In this excerpt, Haley Solomon talks with Grammy-winning artist Esperanza Spalding - bassist, composer and singer - ahead of her performance at this year's Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN.

(Aired Fri 5/23/25) In this excerpt, Haley Solomon talks with Cowboy Sadness - an atmospheric indie rock band from New York City - ahead of its performance at this year's Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN.

(Aired Fri 5/16/25)

In this excerpt, Haley Solomon talks with Grammy winner Arooj Aftab - a Pakistani-American singer and composer who fuses jazz, South Asian classical music, pop and blues - ahead of her performance at this year's Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN.

(Aired 5/09/25)

In this excerpt, Clark Gibson speaks with Jason Wilber, a longtime guitarist for John Prine, ahead of his concert at Chattanooga's Walker Theatre in April.

Full interview here: Coming to Chattanooga: Jason Wilber On The John Prine Songs & Souvenirs Tour

Chattanooga is the new home of the World of Bluegrass.

The event - presented by the International Bluegrass Music Association - is coming to Chattanooga this September, and in 2026 and 2027.

Ken White, the IBMA's executive director, spoke with our own Richard Winham - live here on WUTC.

_____

Stay tuned to WUTC in the months to come for more voices - and more songs - as Chattanooga prepares to host the World of Bluegrass, September 16th through September 20th.

Visit worldofbluegrass.org.

The Asheville-based prog rock band Papadosio graced the patrons of Barrelhouse Ballroom in Chattanooga on Friday, November 1st.

WUTC's Clark Gibson speaks with multi-instrumentalist and founding member of the group, Billy Brouse - about living in Appalachia, musical influences, and famed spiritual leader Ram Dass.

In 2023, the Riverbend music festival here in Chattanooga, Tennessee, boasted a new 3-day format and a fresh lineup featuring artists such as Lucius, Indigo De Souza, Trombone Shorty, and Amanda Shires. One of the acts coming to the festival was the American jam band Goose. Formed in 2014 in Connecticut by guitarist and singer Rick Mitarotonda, drummer Ben Atkind, and bassist Trevor Weekz, Goose is a self-described “indie groove” band. While often compared to jam band greats like Phish and Umphrey’s McGee, Goose site indie rock and trance influences such as Vampire Weekend and Bon Iver as the source of their music that sets them apart. Their live shows promise clever covers and long improvised jams, which they absolutely delivered during Riverbend 2023. In addition to releasing studio albums, the band records all of their live performances and has mixed many of those into live albums. Just ahead of Goose’s set at Riverbend 2023, the now 5-piece band sat down with WUTC’s own Brent Stott to talk about their 2023 tour, the lessons they’ve learned over the years, and their philosophy for creating set lists.

Thievery Corporation is the American electronic project of Eric Hilton and Rob Garza. The two met in Washington D.C. back in the 90s at a downtempo jazz club called the Eighteenth Street Lounge, which Eric Hilton co-owned at the time. They hit it off immediately and formed the band Thievery Corporation soon after meeting. Now, almost 30 years later, the band is hitting the road for a 5-month tour that starts in May of 2024 with a round of US dates that include cities in our area like Nashville, Knoxville, and Atlanta. In June the duo and their massive touring band will make their way over to Europe, visiting sixteen countries in half as many weeks. After multiple dates in Greece and Eastern Europe, locations that have developed strong followings for the band, Thievery Corporation will make their way back to the States to close out their tour in the fall. Before leaving for Europe, Thievery Corporation’s Rob Garza spoke with WUTC’s Haley Solomon about the band, lessons learned from touring, and how he finds long flights an extremely productive space for making music.