
Show Notes
Welcome to the 500th episode of Bluegrass Jam Along! My guest this week is Trey Hensley, who joins me to celebrate the very first record he bought - Flatt and Scruggs at Carnegie Hall. This historic album was a pivotal moment for bluegrass and also served as a personal intro to the music for many fans. We chat about why Flatt & Scruggs' performance at Carnegie Hall, on December, 1962 was groundbreaking, the initial skepticism from the press, the audience's enthusiastic reception and some...
More from Bluegrass Jam Along
My guest this week is Chris Thile and he joins me to chat about The Unsung Adventures of Punch Brothers. We talk about how the album came together and why, after 20 years as a band, it's only now they've got round to making a fully instrumental record. Chris also tells me how Brittany Haas joining the band and their first project together, Energy Curfew Music Hour, sowed the seeds for the album and why not having vocals on it left space for instrumental voices to shine. Chris also talks...
My guest this week is fiddler, string arranger, composer and session musician Matt Combs. After decades working in the service of other people's music, including a stint in the Opry house band, Matt has just put out his first solo record 'Fifty Years of Clown School.' We chat about why now felt like the time to put out his own record, as well as the reasons why he shelved a previous project he'd already recorded, and what he learned in decades of playing and arranging for other people. We als...
My guest this week is singer-songwriter Kristy Cox and we're chatting about her brand new album 'Winds of Change', due out on October 9th. Kristy explains why this record is her rawest and most personal yet and how, through her long term collaboration with producer Jerry Salley, plus her co-writers on the album, she created a journey that took heartbreak and turned it into hope. We also chat about her background growing up listening to bluegrass and country in Australia, before moving t...
My guest this week is Bertolf Lentink, better know as simply Bertolf. Bertolf grew up listening to bluegrass at home in the Netherlands with his parents and learned to play guitar with his father. Then he discovered other bands, including the Beatles and Radiohead, and began writing songs of his own. After several albums in a pop/rock, singer-songwriter vein, he was drawn back to his initial love of bluegrass and decided he wanted to make a bluegrass record. Bluefinger was recorded in Nashvil...
My guest this week is Julian Lage and we're talking about his extraordinary solo guitar album 'World's Fair'. Julian will be known to many of you as a jazz player but is also widely known in the bluegrass and string band world through his wonderful duet records with Chris Eldridge of Punch Brothers and Mighty Poplar. In fact, Julian's first recording was an acoustic duet with David Grisman as part of the 'Dawg Duos' album. Julian talks about the challenges and opportunities of playing solo, h...