I've posted a couple of coy, mysterious photos of clear blue ocean on my socials this week, but now I'll come clean. For the second year in a row, I was invited to be an official part of Delbert McClinton's Sandy Beaches Cruise, the longest running music cruise in the business and a who's who of Texas/Gulf Coast blues and R&B. My job is to host daytime interview sessions with selected artists, this year Paul Thorn, The McCrary Sisters, Teresa James and the mighty Los Lobos. Last year you might recall, I posted an account of my experience with context about the music cruise business as both a web story and an hour of The String. This is not that. I just wanted to dash off a postcard in hopes that it will send a little warmth and energy back home to a chilly Middle Tennessee.

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 band boss Willie Nelson. And it was no small thing, producing the iconic Red Headed Stranger. It was one event in a charmed life that set this Dallas musician on a path to the ultimate steady gig for more than 50 years, plus stature as the world’s most on-call harmonica player. Raphael’s played and recorded with Merle Haggard, Leon Russell, Don Williams, Emmylou Harris, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Norah Jones, Wynton Marsalis, and even U2 and Motley Crue. In a session taped at WMOT’s East Nashville satellite studio, we talk about it all.

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 could have no better program director than Jessie Scott, and we were fortunate that she was in the right time and place to come on board. Her 50 years of on-air experience, her expertise in Americana music, and her warm and knowledgeable voice have become the core of WMOT’s sound. She governs the deep and excellent WMOT playlist and its mix of new and legacy music, plus she’s a fountain of enthusiasm on the air every weekday afternoon from 4 to 7 pm. So after all this time and hearing some of her career stories, it was time to invite her on The String for a special year-end episode.