East Tennessee's Own WDVX

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/24 - Chris McGinnis & Mamaw’s Angels / Mandi Strachota
2023-08-24 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Chris McGinnis writes songs that exist somewhere in between a hiccup and a heartache. His last EP, 2019’s Songs For You, touches on the absurdity of your hometown morphing beyond recognition. It tells a story of two Baby Boomers drifting together from across the US into the Golden Gate City, then drifting apart, and then together again. It is about connection and disconnection alike. With his debut full-length album, Mamaw’s Angel, Chris veers deeper into these familiar themes.
“I think this album is largely about manic loneliness. These songs are ultimately about people who are afraid of losing their relationships. They refuse to accept that they may have already lost these relationships, and they refuse to accept that they are to blame.”
The manic aspect of the “manic loneliness” manifests itself in the album’s refusal to rest in one genre. “What If We Went to the Moon?” is what Chris describes as “a cosmic country song with a countrypolitan foundation.” Heartland rocker “Home Away From Home” has all the stomp and 12-string firepower to park a Wilbury. Other tracks like “Mailman’s Son” and “Old Chestnut” teeter between lo-fi indie folk and roots freak out. Tying all of these styles together are the lyrics and the characters at the center of them.
Overbearing grandparents and stubborn grandchildren, washed-up fraternity brothers yearning for the New Year’s Eve parties of yesteryear, a missing Winnebago, a tree that just won’t quit, and other wild personalities run throughout the ten tracks found on Mamaw’s Angel. More than just a few are inspired by people and stories Chris had met and heard back towards his home in Western NC’s Linville Gorge Wilderness area. Mamaw’s Angel is a collection of sensationally-delivered tales about characters struggling on the sidelines of their own realities.
“The characters in these songs are all incredibly flawed. I wanted to write songs that expressed truly ugly emotions. Loneliness, anger, denial, regret. The characters are all being eaten away by these feelings, and it motivates their words and actions. But I also think that that is how some of the absurdity is palatable.”
Mamaw’s Angel was recorded at Clubmen Studio in Blairesville, GA, and produced by Atlanta-based artist Jacob Davis Martin. Among the musicians heard throughout the album are Asheville, NC’s Carly Taich, members of Asheville’s Jack Marion & the Pearl Snap Prophets, Atlanta-based strings trio Me Me Me, and Will Easter of Boone, NC.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in the wilds of Wisconsin, Mandi Strachota is the product of southern roots and Midwest know-how, a potent mix of practicality and soulful dreaming. She’s been singing all her life, belting out Willie Nelson, Whitney Houston and Sheena Easton tunes in the family living room, strong-arming her pre-school pals into elaborate musical productions of “Annie” at the local YMCA lobby, and joining in family sing-a-longs on the long rides to visit her granny in Tennessee.
Music, dance and performance have always been woven intimately into the fabric of her childhood, from her first piano class at the age of 4, to intensive violin lessons and gospel choir sessions while a mathematics major at Notre Dame. Soon after college graduation, the music still calling her, Mandi decided it was time to head south with the intent of finding a job and starting her creative life.
“My perception was that Atlanta was the R&B hub of the US,” she remembers, “so I went there. Unfortunately, my timing was terrible. A friend and I moved to Atlanta October 1st after 9-11. That meant jobs were extremely scarce.”
She eventually found lucrative work in restaurant management. “But after a few years I realized I was never going to be able to realistically pursue a career in music while working 70 plus hours a week. So I left for another position where I could restrict my hours to keep my nights open for music. That is the moment I really committed, when I decided to take less pay! I started attending jams and would sing three to four songs, usually with the house band, every night I could get out .”
Mandi became a fixture on the Atlanta scene, playing at local spots like the Northside Tavern, as well as booking a slew of wedding dates. She met singer/songwriter Larry Griffith after seeing his set at a club called Crystal’s on Marietta Square. “I ended up coming back every week until Larry offered to throw me some tips if I would be a permanent fixture. I played with Larry for six years after that.”
The two made an album together, Fly, and Mandi got into the groove of playing, not only with Larry, but also going out on solo gigs, jamming at local watering holes for tips and picking up the guitar along the way. Finally, the time came to break away and explore her own voice… and her own creativity.
Mandi started in on a new album, a work that would ultimately take her on an unexpected journey of self-discovery – a lifetime of music culminating into an array of tracks that were distinctly her own. “The main difference coming into this album is that it is all me,” she explains, “I wrote all the songs and truly put my own heart and experiences into the whole thing.”
A recurring theme in this new work? The break from a dependent relationship and a move into a true independence. “Before, I was playing other people’s songs, showing up when and where other people told me to show up,” Mandi remembers, “leaving me confused and discouraged, not only not knowing how to attain my goals, but not really understanding what my goals even were, as everything I said and did was dependent on what someone else was doing.”
A break-up, medical issues, the loss of both her grandfather and grandmother in close succession, a dark clash of bad luck and bad timing – all resulted in a period of depression, sadness, anger, but also – in a glimmer of redemption. “It enabled me to see things more clearly,” Mandi says of that time in her life, “and to want to stick up for the real me and to share that person with the world. From the moment I knew this album would exist, I knew it would be titled ‘Unleashed.’”
Recorded at The Greenhouse in Atlanta, Unleashed is Mandi Strachota finding herself – rediscovering that childhood love of music, while finding both her voice and her joy again. “This was the first time I felt I could do what I wanted to do creatively,” she says of the album, “The majority of the songs are about that transformation. You can hear the desire to get out in ‘Ready To Run,’ the state of realization of how I led myself into this corner of dependence and lack of confidence in ‘These Days,’ the ultimate rock bottom of it all when I quit believing in love in ‘Just Rain,’ and the triumphant resurrection in ‘Growing Pains,’ ‘My Time To Shine,’ and ‘These Shoes.’”
Embracing R&B, gospel and soul, with a touch of grit and country sway, Unleashed is timeless in its sound, but thoroughly modern in its message. “It is only after exploring and succeeding at risk-taking, that the confidence turns into freedom and limitlessness,” says Mandi, speaking about both herself and her music, “In other words – being set free, is only the beginning.”

WDVX Summer Nights - 8/23 - The Alex Leach Band w/ Special Guests
2023-08-23 19:00 | Yee Haw Brewing Co, 745 N Broadway, Knoxville, TN, 37917, United States
Hailing from the mountains of East Tennessee, Alex Leach is no stranger to the world of music. Just 33 years old, he has already been in the business for more than two decades, earning two “DJ of the Year” awards from the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America by the time he was 15, and appearing on CMT’s “Big Ticket,” the BBC, and Peter Jennings’ “ABC World News Tonight.”
Yet even as he was building his reputation as one of the premiere radio voices in bluegrass, Alex was honing his skills as a guitarist and banjo player. He began his professional career as a musician at the age of 19, and was recruited a few years later by Ralph Stanley II, the son of iconic bluegrass pioneer, Dr. Ralph Stanley. Alex had the honor to perform alongside he and the Clinch Mountain Boys on the Grand Ole Opry in 2014. In the years that followed, he toured widely with Ralph Stanley II, earning critical accolades for his playing, his compelling lead and harmony vocals, and for his additions to the bluegrass canon with songs like “Mountain Heartache.”
In 2019, Alex started his own group, formed and based in East Tennessee. The band is a multi-talented bunch who bring exceptional musicianship and high energy to any stage they play.
Leach’s debut album, produced by Jim Lauderdale, along with his sophomore album produced by Jon Weisberger (both released on Mountain Home Music), takes the acoustic music of the traditional bluegrass and Americana world that Alex grew up with and moves it into the future, featuring his signature ‘new traditional’ sound.
As Bluegrass Today reported, “It’s little wonder why Alex Leach has emerged to the forefront of today’s young up-and-coming bluegrass vanguard. His new album, All the Way, demonstrates that after only two albums, Leach and his band already possess the skill and savvy needed to, in fact, go all the way. Comprised primarily of Leach originals, with an occasional cover included for good measure (a rapid-fire take on Joe South’s Walk A Mile in My Shoes, and a soothing revisit to Paul Simon’s Slip Slidin’ Away, both providing a fine fit), the set list is flush with all the exuberance one might hope to find in a young outfit with such obvious ability and affinity for the form.”

