ken Pomeroy, who turned 23 days after this interview, is a fresh voice not just from the Oklahoma lineage of great roots songwriting and ...

Danny Burns and Shelby Means

21 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 336: In a time when bluegrass is surging with young talent and mainstream dreams, Danny Burns and Shelby Means offer two profiles in making th...

Leslie Jordan

16 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 335: Leslie Jordan, the Nolensville, TN-based songwriter not the late comic actor and singer, makes a major statement in her pivot from a robu...

Shawn Camp

01 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 334: Shawn Camp arrived in Nashville almost 40 years ago as a 20-year-old guitar picker and fiddle player hoping to find a niche. As he gradua...

Rodney Crowell

09 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 333: Rodney Crowell let it slip in the middle of this interview that it was the eve of his 75th birthday. One of America's greatest (and most ...

Tamara Saviano On Americana Music

02 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 332: It's been 30 years since three music business renegades created a radio chart for an emerging alt-country, roots music wave they called A...

Hayes Carll

26 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 331: Hayes Carll is such an admired veteran of the Texas songwriting tradition that his visage is painted on a sign along with Townes Van Zand...

Mason Via

14 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 330: After a three-year tutelage with Old Crow Medicine Show, multi-faceted Appalachian artist Mason Via has set out on his own road. He was r...

Cody Jinks

30 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 329: Few fully independent artists in any genre have been able to grow to the scale and influence that Cody Jinks has pulled off in the outlaw...

Southern Avenue

23 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 328: While it's one of the great music cities in the world, the story of Memphis, TN is generally told as one about Elvis, BB King, Isaac Haye...

Mike Farris

15 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 327: To hear Mike Farris sing - an experience a bit like being pinned to the seat of an accelerating Porsche Taycan - is to believe that he w...

Andrea Zonn

07 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 326: Andrea Zonn has been on my list of possible Music City star musicians to be a guest on the show for some time, but her new project the He...

John Cowan

07 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 325: In 1972, a 19-year-old bass player and natural born singer from Kentucky and Indiana auditioned for an emerging band called New Grass Rev...

The SteelDrivers

24 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 324: It's hard to believe that Nashville's SteelDrivers have been making their unique brand of hard-core string band music for nearly twenty y...

Larry & Joe

20 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Special Episode: The story of how global banjo explorer Joe Troop (formerly of Che Apalache) met Venezuelan harpist and all-around folk music master L...

Music City Postcard: Durham, NC

04 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 323: This episode of The String is a field report from the city that raised me in the 1970s and 80s and gave me my foundation in music, from c...

Vincent Neil Emerson

26 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 322: Texas songwriter Vincent Neil Emerson graduated from playing on the streets and in the bars of Fort Worth to tours with Colter Wall and A...

Kristina Murray

15 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 321: Atlanta native Kristina Murray moved to Nashville in 2014 with a fresh and original debut album and steely determination. The country sin...

JD Clayton

12 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 320: JD Clayton is one of the first emerging artists to release music in an era of new leadership at the historic Rounder Records in Nashville...

Jeremie Albino and Tyler Grant

30 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 319: This week's split episode looks at songwriting and musicianship from two very different points of view. Toronto's Jeremie Albino is a pow...

Miss Tess

18 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 318: Over a 15-year career that began in Boston's jazz and old-time scene, Nashville-based Miss Tess has distinguished herself with a hybrid b...

Olivia Wolf

15 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 317: As the new year dawned, the first emerging artist that started buzzing on our radar was a California native living in Nashville with an e...

Sean McConnell

02 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 316: Sean McConnell was born to do this. His parents were working songwriters who helped him get started as a teen in Atlanta. He landed a lon...

Adam Wright

21 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 315: Adam Wright is one of the most thoughtful wordsmiths in the Nashville songwriting community, one who's seen all sides of the Music Row ma...

Pete Bernhard of The Devil Makes Three

13 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 314: The Devil Makes Three has been one of roots music's outstanding if quiet success stories of the past twenty years. Formed in Santa Cruz, ...

Sierra Hull

28 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episoded 313: Sierra Hull brings a measure of small-town delight and innocence to roots and bluegrass that perfectly compliments her innate gifts and ...

Bluegrass Singer Russell Moore

19 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 312: In one of the big surprise stories in roots music of the past six months, bluegrass star and IIIrd Tyme Out founder Russell Moore was nam...

Red Young

13 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Epidode 311: When I met lifelong musician Red Young on board Delbert McClinton's Sandy Beaches Cruise, I knew I had to interview him. He's had one of ...

Gary Nicholson

06 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 310: It would be hard to name any songwriter in Nashville's long history whose work has been recorded by more stars across more genres of musi...

