Blair Crimmins brings in a stripped down version of the Hookers (certainly no pun intended) to play some songs for us live at the AM 1690 studios. Blair Crimmins & the Hookers bring a forgotten sound of Dixieland, ragtime, early 20th century Jazz and Blues and amp it up for a modern sound. Frontman Blair Crimmins works his way from banjo to guitar to ukulele and anything else he can get his hands on to make a sound, a does so with great aptitude and creativity.

Known for playing the blues around Atlanta for years, the guys of Delta Moon talk about the band’s history, finding a home in Midtown Atlanta, and delicious travels overseas. Playing a stripped down version of some tunes from bluegrass legends, Delta Moon’s double slide guitar set-up separates them from other groups and earns them a place in Georgia’s rich bluegrass tradition.

The Booze is a band from Atlanta. That may seem like a simple statement, and a bit of an obvious one, but this band makes it easy to forget that. They have cultivated a sound reminiscent of the British invasion. You know, that time in musical history when a bunch of English rockers were getting their sound from American roots and blues music. Well, this group has given us one more trip across the pond. But don’t mistake this group for a kitsch group that is simply regurgitating British rock from the 1960s. They’re writing their own songs, with their own meaning, and they’re doing a fine job of it. They join Neal Cohen to talk about their 2010 album Rebirth Of the Cool and play a few songs from the album including the scorching opener “There Goes My Baby.”

Atlanta native music maker Bobby Lee Rodgers stops by the studio to chat about painting a cohesive musical picture, the lasting influence that a high school music teacher can have, and the art of counting tunes off. Rodgers expresses the importance of just getting along as he performs a selection of original tunes with personal back stories.

In 1959, after learning blues music from his Army buddies T-Bone Walker and Les Paul, Eddie Tigner joined an incarnation of the Inkspots after sitting in on a show in Atlanta. Tigner stayed on the road with the Inkspots until 1987. After a 30 year tour, Tigner returned home to Atlanta where he does a weekly Sunday night gig at Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar. Eddie stopped by shortly after his 83rd birthday to talk to our own Scott Glazer about his career from before the Army and through today.

Among the Oak and Ash is an ever changing collective of musicians. The group was started in 2008 by singer/songwriter Josh Joplin with the simple goal of taking the folk songs he loves and re-interpreting them. The songs he chooses are typically somewhere over 100 years old and feature simple harmonies and instrumentation. After he’s picked the songs, he chooses musicians to record and tour with. This special live performance features Garrison Starr alongside Josh Joplin. Although not on Among the Oak and Ash’s newest album (which at this time is yet to be released), Starr and Joplin have teamed up again to hit the road in Summer 2010 with Jessica Lea Mayfield