Adam Wright is one of the most thoughtful wordsmiths in the Nashville songwriting community, one who’s seen all sides of the Music Row machine. Working for a dozen years with Carnival Music, he’s carved a niche for himself, scoring a couple of Grammy Award nominations and landing cuts by Lee Ann Womack, Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Brandy Clark and Bruce Robison, among others. When he sets aside time to write songs purely for himself as an artist, remarkable things happen, and now he’s releasing an epic 18-song collection called Nature Of Necessity, a masterwork that could only have been realized in Music City.
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The Devil Makes Three has been one of roots music’s outstanding if quiet success stories of the past twenty years. Formed in Santa Cruz, CA in 2001, they got out ahead of the O Brother phenomenon and built a unique, crowd-pleasing sound through a renegade admixture of early blues, hard country and gospel. In this hour, founding singer and songwriter Pete Bernhard reflects on a career that’s surprised him and the joyful process behind the rather dark and candid album Spirits, their tenths as a band. -
We’re halfway between Americanafest 2024 and 2025 - the Roots Music Equinox if you will. And we bring that up because we’ve recently posted the last in a long string of performance videos from last Fall’s famous WMOT Day Stage. It’s our carefully curated showcase at East Side Bowl, with lineups so good that many folks bring a chair and post up for entire days or even the entire three days of the annual festival-within-a-festival. And we’re hoping that this collection of performances takes you back - or brings to your attention - to the superb music we’ve been sharing this winter. -
WMOT isn’t the only Nashville radio station that opened a new studio in 2024. The other one is twice as old and changed American music history. WSM 650 AM, known since the 1930s as the Air Castle of the South, conceived and built the Grand Ole Opry, oversaw a massive, multi-genre live music apparatus, launched the business environment known as Music Row, and even gave Music City its identity and name. And this coming Oct. 5 will be its 100th birthday. So it was due to get some gifts, including a new broadcast studio and museum.
LINER NOTES
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Jessie Scott sat down with Judy Collins for a special Words & Music session at WMOT's Riverside Revival studio in East Nashville. -
Listen to Jessie Scott as she sits down with William Prince for a Words & Music session. -
The gang from Fruition sat down with Jessie Scott for a special Words & Music set Monday, November 18th.
WMOT VIDEO: LIVE SESSIONS ON NPR MUSIC
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Gary Louris of The Jayhawks kicks off the first episode of this year's 30A Songwriters Sessions. Watch the full performance and behind the scenes interview here. -
Earlier this month, Eddie 9V stopped by the WMOT studio to discuss the making of and influences behind his latest record 'Saratoga'. The band performed "Halo", "Love Moves Slow", and "Saratoga". -
Watch Them Coulee Boys, Olivia Wolf, Jeremie Albino perform LIVE for WMOT's monthly Wired In concert series at Riverside Revival in Nashville, TN at 7:00 p.m. CST on March 19th. -
Roots-rocker Sam Morrow rounds out the last of our 2024 AmericanaFest Replay series with performances of "Medicine Man" and "On My Way". Watch the clips here.
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Win a pair of tickets to Jason Isbell at The Pinnacle on March 28, 2025
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