Ryan Montbleau has a dozen albums to his credit; he’s been a real road dog warrior with 200 shows a year for almost two decades. He’s learned a lot; about songwriting, this crazy business and especially about himself. Our interview spans so many topics (and seven songs) but the main themes seem to be emotional growth and self-reflection. Ryan is a thoughtful guy with a lot to tell. His move to Burlington, Vt has paid dividends in his mental health and his song-writing. He’s finally got a home with some semblance of a family life. He’s also spent the most time being still, probably ever. We hear the results in his latest EP called “Wood” which will be followed by releases named for the other elements of “Fire”, “Water” and “Earth”.

Ryan performed all three of his newest, live in-studio (it’s been awhile since that happened) including “Ankles”, “Perfect” and “Outside Looking In”. In between, we got to chat about his songwriting process, his experience at Vt’s Guilford Sound, his weekly livestreams, and his upcoming shows in Pittsfield (5/8) and Hatfield (5/23).

We listened to four additional tunes from Ryan’s deep catalog including his collaboration with Tall Heights on “Helplessly Hoping”, the title cuts from earlier albums “I was Just Leaving” and “Ships in the Night” as well as “Songbird”.

It was fabulous to get an in-studio guest again and I’m so glad that it was Ryan Montbleau who couldn’t have been more thoughtful and genuine. Catch a show of his if you can.

Rick Faris has recorded his second solo release called “The Next Mountain” and plans to release it this summer. Rick was my guest on Nine Volt Heart to talk about the new release and his musical journey. He began as a member of the Faris Family Band at the age of seven on guitar. Taught by his father along with his brothers, the family band travelled widely and gave Rick a great introduction into this music “business”. When his brother Eddie was invited to join Ricky Skaggs’ band, opportunity knocked for Rick as well. The award-winning bluegrass outfit, Special Consensus, hired Rick to tour the world! Our conversation touches on this experience with Greg Cahill in Special C as a mentor and band leader. We talk about Rick’s decision to leave this bluegrass “juggernaut” to pursue his solo career. We also listen to a batch of songs from Rick’s first solo effort called “Breaking In Lonesome”. Our segment begins with a trio of songs from that album including “Stonemans Raid”, “If the Kansas River Can” and the title cut which is a barn burner!

We talk about his biography, his songwriting process, and his stellar bands that he’s chosen for these “solo” releases. Our chat touches on his luthier work, his co-writing experiences with folks like Rick Lang and even his his weight loss goals! We finish with his discussion of the first single released from the upcoming release called “Deep River”.

Rick is an absolute joy to chat with and his stories are stellar. He’s humble about his accomplishments and talents but a quick listen to his songs tell the real story. He’s a fabulous singer and picker with strong genuine songs. I look forward to more music from this album and many more to come. Give our segment a listen.

Crys Matthews has been releasing albums and performing for years but her recent album, Changemakers, is a clear quantum leap in her songwriting craft. It could be that this uber-political songwriter just has more to work with in these last few years! This batch of songs takes on immigration issues, gun violence, racism, police brutality and the opioid crisis. While it is indeed unfortunate that these issues still haunt our nation, we can rely on musicians to give us perspectives to make us think. In Crys’ case, most of these songs leave us with something that we crave; hope! We can easily list societal ills without end but the process leaves us depressed or hopeless. This batch of songs portrays the circumstances as dire while offering optimism that we can work together to act in positive ways.

Our segment begins with two new songs, “Exactly Where You Are” and the title cut, “Changemakers” followed by a great intelligent conversation about her NC roots, her songwriting and of course, the issues that inspired these songs. We finish the segment with a powerful song “Call Them In” dedicated to civil rights icon John Lewis who died last July.

One of my favorite interviews with honest but powerful insights into these social issues and the songs that deal with them. Highly recommended.

Anya Hinkle has released a series of singles in anticipation of a full Summer album release. After her band, Tellico, disbanded during these past difficult months, she has worked with other stellar Asheville NC musicians to release some of her best music yet .Our segment begins with the Anya-penned Tellico song, “Courage in the Morning” followed by an instrumental called “Meditation:Beyond the Shores of Darkness.” This is Anya’s first attempt at an instrumental and it is a gorgeous piece featuring Duncan Wickel on cello and Julian Pinelli on fiddle.

Our conversation touches on the varied life experiences Anya has on her journey including her work as an ethnobotonist, a cyclist, her travels throughout Japan, and of course; this latest batch of songs. We talk about the genesis of her meditation piece as well as the stunning song, “What’s It Gonna Take” with Steep Canyon Ranger Graham Sharp. The song is beautifully enhanced by the sacred steel talents of Deshawn Hickman and vocals by Wendy Hickman; both from the Mt Airy NC area. The song was inspired by the horrific events around the George Floyd murder and the Summer Protests of 2020.

We talk about her project with fellow Asheville musician Dianne Gambrell which describes the challenge of living as a Black American in NC for her entire life. The song “Struggles” is a powerful testament to her family’s challenges facing racism and discrimination in Asheville.

