WAMU's Bluegrass Country

Listen to the music that matters to songwriter and lead guitar player for The Milk Carton Kids, Kenneth Pattengale.

Musical Samples

1. Artist: The Milk Carton Kids
Title: Permanent
Album: LIVE on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country

2. Artist: Tom Waits
Title: Swordfishtrombone
Album: Swordfishtrombones

3. Artist: Duke Ellington & His Cotton Club Orchestra
Title: Black Beauty
Album: The Centennial Edition Box Set

4. Artist: Gillian Welch
Title: Revelator
Album: Time (The Revelator)

5. Artist: The Milk Carton Kids
Title: Girls Gather Round
Album: LIVE on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country

Kenneth Pattengale (pictured on right) and Joey Ryan (pictured on left) are the The Milk Carton Kids, opening for Over the Rhine on December 4, 2011 at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Va.

Support for this week’s Music that Matters comes from Strathmore, presenting a Skaggs Family Christmas with Ricky Skaggs, December 1st at 8 p.m.

Listen to the music that matters to banjo player Greg Liszt
1. Artist: The Beatles
Title: No Reply
Album: Beatles For Sale

2. Artist: Talking Heads
Title: Girlfriend is Better
Album: Speaking in Tongues

3. Artist: Vampire Weekend
Title: Oxford Comma
Album: Vampire Weekend

4. Artist: The Deadly Gentlemen
Title: 99 Days
Album: Carry Me to Home

Greg Liszt plays banjo with the band Crooked Still and plays banjo, sings, and composes all of the material for his side project, The Deadly Gentlemen.

Listen to the music that matters to guitar player Larry Keel

1. The Carter Family (Maybelle Carter)
Wildwood Flower

2. Jimi Hendrix
Catfish Blues
from Blues

3. Old & In the Way (Jerry Garcia)
Wild Horses

4. Paul Brady
Follow That Star
from Hooba Dooba

5. Larry Keel & Natural Bridge
Swarmin’ Bees
from Backwoods

Support for this week’s Music that Matters comes from Strathmore, presenting The Punch Brothers, featuring Chris Thile, Friday, November 12th, 2010.

Photo by © G. Milo Farineau/MiloFarineauPhotography.com

Listen to the music that matters to Balsam Range guitar player Caleb Smith

1. Nobody’s Perfect
by Hannah Montana

2. Old Joe Clark
by Doc & Merle Watson
from Home Sweet Home

3. Ninety Nine Years
by Hot Rize

4. Jeep on 35
by John Scofield

5. Caney Fork River
by Balsam Range

6. Steve Smith – Caleb Smith’s dad

Listen to the music that matters to Fiddle player Tammy Rogers.

What are you listening to today?

“I tend to listen to a lot of singer/songwriters… people that are, you know, really writing and singing their own material.”
1. Can’t Let Go
by Lucinda Williams
from Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

And growing up?

2. Just Someone I Used to Know
by Dolly Parton & Porter Wagoner
from Dolly Parton & Porter Wagoner: Duets

Maybelle Carter
3. Wildwood Flower
by The Carter Family

“I had 5 or 6 albums that would just stay in a stack there. And that was Boone Creek…the [J.D. Crowe] 75 album, then I started really wearing out the Bluegrass Album Band stuff, but at the same time I was a huge Emmy Lou Harris fan…and Keith Whitley, I wanted to grow up and marry Keith Whitley.”

And the fiddlers who influenced the way you play today?

“People that I think are really serious fans will remember Scotty [Stoneman], but he doesn’t I don’t think get near the recognition he deserves these days.”
4. Oklahoma Stomp
from Live in L.A. with the Kentucky Colonels

“Kenny Baker, obviously, you know, I wore out that Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe L.P.”

5. Lee Highway Blues
by Stuart Duncan
“I’ve always been a huge fan of his playing and what he’s done in any setting.”

Tammy Rogers plays fiddle and sings with The Steeldrivers, IBMA 2009 Emerging Artist of the Year.

6. Heaven Sent
by The Steeldrivers

Listen to the music that matters to bass player and band leader Missy Raines.

She discusses:

Esbjörn Svensson Trio (E.S.T.)

