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Sierra Ferrell and Steep Canyon Rangers will spearhead the annual International Bluegrass Music Association’s IBMA Bluegrass Live! festiavl powered by PNC when it returns to downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, on Sept. 27-28.
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Also on the main stage are special guests Chatham County Line, Sierra Hull, Sam Bush, Rhonda Vincent & The Rage, Danny Paisley, Amythyst Kiah and Crying Uncle.
Ferrell just released her new album Trail of Flowers, while Steep Canyon Rangers’ 2023 album Morning Shift is at No. 9 on Billboard‘s Bluegrass Albums chart.
IBMA, teaming with local host PineCone (Piedmont Council of Traditional Music), will return to the Raleigh Convention Center, the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, the Red Hat Amphitheater and other venues. The festival will be held at Red Hat Amphitheater, as well as on six additional stages throughout downtown Raleigh.
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The performance lineup for the two-day festival also highlights the talents of Balsam Range; Barefoot Movement; Broken Compass; Compton & Newberry; Chris Jones & the Night Drivers; Country Current (US Navy Band); Dewey & Leslie Brown; Earl White String Band; Evans, Smith & May, Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen; From China to Appalachia (Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer with Chao Tian); Golden Shoals, The Gospel Jubilators; The Gravy Boys; Hank, Pattie & the Current; Henhouse Prowlers; Jacob Jolliff Band; Jake Blount; Jake Leg; Jim Lauderdale; Junior Appalachian Musicians; Kaia Kater; Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands; Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road; New Dangerfield; Nixon; Blevins & Gage; Raised in Raleigh All Star Jam; Sister Sadie; Songs From the Road Band; The Tan & Sober Gentlemen; Tray Wellington Band; Union Grove Old Time Fiddlers’ Convention 100th Anniversary; Unspoken Tradition; The Williamson Brothers; Wyatt Ellis; and more.
“This is our favorite time of year. I just love seeing everyone coming down to Raleigh with guitars and banjos slung over their shoulders,” David Brower, festival producer and executive director of PineCone, said in a statement. “In addition to all the bands playing the big stages, there’s also something special for the everyday pickers. We’re dedicating a stage to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Union Grove Old Time Fiddlers Convention. We’ll have contests for fiddlers, banjo, mandolin and guitar players, plus a great big square dance to cap off the afternoon each day. Lifting up North Carolina’s musical traditions is something we’ve been proud to do with the festival over the last decade.”
IBMA Bluegrass Live! is part of the annual five-day IBMA World of Bluegrass, which also includes the IBMA Business Conference, the IBMA Bluegrass Ramble showcase series and the 35th annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards, with the run of events slated for Sept. 24-28 in Raleigh.
Last year, Billy Strings led the IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards winners, picking up the entertainer of the year honor, while Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway won album of the year for Crooked Tree and song of the year for the album’s title track, while Tuttle was named female vocalist of the year.
Tickets and hotel reservations for IBMA’s World of Bluegrass will open to IBMA members starting May 8, and will open to the general public on May 15.
Billy Strings wants a second chance.
Last year, the 31-year-old Strings played two headlining shows at Nashville’s 18,500-capacity Bridgestone Arena, and followed with a show at country music’s “Mother Church,” the Ryman Auditorium. Tonight (Feb. 23), he returns to Music City for a repeat trio — two headlining stints at Bridgestone (Feb. 23-24), followed by a sold-out headlining set at the Ryman (Feb. 25).
“Bridgestone last year was sort of like a fickle mistress or something,” Strings tells Billboard. “I don’t think we blew Bridgestone up. The show was good, but as soon as I played the gig, I was instantly like, ‘We need to come back and try again.’ I just want to blow the roof off of Bridgestone. I’ve done a year of playing arenas now and Bridgestone is really important, because I live here [in Nashville]. That’s where I see all the bands that I like, that’s where I go see $UICIDEBOY$, it’s my hometown arena. So I put a lot of pressure on myself about Bridgestone.”
Strings, who won a Grammy for best bluegrass album for his 2021 album Home and reigns as both the current entertainer of the year at the International Bluegrass Music Awards (IBMA) and artist of the year at the Americana Music Awards, advanced to playing arenas over the past year. His current trek includes multiple nights at arenas in Atlanta (State Farm Arena), New Orleans (UNO Lakefront Arena) and Pittsburgh (Petersen Events Center).
