The Floyd Radio Show

Welcome to the first in a series of four Floyd Radio Shows this 2025-26 season! Our host is Kelley Breiding, with featured guests: The Burnett Sisters Band, Up Jumped Trouble & Scott Ainslie.

ABOUT THE BURNETT SISTERS BAND
To assign a genre to The Burnett Sisters Band would be to oversimplify the breadth of their musical influences – at a typical show, an old-time fiddle tune might be followed by a George Jones song, a driving bluegrass standard or a soaring gospel number. The sisters formed as a band when the youngest was six years old and since then, TBSB has toured across the world and continue to share traditional music wherever they are able.
With a repertoire that's equal parts old-time and bluegrass, swing, and folk, this Billboard charting band dives into their material with attention to detail and an appreciation for nuance that lends an authenticity and a feeling of genuine expression rarely matched in today's traditional music.
For years The Burnett Sisters have dominated the regional competition circuit – from fiddler’s conventions to music festival contests, these young ladies have proven their chops. It was no surprise to anyone that the band took home the top prize at the MerleFest Band Competition in 2022. Most recently, Anissa took home the prestigious blue ribbon for Old-Time Fiddle at the 2024 Old Galax Fiddlers Convention, and Anneli won the incredible first place trophy in Folk Song, both competing against hundreds of singers and fiddlers. On top of all that, these talented individuals also find time to keep traditional music ways alive and well as instructors for the Watauga Junior Appalachian Musicians program, as well as the Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music Studies program at ETSU.
Bluegrass, old-time, and folk music lovers alike can’t get enough of The Burnett Sisters Band, as siblings Anissa, Sophia, and Anneli and band mates Justin Alexander from Sweetwater, TN and Geary Allen from London, England are all gifted multi-instrumentalists who are well-known and well-loved in the traditional music circuit. The band brings a youthful energy and modern flair to each performance, while remaining true to the traditional roots of the genre. Their on-stage chemistry is unmistakable – the type that only close siblings can have, evident in exchanged glances and spontaneous smiles – and their musicianship is undeniable.

ABOUT SCOTT AINSLIE
Scott Ainslie is a traditional acoustic Blues singer, guitarist, historian, storyteller, and songwriter. A musician all his life, Ainslie took up guitar at age 15 about five weeks after hearing Virginia Bluesman John Jackson play a couple of songs in the middle of one of Mike Seeger’s concerts in Alexandria, VA in 1967. Ainslie continued to graduate Phi Beta Kappa with honors from Washington & Lee University but his greatest love was studying with elder musicians on both sides of the color line – in the Old-Time Southern Appalachian fiddle and banjo traditions, as well as black Gospel and Blues musicians.

ABOUT UP JUMPED TROUBLE
Up Jumped Trouble is an old-time string band from Southwest Virginia that blends Appalachian fiddle music with classic country songs. They bring a hard driving, old-time sound that’s sure to get your toe tapping! Featuring the fiddling of Raistlin Brabson along with banjoist Margo MacSweeney, and guitarist Jared Boyd.