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Larry Cordle is one of the legendary songwriters and singers in bluegrass and country music. He's best known for writing #1 hits "Highway 40 Blues" for Ricky Skaggs, "Murder on Music Row" for George Strait, and "Against the Grain" for Garth Brooks. He has multiple Grammy and IBMA awards, and has written top hits for Dolly Parton, Reba McIntire, Alan Jackson, Alison Krauss, Trisha Yearwood, etc.

Larry talks about the inner workings of "Music Row", his long friendships with Bill Monroe and Garth Brooks, the demise of "real" country music, and the hard work, frustrations and rewards of being a professional songwriter. A real down-to-earth music man!

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Ben Garnett, guitarist, composer and teacher, is having a big impact on acoustic music. His new album, Kite’s Keep, features Darol Anger, Brittany Haas, Ethan Jodziewicz, Paul Kowert , and Chris Eldridge. His music ranges widely from bluegrass to pop, jazz to avant garde, folk to classical, and back.

Ben is best known in the bluegras world as the guitarist for Missy Raines, with whose band he has appeared at GuitartownCT several times. His current tour brings him to Hamden, CT on October 14.

Here we talked at length about improvising, jazz, his guitar heroes, practicing, soloing, and some of his musical friends. Thoughtful and fascinating.

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Fiddler, composer, producer and educator, Darol Anger is at home in many musical genres, some of which he helped to invent. He drove the evolution of the contemporary string band through The David Grisman Quintet, The Republic Of Strings, the Turtle Island String Quartet, Mr. Sun, etc. etc. etc.

Delightful and spontaneous, he has fond memories of how The David Grisman Quintet started, the excitement when Tony Rice joined, feeling a bit awed by Richard Greene, thoughts about fiddle backup and duo playing, and the challenges of his fiddle, which he then took down and played live! A wonderful podcast guest!