Craig Havighurst

The River Arts District of Asheville, an engine of creative culture, was nearly wiped out by the storm.

Long, tall Mickey Raphael strode into WMOT’s East Nashville studio last week looking fit and hip (particularly so for 73 years old) and ready for his closeup. I don’t mean the interview we were getting ready to tape, but ready for the show he’s getting ready to play on Dec. 3. Raphael has played thousands of shows as the ever-present harmonica man for country icon Willie Nelson. But next week, at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl, for the first time ever, he’ll be the name on the marquee.

Grammy Award season began on Nov. 8 when the nominations were announced. The American Roots categories are looking good, lining up pretty well with my feelings about the best albums released in the past year. This week we spin tracks from all of the Best Bluegrass Album nominees: Brownwyn Keith-Hynes, Billy Strings, Sister Sadie, Dan Tyminski and Tony Trischka. But we know those folks and I want to turn your attention to a newcomer to the show, though certainly not in bluegrass music – Tim Raybon. He’s a Florida native, brother of Marty Raybon and half of the Raybon Brothers, who earned a CMA nomination for Duo of the Year in the late 1990s. Tim’s band soars here with Osborne Brothers style harmonies on an old Dallas Frazier / Doodle Owens song, “Walk Softly On The Bridges.” Also in the mix, folk singer John R. Miller and banjo composer Hillary Hawke, also spun on the show for the first time.

“I like dark songs. I don't know why,” says Grayson Capps early on in Episode 303 of The String. “Cheerful songs don't do much for me.” The Lower Alabama bluesman and songwriter is talking about both his career in general and his seventh album in particular, with the un-cheerful title Heartbreak, Misery & Death

Like the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, East Tennessee bluegrass band Seth Mulder and Midnight Run got their start as a house band at Ole Smokey Moonshine in Gatlinburg. Since then the quintet has built an outstanding reputation in the business, and they’re poised to be one of the next major acts. 2023 saw them win their first SPBGMA award for their Song of the Year “My My My,” which we’ve played here. This week we open with their new single “Looking Past The Pain (The Cowboy Song)”. Then we pair that with a classic western number from Don Edwards and Peter Rowan, because that’s how we roll. Also new this week, Alison Brown, Steve Martin and Vince Gill teamed up to make a song about a guitar that hangs on the wall. Andy Leftwich offers a fiddle version of the gospel standard “Talk About Suffering.” And Amy slipped me her duo’s new one, so the second set begins with Golden Shoals playing the fiddle tune “And The Cat Came Back.”

Over the past 20 years, Caleb Klauder and Reeb Willms have emerged as the first couple of old-time string band and traditional country music in the Pacific Northwest. They’ve made themselves staples through their duo act, Klauder’s self-named band, and the origin of their renown, the almost 25-year-old Foghorn Stringband.

My notes from Humbird ’s official showcase at Americanafest 2024 are full of urgent scrawls and exclamation points, even a couple (approving) f-bombs. It all made quite an impression. The songwriter/artist, whom I’ll address by her given name, Siri Undlin, sang beautifully, played electric guitar, and twiddled knobs on her pedalboard with bare feet. Her band was streamlined and tuned in: drummer Nate LeBrun and bass player Pat Keen, who had even more elaborate effects at his feet. Keen would also play, from time to time, a small synthesizer. But my central memory from this smart, funky, intoxicating set is Siri’s almost constant smile, even as she sang about some complex stuff.

Colin O’Brien is a steadfast friend to the East Nashville acoustic roots and bluegrass scene, known for his banjo and fiddle playing, his flatfoot dancing, and his John Hartford-inspired bowler hat. So it came as a surprise, to me anyway, when he broke cover on his history as a fingerstyle guitar player and his compositional command with a new album.

Who are these people who say that there’s no great music being released anymore - you know, not like when they were young? Maybe they’re just online trolls, but in any event, they couldn’t be more out of touch. We’re in a golden age of music making, and 2024 was another year to prove it. While the quantity of new roots music can be intimidating, the quality is widely distributed across many regions, styles and subgenres. Helping you know where you might listen and learn is the purpose of this - my ninth annual Essential and Outstanding Americana Albums list, which I’m proud to share with you.

Is Nashville’s diversification and rapid growth ultimately compatible with the village-like, art-first ethos that’s made so many of us want to live and create here? That question has been debated in the cultural community for years, but less so in the halls of power, where decisions about zoning, development, arts funding and historic preservation are made. Now though, in a double dose of civic analysis, two studies released in the second half of this year uncover important new data and put hard policy choices on the doorstep of the Metro Council and new Mayor Freddie O’Connell. Meanwhile, a new fund-raising festival for independent venues will take place early in 2025, a sign of the sector continuing to take matters into its own hands.