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/23 - Great Aunt
2023-08-23 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Raw and austere, simple and bold; full of stomping feet and clapping hands, chants and harmonies, whispered words and soulful lament – that’s the music of Great Aunt. Listen, and you’ll hear tales of joy and grief, whiskey and wine, gratitude and purpose-seeking.
Formed in 2016, the duo is a collaboration between songwriter/instrumentalists Megan Bird (mandolin, resonator, acoustic guitar, vocals) and Chelsea Allen (double bass, vocals, percussion), and draws inspiration from the traditions of old time, bluegrass, and gospel music, with loving homage to their diverse backgrounds in punk, jazz, roots, soul, and folk music. The instrumentation and arrangements are bare and bold: using only various combinations of mandolin, guitar, or resonator with double bass and percussion, and the sonorous voices of Bird and Allen in harmony.
The duo has delighted audiences at some of Australia’s finest music and arts festivals, including Woodford Folk Festival, Blue Mountains Music Festival, Yackandandah Folk Festival, Deni Ute Muster, The GAS, Wintermoon, Healesville Music Festival, Fleurieu Folk Festival, and Newport Folk Festival, amongst others. They have shared stages with notable acts including Vika & Linda Bull (AUS), The Weeping Willows (AUS), Sue Ray (AUS), Smith and Jones (AUS), Mary Flower (USA), Paisley Fields (USA), Wiley Gaby (USA), The Belle Miners (CAN), and more.
Great Aunt have recently returned from their first tour of the US, and are currently busy in their studio, producing and recording their debut full-length album, ‘It’s All Downhill From Here’ – due for release in 2023.

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/22 - Jim Myers / Wilder Things Than Us
2023-08-22 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Uncle JimmyPie comes to us from right here in Knoxville Tennessee. Come join the fun!

Wilder Things Than Us – This project formed in 2012 (roughly) in Naples, FL under the moniker My Girl My Whiskey & Me. As a founding member, George chose the name (MGMW&M) based on a song by the Rayado Ruffians. This song represents the life changing moment when George first encountered the mandolin, as well as bluegrass music.
Fast forward about 2 years, when the band has undergone some changes in their lineup and emerged with only 2 members- George and his new wife, Kelly.
With a fresh start in Upstate South Carolina, we began to hone in on our own sound, our own writing style. We wanted to marry the earthiness of Appalachian music with… everything else, lol. We’ve used terms like “Progressive Bluegrass” and “Folk Rock” often, but we’re not committed to a genre. A fan once affectionately dubbed our sound “Zappalachain”, which we very much appreciate. Between our original and cover material you’ll hear jazz, blues, punk- no genre is safe.
In the summer of 2017 we released our debut album, In The Ground, with Other Southern, just before embarking on a year-long tour of the United States. Which states? All of ‘em. Go big, or go home, amIright?

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/21 - Lena Anderson / Rose Hawley
2023-08-21 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Originally from Minnesota, Lena (Arlene) Anderson‘s work and spirit of adventure led her to live in Norway, China and Ecuador as well as several U.S. states. Wherever she travels, she finds music to be a strong common bond across borders. Moving to Knoxville in 2018, Lena focuses on songwriting and performance. She has collaborated on 3 CDs, been featured on 2 compilations, and also produced one solo CD.
Lena plays in a duo with local favorite, Lon Spurgeon. Their music features Originals, Americana, Folk, Rock and Country. Look for them as “Lon & Lena”!

Rose Hawley is a Grandmother, Mom, Musician, BookSeller (KnoxvilleRose Etsy/Ebay), Divination & Tarot Svcs.

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/19 - The Holland Brothers / Jay Brown One Man Band
2023-08-19 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
The Holland Brothers are from the Piedmont region of NC. They play a style of music rooted in old school country and country blues, with close harmonies and blues harmonica. Drawing inspiration from Charlie Poole to Charlie Patton, from Muddy Waters to the Memphis Jug Band, from the country gospel sounds of Flatt and Scruggs and the Louvin Brothers, from the high lonesome sound of Bill Monroe, or from the pairing of Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston, the Holland Brothers, together (as also in the 90’s rock band Jennyanykind) and individually have appeared in publications and events such as No Depression, North Carolina’s Our State magazine, the North Carolina State Fair, Billboard Magazine, as well as the NY Times, continue to garner praise and gain new fans daily.

Jay Brown is a lifelong songster hailing from Birmingham, AL. Jay has spent most of the past 20 years in the Appalachian Mountains playing with Lazybirds and earning a music therapy degree, while also recording and touring to support his solo career. Music is a way of life for Jay, and it truly shows. Jay demonstrates his dexterity on the guitar, harmonica, piano, and banjo. In addition to his gift with instruments, he sings beautifully. He has yet to make a musical sound that lacks in purity and integrity.

The WDVX Big Plate - 8/18 - Polly O’Keary and the Rhythm Method
2023-08-18 12:00 - 13:00 | Barley’s, 200 East Jackson Avenue, Knoxville, TN, 37915, United States
A century ago, blues was born in the fields of the South, played on porches and in little backwoods bars by kerosene lamp. The times have changed, and it’s a rare blues musician who grew up picking cotton and going home to learn to play by the light of a hurricane lantern.
Polly O’Keary certainly didn’t. Well, that is, she didn’t pick cotton. She picked apples. But she learned to read music by kerosene lamp in a log cabin in a remote part of Washington State. She started playing in ex-pat bars in Mexico at 16, and Eastern Washington watering holes for rural farm workers at the age of 17. She dropped out of school with an 8th grade education, married a prison-bound man at the age of 18 and by the time she was 21 had logged more stage hours than most musicians twice her age. She’d drunk as much as a fair number of them as well.
At 28, upon seeing Jeff Healey at a friend’s bar in Canada, she became obsessed with blues, studying and practicing the genre until carpel tunnel syndrome temporarily rendered her hands nearly immobile, and she quickly came to the attention of the Pacific Northwest blues scene with her powerful and emotional voice and her frenetic stage presence.
Today, she’s a PhD student, a world-traveled bassist, one of Washington State’s most highly-awarded female blues singers and songwriters (six-time Washington Blues Society Best Female Vocalist, six-time Best Blues Songwriter, etc.), doesn’t drink at all, and no longer visits lovers in prisons. But her music reflects the life of a modern blues woman; she’s seen the river rise and take everything more than once, and lived to laugh, sing, and write music about it.
Polly O’Keary is today’s blues woman, rooted in tradition, but informed by the 21st Century. Pulling in influences from zydeco, country, funk, jazz, rockabilly, surf and rock and roll, she and her trio, Polly O’Keary and the Rhythm Method, bring a searing and joyful performance of today’s blues to audiences across the U.S. and Canada.
Polly O’Keary and the Rhythm Method is the trio she built with her husband and drummer Tommy Cook, also a highly sought touring drummer and three-time winner of the Washington Blues Society Blues Drummer award, with whom she shared rhythm section duties for international touring act Too Slim and the Taildraggers for four years.
​Rounding out the trio is David Miller, who grew up listening to blues in Texas. At 17, then living in California, Miller met a piano player who was then working for Tommy Castro. The older musician recruited Miller to come play at several bars, and assured the young man that he could get him in, underage though he was. Miller became a regular in clubs in the Bay Area, sitting in with local and touring acts night after night. At 25, then living in San Luis Obispo, he assembled The Dave Miller Band, and for the next 18 years, he and the group went on to become one of Southern California’s most popular blues bands, leading one reviewer to describe his “jaw-dropping guitar licks” and praise his “extraordinary mixture of inspiring virtuosity both vocally and instrumentally.”
Together, the band has done 10 national tours, released four critically acclaimed albums; been nominated for three Independent Blues Music awards including Band of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year; won Blues Band of the Year from the LA Music Critic; been a top five finalist in the International Blues Challenge Best Self-Produced CD contest; has had a #1 single on contemporary blues radio and a #4 album; charted on Living Blues, and received a total of 26 awards from the Washington Blues Society and the Inland Empire Blues Society, including Best Songwriter, Best Blues Guitar, Best Blues Drummer, Best Blues Vocalist, and Best Blues Bass, among others.

