A New Team for Two Heavy Hitters of Bluegrass: Woody Platt and Buddy Melton
Iconic bluegrass bands that see founding members depart and form a new group makes for big news, and exciting new musical possibilities
After a couple of months which saw a lot of travel and many excellent conversations with music artists, I have a lot to share here and on the podcast. From MerleFest, I have the first of two interviews to present to you in this newsletter: western NC bluegrass heroes Woody Platt and Buddy Melton. Next up is Tami Neilson, also from this year’s MerleFest, and following that are conversations from this spring’s Albino Skunk Music Festival from country duo Caleb Klauder & Reeb Willms, and blues and soul dynamo Eddie 9V.
Another highlight was an interview with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, from his stop in Charlotte. The first portion of that interview aired the same afternoon we spoke and is linked here; the larger portion of that conversation revolved around Tweedy’s upcoming solo, triple album(!), which will arrive sometime in late summer. I was lucky enough to hear several songs from the collection, and was the first media person to talk to him about his upcoming project. Once I have the go-ahead from his team, that episode will soon follow. I will give you a hint about the music: it is in large part a family affair, with Jeff’s two sons featured prominently throughout.
Thank you for spending time here, and I encourage you to listen to the podcast and follow the series everywhere you find podcasts. There is much more awaiting you at the podcast website as well, including articles, photos and videos that are not included in these newsletters. Onwards to the transcript for our latest, enjoy!
[“Long Time Coming” by Woody Platt, from Far Away With You, continuing as bed]
Let’s play a quick game of associations: I will give you names of some famous athletes and you think of the teams they played on in their primes. Bonus if you can think of names of some of their teammates or coaches that were part of their dynasties. Okay, here goes: When I say Michael Jordan, you say what? Chicago Bulls. Right. You might easily add Scotty Pippen, Dennis Rodman, or Phil Jackson. How about Babe Ruth? New York Yankees. You probably know of his teammate Lou Gehrig, too. Here’s another easy one: Tom Brady. You guessed it, the New England Patriots. Randy Moss and Bill Belichick may also come to mind.
When you think of it, bluegrass bands are a bit like sports teams, with members that become synonymous with their groups. Bluegrass fans who hear the name Kentucky Colonels, will probably immediately think of Roland, Clarence and Eric White. Country Gentlemen? Charlie Waller, John Duffey, and Eddie Adcock should roll right off their tongues. How about New Grass Revival? Sam Bush and John Cowan might come to mind first. Maybe Bela Fleck too, but there’s also Courtney Johnson who preceded him as the banjo player in the group.
Switching banjo players, when you think of it, could be a lot like bringing in a new starting pitcher to your baseball team. These personnel changes come because both athletes and musicians can lose their place in the spotlight, or get fired, or they can leave on their own and go to another team, or band. Bluegrass tends to be quite fluid with personnel, and members can change often.
But like Jordan leaving basketball for baseball, or Tom Brady winning one more Super Bowl with the Buccaneers, iconic bluegrass bands that see founding members depart are big news. When I say Steep Canyon Rangers, you say what? When you hear Balsam Range, what is one of the first names you think of? If you said the names Woody Platt and Buddy Melton, then you catch my drift. Not long ago, both left the groups that they helped make famous. Although they did not necessarily have it in mind at the time, Woody Platt and Buddy Melton found themselves making a song together. One thing led to another, and in 2024 they cut a record: Woody Platt’s ten song collection titled Far Away With You, with Buddy featured on three of its tracks, including the song you are hearing now, “Long Time Coming”. A revolving door of bluegrass free agents show they’ve got game on the collection as well: icons like Del McCoury, Jerry Douglas and Tim O’Brien, plus heavy hitters like Rob McCoury, Bryan Sutton, Jason Carter, Barry Bales, Darrell Scott, Casey Driessen, and Shannon Whitworth among others. Now performing as Woody Platt and the Bluegrass Gentlemen, I had the pleasure of catching up with Woody Platt and Buddy Melton at MerleFest in late April 2025. There, we gathered in one of the few quiet spots available on the festival grounds, in the band’s motorcoach, where we talked about how this all began, how their region is recovering from Hurricane Helene and more recently, widespread wildfires, a certain Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young cover they played live at the festival, as well as how they love to hear other players cover their songs. That and a lot more, including more music from Far Away With You. I am your host Joe Kendrick, welcoming you to our episode on Woody Platt and Buddy Melton on Southern Songs and Stories.
