Farm and Fun Time featuring Town Mountain, Anya Hinkle Trio

Join us in the intimate performance theater at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum for WBCM Radio Bristol’s Farm and Fun Time live variety show with special guests Town Mountain and Anya Hinkle Trio.

Hosted by Kris Truelsen and his house band Bill and the Belles, Farm and Fun Time is a re-imagining of the classic WCYB Radio program of the same name that aired in the 1940s and 1950s. Radio Bristol’s Farm and Fun Time broadcasts live before a studio audience and recorded for television syndication on Blue Ridge PBS, East Tennessee PBS, and PBS North Carolina. It can be accessed on 100.1 FM in the Bristol area, or online at ListenRadioBristol.org and on Radio Bristol’s free mobile app. Viewers may also tune in to watch through Radio Bristol’s Facebook page.

About Town Mountain

Hailing from Asheville, North Carolina, Town Mountain is the sum of all its vast and intricate influences — this bastion of alt-country rebellion and honky-tonk attitude pushed through the hardscrabble Southern Appalachian lens of its origin.

“For us, it’s all about the interaction between the audience and the band — doing whatever we can onstage to facilitate that two-way street of energy and emotion,” says mandolinist Phil Barker. “Whether it’s a danceable groove or a particular lyric in a song, we’re projecting what we’re going through in our daily lives, and we feel that other people can attest to that, as well — it’s all about making that connection.”

About Anya Hinkle Trio

With vivid storytelling, vibrant musicianship and arresting honesty, Anya Hinkle and her band explore the beauty of song craft through the lens of the Appalachian string band tradition. Originally from the mountains of Virginia, Anya’s music is steeped in the tones of folk and bluegrass and seasoned by travels across the world. A founding member of Asheville-based bands Dehlia Low (Rebel Records) and Tellico (Organic Records), Anya released the first full-length album under her own name, “Eden And Her Borderlands,” in July 2021 on Organic Records. Hinkle won the MerleFest Chris Austin Songwriting Competition in 2019 for her song “Ballad of Zona Abston” and was runner-up in the International Acoustic Music Awards in 2022 for her song “Hills of Swannanoa.”

Anya tours regionally and nationally in the U.S. as well as Japan and Europe. The Trio includes dobro master Billy Cardine and Mary Lucey on bass and vocals.

Billy Cardine has been recognized as a slide guitar pioneer, taking the dobro with him into unchartered genres. Dobro master Jerry Douglas calls him “…an amazing Dobro player…He is fluent in everything that I do and…everybody that has come before. I couldn’t…pick a better example of where the Dobro is now or what the possibilities are with the instrument.” Billy has performed original compositions at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and The Grand Ole Opry. His albums have been awarded Indie Acoustic Music Project’s Roots Album of the Year and Chicago Tribune’s Bluegrass record of the year. His memorable compositions and emotive playing have been featured on Television productions such as The History Channel’s “Our Generation”, BBC World’s “Destination Music”, and PBS’ “RoadTrip Nation”. An internationally featured artist, he tours and teaches in India, Japan, Europe and Canada.

Mary Lucey is a talented vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and performer. She played bass for the The Biscuit Burners, as well as for the all female group, Uncle Earl. Mary has played venues such as The Kennedy Center, Ryman Auditorium and festivals such as Bonnaroo, Merlefest and Rockygrass. Her music has been featured on Mountain Stage and Woodsong’s Radio Hour.

About Bill and the Belles

Bill and the Belles is a Johnson City, TN-based band known for combining a stringband format with their signature harmonies, candid songwriting, and pop sensibilities. Their delightfully deadpan new album, Happy Again, is full of life, humor, and tongue-in-cheek explorations of love and loss. Bill and the Belles is Kris Truelsen on guitar, fiddler Kalia Yeagle, banjo/banjo-uke player Aidan VanSuetendael, and bassist Andrew Small. The group has a knack for saying sad things with a bit of an ironic smirk, and anyone who’s been to one of their shows can attest that you leave feeling lighter and refreshed. This is a band that revels in the in-between: deeply engaged with the stringband tradition and eager to stretch those influences to a contemporary setting. A timeless place where Jimmie Rodgers and Phil Spector can overlap, and a driving fiddle and banjo tune makes way for a sentimental parlor song. And while Bill and the Belles’ latest chapter offers a bigger, moodier, and more decade-ambiguous sound, they maintain their status as the most refreshing stringband around.