News Category: Radio Bristol

2016 was nothing short of incredible for Radio Bristol. We are thrilled to have completed our first year on the air!

2016 marked the launch of our online player with four channels, Radio Bristol Classic, Americana, WBCM-LP,  Radio Bristol Video, and our mobile app (please download if you haven’t already!). Throughout 2016 we have continued building out a distinct music library, supplementing with songs from our live Radio Bristol Sessions, as well as our ticketed series including Radio Bristol Premieres and our marquis program Farm and Fun Time. Farm and Fun Time has been a huge success selling out consistently since its launch. We’ve had many world class artists including Larry Sparks, the Foghorn Stringband, Hot Rize, Indigo Girls, and more. We hope you will continue to join us for these special shows throughout the year.

In total we have recorded and broadcast over 120 sessions throughout the year, most of which have been added to our music library and Radio Bristol Video. We took Radio Bristol on the road to numerous festivals around the country including Merlefest, Americana Music Association, and the International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass. We’ve launched many new programs including our daily morning show “On the Sunny Side,” “The Honky Tonk Hit Parade” with Bailey George, legendary record collector Joe Bussard’s “Country Classics,” and “Born in the Mountain” with Ivy Sheppard, to name a few. 

Most importantly Radio Bristol has had an overwhelming amount of support from our listeners. We are beyond excited about what lays ahead for 2017 and wanted to share some of upcoming plans. 

What can you expect for the first quarter of 2017? Lots of new programming! We will be launching at least 8 new programs in the next few months with a diverse range of genre and focus. A few highlights include “Over the Waves” featuring Dr. Lee Bidgood, a Professor in the East Tennessee State University Bluegrass, Oldtime, and Country Music Studies Program, former NPR producer and reporter Paul Brown’s regionally based program “Across the Blue Ridge,” two new bluegrass programs including “Grass Cuttin’ Time” and “Pick One with Larry and Tim!,” and the “Farm and Fun Time Noon Show” featuring the Po Ramblin’ Boys. The “Farm and Fun Time Noon Show” will serve as an extension of our successful monthly program by mirroring the original Farm and Fun Time from the 1940’s. Expect jingles, humor, and fun from our live in-studio house band Po Ramblin’ Boys.

This just scratches the surface of plans for 2017 but we wanted to catch you up and thank you for your ongoing support and for helping us spread the word about Radio Bristol. As you’ve probably noticed, Radio Bristol is radio unlike any other and people globally are taking notice. It’s something of which we are very proud. 

We at Radio Bristol are proud to represent our region and none of it would be possible without you. Thank you for an exciting and fruitful first year on the air! Hold on tight because 2017 is going to be a wild ride!

Radio Bristol is entirely listener and community supported. Your donations go a long way to helping us stay on the air. Click here to learn how you can support Radio Bristol to help us provide our unique programming for generations to come!

~ Kris Truelsen, Radio Bristol Producer

Former NPR Radio Personality Revives Popular Program for SYNDICATION

Beginning February 1, 2017, Radio Bristol will air “Across the Blue Ridge,” a revival of the popular show first created by former National Public Radio (NPR) newscaster Paul Brown in the late 1980s and through the 1990s.

“Radio Bristol is thrilled to add Paul Brown’s program ‘Across the Blue Ridge’ to our Wednesday afternoon lineup,” said Radio Bristol Producer Kris Truelsen. “Promoting and celebrating our region’s culture and music is core to the mission of Radio Bristol, and ‘Across the Blue Ridge’ embodies that very idea. Paul Brown’s expertise as both a musician and historian will offer a welcome perspective into the music we love and support here at Radio Bristol. We envision a long running partnership with Paul and look forward to carrying the program.”

“Across the Blue Ridge” is an entertaining exploration of the music traditions of the southern Blue Ridge, the center of the universe for old-time and traditional American music. For decades Brown spent time searching out and making field recordings in order to preserve this music for future generations.

O. Henry Magazine‘s Ogi Overman writes: “Brown’s strong suit is listening to and explaining music through the prism of culture, socio-economics and geography so that others appreciate its rich history.”

The “Across the Blue Ridge” of today not only focuses on the past, but it also highlights the traditional music of today and its future. The show returned to the airwaves on January 2, 2016.

Brown originated “Across the Blue Ridge” in the late 1980s on Wake Forest University public radio station WFDD (88.5 FM) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The show’s final broadcast was in 1999, prior to Brown’s move to NPR where he was an executive editor, producer, and reporter. Brown left NPR in 2013 and returned to North Carolina. The well-known personality from NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “Talk of the Nation” is also an accomplished musician; Brown is an award-winning banjoist, vocalist, fiddle player, and storyteller.

The show will air weekly on Radio Bristol’s WBCM-LP channel on Wednesday afternoons at 1:00 p.m. and rebroadcast on Saturdays at 3:00 p.m. Radio Bristol can be accessed in the Bristol area on 100.1 FM and nationally and internationally online and through a free mobile app. To listen to Radio Bristol online or to receive more information, visit www.BirthplaceofCountryMusic.org.