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/17 - Will Kruger / Crimson Calamity + Paul Bellantoni
2023-08-17 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Song-sirens Lauren Harding and Mallory Trunnell were veterans of intricate song-crafting and the bright lights of the stage on their own, but together, they discovered a shared talent for firecracker lyrics and glistening harmonies that became irresistible. The ladies penned a tune while participating in a songwriting challenge that sparked the notion to forge a Badass, Harmony-Laced, Folk/Rock driven, Americana Lady Duo. Thus: Crimson Calamity was born.
With inspiration from artists like Brandi Carlile, The Civil Wars and Fleetwood Mac, Crimson Calamity infuse their influences into all of the music they are devoted to creating. Their sound embodies both sultry rock and traditional country aspects.
The fiery twosome released their EP ‘WildCard’ on 2/11/22. This feel good, nostalgic EP showcases the evolution of the pair’s artistry that is seasoned and re-energized, while still offering their signature sound.

Kruger shares a style that recalls many of his earliest folk music influences, among them, Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon & Garfunkel, Gordon Lightfoot, John Denver and James Taylor in particular.
He’s toured nationally, sharing his “Folk Legend’s Tribute Show” at house concerts, libraries, conservation events, coffee houses, corporate functions and larger auditoriums in addition to appearances at a number of Nashville venues.
Four of his songs were featured in the films, “God Where Are You” and “Grace Of The Father.” In addition, he played the part of Noel Paul Stookey in the nationally touring Las Vegas tribute group, “Peter Paul & Mary Alive,” for several years.
Kruger, who performs regularly in East Tennessee at The Smoky Mountain Brewery, The Listening Room Cafe, Calhoun’s, and The Abbey, said he’s been playing music over 50 years. “Music can convey emotion on so many levels,” he said. “Music does that for me. The songs that I write touch on love, relationships, and faith. If I can communicate those things with my audience and touch their hearts, then all the work that I do is well worth it. I have a saying: ‘Have I ever told you how much I love music?”‘

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/16 - A Tale of Two
2023-08-16 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Combining the best of Americana and blues melodies with timeless Southern storytelling, award winning vocalist Stephanie Adlington and guitarist Aaron Lessard draw influence from the likes of Tom Waits and Ray LaMontagne, along with bedrock artists such as Patsy Cline and Hank Williams Sr. Not unlike the artists who inspired them, the duo’s songs frequently dabble in stories of revenge, drinking and feature sinners of all stripes and persuasions. Oozing an infectious stage presence and chemistry that carries over from the music to the back and forth banter between songs, “A Tale Of Two” offers a different kind of Americana – storytelling by a swampy pair of retro raconteurs spinning blues arias with soul, intrigue and power.
On their debut EP which was recorded completely live, Adlington and Lessard channel southern lullabies, front porch blues, and even hints of nostalgic love songs. The resulting body of work is a refreshing take on timeless themes of loyalty, heartbreak, and the struggle of the human condition.

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/15 - Guy Marshall
2023-08-15 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Guy Marshall brings Appalachian cowboy music of Knoxville, TN!

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/14 - The Shootouts
2023-08-14 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
The Shootouts didn’t expect to be back in the studio so soon after the release of their Top 10 Americana album Bullseye. But when one of country music’s most legendary artists agrees to produce your next record, you don’t say no.
That’s what happened when a mutual friend introduced the band to Ray Benson – longtime frontman and 10-time Grammy-winning founder of Asleep at the Wheel. Just months after the April 2021 release of Bullseye, the Shootouts found themselves hard at work with Benson and co-producer Sam Seifert on the album that would become Stampede.
While it may have come together quickly, the sessions resulted in the group’s strongest album yet.
Stampede is steeped in all things country music – an energetic fusion of Americana, honky tonk and Western swing that Shootouts fans often refer to as “country music for people who don’t like country.”
The Shootouts’ sound is reflective of their Northeast Ohio “Rustbelt” roots. Akron, Ohio – the city that produced the Pretenders, the Black Keys, and Devo – isn’t a place normally associated with country music, but these influences are as integral to their sound as those of the country music greats. The bulk of Stampede was recorded at Son of Moondog Studios over a five-day period that brought Benson, Seifert and Asleep at the Wheel to Northeast Ohio to work with the Shootouts on the band’s home turf.
Stampede also finds the Shootouts working with a notable array of Americana heavy-hitters. There’s the high-speed opening kiss-off “Better Things to Do,” which features Marty Stuart’s unmistakable bluegrass-tinged mandolin. Benson and members of Asleep at the Wheel get in on the fun with the western swing-rooted “One Step Forward.” Raul Malo of The Mavericks lends soaring harmony vocals to “I’ll Never Need Anyone More,” a song written by Cleveland music legend Michael Stanley, who passed away in 2021. Country hit songwriter Jim Lauderdale joins the Shootouts on the Bakersfield-esque “Tomorrow’s Knockin’” while famed guitarist, singer-songwriter, and producer Buddy Miller sings with the band on the California-country-rock number “Anywhere But Here.”
Other standout tracks include the infectious Dave Edmunds-inspired “Run for Cover,” and the barn-burning instrumental title track, which showcases the band’s gifted lead guitarist Brian Poston and Asleep at the Wheel’s Dennis Ludiker.​
Stampede was released Feb. 24, 2023 on Soundly Music — the same day The Shootouts made their Grand Ole Opry debut as part of their twenty city “Stampede” album release tour, which also included an official showcase at SXSW. The album reached #4 On The Americana Album Chart (4/4/23), #1 On The Alt-Country Specialty Chart (2/22/23 & 3/29/23) and was named one of the “Most Anticipated Albums Of 2023” By Saving Country Music, Wide Open Country, And Glide Magazine.
Since the release of their 2019 debut album Quick Draw, the Shootouts have been busy. Even a pandemic hasn’t slowed them down – Stampede will be their third album in five years. They’ve also toured heavily, performing their notoriously energetic live shows with not only Asleep at the Wheel, but a wide range of artists including Sheryl Crow, Steve Earle, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Chris Isaak, Charley Crockett, Dale Watson, Lake Street Dive, and more.
The band’s 2021 album Bullseye, produced by Grammy-nominee and BR549 founder Chuck Mead, has been praised by a range of outlets including Rolling Stone Country, American Songwriter, Wide Open Country, Saving Country Music, The Boot, and The Bluegrass Situation. Bullseye spent over 18 weeks on the Americana Music Association Top 30 album chart – including three weeks in the Top 10 (No. 6).
The album also reached No. 1 on The Alt-Country Specialty Chart, No. 1 on The Roots Music Report Country Albums, No. 1 On The Roots Music Report Americana Albums, No. 42 On The Americana Music Association Most Played Albums of 2021, and was named by the Country Mile UK as one of its Top Five Albums Of 2021. The album was also featured on Spotify’s Pulse of Americana playlist and in rotation on Sirius XM’s Outlaw Country channel.
More recently, the band has been nominated for “Best Honky Tonk Group” at the 2023 Ameripolitan Music Awards – a nomination the band was also honored with in 2020.
The Shootouts are lead singer and guitarist Ryan Humbert, vocalist Emily Bates, lead guitarist Brian Poston, bassist Kevin McManus, and drummer Mark Butto. For Stampede, the band also worked closely with their longtime mentor and collaborator Al Moss.