[SSaS theme song with VO by Joe K]
00:00:59 Joe Kendrick
Well, good morning, Woody Platt, buddy Melton here at, here at MerleFest. Oh, great morning for some bluegrass and and bluegrass plus, or traditional plus as Doc called it.
00:01:02 Woody Platt
Good morning.
00:01:07 Buddy Melton
Always a good morning for that.
00:01:13 Woody Platt
I like traditional plus, I've never heard that, I like that.
00:01:16 Joe Kendrick
How many MerleFests for you?
00:01:18 Buddy Melton
Ohh gosh, uh, a lot. I'd have to think about that. Well, coming to play in or or just coming?.
00:01:26 Joe Kendrick
Well, both. Playing at least.
00:01:28 Buddy Melton
Yeah, I played probably half a dozen times, playing wise. A lot more visiting than spectating.
00:01:38 Woody Platt
I don't really know. For me, I'm. I'm guessing 10-12, something like that, you know, played a lot with the Rangers, played with the Rangers and Steve. And played with Shannon a couple years ago, so probably a dozen, something like that. Enough to feel quite at home here.
00:01:57 Joe Kendrick
Yeah. Yeah, it is a nice homecoming. It really feels like that every time.
00:02:01 Buddy Melton
Yeah, it's always special just to get to come back, be a part of it and it's just become such a, you know, pinnacle of the festival scene, especially in this area, it's it's such an honor to be here.
00:02:14 Joe Kendrick
Tell us about the new record. New, relatively new band -- how is it being in this group?
00:02:21 Woody Platt
You know, this just happened by accident. Really. You know, when I when I departed from Steep Canyon a few years ago, there was no plan. And it wasn't like to start a new band or to start a new recording career or really anything. It was just to make a change. Life change. And Buddy encouraged me to, around that time to record a single just under my own name, and then we, you know, it was a lot of fun making that single.
And so, you know, as time went on, decided to make a record and we continue to encourage that process. And over time, no, you know really with no timeline this Far Away With You kind of came together and it was fun to do it with out any sort of strings attached. No timeline, no rush. No concern, no worries. Just a real happy place to make music.
[jump to]
00:04:09 Joe Kendrick
So, where were we? OK, so the new band and part of that now that we can, you know, talk about former bands and. Things is, you know, in bluegrass, there's a lot of transition and it's very common for band members to switch out or to start new projects. However, you both were kind of the exception that proved the rule up until not very long ago. Because, I mean, you were in Balsam Range for 15, 18 years?
00:04:28 Buddy Melton
Yeah, about 20 years.
00:04:32 Woody Platt
Rangers were going 23, something like that.
00:04:35 Joe Kendrick
You know that's, that's that's a lot of, a lot of mileage and you know. Kind of led to maybe a little bit more of a surprise factor with, you know, stepping away from those projects which are still going on, which is good.
00:04:47 Woody Platt
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, I I remember being when we were in the Rangers, we sort of had this thing: at some point we just got to outlast them. You know, because we just watch bands sort of start playing musical chairs or, you know, breaking up and it's like, well, if we just stay the course and stay together, we keep our sound and our continuity and I really respected that and was proud of that for two decades, you know. But all things come to an end at some point and and.
00:05:14 Buddy Melton
Yeah, Balsam Range was different and we, we were. We didn't intend to do anything. It's kind of like this we're doing right now. We just got together. We're all from Haywood County and we're.
Playing good music and next thing you know, just years went by and. The snowball kept rolling, getting bigger, and so it was beautiful. But people always ask how do you keep a band together? Same members for a long time. It's kind of be challenging. Everybody's got to want, need the same thing. Families got to want, need the same thing. And we were blessed early on to all have kids same age, you know, you know, it's very similar need.
