Music City Roots - TopPodcast.com

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

Music City Roots — Music
Music City Roots

Music City Roots: Live From The Factory is a weekly concert and live radio show that broadcasts every Wednesday night (7PM CST) on WMOT Roots Radio 89.5 FM in Murfreesboro-Nashville, Tennessee, and worldwide at www.musiccityroots.com. It’s hosted by Grammy-winning artist Jim Lauderdale, legendary radio announcer Keith Bilbrey and show journalist/interview guy Craig Havighurst. We feature leading lights and new discoveries in Americana, blues, rock and roll, gospel, jazz, rockabilly, bluegrass, newgrass, western, folk, singer songwriter, country, soul, vintage, ragtime, cow punk, honky tonk, big band, swing, acoustic, celtic, and more!

Since going on the air in 2009, Music City Roots has built a worldwide community of lovers of hand-made, real music. We showcase the finest artistry working in or passing through the dynamic Nashville music scene. With old-school radio presentation before a large live audience, artist interview and great audio, MCR is one of the best ways to get a weekly fix of roots music.

Copyright: © Heng Dai Media

Latest Episodes:

Aug. 2, 2017 w/ Jim Lauderdale, Sherman Holmes, Ralph Stanley II and Catie Offerman Aug 08, 2017

Show notes

Family ties are part of the fabric of American roots music. How often have we read (and for Pete’s sake how often have I written) that Artist X “came from a musical family”? The connection among siblings and the passing of ideas across generations might be the central reason this music sustains, and that in turn sustains us. Wednesday night offered up heart lifting performances by a first son of bluegrass and a first brother of Americana soul, plus a delightful country newcomer and a set by our own soul brother Jim Lauderdale.

July 19, 2017 w Jerry Douglas Band, Billy Strings, Jill Andrews, Birds of Chicago Jul 31, 2017

Show notes

There was a festival atmosphere in Liberty Hall on Wednesday night and not just because the crowd was large and loud (though that helped). There was also that ineffable flow and unspoken dialogue among the four bands, softly conveying the spirit of roots music in all its complimentary forms. The timeless but mysteriously innovative folk/gospel flavor of Birds of Chicago gave way to the pure mountain-tinged songwriting of Jill Andrews. The bluegrass second half paired young and hungry Billy Strings with one of his heroes, the sixtysomething but unaware of it Jerry Douglas. His band came with a jazz/grass/rock fusion mode that tickled my every musical nerve ending. Keep on the grass? Good luck with that.

July 12, 2017 w Tim O'Brien, Greg Garing, Chelle Rose, Allen Thompson Band Jul 18, 2017

Show notes

Like a meal in four courses that compliment but don’t overlap, Wednesday’s Roots delivered exquisite versions of four stages of country music evolution. From the sturdy and often elegant string band sound of Tim O’Brien we hyped things up a bit to a (drumless) electric honky tonk vibe with Greg Garing. Chelle Rose, East Tennessee’s answer to Townes Van Zandt, delivered literate, narrative-heavy songs with drums and measures of grungy power. And while less twangy or bluesy than the rest of the flight, Allen Thompson showed us the chemistry that results from a band of friends singing well-crafted songs that march along in classic Americana fashion. It was the first show of a blazing July, but it was a wry heat.

June 21, 2017 w Delbert McClinton, Danny Barnes, Quiles & Cloud and a Mac Wiseman tribute Jul 10, 2017

Show notes

This season closing show brought together all the vibes and individual craft that makes Music City Roots go, with a new folk discovery, a heartfelt bluegrass tribute and two true icons of American roots music. We start with the moody beauty of Bay Area folk group Quiles & Cloud. An all-star gathering of Nashville pickers pay tribute to Mac Wiseman, including Sierra Hull, Shawn Camp, Justin Moses, Thomm Jutz and Peter Cooper. Next, Danny Barnes performs solo on the banjo, showing what a unique genius he is. And the show wraps with the fire and thunder of Texas master Delbert McClinton.

June 14 w Walter Wolfman Washington, Sean McConnell, Adrian and Meredith and Mark Robinson Jun 19, 2017

Show notes

Our crew and a nice large crowd assembled for a progression from vintage sounding folk through contemporary songwriting and on to two flavors of the blues. I found this evening of live music revelatory for a few reasons. I'd never seen Walter Wolfman Washington before and he's quite something. The New Orleans icon supplements his solid and timeless blues guitar with layers of jazz sophistication. His band laid down grooves as syncopated nad funky as anything we've heard this year. He's our veteran playing in the night's final set. Up here opening the show in a moment is Nashville married couple Adrian and Meredith. They played Roots a couple of years ago when Adrian Krygowski was a solo artist. This duo now channels his punky fire through a more old world folk vein, with hard swing and gypsy overtones. Our second set was quite heart stopping. Rounder Recording artist Sean McConnell launched his music career in Atlanta and then moved to Music City where he found success as a Music Row songwriter. Like Lori McKenna, he's able to have cuts and hits recorded by others and pursue a very deep and meaningful career as an artist. He's solo acoustic but no less spellbinding. And we've got a set by a true local working class blues man - a gentleman who never thought he'd be a singing songwriting frontman. But his pursuit of the guitar led him in this direction and our music scene is better for it. he's Mark Robinson and he'll be up in the third segment.

