The woods song sold Time Radio Hour is presented in part by Kentucky tourism inviting families fans and conventions worldwide to visit our land of Unbridled Spirit Music art cafes state parks sports and cultural attractions you can explore what Kentucky has to offer your next vacation trip online and Kentucky tourism and by visit Mike's dot com in the online Vacation Guide for families does theirs and corporate conventions to visit historic Lexington Kentucky while in Kentucky can visit the cafes Morris parks music festivals art and culture Well that's like the helmet which songs the old time radio hour. And welcome to the beautiful new historical Lyric Theater in our home town of Lexington Kentucky where at the crossroads of America's folk and bluegrass music the Gateway City to the magnificent Appalachian Mountains one of most artistic communities in North America where we get to do our broadcast every single week from this beautiful theaters in the lyric a gorgeous place for a whole we're so glad you could join us here we're broadcasting worldwide from Australia Arlin New Zealand to New York New Yuma Arizona to the Yukon in northern Canada celebrating the wonderful world of grassroots music artists come from everywhere to be on the stage you don't have to be famous to be on wood songs you just have to be very very good and boy that's a good description of both of the artists that we're featuring on this show 1st up is a fellow returning to our broadcast we're so glad that he's here he is one of the most powerful and dynamic of the young roots musicians that are out there a brilliant musician and he's got a magnificent new album I can't believe that this is actually his debut album but he's here with it he's going to play the title song called turmoil in tinfoil Please welcome the amazing Bill. The strings to the woods. So kind of his brand new album it's called turmoil in tinfoil Billy strings is nice to have you here buddy Welcome back thank you so much it's great to be back you got your start musically anyway in in Michigan around Traverse City you started pickin and singing and playing jams right yeah I grew up in Ionia which is just a couple hours out there and then yeah I moved up to Traverse City met up with down to Lynn and I started kind of playing some gigs around which is how I met you last time that's right you were here with with with Dawn which was it was a great show and you have a bit of a Kentucky connection don't don't treat you yeah I used to live in Morehead when I was just a Kentucky. Bulls like like coming home so let's talk about your guitar style you are a high testosterone flat picker is a good way of describing it so let's talk about the preciseness of your guitar playing how does it how do you get explain to the audience how you're getting that really fast decisive strike on your pick I listen to a whole bunch of Doc Watson when I was growing up. Was that your interest when you're a kid I mean was bluegrass an interest or were you into like Heavy Metal in Rock of electric guitar cut my teeth on bluegrass music and you know I played music with my dad and his friends as I was a kid and that's how I learned how to play and you know when I was 12 or 13 years old I started to want to play music with people that were my age you know I mean right in middle school and the only music that was going on was heavy metal and stuff so I did eventually venture off and experience other avenues but my roots are still kind of rooted you know well the experience obviously had an effect on the music I'm going to read for the audience a Rolling Stone review of your performing. Rolling Stone magazine says Billy strings has the head banging speed of thrash metal channel through flatpicking guitar and mandolin with a touch of the end of the world psychedelia. Thank you. So obviously the heavy metal years and had had a good effect on your acoustic playing there's a certain energy there if you've ever been to like a metal show that's as if there's a trust there's a craziness involved so holy man this is crazy anyways but. Some of that energy stuck with me yeah and I can't shake it it's just well I want the audience to stay tuned because in the 2nd half hour we're going to break format and you're going to play a monster epic roots music masterpiece so in the song it's on the new album but I want to produce the band because we've got some wonderful musicians with you playing mandolin Mr Sterling Abernathy over here on banjo Billy failing. And royal methought on the upright bass let's get into this. Beautiful new album The cd is called turmoil in tin foil great title for an album this is a tune called while I'm waiting here it is Billy strings on the wood songs old time a great album 13 view to full songs and Man you guys are just me this is saying to a Billy before as a really high testosterone form of music I mean how do you describe what you do. It's a party we're trying to have a good sound and that's it right there we're going to say that that's what it's all . But every night every show so a lot of your music tends to be really visual and you guys have worked hard on presenting yourself on video and you're about to do a song called Clark Goldband and that's the video clips that I saw. Which ended up in the untimely death of something at the end of that I want to give the video already but it's worth everybody checking out where the ideas come from all over the place it's a lot of times the people that we end up working with who produce the videos themselves are going to bring this wild idea when they hear the music just crazy off the wall thing and yeah that sounds great it should all be crazy off the wall let's see if we can make this a reality does the recognition help you in the end as far as getting concert performances and gigs Yeah I'd say so I think you know anytime you get attention it's going to help usually and this kind of surprising visually see if you have been able to come to a show and get the energy in the vibe that is coming along in that party maybe this will give a bit of an idea of the whimsy that you can unless you're a chick and then you're not going to want to go. See to see that now let's talk about the history of the band Craigslist had a big role in putting the band together tell me the story yeah and you're on a base over here and you know I met the president and it was a hilarious post but I was the best bass player in Austin and so so I wonder what did you post with what did you put out there pretty much exactly what Bobby said I said I was better than everyone. And you'd be a fool not to be in a band