The Yolo County Breakdown

This week, Rocky is joined by a true legend of the music - Tony Trischka. Tony's influence to bluegrass and beyond is hard to overstate. Since his debut recording with Country Cooking in 1971, he has pushed banjo way beyond the boundaries of the Scruggs style. He speaks with Rocky about his many influences, collaborations, and memories. His most recent album, Earl Jam, features him plus an all-star cast of pickers playing songs he gleaned from a hidden trove of recordings that John Hartford and Earl Scruggs made in private jam sessions and which Earl did not want released publicly. So Tony transcribed Earl's playing note-for-note and recorded it himself. How lucky we are to hear this and all of the other music Tony has recorded over the years!

This show kicks off with Tony Rice and closes down with Jimmy Martin, and there is a whole lot of great music in between. The brand new single from Jerry Douglas, a piano and banjo jazz exploration from Bela Fleck & Chick Corea, a classic trio recording from Linda, Dolly and Emmylou plus more!

Rocky has a couple more great guests this week that are performing at the 2024 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Andy Falco - guitar player from the Infamous Stringdusters - talks about Jerry Garcia, jamgrass, and the Stringdusters progressive approach to acoustic music. Then Joey Ryan - one half of the folk duo The Milk Carton Kids - tells the story of playing an Emmylou Harris song to Emmylou Harris herself.

The Left Coast is getting ready for our biggest bluegrass festival of the year - the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. This week, Rocky has a special guest - Chris Porter. Chris is the person responsible for selecting and booking the 70+ artists that will be appearing at this year's HSBF. The interview gives a preview of what to expect this year in beautiful Golden Gate Park, and Rocky spins tracks by a number of the artists on the bill - The Infamous Stringdusters, Aoife O'Donovan, Tony Trischka, Molly Tuttle and a whole lot more!