A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media

Special Guests
Saturday, July 22, 2006

Sam Bush made his recording debut, Poor Richards Almanac, when he was 17, after holding title as the National Junior Fiddle Champion for three consecutive years. When he was 19 he founded New Grass Revival (NGR), a band that combined a variety of music styles like rock, pop, reggae, jazz, country, and bluegrass for 18 years. NGR released ten albums and disbanded on New Year's Eve in 1989 by opening for the Grateful Dead. After NGR, Bush lead Emmylou Harris' Grammy-winning Nash Ramblers for five years. Bush, who plays mandolin, fiddle, and guitar, has recorded on albums by Lyle Lovett, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Left Over Salmon, and many others, and he has released four solo records. Bush's latest release is Ice Caps: Peaks of Telluride (Sugar Hill).

Billy Joe Shaver's first job in the music industry was writing for Bobby Bare. Soon his songs were being recorded by Bare, Kris Kristofferson, Tom T. Hall, the Allman Brothers, and Elvis Presley. Waylon Jennings's 1973 album Honky Tonk Heroes was composed almost entirely of Shaver songs, and Johnny Cash recorded his song "I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I'm Going to Be a Diamond Someday)" in 1978. Meanwhile, Shaver has recorded numerous albums of his own since his 1973 debut, Old Five and Dimers Like Me. His most recent album is Try and Try Again, recorded live in Austin, Texas.

Cindy Cashdollar grew up in Woodstock, NY, and was captivated by Delta blues music at a young age; she began playing guitar when she was 11. She now plays steel guitar and dobro and has won five Grammy Awards in the course of recording with leading country, roots, jazz, and folk artists. She spent eight years touring, playing, and recording with the Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel, and her talents can he heard on Bob Dylan's Grammy-winning Album of the Year Time Out of Mind, as well as on recordings by Manhattan Transfer, The Dixie Chicks, Reba McEntire, and Willie Nelson. Cashdollar has also made three instructional videos for steel guitar and dobro and conducts workshops across the nation. Her first solo CD, Slideshow, will be released in February 2004.

Doc Watson was born Arthel L. Watson in Deep Gap, North Carolina, on March 23, 1923. His first instrument was the banjo, but he picked up the guitar at age 13. His first recording was Old-Time Music at Clarence Ashley's in 1960. The following year he appeared at a concert in New York City sponsored by Friends of Old-Time Music, which led to his first solo concert a year after that. Since then he has played at the Newport Folk Festival and Carnegie Hall, as well as touring Europe, Japan, and Africa. For the past several years he has hosted a musical event named for his late son, the annual Merle Watson Memorial Festival in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.