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For a duo called the Secret Sisters, Laura Rogers and Lydia Slagle let their relationship hang right out there on stage. At a packed late April show at Nashville’s Basement East, amid masterful renditions of their new and familiar songs for a spellbound audience, the sisters niggled each other, rolled their eyes, and came off at times like siblings who’d maybe been cooped up together in a van too long. And at the same time, this banter, which gets laughs, is an endearing part of their show and their relationship with their fans. On record and in performance, the Secret Sisters have been all about harmony since launching on their rollercoaster ride in the music business around 2010. But in Episode 283 of the String, we get into the unique challenges and blessings of sharing everything with each other and the audience, year in and year out.
  • The Wonder Women of Country, a side project of busy Americana songwriter/artists Brennen Leigh, Kelly Willis and Melissa Carper, started in 2021 as a touring vehicle for three friends with compatible visions of country music. Fans have been loving it, and naturally they started asking if there was a recording to take home. The WWOC have made good on that desire with a self-titled EP, released on March 15.
  • After more than a decade helming her progressive acoustic band The New Hip, bass player Missy Raines has reconfigured and turned back to the music she was raised on and the genre for which she’s been named Bass Player of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association ten times, most recently in 2021. Her new band is called Allegheny, and her new album Highlander finds her singing about the lonesome wind, fast-moving trains, and more weighty and contemporary subjects in the old school style.
  • Few pickers have toured harder or traveled farther than jamgrass veteran Vince Herman, who co-founded the iconic Leftover Salmon 34 years ago in Colorado. Yet there are always new things to try, so he’s added the band The High Hawks to his list of collaborations. Our sit-down visit was sparked by that band’s album Mother Nature’s Show doing so well on the Americana chart and by his own recent move from Colorado to Nashville, where he’s become a hub of the picking scene and an avid co-writer. We cover a lot of ground from his origins in Pittsburgh and West Virginia to the everlasting desire to play the next show. Also in the hour, progressive banjo player Kyle Tuttle calls in from a fishing trip to talk about his years with Molly Tuttle and his new solo album Labor Of Lust.
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