Sam Grisman

31 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 309: Sam Grisman, the 35-year-old son of mandolin icon David "Dawg" Grisman, grew up in a unique and supercharged musical environment, to put ...

Kaitlin Butts

28 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 308: For country singer Kaitlin Butts, 2023 was very good and 2024 was even better, with an Americana Award nomination, praise in Rolling Ston...

Mickey Raphael

22 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 307: It was 50 years ago this month that a 23-year-old Mickey Raphael felt his way through his first recording session with his relatively new...

Jessie Scott

06 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 306: This one's personal. Eight years ago, when we launched the Roots Radio format on the historic signal WMOT 89.5 FM, a few of us knew we co...

Jerron Paxton

31 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 305: Traditional acoustic blues has seen one of its periodic revivals, with more younger African American artists involved than any time I can...

Humbird

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 304: One of my highlights of 2024 was finally getting to see Minneapolis folk rocker Humbird, an artist whose three recordings display an unus...

Grayson Capps

06 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 303: "I like dark songs. I don't know why," says Grayson Capps early on in our interview. "Cheerful songs don't do much for me." The Lower Al...

Producer/Musicologist Joe Boyd

19 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 302: Joe Boyd is one of the most accomplished and eclectic record producers in the story of popular music. As an American living in London, he...

Uncle Lucius and Yarn

11 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 301: Americana music has been most conspicuously represented in the last few years by songwriting, band-leading artists, including Jason Isbel...

Gaby Moreno

04 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 300: When Gaby Moreno was announced as an official showcasing artist at this Fall's Americanafest, it stirred a tingle of recognition in me, b...

Danny Paisley and John Reischman

01 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode #299: While the public has become hyper aware of Billy Strings on his rocket ride to the top of bluegrass, only a small retinue of the music's...

Bronwyn Keith-Hynes and AJ Lee

25 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 298: Molly Tuttle is the link in common between two exceptional breakout artists during an exciting era of bluegrass music. Bronwyn Keith-Hyne...

JesseLee Jones and Robert's Western World

08 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 297: It's an immigrant story like no other. JesseLee Jones pined for something bigger growing up in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He got glimpses of Amer...

Sophie Gault plus Wyatt Ellis

24 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 296: With Americanafest landing in Nashville, Craig Havighurst looked over the many  artists breaking out of Music City and got especially ex...

Stephanie Lambring

16 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 295: Stephanie Lambring's new album - her second - is called Hypocrisy, and it blew me away on first listen because of the way its crafty, und...

Rhett Miller of Old 97's

12 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 294: Formed in Dallas in 1992, Old 97's became one of the seminal bands of the alternative country movement, alongside Whiskeytown, Son Volt, ...

Alice Randall's My Black Country

04 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 293: The conversation about Black influence on and presence in country music has been intense and restorative over the past decade, and nobody...

Madeleine Peyroux

20 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 292: When singer Madeleine Peyroux released her breakout album Careless Love in 2004, her voice and phrasing, with echoes of Billie Holiday an...

Kim Richey plus Jared Deck

17 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 291: Thirty years into her late-blooming music career, Kim Richey feels like Americana music's favorite aunt. She's hip, youthful, incredibly ...

Kyshona

30 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 290: In a bit over a decade in Nashville, Kyshona has become a figure respected for her wisdom and valued as a songwriter/artist. Her 2020 alb...

Ellen Angelico

02 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 289: Ellen Angelico has emerged in the past few years as a go-to stringed instrument musician in the Americana and indie sectors of Nashville....

Athens, Georgia

27 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 288: In this special edition of The String, I present an audio postcard from Athens GA, a city of about 125,000 people just east of Atlanta t...

Cris Jacobs plus Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams

21 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 287: Cris Jacobs has been tagged the "King of Baltimore rock and roll" by a leading local publication, but a quick look at his catalog and cer...

John Craigie plus Chatham County Line

06 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 285: As I say in the opening of this week's show, it's one thing to get applause for your songs, and it's another to get laughs. John Craigie ...

Maggie Rose

31 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 284: Maggie Rose returns to the String for a full hour this time, because her new album No One Gets Out Alive marks yet another leap for this ...

Rev. Shawn Amos and The Secret Sisters

22 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 283: It's a split episode this week featuring a renaissance man of roots music from a "famous" background and a duo from Alabama who've been o...

Charlie Parr

14 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 282: For twenty years, Duluth, MN troubadour Charlie Parr has been touring every corner of the nation, sleeping in his van and living lean, to...

Bahamas And Kelsey Waldon

14 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 281: There are countless reasons to pay homage to the legacy of country music and almost as many different ways to do so. Both of my guests th...

