Old-time and bluegrass musician Alice Gerrard has championed traditional music for close to 60 years. Beginning with her trailblazing early duo recordings with Appalachian singer and activist Hazel Dickens, the 89-year-old’s Gerrard channels many modes of creative expression pulled from her unmatched archive of inspiration.

“There are a lot more people out there with Jay-Z and Johnny Cash on their playlists than you think,” says Gangstagrass Mastermind Rench, who had previously made a name for himself as an in-demand Brooklyn country and hip-hop producer and singer/songwriter. He should know – he’s toured the country and abroad with a band of bluegrass pickers and hip-hop MCs to the delight of standing-room crowds everywhere.

On a Bowling Green, Kentucky cattle farm in the post-war 1950s, Bush grew up an only son, and with four sisters. His love of music came immediately, encouraged by his parents’ record collection and, particularly, by his father Charlie, a fiddler, who organized local jams.