Laura Cantrell was born and raised in Nashville, and even though she was surrounded by country music, she never thought about being a singer or songwriter when she was young. She relocated to New York to attend Columbia University before the performing bug bit her. After graduation, Cantrell worked full-time at a bank, hosted a country radio show on WFMU in Jersey City, put together a band, kept writing songs and started making records. She used traditional country songs as a template for compositions of her own that stretched the boundaries of the music and won her a legion of loyal fans. BBC DJ John Peel called Not The Tremblin’ Kind, her 2000 debut, “my favorite record of the last 10 years, possibly my life.” Cantrell made two more albums in the 2000s, balancing well-chosen covers with her original material, but on her new album, No Way There From Here, she presents 11 originals with only one cover. Cantrell will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new feature on her.
Cantrell: People often mistake country music as “simple,” completely underestimating the level of craft of its greatest instrumentalists and innovators. Chris Scruggs, grandson to banjo legend Earl Scruggs and son of vanguard female artist and producer Gail Davies, is a great student of some of living legends of the genre, like fiddler Buddy Spicher. When he’s not out on the road with She & Him or M. Ward, Scruggs uses this weekly live show at West Nashville’s Stone Fox as a showcase for his hillbilly chops, going deep with fellow guitarist Kenny Vaughan and steel player Pete Finney. They do a mean Johnnie & Jack!
Video after the jump.
