*denotes part of our Roots and Branches series

*American Routes - Robbie Fulks & Bettye LaVette
Join us for the sounds and stories of estranged country singer and songwriter Robbie Fulks. And R&B vixen Bettye LaVette takes us from the Motor City to Muscle Shoals, and Beale Street to Bourbon Street as she recounts nearly 50 years of singing R&B. Plus meditations on honky-tonk angels, speckled birds and more.

Banks of the Ohio (a rebroadcast)
The second half hour features music from 1952, including Don Reno & Red Smiley’s first recording together as the Tennessee Cut-ups, Jimmy Martin with Bill Monroe, and Curly Seckler and Benny Martin with Flatt & Scruggs. Some fascinating live performances include the Lilly Brothers & Don Stover (1952), the New Lost City Ramblers (1962), David Grisman and the New York Ramblers (1964), the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with Vassar Clements (1974), Hot Rize (1996), and Rhonda Vincent (2005). A production of the International Bluegrass Music Museum, hosted by Fred Bartenstein.

Bluegrass Breakdown - The Gibson Brothers Live
They’ve got the sweet mellifluous harmonies of the Louvins, the tough-edged intensity of the Stanley Brothers, the high-lonesome timelessness of Bill Monroe … and a sound completely and distinctly all their own. From upstate New York, Eric and Leigh, the mighty Gibson Brothers will be joining us live in celebration of their latest Sugar Hill masterpiece, Iron and Diamonds.

Bluegrass Review
Our show opens up with a song sung by teenaged mandolin sensation, Sierra Hull. Some of her work is reminiscent of that of Alison Krause about 15 years ago. We play a little Alison to show what we mean. Our Gem of Bluegrass is about nostalgia: Bluegrass and Nostalgia, now that is a natural combination. Later on the show, we play Dock Boggs, a singular banjoist and singer who recorded in the 1920’s and 1960’s, and whose influence is felt in bluegrass and old time music.

Bluegrass Signal - Double Your Pleasure
Two approaches to old time music, as presented by guest co-host Todd Gracyk. Jim & Kim Lansford are a wonderful duo from the Missouri Ozarks, and Skip Gorman is a Monroe-style mandolinist, versatile fiddler, and cowboy singer from New Hampshire; both are feature this week on Bluegrass Signal.

*The Dick Spottswood Show
If gas is four dollars a gallon, and if we could use the excercise, maybe we should take a walk. Let’s invite Bill Monroe, the Golden Gates, Johnnie and Jack, Blind Boy Fuller, Merle Travis, the Stanley Brothers, Fats Domino, Bob Wills and the Carter Family to join us. Tie your shoelaces, bring some bottled water and put on a distinctive hat–walking is never Obsolete.

*etown
Grammy winner Kathy Mattea makes her return to etown for this road show taping from the Union Colony Civic Center in Greeley, Colorado. She draws on her West Virginia roots to deliver a deliver set of traditional and contemporary mining songs. She also talks with host Nick Forster about her musical and activist roots. Then Johnny Long, the ‘Bluesman,’ takes the etown stage and shows us why, in the words of John Hammond, he is an artist “worthy of international attention.” Also, a concerned and inspired young physician from Ohio accepts the listener nominated e-chievement award this week, and shares his story with us ‘in-person.’

LIVE Friday Night Free for All - 8 p.m. - 12 a.m. ET

The Bill Miller Show, Sunday 3 a.m. (6/29)

The Tom Cat Reeder Show, Tuesday 12 p.m. LIVE, Thursday 12 a.m., Sunday 3 a.m. (7/6)

The Gary Henderson Show Saturday 8-11 a.m. LIVE, Monday 12 p.m., Friday 12 a.m.

LIVE The Katy Daley Show Mon-Fri, 7-10 a.m.

LIVE The Lee Michael Demsey Show Mon-Fri, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Lonesome Pine RFD with Carol Beaugard, Mon. 12 a.m., Wed. 9 p.m.

*Mountain Stage
Featuring Jakob Dylan & the Gold Mountain Rebels, Hayes Carll, Krista Detor, Andy Davis, and Priscilla Ahn. Playlist.

Music from Foggy Hollow
This week’s show is a huge wealth of riches! So much new music! Mike Kear introduces new CDs from the Grascals, Larry Stephenson, Dan Paisley and the Southern Grass, teenage mandolin super-picker Serra Hull, Junior Sisk and Rambler’s Choice and singer-songwriter Becky Schlegel. As if all of that isn’t enough, the feature CD this week is a breand new release from the Dan Tyminski Band, called “Wheels”. All of that plus the usual features, not taking it all too seriously. You’d be a ring-tailed bandicoot to miss it!

Musician Tip - Mandolin player Bobby Clark

Open Mic - Over 400 people joined us on Sunday, June 22 for the very first Bluegrass Country Open House. This week, we open the mic for the bands that entertained everyone from the lawn of our building in Northwest D.C.

Old Time Jam
Hubie King picks another mix of tunes and songs this week, headlined by Norman Blake, Cathy Fink, Bruce Molsky, David Holt and Dirk Powell. Other names which may not yet be as familiar include Doug Van Gundy and Paul Gartner, Gordy Hinners, Kate Lissauer, Rootbound, and the Foghorn String Band. We’ll also take a nostalgic look back at the late John Ashby, an important fiddler from Virginia’s “Free State,” and at Albert Hash and the Whitetop Mountain Band, both as they sounded in the 1970s.

Special Programming
Starting things off, Phil Nusbaum discusses the theme of nostalgia in bluegrass music on Gems of Bluegrass. Following that, host Hubie King interviews and plays music with the founding members of Friends of Old Time Banjo; a D.C. group that started with a handful of beginners and has grown to almost 150 members.

LIVE Stained Glass Bluegrass Hosted by Bob Webster
We’ve enjoyed the old hymns so much that this week we’ll take an expanded listen to some bluegrass gospel arrangements of songs with a copyright of close to 100 years in age such as “Just Over in the Glory Land” (1906) and “The Eastern Gate” (1905).

*Thistle and Shamrock - Americana Celtic
Hear artists including Tim O’Brien, Jane Rothfield and Mark O’Connor, who drift easily between American roots music and Celtic styles and collaborations.

LIVE *Traditions with Mary Cliff, Saturday 2-6 p.m.