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According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Strings — who since 2017 has been one of the key leaders in the ongoing progression of bluegrass, with his expansive guitar playing and quick-fire improvisational style — grossed $10.8 million and sold 174,000 tickets across 28 reported concerts in 2023, with many of those being arena shows. Those figures average out to $386,000 and 6,200 tickets per show.
The notion of a bluegrass picker ascending to performing multiple nights at arenas places this guitar master on a level of some bold name country and rock acts who regularly pull such double-headers. But a glimpse into Strings’s genre-eschewing shows offers a reasoning behind his appeal as an artist, one who has grown beyond a strictly bluegrass audience. A freewheeling, genre-melting show where Strings is just as likely to deliver a bluegrass standard as throw out a transcendent, high-octane, metal-infused guitar riff — and often in the same song. That’s by design, says the Michigan-raised Strings.
“Growing up, I listened to heavy metal, I listened to bluegrass, jazz, rock and rap,” he explains. “I’m not trying to be bluegrass. I’m not trying to be this or that, I’m just playing. I grew up playing bluegrass, so that’s kind of the medium I paint with — but I just play music, and whatever comes out is what happens. I don’t know what the hell kind of music it is.”
He’s also collaborated with everyone from mainstream country artists Dierks Bentley and Luke Combs to R&B artist RMR and rock band Fences. Combine that with the freewheeling, jamband feel his shows put forth, and it’s understandable that a Strings show draws a wide spectrum of concertgoers, from bluegrass aficionados to Deadheads, teens and older hippies.
“It might be young folks that are just getting into bluegrass and people who are into psychedelia, it’s all over the board,” Strings says. “You look out and see a guy headbanging wearing a Slayer shirt at a bluegrass concert. That’s freakin’ cool.”
The buildup to playing arenas has been steady, and conscientiously through out.
“We’ve always tried to be careful,” Strings says. “We toured in a van for as long as we could before moving to a bus, just stuff like that. I think we could probably play two or three nights at some of these places — but we choose to do only two, just to make sure they are full.”
Though Strings playing the 2,362-capacity Ryman is an underplay at this point, he says performing at the 132-year-old historic venue is always special. “Last time, we did all bluegrass songs, wore suits and played a bluegrass concert, which was so fun,” Strings recalls. “This year, I don’t know what we’ll do. Maybe an MTV Unplugged vibe, something stripped down. That’s what’s so cool about Nashville — like last year, we went from Bridgestone to the Ryman and then to Roberts [Western World on Lower Broadway]. So it goes from the biggest stuff ever to the funnest stuff ever.”
He also notes that, as with nearly any solid Nashville show, fans can expect some surprises. “We’ve got some friends coming down,” Strings teases.
Longtime Strings fans and music aficionados might also notice some fresh nuances to his guitar playing–the results of this naturally-talented, playing by ear guitarist taking his first-ever guitar lessons.
“Last April, I started getting sick of myself and felt like I was on a plateau,” Strings says. “I’ve never taken lessons, I don’t know anything about music theory, and I’m in these sessions with Bela Fleck and people who are very well-versed in harmony and theory — and I’m just sitting here, some old country bumpkin, playing by ear, which is great. But now I have a guitar teacher and he’s got me learning jazz and classical and Charlie Parker tunes, stuff I never really play as a bluegrass musician, and it’s opening up my brain to different harmonic avenues. I can feel my fingers starting to reach for notes that weren’t there before. I never had a deliberate practice routine, ever, but I was building a career. Now that I have a career, it’s like, ‘There’s so many people that have practiced more than me and I’ve just been out here ripping gigs.’ So I’m having fun kind of starting over from the beginning.”
It is likely that somewhere in his three-night span of shows, Strings’ setlist will include his Grammy-nominated Willie Nelson collaboration, “California Sober,” which Strings released in honor of Nelson’s 90th birthday last year, and which marked Strings’ first release since partnering with Reprise Records, following a long association with Rounder. Strings says the collaboration was set in motion after Strings performed as part of Nelson’s Outlaw tour nearly two years ago.