ORNL FCU/Summer Sessions - 8/12 - Ferd Band / Tillers / Hogslop String Band / Sierra Hull
2023-08-12 18:00 | Bissell Park, 1401 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge, TN, 37830, United States
FERD (the band) is nearly 15 years in the making. As the former fiddler and front man for the Hackensaw Boys, Ferd Moyse first met East Tennessee banjoist and singer Matt Morelock in 2007 and double-bassist Chris Stevens shortly thereafter. Ferd, Stevens, and Morelock decided to take the trio on the road in 2021 with a singular focus on Ferd’s body of timeless original songs. FERD has quickly gained the attention of fans, musicians, venues, and discerning listeners worldwide with headlining spots at the Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival, Old Tone Festival, Blackpot Festival, and venues, theatres, clubs, and campfires. FERD is set to release their first album, Feelin’ Like the Wind, in 2022. The album is a musical journey into the toils of joy we find while stumbling our way to forgiveness.

The Tillers have been thumping their own distinctive sound of string band style folk music for a decade, riding it all over the country and across the sea. Four studio albums and one live record have won them praise as modern folk storytellers of the national soundscape.

Staying true to tradition while maintaining a bold irreverence is something that rarely goes hand-in-hand, but Hogslop String Band manages to walk that line. With their roots in old-time string band music, and their energy based in wild rock- and-roll; you could almost call them punk purists.
It’s an unlikely combination, but given the talents of singer and fiddler Kevin Martin; guitarist, harmonica player and singer Gabriel Kelley; mandolin player and singer Will Harrison; banjo player and singer Daniel Binkley, and bassist and all-round entertainer Pickle, they pull it off with natural ease. The name alone hints at their wacky ways, but catching them live will give you a true sense of these bizarre, seemingly contradictory descriptions.
They thrive on crossing genres, casting off the confines of straight old-time and bluegrass, delving into a deep repertoire of rock, folk, psychedelic, and original numbers that can only be described as,”The Hogslop Sound.” It’s clear that these guys are going places, and they’ve quickly become one of the most unique and exhilarating outfits in live music today.

In her first 25 years alone, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Sierra Hull hit more milestones than many musicians accomplish in a lifetime. After making her Grand Ole Opry debut at the age of 10, the Tennessee-bred virtuoso mandolinist played Carnegie Hall at age 12, then landed a deal with Rounder Records just a year later. Now 28-years-old, Hull is set to deliver her fourth full- length for Rounder: an elegantly inventive and endlessly captivating album called 25 Trips.
Revealing her profound warmth as a storyteller, 25 Trips finds Hull shedding light on the beauty and chaos and sometimes sorrow of growing up and getting older. To that end, the album’s title nods to a particularly momentous year of her life, including her marriage to fellow bluegrass musician Justin Moses and the release of her widely acclaimed album Weighted Mind—a Béla Fleck- produced effort nominated for Best Folk Album at the 2017 Grammy Awards.
“There’s a lot of push-and-pull on this record, where in some moments I feel like everything’s happening so fast and I wish I could slow it all down so I can really enjoy it,” Hull points out. “But then there are also times where I’m looking forward to the day when the craziness has died down a bit, and life’s a little calmer.”
Made with producer/engineer Shani Gandhi (Kelsea Ballerini, Dierks Bentley, Sarah Jarosz, Alison Krauss), 25 Trips continues the musical journey begun on Weighted Mind, a body of work that built off Hull’s bluegrass roots and ventured into entirely new terrain. But while its predecessor assumed a sparse and stripped-back palette, 25 Trips embodies a far more intricately arranged sound—an effect achieved with the help of peers like guitarist Mike Seal, bassist Ethan Jodziewicz, violinist Alex Hargreaves, and fiddler Christian Sedelmyer, as well as several musicians that Hull has long admired (including bassist Viktor Krauss, guitarist Bryan Sutton, and multi-instrumentalist Stuart Duncan). Along with integrating electric instrumentation and percussion into her material for the first time, Hull dreamed up the album’s eclectic textures by embracing a free-flowing process that often gave way to lightning-in-a-bottle improvisation.
“There were some songs that we created from the ground up, where I’d go in and play by myself, and from there we’d bring in other musicians to add more and more layers,” Hull says. “It was really wonderful to work that way, where we started from a place of mystery and then just let the song show us what it wanted or needed to become.”
Immediately proving the power of that approach, 25 Trips lures the listener into its unpredictable sonic world on the beguiling opening track “Beautifully Out of Place.” With its shifting tempos and gently tempestuous mood, the song was sparked from words of encouragement spoken by Hull’s husband at a time of self-doubt and confusion. “I remember Justin saying to me, ‘I believe in you, so you’re just going to have to learn to believe in yourself,’” she recalls. “That inspired the first line for me, and the song just wrote itself from there.”
Although much of the album bears a rich complexity, 25 Trips also includes moments of stark simplicity that perfectly showcase Hull’s stunning vocal range. On “Everybody’s Talking,” for instance, her luminous vocals quietly capture the frustration of finding clarity in the midst of constant chatter from the outside world. And on “Ceiling to the Floor”—co-written with Kai Welch, a songwriter/musician known for his work with Glen Campbell and Abigail Washburn—Hull spins a tender metaphor from her longtime fear of heights. “I was telling Kai about how when I was little my dad used to try to get me over that fear by holding me up to the ceiling and saying, ‘Just touch it—I’m not gonna let you fall,’” she explains. Featuring a performance from legendary steel-guitar player Paul Franklin, “Ceiling to the Floor” drifts from memory to real-time reflection, slowly unfolding as a nuanced meditation on courage and love.
One of the most unexpected turns on 25 Trips, “Escape” emerges as a delicate collage of hypnotic percussion, otherworldly electric-mandolin tones, and poetic yet plainspoken lyrics (e.g., “I want to escape to a world that’s not closing in”). “I didn’t even have that song on my list for the album, but I played Shani a voice memo and right away she said, ‘I wanna record that,’” remembers Hull, who penned “Escape” with singer/songwriter Angel Snow. “I was a little hesitant since it’s so unlike anything else I’ve done, but in the end it was really exciting to play electric and come up with something in a completely different vein.”

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/12 - The Kucera Brothers
2023-08-12 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
The Kucera Brothers, founded by Sam Kucera, Colin Kucera, and Alex McArthur.

