Blount County Live

Lee and Scott sit down with Jeff Barbra and Sarah Pirkle, and if you've been anywhere near live music in this region over the last three decades, you've felt their fingerprints on it whether you knew their names or not.

They got married in '97, quit their jobs, and opened Appalachian Music Exchange on East Broadway, all in the same year. Jeff's a vintage guitar expert, so the shop moved a lot of serious instruments on consignment, M...

Lee and Scott sit down with Monet Maddux, singer-songwriter, co-owner of The Shed alongside her husband Scott, and living proof that the best chapters sometimes start later than you'd think. Monet didn't pick up a guitar until she was 40, when she found a little Martin parlor guitar in her husband's office, cradled it like a baby, and thought: "My hands aren't too small anymore." (There's a whole story behind that line, going back ...

Lee and Scott sit down with Millie Rochelle, and if you caught her opening for Sam Bush a few weeks back, you already know – this kid commands a stage like she's been doing it for decades. Turns out she kind of has. She's been gigging since she was 10 and doing musical theater as long as she can remember, which explains the stage presence that had Lee doing a double take.

Millie performs two songs live: "Old Friend," her first...

Lee and Scott sit down with Becki Grace – Blount County native, born-and-raised icon of the East Tennessee music scene, and one of the most emotionally honest songwriters you'll ever hear.

Becki has music running through her whole story. She and her late husband fronted Three Mile Smile together, building a life and a series of albums around a shared love of music. When he was killed in a car accident on Alcoa Highway in Janua...

Lee and Scott sit down with Doug Wilhite, and if you're looking for someone who knows how to turn a rainy day into a hit song, this is your guy. This Helena, Arkansas native (that's the home of the blues, folks) moved to Tennessee in 2017 and immediately found his tribe at Brackin's Wednesday night jam sessions with Barry Swartz and Stan Giber.

Doug opens with "Too Wet to Plow," a rollicking tale of farming, moonshining, and Sheriff...

Lee and Scott sit down with Perry Bonck, and if you're wondering how someone goes from singing first soprano in the Archdiocese of New Orleans Boys Choir to writing heart-wrenching songs about military sacrifice, this is your story. Perry's the kind of songwriter who'll make you walk out of a venue in tears – in the best possible way.

This New Orleans native landed in Tennessee after Katrina, but his journey to these mountains...

Lee sits down with Bill Cabbage and special cohost Shelby Shankland (who's running for Blount County Clerk, by the way), and if you're wondering how one man can be in four different bands without losing his mind, Bill's got it figured out. From Pistol Creek Catch of the Day to his Western swing combo with the Cats Away, this man's been the backbone of East Tennessee music since the Nixon administration.

Bill's the guy who learned gu...

Lee and Scott sit down with Dino, aka Milk Man, and if you're wondering how a 24-year-old who's never taken a music lesson ends up leading an 18-20 piece big band, well, it all started with a gallon of Weigel's milk in a cup holder and a dream to crash open mic nights.

This coding student turned music obsessive discovered Paul McCartney at 17, skipped the ACT to see Eric Clapton, and decided cyber security wasn't for him. Instead, ...

Lee and Scott sit down with Mic Harrison and Kevin Abernathy from Mic Harrison and the High Score, and if you've been sleeping on East Tennessee's best rock band, wake up. These guys just dropped "Peach Blossom Youth" – produced by Eric "Bottle Rockets" Ambel – and it's the kind of polished Southern rock that makes you want to drive fast with the windows down.

Mic's been fronting this outfit since the early 2000s (the "H...

Lee and Scott sit down with Jay Clark, and if you're wondering how someone goes from chasing bears in Oklahoma to hosting the best listening room show in Blount County, well, buckle up. This man's got more stories than a Sunday sermon and twice the heart.

Jay's the guy who teaches at Maryville College (yeah, he's got a PhD but insists students call him by his first name), runs an $82.5 million science center project, and somehow fin...

Lee and Scott sit down with Cruz Contreras, and if you've been following East Tennessee music for the past couple decades, you know this man's resume. From studying jazz piano at UT to fronting the Black Lilies, to his trippy solo album "Cosmico" (seriously, check that one out), Cruz has been all over the musical map. But guess what? He's back in Blount County to stay.

We're talking about life between Butterfly Gap and Montvale, whe...

Lee and Scott sit down with Doug Harris, and if you're trying to figure out which Doug Harris band you saw last weekend, join the club. This man's got more musical projects than Blount County has dive bars – the Dirty Dougs, Doug Harris Band, Dirty Doug and Johnny, and a few others we probably forgot to mention. But here's the deal: every single one of them is worth catching.

Doug's heading to Memphis for the International Blu...

Hold up. Did we just say sixteen? Yeah, you read that right. Wyatt Ellis might not be old enough to vote, but this Townsend native's already played the Grand Ole Opry multiple times, won an IBMA award, and has his own exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame. No big deal.

Lee and Scott sit down with the mandolin wizard whose theme song "Maryville" literally opens and closes our podcast (you're welcome). Wyatt breaks down how he we...

Lee and Scott catch up with Lane Shuler, Townsend native turned Maryville resident who's been crafting his own brand of alternative hip-hop right here in Blount County. Lane breaks down how he went from a kid in Townsend with no music shops or guitar teachers to creating what he calls "liquid running through a dark alleyway" – and honestly, once you hear it, that description makes perfect sense.

We dive into the making of his...

Y'all better buckle up for this one. We sat down with East Tennessee's own EmiSunshine – yeah, that 20-year-old powerhouse who's been making grown folks cry with her voice since she was knee-high to a grasshopper. While Nashville's churning out cookie-cutter country, this Madisonville native's out here singing about real stuff: mountain folks losing their land, families getting torn apart by pills, and why your mama's homemad...