And and it was fun, and it was exciting. And so it just was a great thing. I don't. I'm blessed to being a part of that for so long and and like what he said, everything comes in. It's more for me. It was a lifestyle change. It's just I was just ready to, you know, do some new things and slow down a little bit and enjoy life. And Woody and I just happened to be enjoying life together with other things, fishing and other outdoor stuff, and we'd always bringing the fiddle or guitar out during that and. And. Stuff.
You know, we like we weren't intending to to do anything but but live life and enjoy it and but this is part of our life. This is a big part of who we are and I think we both realized that. The grind of running up down the road was something we wanted to slow down, but music's a huge part of who we are. So. Let's make the most of it.
[“Like The Rain Does” by Woody Platt, from Far Away With You, excerpt]
That is a bit of the song that beings Woody Platt’s 2024 album Far Way With You, “Like The Rain Does”, with Barry Bales on bass, Jerry Douglas on dobro, Buddy Melton on vocals, Daren Shumaker on mandolin, Rob McCoury on banjo and Jason Carter on fiddle. It is one of many covers on the record, and stays closer to home than some of the others -- Cody Hale wrote and recorded that song originally, and he lives near where Woody Platt calls home, in Transylvania County NC. Platt turns Hale’s original, a downtempo country song with piano, drums and electric guitar in the mix, into a driving, toe tapping bluegrass jam -- a far different interpretation of the original, however not that far afield musically. Other covers on the album are more far reaching: from the Tennessee rock band Kings of Leon, their song “Beautiful War”; from Americana pioneers Uncle Tupelo, a take on “Still Be Around”; from blues great Blind Willie McTell, we get an amped up reworking of “Broke Down Engine”, fleshed out with a full band including Del McCoury on vocals.
Bluegrass has evolved to be omnivorous as far as its diet of musical ingredients: Rock songs both obscure and classic; pre-war Blues; Country; and Americana abound in the songwriting credits for a great many string bands now. It is notable that this stands in contrast to the emphasis on original material by first generation pioneers, but even then, Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, and their contemporaries were pulling in a wide variety of influences from their own upbringing into their songbooks. They simply had no Rock and Roll to draw from, for example, otherwise I would argue that you would certainly have some of it make its way into those Columbia Records sessions in September 1946 from Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys that became the genre’s blueprint. Second generation bluegrass players that Big Mon would go on to decry as playing songs that were “no part of nothin’” were drawing outside those lines. But in truth, Bill was drawing outside all the lines of the blueprints for string band music, blues and jazz when he mapped out what became known as Bluegrass. The style had musical appropriation encoded in its DNA, like any new style really. It was bound to keep pulling in other, newer forms and ideas, and that is one of its key strengths. Also, something for bluegrass fans to bicker about for generations.
Coming up, a conversation about covers with Woody Platt and Buddy Melton, after a sampling of a song they played in their live set at MerleFest, “Find the Cost of Freedom”.
[“Find the Cost of Freedom” by Crosby, Stills Nash & Young, from Live At Fillmore East, 1969, excerpt]
00:19:54 Joe Kendrick
Talking about your set yesterday, love to hear the Crosby Stills Nash.
00:19:59 Woody Platt
Yeah. You know, I think. Cover songs are have never been something that I've done much of, and when I was with the Rangers we just had so many great songwriters in the band and that was sort of like we led with the original material and and not that we're not doing that now, but yeah, just things that over your life speak to you and speak to the times and it was fun to play there. We're actually going to play again today because we're on a different stage and we feel like not. Enough people got to hear it.
00:20:29 Joe Kendrick
So yeah, that brings to mind a question that I asked a lot of folks, is you know, what songs do you think we're going to be singing 100 years from now?
00:20:41 Woody Platt
Well, in bluegrass, we're going to be singing a lot of the same songs. I mean, there is a, a, A well of songs that aren't going away. And I was thinking about it, you know, I I hope that some of the songs that we in our collective outfits have recorded. I hope some of those songs eventually.
00:20:59 Buddy Melton
They become a standard.
00:21:00 Woody Platt
Become like a standard and I don't know if that's the.
00:21:00 Buddy Melton
You. Yeah, you.
00:21:03 Woody Platt
Case but it. Would be really like a legacy kind of honor if if a song that, you know the Rangers did or that. On this new record or one of yours or Boston range becomes like. A chestnut that people play in.
