When the curtain falls on 2024, it will be hard to name an Americana/roots band that had a better year than Alabama’s Red Clay Strays. Last October, they traveled by van and played 3rd & Lindsley to a few hundred people. By the time they pulled their new bus in for their debut at the Ryman Auditorium in September, they had enough momentum to sell out three nights. That run has been curated into Live At The Ryman, announced recently for a quick turn Nov. 15 release, and that’s just the latest landmark in a remarkable rise.
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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.
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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.
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.
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The Lone Bellow stopped by the WMOT East Nashville Studio for a Words & Music performance with Jessie Scott.
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WMOT VIDEO: LIVE SESSIONS ON NPR MUSIC
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BettySoo, Strung Like A Horse, and Los Lonely Boys performed last week at Riverside Revival for WMOT's Wired In series. Watch highlights from their performances here.
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Denitia performed "Back to You" and "Gettin' Over" for WMOT's Mansion Sessions, recorded live from inside Two Rivers Mansion during this year's Roots on the Rivers festival.
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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.
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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.
NPR Top Stories
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Lee Hsien Yang, the brother of Singapore's former prime minister, said he is a "political refugee" after the U.K. government granted him asylum from what he described as persecution at home.
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An NPR investigation has found that since 2022, Trump has repeatedly threatened to investigate, prosecute, jail or otherwise punish his political opponents, rivals and even private citizens.
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Lt. Cmdr. Lyndsay “Miley” Evans and Lt. Serena “Dug” Wileman were both 31 and from California, and recently served nine months on a tour in Yemen.
Win a pair of tickets to Jason Isbell at The Pinnacle on March 20, 2025
Win a pair of tickets to Father John Misty at Ryman Auditorium on February 14, 2025
January 5th-12th Ft. Lauderdale FL, Key West, Belize City & Cozumel.
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