Martin Anderson
Music Director & HostEschewing his mother’s taste for easy listening music early on, Martin Anderson was raised on his dad’s love for jazz, his brother’s Beatles/classic rock LP’s, and the bluegrass and Top 40 radio of the D.C. area. He began volunteering for the University of Delaware’s WXDR/WVUD eclectic overnight and morning mixes in 1989. Upon graduating with an American History degree, he moved to Eugene, Oregon, he spent the 90’s working in natural foods, environmental causes, and above all, public radio. He hosted various folk, world, Triple-A, and other shows at KLCC, and started a “Miles of Bluegrass” show at KRVM.
After two years working underwriting sales and various music and public affairs programs at KHSU in Arcata, CA, Martin joined WNCW in 2001 as your weekday morning host. He loves interviewing the many talented musicians who come to Studio B, stretching out with the many styles ‘NCW embraces, and reflecting listener requests, events of the day, and our beautiful Southern Appalachian landscape. As Music Director, he books our live sessions, and keeps in touch with the record labels and promoters that send us new music. When not at the station, he enjoys gardening, hiking, traveling, history, and raising his daughter on good music and more.
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From his colorful characters, to the jaw-clenching descriptions of the challenges of modern-day America, to the subtle, dry wit that helps us cope with said challenges; any James McMurtry song does a good job at explaining what so many WNCW fans love about the singer/songwriter/guitarist. Get to know this latest collection from the 63-year-old sage. -
Peak of the WeekAndrew Marlin & Emily Frantz started performing together in 2009 in coffee shops and restaurants of Chapel Hill and other NC towns under the name Mandolin Orange. They now have their second album under the Watchhouse name, and an extensive tour of North America that comes back to us over Labor Day weekend for the Earl Scruggs Music Festival. They are certainly a grassroots success story that’s been driven by Marlin’s poignant songwriting, that has earned them a reputation for creating music that “redefines roots music for a younger generation” (Washington Post), with songs that touch on the unknowable mysteries, existential heartbreak, and communal joys of modern life. -
As you might expect, this is some exquisite pickin’ from two of the best in the business! Recorded live on April 7, 2024, at Nashville’s American Legion Post 82, this new album features the acclaimed duo performing 20 traditional bluegrass and folk songs. They particularly highlight some favorite tunes of Doc Watson, Tony Rice, and Clarence White, but also perform covers from the likes of Bob Dylan and Blaze Foley. -
Laissez les bontemps rouler, with this wonderful new tribute to the great New Orleans brass band tradition. Saxophonist Jeff Coffin (of the Flecktones and his Mu’Tet) and trombonist Ray Mason conceived this band back in 2021, when they led a 20-minute French Quarter-style parade through their Nashville neighborhood during the Covid lockdown for the 50th birthday of a friend who longed to spend it in New Orleans -
Canadian native Tami Neilson has another powerful album of Americana styles with this tribute to the larger-than-life statue “towering over Broadway like the patron saint of heartbreak in downtown Nashville as she smiles coyly over her shoulder in red cowboy boots.” -
A union hymn, a cowboy ballad, assorted apocalyptic vignettes, a Richard Thompson cover… Welcome to the latest album from Willi Carlisle! One of the most memorable songwriters to come out of Kansas, Arkansas, and to some extent Peculiar, Missouri these past few years, Carlisle’s previous peculiar hits include “Vanlife” and “Critterland.” -
Tune in as Tom Fellenbaum talks with EJ Jones about the upcoming Grandfather Mountain Highland Games & Gathering of Scottish Clans. An accomplished bagpiper and band leader, Jones is also the Music Director of the annual event, which celebrates its tenth year July 9th through 13th at MacRae Meadows. The two will play some representative music and discuss a brief history of the Games. -
Written during his treatment for stage 3b colon cancer, the album's beach-country songs were born from fantasies of ocean breezes and sandy beaches, dreamt up while the longtime road warrior was confined to his home while undergoing chemotherapy. Tropicana trades honky-tonks for hammocks, offering a rallying cry of resilience wrapped in tropical twang. "I was at home for a year, without the ability to play shows or even take a vacation," Walker explains. "Since I couldn't leave town and go see a palm tree in real life, I started writing about them." -
Two classic rock legends in a row for New Tunes at 2 this week… This is Van Morrison’s first collection of all original music since 2022, with songs that transcend across soul, jazz, blues, folk, and country (including a tribute to another legend known for that, Ray Charles.) -
As his/their website bio describes, “Drunken Prayer transcends the bounds of Americana music: Morgan Geer writes songs that could emerge from a highly blissed-out biker bar or a swampy ashram.” Or in the case of his new album, an old church nestled deep in the rural South. Thy Burdens has been released this week, and it takes the listener on a tour of some old hymns of his great-grandmother’s church in Mobile, Alabama, but delivered in the gritty rock style that Drunken Prayer has become known for. Producer and Drive-By Truckers’ bassist Bobby Matt Patton, who cut his teeth playing in fiery Pentecostal church bands around north Alabama, put this together with Geer. “If it’s been left up to guys like us to spread the good news,” they say, “something has gone wrong.” Morgan spends much of his time in Asheville, though he’s off to his “other” home of Portland, Oregon, and the Northwest for some shows soon, before coming back to the Southeast in August. Tune in for our live session Monday afternoon with host Joe Kendrick.