Kidstuff Live - 8/12 - Anna Uptain
2023-08-12 10:00 - 11:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Anna Uptain is a multi-instrumentalist and local musician/music instructor.You might see Anna playing around town or at Dollywood, or teaching adult beginners in guitar, banjo, mandolin or ukulele at Pellissippi State, but you can definitely catch her weekly at her job playing music for story time at the Blount County Public Library in the children’s department.

The WDVX Big Plate - 8/11 - Davey & The Midnights
2023-08-11 12:00 - 17:00 | Barley’s, 200 East Jackson Avenue, Knoxville, TN, 37915, United States
Davey Allen is a versatile songwriter, musician, and artist. His work is deeply rooted in the vast American songbook. Allen has played music professionally for the past 20 years, the last six with Davey and The Midnights. The band formed on the west-side of Los Angeles, California in 2017. The group immediately set out to establish themselves as one of the hardest working Americana bands in Southern California. They’ve toured up and down the Western US coast, the deserts of the Southwest, the Rocky Mountains, the cornfields of the Midwest, and through the musical heartland of the US South. Since 2021 the band has called Indianapolis, Indiana home.
Davey and The Midnights have shared the stage with acts such as Kelsey Waldon, Dale Watson, Jesse Daniel, Nikki Lane, TK and the Holy Know-Nothings, the Cordovas, Cristina Vane, Chris Pierce, Rob Leines, and Izaak Opatz. Their emotionally charged, high energy performances are not to be missed.
Davey has also toured extensively as a solo artist and as keyboardist for rock hall of famer Eric Burdon. In addition, he has toured as a member of the San Francisco rock band The Stone Foxes. Davey is an advocate of many social causes and has previously donated a portion of his album sales to the Dolores Huerta Foundation and the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Center.

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/10 - Mojo Circus
2023-08-10 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Mojo Circus brings you roots music from East Tennessee!

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/9 - Dave Eggar & Friends
2023-08-09 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Long before Dave Eggar was renowned as a world class cellist, writing, performing and recording for years with Amy Lee and Evanescence, enrapturing us with his solo intro to Coldplay’s #1 smash “Viva La Vida,” touring with American Idol winner Phillip Phillips and music directing symphony orchestras on tour with Foreigner, he quietly launched a solo career as a composer/pianist, releasing the solo piano albums Serenity (1998) and Angelic Embrace (2002). Sidelined from his whirlwind road and studio career during the pandemic lockdown, Eggar made major changes in his life – including moving to Bristol, TN – a small town in Appalachia – after years of living in NYC.
The downtime also allowed him time for quiet reflection and a full circle return to the simplicity and purity of his roots – a creatively empowering experience that led to the creation of his new perfectly titled solo piano collection, Awakening. It is Eggar’s fifth release on Domo Records, a discography that includes those first two albums as well as Left of Blue (2005) and Kingston Morning (2010).
Awakening was produced by Chuck Palmer, a prolific drummer/percussionist songwriter, engineer and arranger who served as orchestral conductor and percussionist on the Foreigner tours. Featuring Eggar working his transcendent magic on a Steinway B, it was recorded and engineered by Davis Hart at Pulp Arts in Gainesville, FL. With the exception of “Coming Home” and the album’s dramatic closer “New Dawn” – the two tracks featuring wordless, choir-like vocalizations by Avalona and Priya Darshini, respectively, the original pieces were composed by Eggar and Palmer. “Coming Home” was penned by Eggar and Dina Finai (a.k.a. Avalona), while “New Dawn” is by Eggar, Palmer and Darshini. “New Dawn” also features percussion by Will Calhoun of the iconic band Living Colour.
The only other instrumentation is Phil Faconti’s guitar and Eggar’s cello, which adds a haunting harmonic shade to the lyrical “My Simple Gift,” which is the pianist’s interpretation of a piece from legendary composer Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring,” a work that premiered in 1944 and achieved enduring popularity as an orchestral suite.
Eggar’s inclusion of “My Simple Gift” is a way of paying tribute to Copland, who in his later years lived in Eggar’s hometown of Croton-on-Hudson NY and was Eggar’s piano teacher when he was six. It is also a way of acknowledging the pianist’s mellower but still quite vibrant life now in Appalachia, considered by some to be the birthplace of country music. Over the years, Eggar has played bluegrass at various festivals in the region. In his liners for Awakening, Eggar writes, “This record is dedicated to the city of Bristol VA/TN where I found a safe haven during the pandemic of 2020, and is a tribute to strength, perseverance and truth.” One of the most beautiful and meditative pieces on the album, “Bristol Morning,” makes reference to this feeling of rebirth in a place where he truly felt he was, indeed, coming home.
In a time when streaming sometimes relegates album art and packaging to an afterthought, it is important to note that the gorgeous, impressionistic and sunsplashed album artwork was created by Robert Redford’s wife Sibylle Szaggars Redford, a German born multimedia environmental artist whose artwork – largely inspired by nature, ancient cultures and the Moroccan and New Mexican high desert – has been exhibited throughout Europe, Monaco, Peru, Singapore, Japan, Suriname and the U.S.
Beyond an opportunity to revisit a more introverted, inward looking mode of expression, the 14 tracks of Awakening take the Julliard trained musician back his childhood, being a classical piano prodigy not only meant playing Schumann’s Carnivale, Chopin’s Nocturnes and pieces by Gabriel Faure and Debussy, but a comforting way to improvise and tell stories to express himself. Eggar’s fascinating history as a prodigy, which includes performing on Broadway and with the Metropolitan Opera at age seven and debuting at Carnegie Hall at 15 – usually takes precedence in his official biographies. Yet it’s the way music helped him cope with the more challenging elements of that childhood that tell the real story of his unfolding genius.
“Over the years, being a cellist won out in terms of being my extroverted ‘social’ instrument, and it was fun to play it in chamber music and orchestral settings,” says Eggar, who in addition to being in great demand with jazz and pop music royalty (Michael Brecker, David Foster, Taylor Swift, Tony Bennett, Andrea Bocelli and Esperanza Spalding, among scored of others) has collaborated with the New York City Ballet, the Jose Limon Company, Attack Theatre, Pendulum Aerial Arts, Shen Wei Dance, San Francisco Ballet and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. He has also appeared as a featured soloist with the Thailand Philharmonic, The Sydney Symphony, the Melbourne Symphony, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.
“Throughout my life, however, the piano has remained a kind of personal and poetic space for me,” he adds. “I had created a beautiful base for myself with those first two albums and then of course, as appreciative as I am for the opportunity to work with so many great artists and orchestras, my career also became very complicated. Even before the pandemic, I had been thinking about making a record like Awakening to share this part of myself, but from the perspective of having done so many other things and collaborated with hundreds of great musicians. Because of my schedule, I couldn’t find the way in – but the lockdown afforded me that time.”
One of the reasons Eggar titled the album Awakening is that as he and Palmer immersed themselves in the compositional process, the project became a real reckoning for the pianist. It wasn’t just a nice side project to fill the time, but an essential creative rebirth after spending years on the road and in the studio on behalf of others. In every moment of stillness, his question to himself was always, “What do I want to say poetically?”
Beyond representing his personal spiritual flow creating the project, the title also has a universal application to the journeys everyone went through in a year fraught with fear and anxiety and where the issues of justice and equity in our culture were spotlighted like few other times in American history. Eggar says the cautious climax with Priya’s vocals on “New Dawn” is meant to be a musical question about how we may redefine our collective narrative moving forward – like, “What does that awakening mean and how do we do it better? As we re-emerge, what do we re-emerge as? Where do we find the courage to face what’s next?”
“Once I decided to start writing and recording Awakenings, I had some anxiety about how to approach it because Serenity and Angelic Embrace were so wonderfully organic,” he says. “There’s something scary about trying to recreate the feeling of something that happened so magically early in your life. But working with Chuck, we were able to go on a deeper meditational journey that felt very natural, connecting to the simplicity of those younger days while also being reflective of this unique moment in time. My hope is that people will likewise connect with this expression of musical poetry, and I am excited about the opportunity to touch them collectively and individually with these pieces.”

