Night 3 of 12 is in the books. On Friday, July 17, 2026, Bristol Sessions Nights: The Blue Yodel honored Jimmie Rodgers with an evening of old-time country music at the Bristol Listening Room in the L.C. King Building. Kris Truelsen hosted the evening, with Ali Kafka, Henry Barnes and Conner Vlietstra on the bill.
The City of Bristol, Tennessee presented the night. Roy Andrade, a professor in the ETSU Department of Appalachian Studies, curated it. The Blue Yodel closed Act I of the Road to 100, the opening stretch of the series built around the 1927 recordings.
Three Sets and the Stories Behind the Songs
Roy Andrade built the night around the music itself. His brief for the performers was to play Jimmie Rodgers' music and share their own take on what makes it work: his sound, his songs and his approach.
The Night 3 lineup announcement put the idea this way:
"The music you are about to hear did not come from a museum. It came from porches, street corners, river towns, and recording sessions like the ones that happened right here."
Kris Truelsen opened the evening with his own set. Then he sat down with Ali Kafka, Henry Barnes and Conner Vlietstra between sets, so the room could hear the story behind each song before it was played.
Henry Barnes and Ali Kafka played as a pair, his fiddle over her guitar. Conner Vlietstra took his turn with his flattop guitar. Later in the evening, the stage filled with fiddle, pedal steel, two guitars and a cello playing together under the Bristol Sessions Nights sign.
Guests listened from round tables set with candle jars and boxes of popcorn. With 100 seats in the room, the front tables sit just off the edge of the stage.
The Night 3 poster art came from Robert Phelps, a self-taught painter raised in the Appalachian Mountains. He is best known for colorful pet portraits and nature-inspired paintings. See more of his work at RobertPhelpsArt.com.
Thank you to Roy Andrade and ETSU for shaping the night, to the players, and to everyone who came downtown to listen. Thank you, Bristol.
Meet the Artists
Kris Truelsen
Kris Truelsen has spent the better part of two decades writing songs and touring across the US and beyond. Listeners know him for innovation and humor, and for moving between genres and styles with ease. He created the nationally syndicated PBS television show Farm and Fun Time and the community station Radio Bristol, and he works to promote the arts of this region.
His latest project, Country Casserole, leans into the rock and roll side of country. His stages include Lincoln Center Jazz, the Kennedy Center, The Caverns, MerleFest and RockyGrass.
Ali Kafka
Ali Kafka learned her trade as an itinerant street musician. She was based largely in New Orleans, Louisiana, and moved around the South, supporting herself through music as she went. Finger-style guitar has always been her focus. Her love for early blues and hillbilly guitar styles brought her into old-time music, and the community she found there made her a devoted old-time player.
Players know her for a driving sound, creative bass lines and syncopation drawn from the early recording era of acoustic roots music. Today she lives in East Tennessee with Henry Barnes and their four dogs, and she works full-time as a mental health therapist and social worker.
Henry Barnes
Henry Barnes has played old-time fiddle most of his life, with dozens of blue ribbons, cultural accolades and successful students to show for it. He digitizes field recordings and visits with elder musicians.
His specialty is the music of the Ohio River Valley, where early commercial players such as Clark Kessinger, Cowboy Copas and Doc Roberts left their mark. He also plays the local folk traditions carried by migrants during the Revolutionary War, Reconstruction and industrialization. He lives in Elizabethton, Tennessee, with his partner and fellow musician Ali Kafka.
Conner Vlietstra
Conner Vlietstra is an old-time country and bluegrass musician from Chattanooga, Tennessee. The stringband tradition of that area shaped his playing. He comes from a musical family, and he got much of his love for country music and bluegrass from his mother's parents, Papa and Nana.
Old-time country singers such as Riley Puckett and Charlie Monroe inspired him, and he lays down a solid foundation on flattop guitar. He is an alumnus of ETSU's Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music program.
From the 1927 Bristol Sessions to the Road to 100
In the summer of 1927, Ralph Peer of the Victor Talking Machine Company set up a temporary studio on State Street in Bristol to record regional musicians. Those sessions launched the careers of the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers. Night 2 honored the Carters. Night 3 turned to Rodgers, the man the Night 3 announcement called the one who "first carried Bristol's sound out to the rest of the country."
The Blue Yodel closed Act I, The Recordings. Act II, The Evolution, follows how Bristol's spark shaped bluegrass, songwriting and mountain music across a century. All twelve nights lead to the 100th anniversary of the 1927 Bristol Sessions and The 100th Session, the centennial weekend on May 28 and 29, 2027.
More Photos
See more from the evening in the Night 3 photo gallery.
Next Stop on the Road to 100
The Blue Yodel followed Night 2, The Carter Sessions, which honored the Carter Family on June 19, 2026. The Road to 100 continued with Night 4, Mountain Songs, on August 21, 2026, the first night of Act II.
For live music in Bristol, Tennessee, every night of the series takes place in the Bristol Listening Room at 24 7th Street downtown, with seating capped at 100 guests. Reserve a seat for an upcoming night on the tickets page, lock in the rest of the series with the Series Passport, or read about all twelve chapters on the series page.
See you at the Bristol Listening Room.
Photos: Stephen Marshall. Artist photos courtesy of the artists.
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