“I got to hang out with him on that tour, and I was so inspired just by being around him,” he says. Later, Strings wrote the song and realized, “This is such a Willie song that I can’t record it without him.” He sent the song to Nelson, who agreed to record it. Strings went down to Luck while Nelson recorded his vocal.
“Just sitting there in the studio and making the song was amazing,” says Strings, noting that they followed the session with a game of poker at Nelson’s house. “He took a thousand bucks from me, real quick … I had no idea what I was doing, and he had no problem with that. His wife was like, ‘Man, this is gross. This poor kid doesn’t even know how to play poker.’ And Willie’s like, ‘Well, he shouldn’t have sat down.’ I would’ve spent another thousand just to sit there at that table.”
While Strings’ current tour runs through May, followed by some summer festivals, Strings has also been in the studio recording and says a new album is likely on the way this year.
“We got a record coming out probably in the fall,” he says. And it sounds like those sessions –- just like his live shows — are centered on chasing the muse and challenging himself musically.
“I’ve been working on it a little bit between touring. I’m recording at home for the first time ever. Me and the band, sometimes we’ll work for 12 hours, sometimes we’ll work for three. Not having a time limit, no restraints, has been awesome, just for the vibe.”
Billy Strings won entertainer of the year for the third year in a row at the 34rd Annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards. The show was held on Thursday (Sept. 28) at Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh, N.C.
Strings, 30, is the first artist to take entertainer three years in a row since Earls of Leicester achieved the feat from 2015 to 2017. Before that, the Del McCoury Band and Dailey & Vincent both did it. Strings won a Grammy for best bluegrass album three years ago for Home.
But in many ways, it was Molly Tuttle’s night. Tuttle, who is also 30, and Ketch Secor co-hosted the show. Tuttle also won three key awards. “Crooked Tree,” which she co-wrote with Melody Walker, won song of the year. The song was the title track of Tuttle & Golden Highway’s album, which won album of the year. Tuttle’s third award was female vocalist of the year.
Crooked Tree won a Grammy for best bluegrass album in February. Tuttle was also nominated for best new artist at that show but lost to Samara Joy.
Authentic Unlimited won two awards at the IBMA Awards – vocal group of the year and new artist of the year.
Jason Carter also won two awards – instrumental recording of the year (“Kissimmee Kid”) and fiddle player of the year. Carter, 50, has won three Grammys for best bluegrass album as a member of the Del McCoury Band and the Travelin’ McCourys.
In a sign of changing times, three of the six winners in the instrumentalist of the year categories were women – Kristin Scott Benson (banjo player of the year), Vickie Vaughn (bass player of the year) and Sierra Hull (mandolin player of the year).
This year’s inductees into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame – Sam Bush, known as “The King of Newgrass”; Wilma Lee Cooper, one of bluegrass’ most important early women musicians; and David Grisman, an influential mandolin player – were also honored during the show.
Awards were voted on by the professional membership of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA).
The show aired on SiriusXM’s Bluegrass Junction channel and was livestreamed on IBMA’s Facebook Live.