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/8 - Eddie Clendening & The Blue Ribbon Boys
2023-08-08 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Eddie Clendening brings with him over two decades of experience on the stage. Having appeared with early ROCK & ROLL greats like Scotty Moore, James Burton, Pat Cupp, Hayden Thompson, Billy Lee Riley, Earl Palmer, Dale Hawkins, Gene Summers, Jimmy Lee Fautheree, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and scores of others. Contemporary musicians are also taking notice of this explosive and handsome young front man for not only his vocals, but also his work on the electric guitar.

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/7 - Katie Curley / Melanie A Davis
2023-08-07 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Emanating from the low hills of western Kentucky (Murray, KY) are the unmistakable songs of Melanie A. Davis. A performer at heart and writer by trade, her ability to craft simultaneously poignant and liberating tunes is steeped in an appreciation for the nuances of human relationships. Whether contemplating the potential of her immediate community, reflecting the global zeitgeist, or considering her own vices and tendencies, she never shies away from the glaring truths therein.
Honey Locust, Davis’ third full-length album, is set to release on August 4, 2023. The 13-track collection of jazz, folk, and doo-wop-inspired songs center around the seedy truths that hide beneath familiar tropes of American existence: patriotism (or a lack thereof), senses of belonging and self, social responsibility, and love. Honey Locust peers behind the curtain, revealing the piles of dust and petrified insects behind the glittering lights of the marquee. Like a honey locust tree, the barbed reality of these concepts is often invisible until peered at with a closer eye, a deeper skepticism.

Katie Curley, whose music New York Music Daily has described as “one of the most distinctive sounds in country,” always suspected that her desire to write songs and perform them might one day propel her out of the woods of her childhood home in Washington State (not far from where Loretta Lynn penned her first hits). She just wasn’t sure how. “Growing up in a rural area, I always wanted to live in a big city,” explains Curley. “My interest in country music came later.”
Born in Pear Blossom, CA in the Antelope Valley of the Mojave Desert, Curley has no memory of the ranch her parents rented there for $1 per month, because shortly after her arrival, they moved to the LA suburb of Pomona. There, Curley recalls, “The neighbors had a pool. We had citrus trees. And I had a collie named Sheba who would visit me every night when I would let her in by the sliding glass door of my bedroom even though I wasn’t supposed to.” Before her fourth birthday, there was another, more substantial move to Washington, where her paternal grandparents had retired to a remote piece of forested land near Puget Sound.

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/5 - Becki Grace Livingston / Alicia Harvey
2023-08-05 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Alicia Harvey is a Singer/Songwriter/Musician; from Nashville/Knoxville, TN.

Becki Grace Livingston is host of Local Honey radio show at Host of Local Honey at Real Knoxville Music, Singer/song-writer at solo artist.

Taps & Tunes on the Corner - 8-4 - Brand New Box of Matches
2023-08-04 18:00 - 19:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Ryan and Elizabeth aka Brand New Box of Matches is a Bluegrass-folk & roots inspired duo band out of Knoxville, TN.

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/4 - Tangled In Blues
2023-08-04 12:00 - 13:00 | Barley’s, 200 East Jackson Avenue, Knoxville, TN, 37915, United States
Blues and more Blues from Chicago, Memphis, Texas, The West Coast and beyond from Tangled In Blues!

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/3 - Polyphony Marimba
2023-08-03 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Peter & Karyna Swing formed Polyphony Marimba in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2010, in the spirit of the original format transmitted to Peter from Zimbabwean master musician Dumi Maraire. Peter studied with Dumi in the late 1980’s and has worked full time since then teaching marimba ensembles, building marimbas, and founding several bands playing this joyous and deep music from Zimbabwe. Polyphony Marimba is the apex and fulfillment of that experience.
Polyphony Marimba recruits the finest marimba players in the nation; young people who have grown up playing Zimbabwean music, and who have the energy and talent to play six nights a week during their summer tours. The nine-piece ensemble includes Peter and Karyna, Jesse Larson and David Onstott from Santa Fe, Adam Halpin of Spokane, DeeDee and Tessa Wells of Joplin, Missouri, Branson Seamons from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and Conrad Rice from Eugene, Oregon.
Polyphony Marimba is devoted to being authentic to its Zimbabwean roots, presenting beloved traditional songs with passion and precision. And they add unique branches of their own, creating new songs stemming from their own powerful music backgrounds. Now embarking on their seventh national tour, this vision is carefully honed and deepened by playing every day in many different contexts, from New York City parks to Chicago farmer’s markets, from St Louis clubs to busking in Washington DC and performing on the main stage at the annual Zimbabwean Music Festival.
Polyphony Marimba further polishes their sound through first-rate studio recordings. They are currently at work on their fourth album, which includes guest vocalists recorded in Zimbabwe. They have sold thousands of CDs and have many fans around the world, including Zimbabwe itself. Their debut recording was reviewed in the main newspaper there by Ignatius Mabasa, who was pleasantly surprised when, as he says, “it knocked my socks off”!

Tennessee Shines - 8/2 - Willi Carlisle, Tommy Prine, The Local Honeys
2023-08-02 19:00 | Bijou Theatre, 803 South Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS!
Tommy Prine’s debut album This Far South coming June 23, 2023 is not only a long awaited introduction but a testimony to Prine’s 20’s and the loss, love, and growth that has defined them. Co-produced by close friend and kindred musical spirit, Ruston Kelly, and beloved Nashville engineer and producer, Gena Johnson, the album is rich and dynamic from cathartic jams to nostalgic storytelling.
“I feel like I’ve learned more about myself in the last year and a half than I ever have in my life,” Prine says. “And I think that speaks a lot to doing something that I’m passionate about. I love and respect the craft. Just hitting the road and doing what so many people before me have done and will continue to do, it’s really resonated with me. I think it’s transformed me into the person that I am meant to be.”

Willi Carlisle is a poet and a folk singer for the people. Like his hero Utah Phillips, Carlisle’s extraordinary gift for turning a phrase isn’t about high falutin’ pontificatin’; it’s about looking out for one another and connecting through our shared human condition. On his anticipated second album, the magnum opus Peculiar, Missouri, Carlisle makes the case across twelve epic tracks that love truly can conquer all. Born and raised on the Midwestern plains, Carlisle is a product of the punk to folk music pipeline that’s long fueled frustrated young men looking to resist. After falling for the rich ballads and tunes of the Ozarks, where he now lives, he began examining the full spectrum of American musical history. This insatiable stylistic diversity is obvious on Peculiar, Missouri which was produced by Grammy-winning engineer and Cajun musician Joel Savoy in rural Louisiana. The songs range from sardonic trucker songs like “Vanlife” to the heartbreaking queer waltz “Life on the Fence.” The album also imbues class consciousness in songs like “Este Mundo,” a cowboy border ballad about water rights, and the title track’s existential talkin’ blues about a surreal panic attack in Walmart’s aisle five. Though Carlisle’s poetic words evoke the mystical American storytelling of Whitman, Sandburg, and e e cummings, ultimately this is bonafide populist folk music in the tradition of cowboys, frontier fiddlers, and tall-tale tellers. Carlisle recognizes that the only thing holding us back from greatness is each other. With Peculiar, Missouri, he brings us one step closer to breaking down our divides.