It is clear that social justice issues remain on the minds and hearts of musicians and artists everywhere. It is my hope that music can deal with these important issues in ways that reach listeners hearts without dividing our minds. Anya Hinkle has released a powerful song in this vein and I applaud it’s success. Give the segment a listen. And watch for more powerful songs from this important artist.

LA based musician Chris Pierce has been at it for awhile, working independently for decades. His sound has ranged from soul and R&B to his take on “The American Soul Songbook” and most recently has written a “folk protest” album called “American Silence” out this Friday. We caught up with Chris in advance of the album release to talk about this batch of songs and the times that inspired them. While Chris Pierce has faced obstacles both physical (loss of hearing at fifteen) and social (he outlines examples of racial profiling); he is a supremely positive guy. Our conversation was inspiring to me in it’s optimism despite this past year which has exposed many of our Country’s weaknesses and unfilled promises.

We talked about the value of a good record collection at a young age, his chance meeting with the musician Seal, his collaboration with musician Sunny War. We didn’t even touch on his co-ownership of a wine label, Ledbetter Syrah, or his stage production, “Reverend Tall Tree”. A full creative life; peaking with a new release that has prompted NPR and Rolling Stone to proclaim his latest the “Protest Album of the Year”.

Chris Pierce told stories about performing with Sunny War as the duo, War and Pierce, as well as his recording in the famed Muscle Shoals recording studios with the legendary backing band. We hear his soulful vocals belt out “Many Rivers to Cross” from the “You’ve Got to Feel It” recorded in that Alabama iconic studio. We also hear his duet with Sunny War called “Amen” written in response to the deadly Charlottesville protest. We conclude with the title cut of his new album, “American Silence” where he exhorts those who are allies to act in solidarity and not simply “post a facebook comment” and remain in the background.

Despite the fact that Chris has shared the stage with the likes of BB King, Al Green and Aaron Neville and toured the world with Seal, it’s my estimation that his most creative period has just begun. Listen to our conversation and you’ll agree that “American Silence” is a modern day master class in songwriting, no matter the genre.

Bluegrass Today calls Justin Moses “something of a bluegrass superman, playing all the instruments and singing all the parts and having performed with a who’s who of contemporary bluegrass bands”. Justin is a repeat winner of the IBMA Resonator Guitar/Dobro Player of the Year. His stints in bluegrass bands is jaw dropping, starting with Blue Moon Rising, Dan Tyminski Band, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Blue Highway, and the Gibson Brothers! These bands allowed Justin, who plays a half dozen instruments, to play on the Grand Old Opry. He also played on Grammy award winning albums and got to play with some of his musical heroes along the way.

Justin’s new release “Fall Like Rain” showcases those musical heroes including Del McCoury, Dan Tyminski, Stuart Duncan, Bryan Sutton, Michael Cleveland, Jerry Douglas and Justin’s wife Sierra Hull! Our segment started with Shawn Lane from Blue Highway singing “Looking for a Place” and finishes with “Walking to Lebanon”; both from the new release. The disc is a diverse collection of instrumental burners like “Taxland” and “Locust Hill”. It also showcases songs written by Justin with some co-writing with Nashville’s best.

Our conversation touches on the new release, of course, but also topics as diverse as working with his wife Sierra Hull to baseball to Ken Burns’ “Country Music” series that Justin played in the house band. We talk about his future plans to tour as a duo with Sierra Hull and his resurrecting his dormant podcast “Cos Moses”.

Becky Buller has too many awards to keep track of. It seems that every year she finds a hugely successful collaboration to work on. She has a knack for bringing like minds together often resulting in a new addition to her expanding award cabinet/room! The International Bluegrass Music Association has recognized her at least 10 times for her songwriting, singing and fiddling with her own band or for the collaborations with others.

The Becky Buller Band has just released her sixth album called “Distance and Time” that contains this year’s IBMA Collaborative Award winning “The Barber’s Fiddle”. The song showcases a bevy of singers including Laurie Lewis, Shawn Camp, Jason Carter, Kati Penn and Sam Bush. If that isn’t enough, the tune features 18 fiddlers!!! In the same year, Becky Buller cowrote, with two of the “First Ladies of Bluegrass”; Alison Brown and Missy Raines, a new song for Special Consensus’ “Chicago Barn Dance”. The magic touch again; Song of the Year!

Our segment begins with “Southern Flavor” which features (a theme here!) a collaboration from the first generation of bluegrass players from Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys.! We follow that with the Song of the Year, “Chicago Barn Dance”. Of course, Becky gives us all the details of these projects as well as her work with “The First Ladies of Bluegrass” including award-winning instrumentalists Missy Raines, Alison Brown, Sierra Hull, and Molly Tuttle!

