The Martha Bassett Show

Grace Pettis / Luke Bulla / TBD

Thu, Sep 4, 2025

Grace Pettis

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Grace's music is described as a little bit of folk, a little bit of country/americana, and a whole lot of soul.

Grace is the winner of many of the nation’s most prestigious songwriting contests, grants, and residencies, including NPR’s Mountain Stage NewSong Contest, the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico. Grace’s songs have been recorded by other esteemed artists, including Sara Hickman and Ruthie Foster, with 3 co-writes on Foster's latest, Grammy-nominated album, Healing Time (2024).

Grace was an official showcasing artist at SXSW and Folk Alliance International this year (2024). She has independently released three acclaimed records and signed with MPress Records in 2020. Her debut album on MPress, Working Woman (2021), was produced by lauded singer-songwriter Mary Bragg, mixed by 2x Grammy® award winner Shani Gandhi (Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical), and featured an all-female/non-binary band and creative credits. Guest contributions came from Indigo Girls, Ruthie Foster, Dar Williams, and other luminaries.

Grace Pettis' much-anticipated sophomore MPress Records release, Down To The Letter, captures the Nashville-based (formerly Austin-based) singer-songwriter at the peak of her songwriting powers. Chronicling the end of a marriage and the reclamation of self after betrayal, codependency, and loss with heartbreaking detail, the lyrics deftly toe the line between personal pain and universal catharsis.

Produced by Mary Bragg (Natalie Price), mixed by Jon Estes (Robyn Hitchcock, Dolly Parton), and mastered by John McLaggan (Parachute Mastering), the album showcases Pettis' rich voice, perhaps one of the most dynamic and agile of her generation.

Learn more at https://www.gracepettis.com/

Luke Bulla

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Luke Bulla has been singing and playing music most of his life. Touring with and singing in his family band from age four, Luke took up the fiddle at seven.

Over the course of the next few years, he won the National Fiddle Contest (in Weiser, Idaho) six times in his respective age categories. His seventh win came in the Grand Champion division at age sixteen, making him the youngest to have earned the title at the time. Entering Nashville’s Grand Master Fiddle Championship at age ten, Luke distinguished himself by being the youngest person to have made the top ten.
In addition to violin, Luke plays guitar and mandolin, and sings and writes songs.

In the spring of 1999, Luke moved to Nashville to establish himself as a full time musician. He spent his early years in Tennessee playing fiddle in Ricky Skaggs’ band, Kentucky Thunder, which earned him his first Grammy Award.

Following the Skaggs stint, he became a member of the John Cowan Band. More recently Luke has performed and/or recorded with Brandi Carlile, Jim Lauderdale, Darrell Scott, Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck, Bryan Sutton, Kevin Costner & Modern West, Russ Barenberg Trio, Shawn Colvin, Tony Rice, Chris Thile, Peter Rowan, Patty Griffin, Glen Phillips, Rodney Crowell, and Earl Scruggs, to name a few. Luke was also a perennial instructor at Mark O’Connor’s fiddle camps in his early Nashville years.

With his long-time friend Casey Driessen, Luke founded the band Wisechild, which toured briefly with John Mayer and Counting Crows. He also had a band collaboration, W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration), which included members Sean Watkins (Nickel Creek, Fiction Family), Glen Phillips (Toad The Wet Sprocket), Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek, I’m With Her), Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello and the Imposters, The Attractions, Los Lobos), Greg Leisz (Joni Mitchell, Wilco, Sheryl Crow, Beck), and Davey Faragher (Elvis Costello and the Imposters, Cracker).
In 2009, Luke released a solo EP featuring Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Aoife O’Donovan and more.
That same year, Lyle Lovett asked Luke to join his Large Band, with whom he toured full time until 2023.

In 2015 Luke co-founded a Bluegrass/Americana record label, Pure Music | Nashville, with music and business executive John L. Heithaus. Luke’s LP, Who Loves You Better, was released by the label in May of 2016. Recorded at Zac Brown’s studio, Southern Ground Nashville, the LP was produced by Grammy winner Bryan Sutton.

Who Loves You Better showcases featured vocal performances by Sharon & Cheryl White, Maura O’Connell, Lee Ann Womack, and Sara Jarosz, complemented by a veritable A-List of Americana’s finest musicians, including: Jerry Douglas, Noam Pikelny, Sam Bush, John Cowan, Sam Grisman, Bryan Sutton and more.

Currently Luke is happy to be touring again and is working on a new EP.

Learn more at https://lukebulla.com/home

Season sponsored by
  • Atrium Health - Wake Forest Baptist
  • Mast
  • Buckeye Advisors
  • Bowen Town & Country Furniture
  • Explore Elkin
  • ICON
  • G&B Energy
  • Hugh Chatham Health
In partnership with
  • Lowes Foods
  • The Carolina Experience
  • Piedmont Opera
  • Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County
  • Reeves Theater
  • Historic Elkin
  • WFDD
  • ElectroMagnetic Radiation Recorders