Justin Hiltner

Nashville

Associate Editor and Digital Brand Director at The Bluegrass Situation

Birds, bois, banjo, Black liberation = queer liberation. You know why I'm not as active here anymore. Find me elsewhere:

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Articles

Basic Folk: Joy Oladokun (Reissue)

2 days ago | thebluegrasssituation.com | Justin Hiltner

(Editor’s Note: Welcome to our Reissue series! For the next several weeks, Basic Folk is digging back into the archives and reposting some of our favorite episodes alongside new introductions commenting on what it’s like to listen back. Enjoy!This episode featuring Lizzie No interviewing Joy Oladokun was originally posted on February 24, 2022.)Arizona-born Joy Oladokun grew up listening to her dad’s extensive record collection and falling in love with the wide and wondrous world of rock and roll.
Watch Steve Martin, Alison Brown, and Tim O'Brien on Jimmy Kimmel Live! - The Bluegrass Situation Watch Steve Martin, Alison Brown, and Tim O'Brien on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

2 days ago | thebluegrasssituation.com | Justin Hiltner

We know we’re not the only ones constantly clamoring for more bluegrass, string band, and old-time music on television – especially primetime and late night.
Singing Through Dark Times: Willi Carlisle Finds Hope in Roaming and Reckoning

2 days ago | thebluegrasssituation.com | Justin Hiltner

We are in a moment of extreme distress. Especially, but not limited to, the formal politics of America’s dying empire. Living in its wake, it’s easy to collapse into hopelessness. Hopelessness seems reasonable, considering the criminalization of trans voices, or ICE raids, or the tariffs that wipe out hard earned income, or climate change, or any of the other myriad disasters we are in the middle of.
BGS 5+5: My Brother's Keeper

3 days ago | thebluegrasssituation.com | Justin Hiltner

Artist: My Brother’s Keeper Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio Latest Album: Wartime Cartoons Personal Nicknames (or rejected band names): Most of the band goes by our given names. Titus, Joshua, Adam, and Benj(amin), but our bass player “Wyatt” has been holding strong to the nickname “Sawmill” and has a “Sawmill” vanity license plate on his Ford Focus to prove it. Answers provided by Benj Luckhaupt. Which artist has influenced you the most – and how?
Basic Folk: Watchhouse

3 days ago | thebluegrasssituation.com | Justin Hiltner

Oh, WOW! A bonus, surprise episode with Watchhouse? Yes! And it is a treat. We are pleased to have Jacob Sharp of Mipso as our guest host in conversation with his friends Andrew Marlin and Emily Franz of Watchhouse, talking about their new studio album, Rituals. The record was co-produced with Ryan Gustafson of The Dead Tongues and finds the North Carolina duo exploring themes of identity, awareness, and evolution.
50 Years of 0044: JD Crowe & The New South's Landmark Album

5 days ago | thebluegrasssituation.com | Justin Hiltner

Writer Marty Godby called it “The convergence of 1975.”The elements: a band that would only be together for 10 months, a benevolent venture capitalist who loved bluegrass, and an upstart record label from Boston. The resulting product was unprecedented and unforgettable: The New South, Rounder Records 0044. Bluegrass fans know it simply as “0044.”The New South of this recording was J.D. Crowe on banjo; Tony Rice on guitar; Ricky Skaggs on mandolin; Bobby Slone on bass; and Jerry Douglas on Dobro.
50 Years of Special Consensus

5 days ago | thebluegrasssituation.com | Justin Hiltner

It is positively astounding to me that Special Consensus has been running the road for 50 years. When bass player Marc Edelstein and I decided to make the band a full-time entity, we thought it would be for two or three years and then we would return to “normal life.” Instead of getting the music bug out of my system over the years, traveling throughout our country and around the world only intensified my love of playing bluegrass music.
PHOTOS: Rhiannon Giddens' American Tunes at the Hollywood Bowl

1 week ago | thebluegrasssituation.com | Justin Hiltner

Earlier this week, on Wednesday, June 18, GRAMMY winner and MacArthur “Genius” Rhiannon Giddens brought American Tunes – a star-studded edition of her Old-Time Revue – to the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California. The evening featured a vast array of American roots music spanning eras and genres, from old-time and cajun to bluegrass and blues, Americana and folk, all brilliantly interconnected by Giddens’ masterful curation.
The SteelDrivers Celebrate 20 Years, Usher in New Chapter With 'Outrun'

4 weeks ago | thebluegrasssituation.com | Justin Hiltner

With four lead vocalists, seven studio albums, one GRAMMY Award to their name, and countless fans won over, The SteelDrivers have been one of this century’s most consistent and trailblazing bluegrass bands. That longevity can be credited to three things – the strength of their catalog of all-original songs, their collective precision picking, and the family atmosphere the band has cultivated together since forming in 2005.
You Gotta Hear This: New Music From Jade Jackson, Wyatt Ellis, and More

4 weeks ago | thebluegrasssituation.com | Justin Hiltner

Bidding farewell to May already? It seems impossible, but somehow we’ve quickly reached our final collection of premieres and new music for the month. You Gotta Hear This!We’ve got bluegrass to get you moving this week, with North Carolina’s Balsam Range kicking us off with a dark and gritty story song of a shipwreck and the sea, “The Pacific,” their latest single dropping today.