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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Blending bluegrass with elements of rock, alternative, psychedelic and improvisational music, Yonder Mountain String Band brought their high-energy acoustic sound and light show into rock n’ roll settings with tremendous success, proving it was possible for a bluegrass band to not only exist but excel in a rock world, without drums. The band, currently comprised of Adam Aijala (guitar, vocals), Ben Kaufmann (bass, vocals), Dave Johnston (banjo, vocals), Nick Piccininni (mandolin, banjo, fiddle, vocals), and Coleman Smith (fiddle, vocals) was recently honored with an induction into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame alongside friends and legends Leftover Salmon, Hot Rize, The String Cheese Incident. They have a two-night residency at the Salvage Station in Asheville Friday and Saturday nights, and stop by Studio B on their way there for the first time in 18 years! They’re also on the lineup for the Earl Scruggs Music Festival in September.
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When blues-and-folk musician Parr sings and plays his resonator or 12-string guitar, you can hear influences like Mance Lipscomb, Charley Patton, Spider John Koerner, Rev. Gary Davis, Dock Boggs, and others of the Depression-era music his dad raised him on. This is especially true in his playing, when, after a diagnosis of focal dystonia, Parr turned to greats like Davis, Doc Watson, and Booker White for two-finger picking inspiration. Gifted a 1965 Gibson B-45 12-string by his father, Parr has never had a formal lesson and learned by to listening records and watching musicians he admired. It’s no surprise we took a strong liking to his recordings when we discovered him in 2021. Charlie plays at Eulogy in Asheville on Thursday evening at 7. His latest album Little Sun will be released on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings the next day.
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Based out of Asheville, Fancy and the Gentlemen brings an eclectic mix of honky tonk, blues, southern gothic, rock, and string quartet roots together. The band features Fancy Marie, Craig Kellberg (bass), Alex Travers (fiddle), Kent Spillman (percussion) and other Asheville area musicians, and their new album was recorded at Echo Mountain Studios last November. Upcoming shows include Hotel Cashiers in Cashiers on Saturday the 23rd, Burnsville on Friday the 29th, Asheville on Saturday the 30th, and an album release show on April 16th at Jack of the Wood. Fancy and the Gentlemen won Best Country/Americana Band in Mountain Express's "Best of WNC” last year!
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“Queen Bee”, “Lovin’ In My Baby’s Eyes”, “Corrina”, and other Taj classics are on this great one recorded last year in Leon Russell’s former studio and office for his label Shelter Records. Backing him up are his long-time quartet—bassist Bill Rich, drummer Kester Smith, and guitarist/Hawaiian lap steel player Bobby Ingano—augmented by dobro player Rob Ickes and guitarist and vocalist Trey Hensley.
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Imagine that sweet, warm sound of Norah Jones recordings, with a psychedelic garage-soul sound this time. Fuzz guitars and other retro-60s sounds sync up wonderfully with Norah’s piano and voice here. “The reason I called the album Visions is because a lot of the ideas came in the middle of the night or in that moment right before sleep.” says Jones. “We did most of the songs in the same way where I was at the piano or on guitar and Leon was playing drums and we were just jamming on stuff. I like the rawness between me and Leon (Michels, the producer), the way it sounds kind of garage-y but also kind of soulful, because that's where he's coming from, but also not overly perfected.”
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After 8 years of not corresponding with each other at all, over disagreements that neither can really pinpoint as the cause of their chasm, brothers Chris and Rich Robinson have buried the hatchet, and made their first album as a band in 15 years. Despite keeping busy with various projects, they still considered working together again someday, if only subconsciously: “I was always still writing for Chris… every song I write I still think about how he will sing the chorus and about giving him a platform to sing over,” guitarist Rich says. “It’s hardwired in there.” Their love of classic blues and Muscle Shoals soul, British folk and Southern rock shows loud and clear once again on this new one. Perhaps that brotherly connection can be heard, too.
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Like Yonder Mountain String Band (who’ll be live in Studio B this Friday), Trampled By Turtles, and other ‘NCW favorites, the Kitchen Dwellers are bridging bluegrass music with various other influences, and an impressive number of new fans. This new one just debuted at #1 on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart! It’s based on Dante’s “The Divine Comedy”, and shows that the classic poem “continues to inspire people and artists some 700 years after it was written because the questions that it poses still don’t have answers. We are all still looking for meaning” (Live For Live Music). The Kitchen Dwellers play Oskar Blues Brewery in Brevard on April 27th.
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Peak of the WeekShe’s won four Grammys (including with the trio I’m With Her), and is now shifting her sound a bit on this new album with collaborations with Ruston Kelly, Natalie Hemby, and others.“On “Polaroid Lovers,” Jarosz reaches toward a broader audience while still maintaining her individuality. The songs are more plugged in, muscular and reverberant than her past albums, which were intimate and largely acoustic. But her particular perspective — at once clearheaded, thoughtful, vulnerable and open to desire — comes through.” - The New York Times / Jon Pareles
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Lake Street Dive announces their first album on Fantasy Records will be released June 21st. Their title track, “Good Together”, exemplifies the mood: “There’s a lot to be angry about in the world right now, a lot of pain and rage and divisiveness, but it isn’t sustainable to constantly live in that anger—you need something else to keep you going,” says drummer Mike Calabrese. “Joy is a great way to sustain yourself, and we wanted to encourage everyone to stay aware of that. In a way this album is our way of saying, ‘Take your joy very seriously.’” Alisa Amador made history in 2022 with the first-ever Spanish language song to win the prestigious Tiny Desk Contest. Then in March of 2023, she performed in Studio B with Emily Scott Robinson and Violet Bell, and her Argentinian folk song appeared on our latest Crowd Around the Mic compilation. Now we await her full-length debut album Multitudes with this first single, “I Need to Believe”. And we have the first new Indigo Girls song in four years, “What We Wanna Be,” recorded last November. The single features on the soundtrack to a new movie musical Glitter & Doom, which charts the romance between aspiring circus performer Glitter (Filipino star Alex Diaz) and struggling musician Doom (UK newcomer Alan Cammish), told through a bold reimagining of 25 iconic Indigo Girls songs, including “Closer to Fine,” “Power of Two” and “Get Out the Map."
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Bruce Cockburn is considered by fellow Canadians of his generation to be one of the nation’s greatest singers, songwriters and guitarists, on par with Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and the late Gordon Lightfoot. But his familiarity is not nearly as strong with younger indie musicians and music fans, so Tompkins Square Records recruited well-respected indie artist James Toth, known for his work with Wooden Wand, to curate the 13th volume of its guitar series, Imaginational Anthem. Although there is a focus on Bruce as a guitarist, there are also vocal tracks on the album. The tribute will be released on April 5th.