00:21:15 Buddy Melton
It's always fun to see. I've over the years, see like international bands covering your songs, you know, and this or, you know, our young group, you see a young group that's covering one of your original songs. It's kind of you've got that feel of, well, this could be a standard that's kind of a cool thing because, you know, I grew up playing standards, you know, that's, that's the beauty of of bluegrass is there's this common commonality that everybody can get together. And know similar songs.
00:21:43 Joe Kendrick
So that's really what you're all chasing.
00:21:46 Woody Platt
We're just. No, we're not chasing it. But it would be cool if it happened organically, and we've both seen the, you know, these young Japanese bands cover our songs. That’s pretty flattering, but. Yeah, I'm ready to see the Lonesome River Band doing ‘em instead. [laughter]
[“Walk Along With Me” by Woody Platt, from Far Away With You, excerpt]
That is “Walk Along With Me”, a Woody Platt original from Far Away With You, with Woody’s wife Shannon Whitworth joining on vocals.
Woody Platt is from Brevard, NC, while Buddy Melton calls Clyde, NC home, not far away, in Haywood County. Their hometowns were more or less in Helene’s bullseye when it roared through the region in late September, 2024. In March 2025, wildfires born of windy, dry conditions and millions of downed trees for added fuel, ripped through areas struggling to recover from the hurricane. I asked how things stood in their communities in the wake of these disasters:
00:06:56 Woody Platt
Sure. I'll go first. You know, in Transylvania County, I would consider ourselves fairly lucky compared to the surrounding counties. Felt like we were sort of in the eye of the storm and we caught a lot of the water, but not as much of the wind. And being in the headwaters and having. Sort of. The National Forest sort of be our buffer. I felt like we we did better. We did pretty well, comparatively. I think there was 70 to 80 displaced families in our community and and the community really pulled together through fundraising campaigns and temporary housing and are trying really hard to. Have tried really hard and have successfully kind of helped re-house most of those families and there's been a big push in recent recent months, recent weeks, even by Army Corps start working on the streams and the stream banks. And that's something I'm really passionate about. So we've. Seen a lot of progress there, just debris collection and trying to and then we got to get to the bank stabilization. But All in all the post Helene recovery is well underway in Transylvania County. And then right after that we had that wildfire that came up from the Table Rock State Park and it got into the, you know. Southwestern side of the county and. It was sort of, I think, a little PTSD from Helene and then all the news around the other fires, people were really on edge. Yeah, but but we short of a bunch of smoke. And the week or so of of concern, we dodged a bullet there.
00:08:30 Buddy Melton
Yeah, Haywood County, similar similar story. We got hit hard with the with the Helene flood damage and such, and we're still trying to recover from that. And still some displaced families and and small businesses really got hit hard. We're trying to rally around helping get some of these small businesses back up and getting the economy strong again. That's a a big focus right now. For us in Haywood County, we we dodged the fires pretty well, so we didn't really have too much other than people are on edge because it is a sensitive with all this going on. But a lot of lot of efforts. Thecommunity came together really strongly and and we got a a program called Haywood Strong. We're trying to continue raise money and a lot of that is for. Businesses and and families. Some but. Still still digging out.
[jump to]
00:15:34 Joe Kendrick
Oh. Can we talk a little bit about Southern culture and where you might find yourself in the mix of what you consider you know, Southern aspects of your music?
00:15:49 Woody Platt
Well, I mean, I think just the nature of of bluegrass music, even though you find it all over the country and all over the world, it seems to have a very southern route and and I think our our style of bluegrass music. At least I know mine was influenced by. People from the South and.
You know, I'm proud to be from the South and and it's always my favorite place to play and connect with people.
00:16:19 Buddy Melton
Yeah. Yeah, I'm. I'm telling. I guess, you know, telling my age. But I grew up, you know, completely influenced. By the local scene in West North Carolina and that was before the Internet and and and there was, you know, you just didn't discover music the way you do now. So you were influenced by all these great local musicians and going to these dances and jams and things and. It was years before I, you know, discovered this more national artistry, you know. And that's once I got really bit by the bug and started really learning and wanting to learn more, I started expanding my and and being exposed to outside the Western North Carolina area of music, but that was.