Our chat covers Becky’s early music years in Minnesota with her parent’s band “Prairie Grass” to writing songs for other bluegrass artists to record. We discuss the benefits and pitfalls of co-writing dozens of songs with others; especially virtually. Lots of other topics from “lockdown” family binge TV watching to “Anne of Green Gables”. Give the segment a listen in the link above. We finish with Becky’s hopeful introduction to another song from “Distance and Time” called “More Heart, Less Attack”.

Nine Volt Heart featured three new songs from the feminist folk quartet, Ruby Mack, from their upcoming release “Devil Told Me”. Emma Ayres and Zoe Young from Ruby Mack were my guests for this premier of the new material. We begin with the harmony-filled acapella “Breadwinner” which questions gender roles in society. As it turns out this song only points toward more of Emma’s songs regarding this theme.

The new album features on it’s cover an apple (presumably a Ruby Mack) and a serpent; representing the disc’s dominant themes of gender and expectations. The concept turns the story of Eve in the Garden of Eden on it’s axis, embracing the forbidden fruit from the “tree of knowledge of good and evil”. Instead of shame and “original sin”, these descendents of Eve want to spread the “new gospel’ of feminist empowerment. Gender roles are questioned and abandoned in these songs.

Our conversation covers these themes and more. We chronicle the origin story of these musicians and their experience of being “discovered” at a jam at GreyFox bluegrass festival. Our segment includes the songs “Odysseus” and “Milktooth”

Ruby Mack consists of Emma Ayres (vocals and guitar), Zoe Young (vocals and guitar) Abs Kahler (fiddle) and Abbie Duquette (bass uke).

They can be found at rubymackfolk.com and you can pre-save their upcoming single and album on Spotify.

Bella White’s music seems to have come to me fully formed as a mature singer songwriter despite the fact that “Just Like Leaving” is a debut work from a young artist. The songs show a maturity and wisdom one doesn’t find in musicians many years her senior. While the song’s themes tend to be sad they show insight into relationships and emotions rarely found in writers of any age.

And that voice! She embraces the twang from the Appalachian roots of her father’s favorite country and bluegrass collection. That collection has influenced Bella who spent her youth in Calgary, Alberta singing Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe and Doc Watson songs. Inspired by the prairie and western Rocky Mountain landscapes of her youth, this batch of brilliant songs find her successfully translating modern experiences into timeless ancient sounds.

The set opens with “All I Gave To You” which is a great example of the craftmanship of creating a seemingly effortless song out of a teenager’s difficulty in an early relationship. Bella translates this personal struggle into a more universal statement because “all of us want to feel revered and deeply loved”. Wise yet gentle and it sets the listener up for a very fulfilling batch of songs about loss, love and struggle; certainly not new themes. But rarely is there such consistently beautifully drawn examples of these emotions displayed throughout this collection. I consider it one of the best releases of the year, in any genre.

Our chat touches on her stellar band including fiddler Julian Pinelli and mandolinist Reed Stutz along with bass player Robert Alan Mackie. Lonely Heart Stringband’s own Patrick M’Gonigle helps in the studio as well as singing with a bit of fiddling too.

There’s lots of reasons that Rolling Stone calls the album “sublime Appalachian heartbreak” and an “Artist to Watch”. Specifically, there’s nine great reasons on this remarkable debut. We finish our segment with Bella describing the circumstances surrounding the first single from “Just Like Leaving” called “Broke (When I Realized). I add the title cut to finish a great interview with a musician whose remarkable voice and songwriting skills leave us wanting more; always a good sign.

Bronwyn Keith Hynes is an award-winning bluegrass fiddler who plays in the progressive Boston-based outfit, Mile Twelve. She has relocated to Nashville and her new release,”Fiddlers Pastime” feels like a love letter to her new home.

The tune we open the segment with is called “Open Water” and is a ferocious mandolin-fiddle collaboration with Sierra Hull. The origin of this tune (the first written for this album) was Raleigh NC’s IBMA bluegrass conference when Bronwyn found a quiet corner of the conference (a difficult task). As she describes it ,”I think it captures something I love in bluegrass music which is that combination of haunting melody and rocket-like propulsion.”

While Sierra Hull came to mind when Bronwyn wrote this track, many young luminaries from Bronwyn’s era litter these tunes; from Sarah Jarosz to Chris Eldridge, Wes Corbett to Laura Orshaw.

Our conversation covers a lot of ground. We talk about her early lessons in Vermont and her continuation in Charlottesville Virgina. She dove deep into Irish fiddle for a time before discovering bluegrass while jamming with others who were studying at Boston’s Berklee school of Music. Off on scholarship to Berklee herself, she immersed herself in the acoustic music scene in Boston eventually forming Mile Twelve.

We talk about the difficulty of writing original material as opposed to concentrating on her fiddling. Bronwyn wrote four original tunes for “Fiddlers Pastime”. The segment includes a dynamic version of twin fiddling with Laura Orshaw on the Bill Monroe/Vassar Clement’s title cut.

Give the segment a listen and check out her website for more details, BronwynKeithHynes.com