Ides of March
by Missy Raines and the New Hip
from Inside Out

Missy Raines launched her career with experimental bluegrass outfit Cloud Valley, then toured the country with Eddie and Martha Adcock. Soon she was lending her bass skills to the Masters (Adcock, Kenny Baker, Josh Graves and Jesse McReynolds). Raines joined Claire Lynch’s popular Front Porch Band, and developed a successful duo with band mate Jim Hurst. A stint with the Brother Boys opened Raines’ eyes to the value of spontaneity and immediacy in her musical approach and now, Missy is stepping out to make a longtime dream come true; creating a fusing of bluegrass virtuosity, jazz-tinged groove and a song-driven sensibility with a hot band.

Listen to the music that matters to Rebecca Lovell, mandolin player & lead singer for Larkin Poe

1. You Make Loving Fun
by Fleetwood Mac
from Rumors

2. Grace
by Jeff Buckley
from Grace

3. Shadows of Ourselves
by Larkin Poe
from Larkin Poe EP

Rebecca & Megan Lovell,  formerly of the group The Lovell Sisters, formed Larkin Poe in January 2010.

Listen to the music that matters to Aaron Ramsey, mandolin player for Mountain Heart

1. Wheel Hoss
by Bluegrass Album Band
from Bluegrass Instrumentals, Vol. 6

2. Daylight
Alison Krauss & Union Station
from New Favorite

3. Something In The Way She Moves
by James Taylor

4. A Long Dream
by Tyler Ramsey

5. Little Sadie
by Mountain Heart
LIVE at WAMU’s Bluegrass Country

Listen to the music that matters to Nicky Sanders,
fiddle player for The Steep Canyon Rangers


1. Slow Ride
by Foghat

2. Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen
by Santana

3. Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
by Derek & the Dominos
featuring Eric Clapton & Duane Alman

4. Mourning Dove
by The Steep Canyon Rangers
from Deep in the Shade

Listen to the music that matters to Sammy Shelor,
banjo player for The Lonesome River Band

1. Struttin’ to Ferrum
by The Lonesome River Band
from No Turning Back

2. Working on a Building
by Col. Bruce Hampton & The Aquarium Rescue Unit

3. Nit Pickin’
by Danny Gatton
from Live in 1977 – The Humbler Stakes His Claim

4. The Sky is Crying (Live)
by Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble

5. Them Blues
by The Lonesome River Band
from No Turning Back

Listen to songs from the musicians that matter to Jason Moore, bass player for Mountain Heart

1. I Don’t Know Why
by Alison Krauss & Union Station
from Every Time You Say Goodbye

2. My Girl
by The Temptations
with bass player James Jamerson

3. Sad But True
by Metallica

4. Paranoid
by Black Sabbath

5. I’m Just Here To Ride The Train
by Mountain Heart
from Road That Never Ends

Listen to songs from the musicians that matter to Shannon Whitworth

1. Foggy Mountain Rock
by Flatt & Scruggs

2. Dead Flowers
by The Rolling Stones
from Sticky Fingers

3. Eu E Voce
by The Stan Getz Quartet & Astrud Gilberto

4. Lullaby & Exile
by M. Ward
from Transistor Radio

5. Here But Never Home
by Shannon Whitworth
from No Expectations

Shannon Whitworth and the Refugees are performing next on November 21, 2009 in Carrboro, N.C. at the Cat’s Cradle.

Listen to the songs and Jason Barie‘s discussion of why they matter to him.

1. Car Talk
from NPR

2. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
by Hank Williams

3.  Sarah Lynn Waltz
by Jason Barie
from The Past Is Present

Jason Barie plays fiddle with Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver.

Listen to the songs and David Mayfield’s discussion of why they matter to him.

1. 1-800-DO-U-CARE
by Larry Sparks
from 40

2. Bye Bye Bye
by *NSYNC
from No Strings Attached

3. Video Killed the Radio Star
covered by Cadillac Sky
from The Weary Angel EP

David Mayfield plays guitar with Cadillac Sky.

Listen to the songs and Steve Dilling‘s discussion of why they matter to him.

1. Don’t Stop Believing
by Journey
from Escape

2. Summer Nights
by Rascal Flatts
from Unstoppable

Steve Dilling plays banjo with Russell Moore and IIIrd Tyme Out. They recently released their first studio effort in 5 years, the self-titled Russell Moore and IIIrd Tyme Out.