My Backstage Pass

Michelle Malone joins hosts Billy and Sarah Hubbard for a fun conversation about her 16th studio album, Southern Comfort!  The record features a collective of all star special guests including Buddy Miller, Randal Bramblett, Will Kimbroug, Charlie Starr of Blackberry Smoke, Rick Richards and Joey Huffman of the Georgia Satellites, and features five songs co-written with legendary songwriter Dean Dillon! Learn more about Michelle Ma...

Paul Kelly is one of the leading artists making music in Australia and given his remarkable legacy —  consisting of some 29 albums and a career that extends back nearly four decades — he rightfully deserves his place on that pantheon. His new album, Fever Longing Still, marks his first new collection in six years, not counting the various compilations and collections that have helped to reinforce his status as a remarkable singer/s...

Rachael Sage sometimes seems like a force of nature. A distinctive and expressive artist, she could also be considered as one of the individuals at the forefront of the women's movement, having founded her own record label, MPress, being named a six-time Independent Music Award winner, as well as a John Lennon Contest Grand Prize winner. She’s shared stages with an eclectic array of other artists, performed at the Edinburgh Fr...

Note from My Backstage Pass producer and host Billy Hubbard -
After hearing the sad news of the passing of our legendary producer/engineer friend Jim Gaines on November 9th 2024, I wanted to re-release this episode of our conversation from May 2023 in Jim's honor.

In a recording career spanning some fifty years, bridging a range in time and style that reaches from the early days at Memphis’s Stax Records to Carlo...

It’s little wonder why Grammy Award winning guitarist, vocalist, producer, and band leader Warren Haynes has been hailed by every major publication worldwide. As a solo artist, member of the Allman Brothers Band and leader of the group Gov’t Mule, his accomplishments have been stirring the senses of audiences for better than 40 years.

His new solo album, Million Voices Whisper,  is already ranked as one of the best effort...

Grayson Capps is an intuitive songwriter, but on his latest album — his seventh to date — he backtracks to his earliest influences with an affecting set of covers that he became enamored with early on. Titled Heartbreak, Misery & Death, the album finds the Alabama based artist culling classic tracks from the likes of Gordon Lightfoot, Jerry Jeff Walker, Doc Watson, and Randy Newman while apply his own Southern Gothic verve and ...

Reckless Kelly boasts an indomitable career all their own. Led by brothers Willy (vocals/guitar) and Cody Braun (vocals/fiddle/mandolin/harmonica), they’re often referred to as an “alternative country-rock” outfit, but in truth they’re much more than that broad description otherwise implies. The group first formed in Stanley, Idaho in February 1996 and then moved to
Austin, Texas, where they quickly became one of the leading li...

Cody Braun is one of the guiding lights in Reckless Kelly, a band long known as one of the beacons of Austin’s much fabled music scene. Along with his brother Willy, he’s played an essential role in the 17 studio albums the band’s released over the course of the past 30 years, all in addition to being an astute producer and multi-instrumentalist as well. It’s little surprise then that the band’s new album, The Last Frontier shows o...

Join hosts Billy and Sarah Hubbard for a fun late night hangout with Billy Droze and his manager Donna Sue Roberts for a conversation filled with laughter!

Born in Lafayette, Louisiana in 1986, the 10th of 12 children, Billy Droze grew up in Alabama knowing that music was his life as far back as he can remember. “It’s as if I was inserted with a computer chip that made my life revolve around music.” But the reason is just...

There’s an old saying, “Like father, like son.” Nevertheless, being the child of a famous parent can be a double edged sword. Certain doors may be opened but the expectations can run very high.

That would especially seem the case when it comes to Ralph Stanley II and his famous father, a bluegrass pioneer. Nevertheless, the younger Stanley has proven that he’s well capable of carrying on his dad’s legacy. The elder Stanle...

By any description, Randall Bramblett can claim a varied career. Aside from the fact that he’s released no fewer than 15 solo albums, as a solo artist, he’s also been a much in-demand session player, having worked with Gregg Allman, Bonnie Raitt, Robbie Robertson, Elvin Bishop, Steve Winwood, Widespread Panic, and any number of others. That’s hardly surprising considering the fact that he’s a multi-instrumentalist who’s adept on ke...

The milestone tenth studio album from folk-blues luminary Ruthie Foster, Mileage finds the singer-songwriter reflecting on a life that’s been full of professional triumphs, courtesy of a musical journey that took a self-described “little Black girl with a guitar” from singing at churches in rural Texas to chalking up multiple Grammy nominations. 

With this album in particular, Ruthie shares a collection of songs that was inspired by...

Rich Ulloa has always been passionate about music. That was evident early on when he established one of the most important independent record stores in the nation with Miami's Yesterday and Today Records. That led to the founding of Y&T Records, which gave birth to the Mavericks, Mary Karlzen and other seminal Florida artists that got their start courtesy of the label. In recent years, Y&T has achieved even greater pro...

Wyatt Ellis shares his backstory and music from his debut album Happy Valley.

Born not far from the Great Smoky Mountains, Wyatt Ellis' first recollection of hearing the mandolin was Bobby Osborne’s iconic solo on the Osborne Brothers’ bluegrass classic “Rocky Top.” Hearing the Tennessee bluegrass anthem echo throughout the early years of his childhood is what led Wyatt to set his sights on learning to play mandolin....

(Hear part 2 at this link https://www.buzzsprout.com/1300885/episodes/16246491 )
Join Billy Hubbard and his wife Sarah on this special episode with Author/Screenwriter Rich Carlburg and Singer Songwriter John Smith Presley, a man who has presented DNA and other convincing evidence to prove he is the son of Elvis Presley. John was born in 1961 and adopted and raised by an uncle and aunt of Elvis, Ira Dee and Etta Smith. (Note -...

Charlie Overbey, once labeled the “Punk Rock Spy In The House Of Honky Tonk" by none other than Lemmy of Motorhead, has redefined the outlaw ethos of Americana music. That’s never been more evident than with the release of his new album, aptly titled In Good Company. A revisit to decades of writing and recording sessions from studios around the world, it is, in effect, the perfect summation of a career that stretches back near...

Simply stated, Steep Canyon Rangers rank among the upper echelon of today’s most prominent bluegrass bands. They’ve extended their musical template far beyond any confined parameters and into the realms of mass appeal, courtesy of songs that resonate with immediate accessibility and all the elements needed  to ensure populist appeal.

The band's new album, Live at Greenfield Lake, is a perfect summation of their strengths and a ...

Grammy nominated artist Steve Forbert, best known for the classic "Romeo's Tune," is a true American musical treasure, a fact underscored by his newest album Daylight Savings Time, to be released on September 20, 2024 via Blue Rose Music. Like all his recordings of new songs, it's saturated with what renowned rock journalist Robert Christgau discerned as his "omnivorously observant" songwriting, marked...

Although many people still think of him as the “And Oates” in the extraordinarily successful Hall & Oates, one of the best-selling duos of all time, John Oates stands on his own as a prolific singer, songwriter, producer, and solo artist. Not only was he responsible for writing or co-writing any number of the pair’s major hits — “Sara Smile,” “She’s Gone,” “Out of Touch,” “You Make My Dreams,” “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do),”...