with me pretty much true and so I know so Bobby responded and said I'm the best fiddle player Bobby wanted to know. If I wanted to pick on some old timey jams that's exactly what he said let's round out the red the rest of the band on upright bass of course we're talking to Andrew and then over there on banjo James Booker t. Over there at the end. James how did how did how did your addition to the band come to be. How did you end up joining the band I used to play Tuesday residency with like a throw together band we were called bluegrass that park great was. And it was Grace and we always had different different names but I played on a Tuesday and eventually someone some very intoxicated young lady told me that I should play with a bitch I got a bad call was he said was that they didn't have a banjo player so that was a I think I e-mailed them I think I'd like um maybe like a Monday and then on a Wednesday I guess I had Dish and I went played with them and played a show on Thursday and Friday that was that was 6 years ago maybe Ok and something that you and I were talking about backstage before the show and for the sake of the radio and there's not a lot of banjo players of color in the roots music world and so how did how did and how did your. Adapt Haitian of the banjo come out you know I just heard it I grew up playing classical guitar my parents kind of tricked me into playing classical guitar eventually got into rock n roll there was there was one point when I was in 2nd grade in Tacoma Washington and there was a bluegrass band that came and there's a banjo player and I was actually in disbelief I was like No I don't think he's really doing that right now and I was the very 1st time I saw that kind of stuff with me and I played guitar until I was 20 and that was 12 years ago and I got a banjo in my 20th birthday and that was the end of my place and you waited that long before you actually started because you're an excellent excellent banjo player style. Yeah I have this urge and even if it captivated me and it's been fun to play let me let me let me throw the dice such as give me to me like a minute of something that you love a place a bucket the bit of that's Ok There you go. Oh my gosh. Taking the classical music at a young age right well it all it all works now we're going to go from Bach and classical banjo into this song that is the subject of this video that's gotten hundreds and hundreds of thousands of views that have disturbed millions of people who have watched this video let's go ahead and listen to it the band is whiskey shivers The tune is cluck old hen on the wood songs old time. a London angle and all the way here to our home in Lexington Kentucky welcome everybody for joining us here at the beautiful historical Lyric's theater we're broadcasting worldwide and over 500 radio stations we want to welcome to new affiliates k o w s in Sonoma County California and k.c. Cafe radio in Summit Missouri. Joining our family we are also broadcasting in 173 nations from South Korea to Kuwait on American Forces Radio network puts the show on the radio in 173 countries now on 2 channels every single military base in the world every u.s. Naval ship in the world every Coast Guard vessel sailing a North American is always who want to say hello to the men and women out there that are. Working hard. Bringing them a little taste of home from our home here in Lexington We're also on public television coast to coast now also on the r.f.d. Television network nationwide and we are also available in schools if you're a teacher or a homeschool parent guess what if you visit the classroom page of our website year there is a wealth of wonderful tools where teachers create lesson plans to these broadcasts on middle school high school college level classes to introduce kids to the wonderful world of roots music this front porch music that we celebrate so much and that's why we have this segment of our broadcast where we invite a youngster from somewhere in North America to come on our show to get to play a song in front of seasoned touring musicians and we have today from Bloomington Indiana please welcome 11 year old Ian Shaw thank you thank. You Ian here you're 11 years old right so when did you start playing the ukulele I started. About 6 years ago when I was 5 and Ok so now this is a year you're like an experienced performer at this point right so who do you who do you listen to on the ukulele. I originally got inspired to play the ukulele by the guitar I'd heard so many great artists play songs on the guitar so I decided I want to play the guitar but I decided this Mark small and so the guitar was about as big as you were at the ready so I kind of just fell in love with the ukulele so what it was about 4 strings or surprise got a nice tiny little model body so it's not overly big and what is that you love most about it well you can really do anything you want on it like you can do anything from like heavy metal to like. So. Heavy metal on the ukulele and it's that's it's kinda Billy strings Jr So this is going to be cool so you've You picked a song that are you a Louis Armstrong fan Yeah you are it's 2 and you you did you find that this song worked really well on the ukulele I mean it was kind of challenging to get it on the ukulele but I made it work Ok yes you did because you're awesome because you're looking at. These this week's good songs kid in the spirit of Louis Armstrong is going to do a brilliant classic song on his ukulele the tune is called Georgia from Bloomington Illinois it's. Been years old. If it's a. New oath you own this is a good song to the old. You're from Bloomington Indiana. So we are so proud of these young kids that come from all over the country to be on our show we are celebrating the world of grass meets music on a multimedia front porch from our home here in Lexington Kentucky if you've got a youngster you think belongs on the show send me an e-mail Michael it would songs dot com a little You Tube clip is all we need but we certainly love celebrating these youngsters aren't they just wonderful to have every week. He started out picking and saying in in Upper Michigan and now he's got his very 1st a debut album it's a brilliant album Billy strings you've got on your album a long song. So tell me about the writing of this piece because we're going to let you play the whole thing the putting together the writing the producing of it yeah I think when I came up with this song it was kind of an idea to have a song that has you know a form up until and after this one point which in between those 2 moments is improvised