Many artists are defined by place, but only a handful of artists come to define the places they’re from. The Local Honeys are Kentucky and Kentucky runs through their veins like an unbridled racehorse. When a master songsmith like Tom T. Hall calls an artist “a great credit to a wonderful Kentucky tradition” it’s time to pull up a chair and pay attention. As it pertains to The Local Honeys he was right on the money. For almost a decade the duo (Linda Jean Stokley and Montana Hobbs) have been an integralpart of the Kentucky musicscape.
They’ve paid their dues, garnering countless accolades and accomplishments (tours with Tyler Childers, Colter Wall, praise from the New York Times) and have become the defining sound of real deal, honest-to-God Kentucky music. With their self-titled debut on La Honda Records (home of some of today’s most gifted songwriters, including Colter Wall, Riddy Arman, Vincent Neil Emerson), the duo have set forth on a journey to create something true to themselves while pushing theenvelope within the traditions they hold dear. Carefully crafted vignettes of rural Kentucky soar above layers of deep grooves and rich tones masterfully curated by longtime mentor Jesse Wells, Grammy nominated producer and musician (Assistant Director atthe Kentucky Center for Traditional Music at Morehead State). “Jesse grew up with sisters. He was cut from the same cloth as us and we knew he would understand what we wanted to do.” What they ended up with is the most nuanced, moody, deep-holler sound they have captured to date. “This is the first time we’ve actively gotten to express who we are and where we’re from,” says Linda Jean.

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS!

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/2 - Sweet Megg / Rockwood Taylor
2023-08-02 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Sweet Megg is a local singer down in Nashville, TN originally from New York City. She performs a range of material steeped in the American traditions of jazz, blues, and country. Her vocals reveal a vast variety of influences, ranging from Billie Holiday to Patsy Cline & from Edith Piaf to Karen Dalton. She grew up performing as a songwriter in the East Village and dreaming of being a writer like those of the folk era of the Greenwich Village. After high school she found herself down in North Carolina where she trained as a raft guide and got her first taste of Southern music. The sounds of bluegrass and country intrigued her and she always felt a longing to return once back in the big city. She continued songwriting in college and eventually moved to Paris to study jazz where she began performing around town with local musicians. After college she returned to New York City and fell head first into the early jazz community where she found the excitement of improvisational jazz accompanied by the storytelling of the early blues and country she loved. She flourished in that community and her first formation, Sweet Megg & the Wayfarers, gained popularity and began touring outside of the city. Her tours brought her back to the south where she became more and more curious about country music.
Her first two releases Under the Moonlight (2020 Data Records) & I’m in Love Again (2021 Turtle Bay Records) are steeped in the classic jazz she was playing every night in New York. After I’m in Love Again came out she finally packed up her bags and moved down to Nashville TN. She was able to convince Scott Asen (the chef of Turtle Bay) to do a record that mixed the sound of Nashville with the sound of New York. That was the inspiration behind her next album My Window Faces South (2022 Turtle Bay). She mixed her horn section & piano player from I’m in Love Again with a few of her favorite musicians down in Nashville (Chris Scruggs, Billy Contreras, Chris Gelb, & Dennis Crouch). This set off her vision of what Sweet Megg would sound like going forward. Real Hill Billy Jazz.
Inspired by Bob Wills, she is taking the idea of mixing country and jazz to the next level.
“I’ve been building a sound combining my knowledge and experience in the old-time jazz world of New York with the country music I love and have learned so much about living down in Nashville. Bob Wills loved jazz and I believe his vision was to meld the two genres of his era creating Western swing. I’m just expanding on that idea by not only taking jazz & country ideas from the 30s & 40s but also integrating ideas from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and so on”.
The only missing puzzle piece now is to reintroduce her original music to the mix. Her next album Bluer than Blue is in the works and will be released in the fall of 2023. It includes an original by Megg and moving forward she plans to keep writing tunes that hint at the classic sounds of country music while leaving spaces for the freedom and improvisation of jazz.

Charlie Rockwood Farr and Lynne Taylor are singer songwriters and multi-instrumentalists who first met while on tour with Alt-country-rock band, Liz Frame and the Kickers in 2011. They went on to work together in the Lynne Taylor Band and Halo and the Harlots, finally landing in 2018 as Rockwood Taylor, an edgy Americana duo that calls on a wide range of influences from Woody Guthrie to John Prine, Steve Earle and Townes Van Zandt, Nina Simone to Patsy Cline to Patti Smith. The result is a collection of rootsy, gutsy, honest songs that transcend boundaries, taking the listener on a gritty journey through our collective human experience. Based in Massachusetts, they have toured throughout the Northeast US as far west as Ohio, and as far south as North Carolina. They released their first EP, Finding Home, in April 2019, which was nominated for Album of the Year by the New England Music Awards.

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 8/1 - Wonky Tonk / Andy Pirkle
2023-08-01 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Sometimes solo, sometimes duo, sometimes full-band, but always wonky. Often compared to Lucinda Williams and Nikki Lane, Wonky Tonk travels the country wonkin’ up dive bars, wineries, zoos and festivals alike. ​
With a love for glitter, a knack for story telling and a heart of gold, you will find yourself falling in love with the Wonk and having no idea how to define it.

East Tennessee’s Own Andy Pirkle also joins us this day!

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 7/31 - Tyson Leamon / Russ Stallons
2023-07-31 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Country Music Artist Tyson Leamon is a remarkably gifted singer and songwriter who is making a big splash in the Country Music scene. He was nominated for the Rising New Male Country Star and Vocalist of the Year at the Josie Music Awards and was recently crowned the Bowlingfest National Talent Competition winner in London, KY. He was also a finalist in the 2020 Tennessee Songwriters Week Showcase. With years of experience performing both locally and nationally, Tyson has touched the hearts of millions of country music lovers in the US and around the world. He has become a household name in the Tennessee Valley for writing and performing great music with his catchy rhythmic guitar work, potent lyrics, and electric stage presence. For this country music phenom, life is all about generating original soulful music that reflects real life and emotion for all Americans regardless of race, religion or creed.

The pandemic was hard for country music. Tours cancelled. Venues Closed. Everyone stuck at home. But, all that time at home made plenty of time to write new songs. There is lots of new country music out there. And believe it or not, traditional country music is making a comeback.
Enter Russ Stallons. Fresh out of the studio and ready to take on country radio in 2022-2023. Coming out of that long hibernation, Russ was determined to go in a new direction. No more promises from people in the music industry left unfulfilled and overpromised. Russ found veteran Nashville record producer Buddy Hyatt (TOTO, Lee Greenwood, TG Sheppard, Randy Travis, Lorrie Morgan, and many more) to kickstart his music career again.
Buddy enlist his A-team of renowned session players, Brent Mason, Jimmy Carter, Duncan Mullins, Austin Crum, Steve Hinson, Scotty Sanders, Joe Spivey, Lonnie Wilson, and Zach Allen at the helm, to get Russ’s music to a world class level. Recorded at the historic Hilltop Recording Studio, Russ has some amazing music coming for you!

