Joe Caliva is the driving force behind The Bluegrass Byway, a new podcast dedicated to the music we all love, which he hosts and produces from his Nashville studio. The weekly format includes a review of news from the previous week, upcoming festivals and concerts, plus discussion with bluegrass artists and personalities.
He is now five episodes in, and already boasts of interviews with Joe Mullins, Ashley Lilly, Larry Stephenson, Flatt Lonesome, and Donna Hughes.
Caliva says that as his recent attention began moving towards bluegrass, the dearth of recurring podcasts addressing the interests of grassers was something of a jolt.
“My love and appreciation for bluegrass music has been growing steadily since coming to Nashville in ’98, but it wasn’t until this past year that I decided I really wanted to dedicate my musical pursuits to becoming as good of a bluegrass musician as possible, and to be an ambassador for the genre as well.
I was surprised to see that not only was bluegrass grossly underrepresented in the podcast format, but many of the shows I did find seemed to play to the stereotype of bluegrass as ‘hillbilly’ music, and there wasn’t much support for newer artists.”
So he took the bull by the horns, and created one himself.
“I guess all great ideas are born out of necessity, and I saw a need for a podcast like this… Bluegrass has evolved into a much more sophisticated art form, and it’s time we change people’s perception of it.”
A new episode of The Bluegrass Byway is released each Monday. Free subscriptions are available through iTunes, which will automatically download each new episode to your phone or computer. Alternately, listeners can visit Joe’s web site and listen to episodes at will.
Upcoming podcasts will feature Missy Armstrong and The Barefoot Movement, among others.