Jerry Garcia's Bluegrass Journey

23 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 280: It's taken decades for the nature and impact of Jerry Garcia's formative years as a musician and band leader to emerge and become semi-co...

Suzy Bogguss

27 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 278: Suzy Bogguss started playing and performing on a hand-me-down guitar from her sister in small-town Illinois. After a few years making a l...

Vince Herman plus Kyle Tuttle

19 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 277: Few pickers have toured harder or traveled farther than jamgrass veteran Vince Herman, who co-founded the iconic Leftover Salmon 34 years...

John Leventhal

14 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 276: John Leventhal is one of the quiet achievers of American roots music going back more than 30 years. Early on as a guitar player in his na...

Byron House with Kyle Frederick

01 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 275: This week's show begins with an ode to the studio and stage musicians who come up with parts and make the singers and stars sound great, ...

Clay Ross and The American Patchwork Quartet

20 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 274: Beyond his skills as a guitarist and singer, Clay Ross is what I like to call a Musical Instigator. Since heading to his current base in ...

Delbert McClinton's Sandy Beaches Cruise

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 273: Thirty years ago, legendary R&B singer Delbert McClinton proved he was ahead of his time by launching his Sandy Beaches Cruise, a January...

Lola Kirke

09 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 272: Lola Kirke got on America's cultural radar as an actress - starring in the Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle, along with roles in Gone G...

Gabe Lee

31 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 271: In just five years, including the pandemic shut-down, Nashville native Gabe Lee has grown from an unknown "hometown kid," as one of his t...

Allison Miller plus Sofia Goodman

22 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 270: In an episode that revisits the netherworld between Americana and jazz, I speak with two extraordinary female drummer/composers who are a...

Rosanne Cash plus Jobi Riccio

09 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 269:  Rosanne Cash says she's a forward-looking artist and thinker, not prone to looking back. But when she regained control over the master ...

Tré Burt

20 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 268: The late John Prine's team at Oh Boy Records in Nashville put the little-known west coast songwriter Tré Burt on the national Americana/...

The Henhouse Prowlers

13 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 267: When Ben Wright, then 28 years old, saw a banjo for sale in the window at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music, he had no idea how far...

Lindsay Lou

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 266: Lindsay Lou grew up surrounded by community folk music in Michigan, and when she connected with a scene and a band in East Lansing where ...

Cruz Contreras and Logan Ledger

22 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 265: Two great male voices in new Americana. Cruz Contreras has been a key player in the East Tennessee music scene for twenty years, steerin...

Eilen Jewell plus Jenny Owen Youngs

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 264: One might imagine that after 17 years singing country music and releasing ten albums, an artist would have shared all of her secrets with...

Robert Finley

31 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 263: Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound in Nashville has been one of the key discovery points for roots music in the past decade. And thanks to the...

Emerging Americana 2023

25 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 262: There's no better forum to survey what's happening at the cutting edge of roots music than AmericanaFest, and 2023's huge edition was no ...

Lori McKenna

18 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 261: She's the hit Nashville songwriter who never moved to Nashville, staying instead in her hometown near Boston. She's the power mom who wro...

Darrell Scott

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 260: Darrell Scott emerged in the late 1990s as one of Nashville's most complete folk/roots artists. He had the butter of James Taylor and the...

Amelia White

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 259: When East Nashville emerged as a nationally important music scene in the early 2000s, Amelia White was one of the reasons. Like so many o...

Sam Teskey of the Teskey Brothers

11 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 258: For a band that released its independent debut album in 2017, the Teskey Brothers have come a long way. From our perspective here in Nash...

Val Storey and Larry Cordle

01 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 257: When you live in Nashville and chase the essence of country music, you find it's very much alive at residency shows like New Monday at th...

Vince Gill and Paul Franklin

23 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 256: Vince Gill and Paul Franklin, titans of Nashville music, first recorded together in 1989 and have been friends even longer than that. Gil...

Ed Snodderly plus Miles Miller

17 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 255: Ed Snodderly is more than just an exceptional singer-songwriter. He's a culture maker and culture keeper for the rich roots music region ...

The Band of Heathens

11 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 254: Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist have built a remarkable creative partnership over the past 17  years, ever since their fates collided at an Aus...

Brennen Leigh

03 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 253: Brennen Leigh moved decisively beyond the pandemic and the end of a long partnership to release three remarkable albums in less than thre...

Peter One

28 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 252: The story of Peter One is as warming as his music. As a young man in his native Côte d'Ivoire, he latched on to folk and country music m...

Fruit Bats and Cat Clyde

15 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 250: Craig contemplates genre-bending while introducing two guests this week who straddle the seemingly disparate worlds of indie rock and fol...