Notes from Home

From walking in off the street and landing a session gig at the legendary FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, to playing with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, to his current gig as guitarist with St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Browan Lollar is on an amazing, musical trajectory. He shares stories and plays music on this episode of Notes from Home.

Alabama News Center first brought you the story of Rob and Jen Slocumb in 2017 when their Sound Wall studio in downtown Opelika was making musical waves as a destination. Together, the husband-and-wife team form the music group Martha’s Trouble. They’re also the founders behind the Opelika Songwriter Festival, which is slated to take place in October.

As a member of Three on a String, Bobby Horton gets to pick and grin and have fun playing the group’s blend of country and bluegrass music. When it’s time to be more focused and intentional, Horton creates musical scores for documentaries, most famously those by filmmaker Ken Burns. It’s a balance that has worked well for Horton.

Scott Register has been a music tastemaker in Birmingham for years, most notably with his long-running “Reg’s Coffee House” radio show. Will Lochamy was almost born into radio; his father, Bob Lochamy, enjoyed a long and successful radio career in the Magic City. Now, the two collaborate on “The Morning Blend” on Birmingham Mountain Radio. They talk about radio, music and more.

Jada Cato is a Georgia native who studied theater at Birmingham-Southern College but has her sights set on a career in country music. She describes herself as “a proud country music storyteller” and has big dreams and plans for the future, including a debut album and a video blog series.

Gil Anthony has spent his life preserving and spreading the blues. As a founder of the Wiregrass Blues Festival and host of the radio show Blues Power, Gil sits down and speaks to us about what the blues has meant to him and his mission to make sure Alabama native Big Mama Thornton gets her due.

The Blips are a Birmingham supergroup composed of well-known musicians from the Magic City’s music scene. We sit down with two of the members, Eric Wallace and Taylor Hollingsworth, to learn what happens when five front men come together to form a band.

Mark Kelly will tell you his only skill is writing, and it’s taken him to some pretty, cool places as a journalist, author and songwriter. In this episode, he shares how his band, The Burnells, formed, what influences his lyrics and how recording their upcoming album at Wishbone Recording Studio in legendary Muscle Shoals came to be.