Session Americana has long been a loose collective of Boston-area players collaborating; the Anti-band philosophy serving them well. Nine (and soon to be 10) albums with world-wide tours belie the concept that they’ve avoided all the industry “shoulds” and gone with the “joy of the music” as the north star. The latest retrospective, “The Rattle and the Clatter”, is great place to start if you missed the early years in small Cambridge clubs crowded at tables with notable guests and buzz.

The band makes a New England run including the newly renovated Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, Ma on 5/23. Billy Beard, drummer and co-founder of Session Americana, joins Eleanor Buckland in a conversation about the band’s origins and development and their twenty years on the road.

Give the segment a listen. It includes “Pack Up the Circus”, “Merrimac County” from Rattle as well as Eleanor’s “You Don’t Have to Know”.