June 7, 2017 w Rhonda Vincent & Daryle Singletary, Beppe Gambetta, The Wooks, Jon Byrd Jun 16, 2017

Show notes

Nashville is en fuego. The city’s filling up for the CMA Music Festival. The airport and highways are busily channeling music freaks out to Manchester for Bonnaroo. And everybody is flipping out about the Nashville Predators who will play for the Stanley Cup on Sunday night at home on Lower Broadway. It’s bigger, wilder, louder and richer than I ever imagined the city would be when I moved here twenty years ago. And it’s amazing. There’s just a glow and a wonder for most people, and if you want to avoid the whooping bridal parties on pedal taverns, there are plenty of places to hang out with good folks and good music that have nothing to do with that noise. Such as Music City Roots. On this week’s show, quite a few people found their way to the Factory for a bracing night of mostly solid country and bluegrass, with a stellar bluegrass-inspired musician from another country.

May 24, 2017 w Will Kimbrough & Brigitte DeMeyer, Mipso, John Nemeth and Matt Urmy May 29, 2017

Show notes

Wednesday night’s gathering of the Roots clan will be an opportunity to reflect on the life and legacy of Cowboy Jack Clement, the kindly and eccentric genius songwriter and producer who passed away in 2013. One of our guests, the songwriting entrepreneur Matt Urmy, was a great friend and protégé of Jack and arrives with an album Jack produced before his studio burned up in a bad fire. For a while, we explored the idea of a night formally paying tribute to Cowboy Jack but the right mix didn’t come together. That said, looking at this week’s lineup, with its variety and individuality, I feel sure Cowboy would have loved this week’s show. And I’m sure you will too.

Featured:

Matt Urmy

Mipso

John Nemeth

Will Kimbrough & Brigitte DeMeyer

May 17, 2017 w David Mayfield, Yarn, The Railsplitters, Sally & George May 24, 2017

Show notes

As far as I know there’s only one figure in the contemporary roots music community who can pick “Blackberry Blossom” like a boss and also do a tumbling run that ends in a cheerleader split (not at the same time, but I wouldn’t put it past him). If David Mayfield came into your mind just now then you get an Americana cookie, because that’s who I was thinking about! It’s been too long since we saw and heard from the bearded weirdo, but he brings his always explosive sense of entertainment to the Factory this week along with a great roots rock band, a mod folky couple and a quintet from Colorado that split the bluegrass atom.

May 10, 2017 w Tony Furtado, John Jorgenson Bluegrass, Curtis McMurtry, Gipsy Moon May 20, 2017

Show notes

We know a classic when we see one, hear one, feel one. Forgive me for sounding like a Cadillac ad voice over or something, but seriously, sometimes there’s just an ineffable sense that something beautiful and meaningful is unfolding. And while we can’t pull that off every single week, we try to put the pieces in place for a chemical reaction. And this week it happened. There was combustion and satisfaction. We ranged across the country and across roots music terrain with acoustic grand master Tony Furtado from Portland, OR, Texas-raised songwriter Curtis McMurtry, Colorado polyethnic joyride Gipsy Moon and veteran John Jorgenson’s remarkable bluegrass band.

May 3, 2017 w Great American Taxi, Dori Freeman, Colter Wall, John Carter Cash May 09, 2017

Show notes

So did y’all catch that news about the Fyre Festival? As good people, we try not to indulge in schadenfreude, but sometimes man, wow, it’s hard. In short, a rap celebrity and a dudebro with a track record of over-selling and under-delivering promised a glamour-packed, celebrity-stoked par-TAY on a remote island and promoted it by paying other celebrities to post on Instagram about it. It was a fiasco, not because the whole premise was culturally bankrupt and morally suspect (which it was), but because they didn’t PLAN. You have to plan, folks. For example, on the same weekend, two other festivals – much bigger ones – came off without a hitch. Merlefest in North Carolina and JazzFest in New Orleans actually served up authentic music, genuine community, good food and good times for fans who don’t need to feel like they’re winning on a reality show and who aren’t measuring their lives in bikini access and Twitter followers. So for this week anyway, it’s Real Culture: 2. Celebri-crap Culture: 0. Well done, roots music.

MCR had to do a bit of extra planning and demonstrate resilience in the face of challenges as we had more late-breaking lineup shifts this week than maybe ever before. Here’s the superb final tally: Rising Virginia-based folk star Dori Freeman makes a long-sought MCR debut. John Carter Cash brings a family music legacy that’s second to none. Colter Wall is our deep voice of hard country. And we welcome the return of one of the most fluent, flexible roots rock bands in the good old USA.

Related Podcasts