String Theories

It’s no surprise a journalist would say this, but I particularly value albums with a story. Better yet, three or four stories intertwined. Concept and place-based recordings elevate the art and the marketing prospects in a time when it’s hard to cut through the noise. Back in the 2010s, I ran a little documentary production company called String Theory Media, which specialized in capturing such events to help artists and labels produce bonus material for records.

On our Bay Area getaway, I got to spend a morning in the less traveled sections of Muir Woods with daughter Lu as we celebrated her birthday and college graduation. Hello Friends I’m sending this out on a “big” birthday, which was pretty much a coincidence of when it was ready.

Pink Floyd has nothing on this. Click image for more Artemis II pics from NASA. Who else was riveted to the Artemis II mission around the Moon? As troubled and expensive as this program has been, it was heartening to see our country do something meaningful and hard and benevolent. It started with a thunderous maximus liftoff on a gorgeous evening with slanted dusk light. Pure cinema.

River Arts District, Asheville, NC, March 14, 2026 I wish I was in Knoxville, which sounds like the first line of a bluegrass song, but what I’m missing is this year’s Big Ears festival.

The lights were bright for Billy Strings at Bridgestone Arena this week in Nashville. Every two years, the Olympics offer a fortnight of feel-good escapism, national pride, and mind-warping athletic skill. Even though I don’t follow the games day to day, I miss them when they’re over, as they will be this weekend.

To see the feature with art as it appeared on WMOT, click here. For nine years, I’ve been proud and privileged to select and remark on thirty albums from the closing year that meet several criteria. Some made national news and did well on the Americana radio chart or at the various roots music awards. Some were critically and popularly acclaimed and just obviously excellent. And others have been records I felt were under-rated but special and worthy of more attention.

Copperline. Watercolor and collage. Karen Havighurst Happy Holidays Friends - We had a sweet Thanksgiving in North Carolina with the annual gang. Mom and Dad are well, marking one of my greatest blessings. One thing we did while in Galloway (near Chapel Hill) was help my folks consolidate two storage units into one, which uncovered some of my mother’s watercolor collage work. We shipped some wonderful pieces home, including the lovely “Copperline” above.

This week, on Thanksgiving Eve, Wed., Nov. 26, Harken Hall in Madison will present a Music City Roots Reunion, with an impressive slate of artists: Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, Darrell Scott with Rob Ickes, and The McCrary Sisters. As you may well know, I have a deep and sentimental history with Music City Roots as its co-host, show writer, and senior producer across its nine year run. It was the best professional and musical thing I’ve ever been part of.

Ever since I had my adolescent mind blown by the Buddy Rich Big Band back in Durham, NC, I’ve paid special attention to drummers, especially in jazz. I regard taking about a year of drum lessons in high school as one of the key building blocks of my musical knowledge. So I got the signal way back that outside of rock and pop (and sometimes in pop and rock) drummers are more than mere time-keepers and support players.

That’s me in about 1970, about age 4, becoming an audiophile in real time. When my Mom unearthed this photo a couple of years ago, it amazed me. Photos of me as a boy in an oversized football uniform or even me with my violin didn’t resonate with 59-year-old me nearly as much as this one. I see in this photo the little me actually starting to become big me - a look of wonder and delight, made by a phonograph.