whatever the heck happens that particular evening that moment whatever happens happens with this written in one sitting or this does take a while to put together the form leading up to it and then whatever happens when we kind of go off into a jam sometimes it just you know it's kind of like a game each night is different which makes it really fun to perform live because we don't know what the heck we're going to get ourselves into you know until it happens what we were listening to during the sound check itself I mean really is a brilliant piece of music and it really makes the album to me anyway stand out even more so you got 12 tunes on this album and it took you a while to come out with your debut album yeah you didn't you didn't rush this out did you know not. Certainly it all you know you get to have the songs and you can't rush that either otherwise it might you know. I. Reading is to me and I got to be alone to write I got a. If I'm too happy I can write a song. You know well you must have been miserable when you wrote this because it's really good it's a really good song but let's go ahead and let you play it we're going to break Beautiful song. Part of something. That's talked again to Bobby Fitzgerald the fiddle player so you guys have gotten interesting reviews of the sound and style whiskey shivers I'm going to throw a couple of you that I found Washington Post referred to music as apocalyptic Americana right m.p.r. Describe you as phonetic bluegrass with a punk spirit and another reviewer described it glowingly he loved it and he called it trash grass area so. He loved this was a positive view I mean he loved you guys. So so I mean you're taking the bluegrass John and you kind of like turning it upside down twisting it around making it fun. And what do you want your audience to leave with the side just a good time obviously or a party band Sure but what do you what do you want the audience to lead with with the music that you don't well 1st there was there's another review of us to you from the Austin Police Department the Police but it's not just music and not just singing I think it was. But that being said. I think. The end goal of what we want to do is to just connect you know we've all got we've all got I dated a problems and our worries are concerns but if we can all just kind of come together for an hour and a half one night a week and have fun and just let that go for a minute and just kind of walk away from you know that feeling a little better just get a minute to forget about your problems and we can just connect with each other and know that we all are in the same struggle together but we're going to have fun together to help each other so I think that's that's a good method. One told me to get a chance to talk to the Coosa guitar player Jeff Horsley also ice hope I pronounced that right so you have a bit of a Kentucky connection as well as born here yeah born in the hood. Living in Austin right now living in Austin Yeah I want to go to name drop here because I'm in Kentucky but I want to center for 4 years a Center College in Danville. Moved on through the wood on Austin shortly after that it seemed like the Kentucky scene was saturated with fantastic pickers so I figured I'd go to a place where people grass wasn't as politike so so it was your background bluegrass music oh no no no no I'm a what I'm finding out is very few especially tonight very few of the musicians have a bluegrass background. Well I guess mine came from pirating music I got really Nickel Creek in college and along. With Ultimate Frisbee and racquetball that they could. But yeah I remember I saw Mark O'Connor at school and he had actually Brian sucking on guitar with them and I was just got obsessed with them all and I found Brian sudden from there shortly into the tony rice and then Clarence White and all those one connected to the other yeah Dr Wright I mean it's easy now because you just go to Pandora and you're like bluegrass and 20 people pop up and there it is well I'm sure you guys are popping up on a lot of playlists now too it's a beautiful album is called Some part of something this is a tune called long gone it is whiskey shivers on the lips songs old song a. Player Thought all the artists on the show tonight whether it's the wood songs kid or Billy strings or whiskey shivers what they're doing is taking what you're used to and they're changing it and turning it into their own thing it's like music is this beautiful canvas and they're putting their own colors into it sometimes you think of bluegrass and you automatically think of traditional bluegrass and you get locked into this box and what they're doing they're not they're not just stepping outside of the box they're crushing the box and they're creating their own new thing which is what an artist is supposed to do. Because so said something offhand when he was talking about thinking out of the box and said The greatest obstacle to creativity is good taste what he meant what he meant was that sometimes your preconceived notion of what something supposed to be like stops you from creating beyond that preconceived notion John f. Kennedy said if art is to nourish the roots of our culture we must all set the artists free to follow their vision where ever it takes them whiskey Shavers is doing that Billy strings is doing that an 11 year old kid can sing Louis Armstrong on a ukulele that's what we should all be doing my name is Michael Jonathan on the folk singer I am a song farmer and will see you next week on the wood. Keeping this thing to put on Spike has got our 910 Michael's unreleased. Chief Engineers drone go to Nicholas systems our. Brand believes Mark Thompson an airconditioned t.v. And internet broadcast as directed by Clarence Thomas and by Chris Brown and technical directors David Banner. Sun's current member that week is un. Partner that week is at will head to a special support provided by hybrid spring water nature coffee and the staff at the Lyric Theatre and stills deli in Lexington produce witness part of visit Life dot com Kentucky tourism travel his magazine a gas tank company the bluegrass hospitality Association and the Clarion Hotel visitors from all over the world to Lexington Kentucky would songs of the wood song similar trademarks of great music or she was distributed worldwide by the wood songs radio network and thanks for listening I'm Joe Conkwright Michael Jonathan and the entire Would song Spirit this is Dorothy Edwards We hope you'll join us again next week for the what songs old time radio. 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