Edge of Americana features the finest in American traditional music forms – old-time, bluegrass, blues, jug band, ragtime, early jazz, novelty songs, classic country, and whatever else seems to fit. Shows are sometimes themed by song topic, a specific instrument, a certain artist, or particular region from which a sub-genre arises. Preference is given to recordings made before the 1960's, though newer bands are welcomed into the playlist, provided that they stray from the ultra-clean and faceless brand of “music” that seeps out of the Nashville machine and infects the world with mediocrity. Josh Bearman and Otto Konrad are both players and lovers of traditional American music. The music we play comes mainly from our collections (records, tapes, cd's, mp3's), and is not representative of anything more than our own taste. The Americana that strikes Josh's fancy is gritty and frequently comes in the form of “source recordings,” that is, non-commercial recordings capturing bluegrass and oldtime music being played for the sake of the music, rather than for an audience or studio engineer. While Otto also loves and provides this, he is also an avid follower of modern trends in these musical forms. The combination of the very old and very new provides the listener with a complete picture of traditional american music, from the earliest recordings (1902) to the most recent releases. Edge of Americana is presented with themes on occasion. For example, for our Thanksgiving program (playlist and mp3 podcast available at http://wrir.org/x/modules/news/article.php?storyid=11537), it was a “food-based” playlist, with songs and tunes all related to food and drink. As frequently as not, however, we will present a mixed bag of what we consider to be the best of traditional (and neo-traditional) music. We design programs to act as entertainment as well as education, and, in doing so, balance discussions of the historic reference and significance of the artists and songs with playing as much music in a two hour period as possible.