My I cut my teeth from local jams and you know the biggest the artist was at the at the, you know, Smoky Mountain Folk Festival or the Mountain Folk Festival. You know, you got to see all these great artists, you know, like, you know Doc Watson or, you know, David Holt and these other bands that were just really influencing all the the local and that's you know it is there is a you know that Western North Carolina has a vibe like what he's talking about we our our. It has influences of that the energy of it.
00:17:35 Woody Platt
You know, it's interesting, like government buddies area Raymond Fairchild is like, iconic. And then in our town there was a guy named Roy Chapman and Joe Byers. And when I was a kid, they did a square dance just across the street from our house every Tuesday night or Thursday night at this. Basically on this old this basketball court outside and all the community would come. They do the squaredance. And we would walk over there and I don't really ever remember really paying attention to the music. Like.
But it was bluegrass and it was it was just in you hear it, you know. And then later I got to know those guys and then sort of followed them around a little bit. So it's neat how within your communities, there's just a little pocket and there's a style that they have. And I ended up working with a couple guys. You probably heard of Bobby Powell and Timmy Jones. They had a rock band called Carolina Blue.
And they learned under this guy, and they had this style that I call it like the Transylvania County style. And you had, there's probably the same thing over there.
00:18:29 Buddy Melton
Well, I had Mark Pruitt. I mean, he's kind of interesting. I was a kid, you know, watching Mark Pruitt. Going to in theBill Stanleys and the Mark Pruitt Band and then years later playing with him and you know, but that's I grew up listening to that and then end up playing with that. So it's you definitely, you know you felt comfortable to jump in that because it was just all I'd heard.
00:18:49 Woody Platt
I remember going to Bill Stanley's and falling asleep on the table. My parents dragged me there like in second or third grade. Passed out on the table while Mark was playing. Clogging. The whole thing.
00:19:02 Joe Kendrick
Wow. Yeah. We should give a shout out for Mark. I mean, you look at him and he, he, he looks like a teddy bear, but he's tough as nails because I'll never forget him breaking his wrist and then make, playing the show.
00:19:11 Buddy Melton
Oh, I was there. Yeah. I mean he I watched him fall.
00:19:16 Woody Platt
First time I saw y'all, he fell over a monitor up in.
00:19:19 Buddy Melton
Ohh, that was. Yeah, he he fell for like 15 minutes up there.
Joe Kendrick
What happened?
00:19:25 Woody Platt
He looked up, hit a monitor and his slow motion fall.
00:19:25 Buddy Melton
Back, back, there's a back line monitor. Yeah, he was back. There's a monitor on the back line, and he was just backing up. And and he just backed into it, and he started falling. And I, I swear he fell. He fell for 15 minutes. He didn't get as bad hurt as he did in California when we, he fell on that stage up there and during rehearsal and nobody knew he broke it, but yeah, he had some surgery after that one.
[“One Last Goodbye” by Woody Platt, from Far Away With You, continuing as bed]
Saying goodbye for now with the song “One Last Goodbye” by Woody Platt, from Far Away With You, with Buddy Melton on vocals and joined by Barry Bales, Jerry Douglas, Jason Carter and Rob McCoury.
Thank you for listening, and we hope you enjoyed this episode. Woody Platt and Buddy Melton have now made their second appearances on this series, having been featured in earlier podcasts on their bands Steep Canyon Rangers and Balsam Range, respectively. You can check out over 150 episodes of Southern Songs and Stories anytime for free anywhere you find podcasts, and at my website southernsongsandstories.com, where there are many more articles and photos to go along with those episodes.
Drop me a line at southersongsandstories@gmail.com where I welcome your thoughts and comments, and you can follow us on social media: at southstories on Instagram, at Southern Songs and Stories on Facebook, and now on Substack, where you can read the scripts and transcripts of these podcasts, and get updates on what we are doing and planning in our quest to explore and celebrate the unfolding history and culture of music rooted in the American South, and going beyond to the styles and artists that it inspired and informed.
This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available at .osirispod.com. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio at bluegrassplanetradio.com. Thanks to Jaclyn Anthony for producing the radio adaptations of this series on public radio WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng who wrote and performed our theme songs. I am your host and producer Joe Kendrick, and this is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it.