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 7/29 – Kevin Mahoney & Darrell Wallace / Andrew Scotchie
2023-07-29 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Through consistent heartfelt releases, year round touring and active charity work, Asheville N.C. native Andrew Scotchie is a celebrated creative force. His unique brand of rock n roll, blues and Americana has an unmatched sense of urgency and unifying social commentary.​
Rock-n-roll ain’t dead and gone. Quite the contrary, truth-be-told. The purity and rebellious nature of rock music in the 21st century has circled back to the underground where it all exploded from decades ago — back to the “you had to be there” moments of melodic bliss, of sweat and serenity only found in the presence of soaring six-string riffs and thunderous percussion ’round the midnight hour. For over a decade, Andrew Scotchie has carved out his place as one of the premier rock-n-blues artists in Asheville and greater Western North Carolina. In a Southern Appalachian town known for Americana, bluegrass, and mountain music, Scotchie has emerged from the depths of the city to become a bonafide rock ambassador for this new, unknown, and promising chapter of the genre.
On his new album (out on June 9th), “Love Is Enough,” Scotchie joins forces with Abingdon, Virginia, multi-instrumentalist Logan Fritz. Captured at Classic Recording Studio in Bristol, Virginia, the duo strips it all down with a raw, snarling attitude, one which seamlessly traverses the vibrant, sonic landscape of rock, blues, and soul. The seven-song LP is purposely up front and in your face, this message of connectivity, compassion, and camaraderie amid a world gone mad — the signature message Scotchie has channeled and championed since the beginning of his musical journey. And, in many ways, “Love Is Enough” is a full-circle album for Scotchie, seeing as this latest release provides a moment to pause and reflect, to look over his shoulder at the road to the “here and now,” only to turn his gaze back down the road of one’s intent. It’s this hell or high-water path of hard knocks and hard pavement, the unrelenting will within to never give up on the sacred dream — that passion and persistence of the human spirit still at the core of rock-n-roll.
Andrew Scotchie and his explosive band have been revered far wide for their engaging, interactive High-Energy, Funk-ti-fied Rock n’ Roll show. Couple the abilities and in the moment spirit of a jam-band with a punk rock fierceness and energy, and you’ll get a show that will have familiar songs but with a twist that offers a listener something only in that moment. Consistent studio recordings, year round touring from NY to FL and NC to ID, earnest songwriting and sharing bills with such greats as Neal Francis, Eric Gales, Futurebirds, Here Come the Mummies, Bob Margolin, Sonny Landreth, Blind Boys of Alabama, Drivin N Cryin, Ghost Light and Bettye Lavette has made Andrew Scotchie & the River Rats one of the industry’s fastest growing Rock n Roll bands, and voted Western North Carolina’s best Rock band/all around favorite band since 2015.

Darrell Wallace was born in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains (Knoxville, TN). Darrell is a member of the International Singer Songwriters’ Association and the Tennessee Songwriters’ Association. After meandering through a couple of states and several cities, he headed to Nashville. There he turned down two recording contracts and a publishing deal (maybe not the smartest move, but made sense at the time), he found himself as one of the up and coming writers with numerous appearances at the Bluebird Cafe.​​
Darrell’s early musical influences were Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Steve Earle, James Taylor and all of the Out Law Country folks, Waylon, Willie, etc. Today he is living the dream (the life of a rock star), playing venues throughout the south and parts of the north. His music is mixed with sounds of Folk, Americana and Country Rock(ish). He currently lives in Spring City, TN writing songs, playing music and loving life on the lake with his amazing wife!!!

Kevin Mahoney is a powerful singer and songwriter gifted with the rare ability to speak to the soul with his expressive and poignant lyrics.
With a career spanning 20 years, the versatility of
his music touches genres of folk, rock, soul, folk funk and somehow all these still cannot define the spirit of his music. Festivals, Radio, TV & proud of the partnerships made with endorsements from pedal & pick companies helping to round out his talents while enhancing his welcoming & supportive nature to all he comes in contact with.
He has created his own style and reputation as a mesmerizing live performer and stands in his own light. A unique talent driven by passion, social awareness and love for his trade, his music manages to empower and speak for the many. He’s a jaw dropping guitar player who has developed a unique percussive style, teamed up with a powerful show stopping voice.

The WDVX Big Plate - 7/28 - Mike Thomas Band
2023-07-28 12:00 - 13:00 | Barley’s, 200 East Jackson Avenue, Knoxville, TN, 37915, United States
Mike Thomas is an emerging Country/Americana artist steeped in tradition. Drawing from a wide array of influences and experiences, Thomas’ music has been best described as “eclectic country with a vintage vibe.” Growing up in Knoxville, TN, Thomas’ musical journey has taken an unconventional path. He moved to Nashville in 2004 intent on pursuing a career as a songwriter but quickly grew discouraged and set music aside for an extended period. Thomas recalls, “I didn’t listen to the country music of the day. I had no frame of reference for the types of songs publishers and artists were looking for. I was naïve and learned some tough lessons in those days.”
After walking away from music for ten plus years to start a family and a small business, Thomas eventually got back into the swing of things in 2017 when he was contacted by a booking agency that had discovered some of his older recordings. You’ll instantly hear influences like Tom Petty, John Prine and Merle Haggard in his music, but Thomas will tell you that he’s inspired and influenced by all types of music as long as the songs feel authentic. One listen to Thomas’ music demonstrates the importance of authenticity in his art. Thomas’ raw vocals coupled with his genuine writing style give his songs a nostalgic feel that listeners cannot help but connect with. Mix that carefully crafted lyricism with real-life stories, and fans both old and new are sure to find that the music resonates on a deep level.

The WDVX Blue Plate Special - 7/27 - My Brothers Keepers / Ruen Brothers
2023-07-27 12:00 - 13:00 | WDVX, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, 37902, United States
Ruen Brothers return with a moody ode to Western classics, their third full-length album titled Ten Paces. The duo have created neo-noir gold on the ten song collection – their first for Yep Roc Records – which follows their 2018 Rick Rubin-produced debut All My Shades of Blue and 2021’s ULTRAMODERN.
Brothers Rupert and Henry Stansall grew up in the industrial steel town of Scunthorpe in Northeast England, and were raised saddling up, strumming guitars and spending hours in the fields, bars and barns in the middle of nowhere. On their new tour-de-force project, the brothers have embraced their love for the American Westerns that they grew up watching with their mother, and have put a modern spin on the classic genre. “We want to transport listeners into the immersive world of Ten Paces, delivering something cinematic and personal,” says Rupert who notes albums like Marty Robbins’ Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs as an influence.
Ten Paces was produced by Rupert, seeing him deftly preserving the quality and authenticity of early recording gear and techniques while achieving a unique sound. Throughout Ten Paces, Henry’s dynamic four-octave range is on display with him jumping between octaves in songs where emotions are highest, reflecting his love for Roy Orbison; and using his lower octave range to create a grounded and conversational feel, true to the laconic and hard boiled characters of the West, reflecting his years of covering Johnny Cash songs in British pubs.

My Brother’s Keeper is a progressive bluegrass band from Cincinnati OH that draws inspiration from rock, gospel, bluegrass and everything in between.
My Brother’s Keeper consists of brothers Benjamin, Titus, and Joshua Luckhaupt on guitar, mandolin, and fiddle respectively. Wyatt “Sawmill” Murray completes this ensemble on the upright bass. MBK features four part family harmonies, soulful lead vocals, thoughtful original music, and an energetic live show that appeals to fans of any genre. Unique and exciting, My Brother’s Keeper has brought their fresh blend of original acoustic music to fans all over the United States.
