This week on The String, Molly Tuttle is the link in common between two of the exceptional breakout artists during an exciting era of bluegrass music. Bronwyn Keith-Hynes is the electrifying fiddle player in Tuttle’s band Golden Highway and a two time IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year. We get into her journey from Charlottesville, VA to school at Berklee to Nashville and the latest chapter in her solo life, the wonderful album I Built A World. AJ Lee and Tuttle go back even farther, to the family band they shared growing up in the fertile bluegrass community of California. AJ Lee, an exceptional and original singer, has led her own band Blue Summit for nine years, and their newest album City Of Glass is one reason they were nominated as IBMA New Artist of the Year for 2024.
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About every two years it seems, the community and family around the late John Hartford and his artistic legacy make a move that gives me an opportunity to talk about a Nashville legend and a hero to nearly everyone in today’s string band music scene. On Monday night, dozens of fiddle aficionados gathered at the funky American Legion Post 82 in East Nashville for Hartford’s Mammoth Marathon, a performance of all 176 fiddle tunes collected in a Mammoth anthology, which was published in 2018. -
It’s an immigrant story like no other. JesseLee Jones pined for something bigger growing up in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He got glimpses of American music and a guitar, and with that a long journey began. After landing in the states, and getting robbed by the way, he found his way to a family in the midwest who took him in and helped him build a life. In the early 90s, destiny brought him to Nashville and a ramshackle honky tonk and boot store that he would help turn into Robert’s Western World, the pivotal and most famous honky tonk in Nashville. On the 25th anniversary of owning and running this legendary club, Jones tells his story, including the formation of his own long-running band, Brazilbilly. -
One might think that Artificial Intelligence has no place in musical genres grounded in authenticity, but so-called progress has a way of influencing areas of creativity, even where many don’t welcome it. In a special report from Americanafest 2024, MTSU student and Sidelines Editor Kailee Shores investigates the threats and opportunities of AI in the human act of music creation in the roots world.
LINER NOTES
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Check out these performances of songs from all eleven of our Mansion Sessions artists. These sessions were released on 9/3 and 9/10. -
The Lone Bellow stopped by the WMOT East Nashville Studio for a Words & Music performance with Jessie Scott. -
WMOT VIDEO: LIVE SESSIONS ON NPR MUSIC
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Mary Gauthier and Jaimee Harris performed "The Meadow" and "Mercy Now" for WMOT's secret Mansion Sessions, recorded live from inside Two Rivers Mansion during this year's Roots on the Rivers festival. -
Sarah & Shannon perform "Born A Tornado" and "Emotional Hangover" for WMOT's Mansion Sessions, recorded live from inside Two Rivers Mansion during this year's Roots on the Rivers festival. -
Watch Strung Like A Horse, BettySoo, and Los Lonely Boys perform LIVE for WMOT's monthly Wired In concert series at Riverside Revival in Nashville, TN at 6:30 p.m. CST on October 8th, 2024. -
Jaime Wyatt performs "Fugitive" and "Love is a Place" for WMOT's secret Mansion Sessions, recorded live from inside Two Rivers Mansion during this year's Roots on the Rivers festival.
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Rosita Milesi was honored with the U.N. Refugee Agency's Nansen Award for 40 years of activism. The U.N. calls her a “formidable refugee champion.” And she has life lessons to share. -
The German airline barred 128 Jewish passengers from their May 2022 connecting flight based on the alleged misconduct of a few. The U.S. government considers that discrimination; Lufthansa disagrees. -
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Win a pair of tickets to Graham Nash at the CMA Theater April 5, 2025
Win a pair of tickets to Old & In The Way at Ryman Auditorium on January 9, 2025
January 5th-12th Ft. Lauderdale FL, Key West, Belize City & Cozumel.
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