Family Ties and Roots Music Foundations: Jonathan Wilson and Bella White

Southern Songs and Stories

For Jonathan Wilson and Bella White, family figures prominently not only in their lives behind the scenes, but also in the musical paths both chose early on. It should come as no surprise that as a boy in rural North Carolina, celebrated producer and artist Jonathan Wilson played in a family band of sorts (he would fill in for various band members in his father’s band at their practices), or that rising star Bella White’s father played in old time and bluegrass bands in Calgary, Canada when she was growing up. What may seem much more novel is that the common thread between their two experiences, separated by decades of time and thousands of miles, is also roots music like country and bluegrass.

For Bella White, roots music like bluegrass is easily identifiable in her sound; for Jonathan Wilson that foundation is not nearly as obvious. But as you will hear in our conversations, their love of music began with their shared background in acoustic roots music in places far beyond the limelight of Nashville or Los Angeles, where their paths eventually led. Bella White brought on Jonathan Wilson to produce her second and latest album Among Other Things, while Jonathan’s latest album Eat The Worm takes off into decidedly psychedelic territory.

I caught up with Bella White after her debut performance at MerleFest last spring, which followed her debut on the Grand Ole Opry, while Jonathan Wilson spoke with me recently by video call from his studio in Topanga Canyon, California. This episode features music from both artists as well as their conversations which touch on everything from Jonathan’s wife using AI in creating his latest music videos to Bella White’s intentional honesty and vulnerability in her songwriting, and much more.

Songs heard in this episode:

“The Way I Oughta Go” by Bella White, from Among Other Things

“Charlie Parker” by Jonathan Wilson, from Eat the Worm, excerpt

“Break My Heart” by Bella White, from Among Other Things, excerpt

“The Village Is Dead” by Jonathan Wilson, from Eat the Worm, excerpt

Thank you for visiting us and giving this podcast a listen! This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to Corrie Askew 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. A big thank you to Ayappa Biddanda at Concord, Jonathan Wilson’s manager Peter Sasala and father Al Wilson for their help in setting up interviews for this episode.

This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it. - Joe Kendrick