About Paul Brown
Paul Brown learned his first songs and tunes as a kid from his mother, who carried them from her own childhood days in Virginia. As much as he loves to play and sing, Paul has also produced numerous recordings from his own fieldwork and other sources, and reported on the lives of significant traditional musicians while working at NPR in Washington. Paul started his radio career at WPAQ in Mount Airy, North Carolina. He created “Across the Blue Ridge” at WFDD Public Radio in Winston-Salem in the late 1980s. He spent years learning from and playing with master fiddlers, banjoists, and singers including Benton Flippen, Paul Sutphin, Luther Davis, Robert Sykes, Matokie Slaughter, and Tommy and Benny Jarrell. He has won the banjo prize several times at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival, where he’s also won the senior fiddle prize and was named a master artist in 2013. Over the years he has played with Benton Flippen in the Smokey Valley Boys; with fiddler Robert Sykes in the Surry County Boys; with his wife Terri McMurray as the Mountain Birch Duo; and with Verlen Clifton, Frank Bode, Ginger Bode, and Terri McMurray in the Toast String Stretchers. Paul is now a retired NPR world news journalist, once again producing “Across the Blue Ridge” in collaboration with WFDD Public Radio. The show is available worldwide online and airs on radio stations in North Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and Florida.

About Radio Bristol
Presented by the nonprofit Birthplace of Country Music, Radio Bristol is a network of channels that showcase the diversity of American roots music from the early recording era to today. Reaching the world through their online media center, Radio Bristol produces original programming through recordings and live sessions from the Birthplace of Country Music Museum and the Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee region. Radio Bristol broadcasts on 100.1 FM in the Bristol area, online at BirthplaceofCountryMusic.org, and through the station’s free mobile app. The Birthplace of Country Music is the parent organization of the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, the annual Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion music festival, and Radio Bristol.

Live Radio Show Celebrates the Season with Veteran Bluegrass Artist

The Birthplace of Country Music’s own Radio Bristol is planning a grand Christmas Spectacular — or “Sparktacular” — with the award-winning bluegrass artist Larry Sparks on Friday, December 9 at 7:00 p.m. in the Performance Theater at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.

Larry Sparks is among the most widely known and respected touring musicians in bluegrass and gospel music today. He began his career in the mid-1960s as a guitarist with the legendary Stanley Brothers and later became lead vocalist for Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys. He went on to form his own band in 1969, The Lonesome Ramblers. He has recorded and toured with them for more than four decades; delighting countless fans with his soulful vocals and unparalleled musicianship.

“If you like your bluegrass hard-driving and heartfelt, look no further,” said Radio Bristol producer Kris Truelsen. “Larry Sparks is truly a bluegrass legend.”

Sponsored by Eastman Credit Union, Farm & Fun Time also features the Appalachian Sustainable Development Farm Report hosted by Corbin Hayslett, an heirloom recipe segment that’s more storytelling than instruction, and live music segways from house band Bill & the Belles.

Radio Bristol’s Farm & Fun Time radio show is recorded before a live audience and is broadcast live as well as via webcast on Radio Bristol. Radio Bristol can be accessed on 100.1 FM in the Bristol area, online at BirthplaceofCountryMusic.org, and through the station’s free mobile app.

Tickets to Radio Bristol Presents: Farm & Fun Time Christmas “Sparktacular” are $30.

PURCHASE TICKETS

Radio Bristol Presents the January 2017 edition of everyone’s favorite live radio experience, Farm & Fun Time live from the Birthplace of Country Music Museum featuring music acts Luke Bell and The Farmer & Adele. The monthly program takes place on Thursday, January 12 in the Performance Theater at the museum at 7:00 p.m. and the doors open at 6:30 p.m.

According to RollingStone, Wyoming native Luke Bell “plays classic honky-tonk with a wink and a yodel that summons the sleeping ghosts of country better than any voodoo spell ever could.”

Nashville’s The Farmer & Adele bring country-western cowboy swing and high lonesome together in a way that hearkens back to the heyday of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers.

Hosted by Kris Truelsen and featuring live advertisements written by house band Bill & the Belles, the program also features the Appalachian Sustainable Development Farm Report with Corbin Hayslett, an heirloom recipe segment that’s more storytelling than instruction, and much more!

Radio Bristol Presents: Farm & Fun Time is a revival of WCYB radio’s Farm & Fun Time show which broadcast live from a studio inside the General Shelby Hotel in downtown Bristol. In the 1940s through the early 1960s Farm & Fun Time was an important program in the history of early bluegrass music and helped to establish the careers of legendary performers including Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers, Jim and Jesse McReynolds, Mac Wiseman, and many more.

Tickets to the show are $25.

PURCHASE TICKETS

About Luke Bell

“I grew up in Wyoming ’til the age of 21. I then spent two years in Austin playing at the Hole in the Wall and the White Horse mainly with a couple bands. I moved to New Orleans for several months and did seasonal ranch work in Wyoming—for now I’m in Nashville.

I like work, cowboy culture, just plain good songs, honky-tonks, real life people, my dog and my ’95 Buick.”

About The Farmer & Adele

“Bringing you country-western cowboy + cowgirl swing and high lonesome sounds! The band has completed a brand new album featuring the legendary country western group, Riders in the Sky, titled Into the Wide Open Sky. The album features the lighthearted songbird Grace Adele, and her musical partner Keenan Wade, on a collection of country-western originals and covers.

The Farmer & Adele grew up admiring classic music—classic country, jazz, the Tin Pan Alley songwriters—and those early styles reflect so much of what the two stand for. Their songwriting is uplifting, heroic and simple, but hearken back to the time of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, an interest the duo shares with the Riders and a torch the Riders in the Sky carried from equally legendary Sons of the Pioneers.

Into the Wide Open Sky is an album for everyone—music written to be entertaining and enjoyable.”