Here’s a complete list of nominees and winners for the 2023 IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards:
Entertainer of the year
Appalachian Road Show
WINNER: Billy Strings
Del McCoury Band
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys
Album of the year
WINNER: Crooked Tree – Artist: Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway; Label: Nonesuch Records; Producer: Jerry Douglas and Molly Tuttle
Lovin’ of the Game – Artist: Michael Cleveland; Label: Compass Records; Producers: Jeff White, Michael Cleveland, and Sean Sullivan
Lowdown Hoedown – Artist: Jason Carter; Label: Fiddle Man Records; Producers: Jason Carter and Brent Truitt
Me/And/Dad – Artist: Billy Strings and Terry Barber; Label: Rounder Records; Producers: Billy Strings and Gary Paczosa
Radio John: The Songs of John Hartford – Artist: Sam Bush; Label: Smithsonian Folkways; Producer: Sam Bush
Song of the year
“Blue Ridge Mountain Baby” – Artist: Appalachian Road Show; Songwriters: Barry Abernathy/Jim VanCleve; Label: Billy Blue Records; Producer: Appalachian Road Show
WINNER: “Crooked Tree” – Artist: Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway; Songwriters: Molly Tuttle/Melody Walker; Label: Nonesuch Records; Producers: Jerry Douglas and Molly Tuttle
“Diane” – Artist: Sister Sadie; Songwriters: Jeffrey Nath Bhasker/Samuel Tyler Johnson/Cameron Marvel Ochs; Label: Mountain Home; Producer: Sister Sadie
“Heyday” – Artist: Lonesome River Band; Songwriters: Barry Huchens/Will Huchens; Label: Mountain Home Music Company; Producer: Lonesome River Band
“Power of Love” – Artist: Rick Faris; Songwriters: Johnny Colla/Huey Lewis/Christopher Hayes; Label: Dark Shadow Recording; Producer: Stephen Mougin
Male vocalist of the year
WINNER: Greg Blake
Del McCoury
Danny Paisley
Larry Sparks
Dan Tyminski
Female vocalist of the year
Brooke Aldridge
Dale Ann Bradley
Jaelee Roberts
WINNER: Molly Tuttle
Rhonda Vincent
Vocal group of the year
WINNER: Authentic Unlimited
Balsam Range
Blue Highway
Del McCoury Band
Sister Sadie
Instrumental group of the year
Billy Strings
Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper
The Infamous Stringdusters
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
WINNER: The Travelin’ McCourys
New artist of the year
WINNER: Authentic Unlimited
East Nash Grass
Henhouse Prowlers
The Tennessee Bluegrass Band
Tray Wellington
Collaborative recording of the year
WINNER: “Alberta Bound” – Artist: Special Consensus with Ray Legere, John Reischman, Tisha Gagnon, Claire Lynch, Pharis & Jason Romero; Songwriter: Gordon Lightfoot; Label: Compass Records; Producer: Alison Brown
“Big Mon” – Artist: Andy Leftwich with Sierra Hull; Songwriter: Bill Monroe; Label: Mountain Home Music Company; Producer: Andy Leftwich
“Foggy Morning Breaking” – Artist: Alison Brown with Steve Martin; Songwriter: Alison Brown/Steve Martin; Label: Compass Records; Producer: Alison Brown and Garry West
“For Your Love” – Artist: Michael Cleveland with Billy Strings and Jeff White; Songwriter: Joe Ely; Label: Compass Records; Producer: Jeff White, Michael Cleveland, and Sean Sullivan
“From My Mountain (Calling You)” – Artist: Peter Rowan with Molly Tuttle and Lindsay Lou; Songwriter: Peter Rowan; Label: Rebel Records; Producer: Peter Rowan
Gospel recording of the year
“The Glory Road” – Artist: Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers; Songwriters: Paul Martin/Harry Stinson/Marty Stuart; Label: Billy Blue Records; Producers: Joe Mullins and Adam McIntosh
“Jordan” – Artist: Darin & Brooke Aldridge with Ricky Skaggs, Mo Pitney and Mark Fain; Songwriter: Fred Rich; Label: Billy Blue Records; Producer: Darin Aldridge and Mark Fain
WINNER: “The Scarlet Red Lines” – Artist: Larry Sparks; Songwriter: Daniel Crabtree; Label: Rebel Records; Producer: Larry Sparks
“Take a Little Time for Jesus” – Artist: Junior Sisk; Songwriter: David Marshall; Label: Mountain Fever Records; Producers: Junior Sisk and Aaron Ramsey
“Tell Me the Story of Jesus” – Artist: Becky Buller with Vince Gill and Ricky Skaggs; Songwriter: Fanny Crosby, arrangement by Becky Buller; Label: Dark Shadow Recording; Producer: Stephen Mougin
Instrumental recording of the year
“Contact” – Artist: Michael Cleveland with Cody Kilby, Barry Bales, and Béla Fleck; Songwriter: Michael Cleveland; Label: Compass Records; Producer: Jeff White, Michael Cleveland, and Sean Sullivan
“Foggy Morning Breaking” – Artist: Alison Brown with Steve Martin; Songwriters: Alison Brown/Steve Martin; Label: Compass Records; Producers: Alison Brown and Garry West
“Gold Rush” – Artist: Scott Vestal’s Bluegrass 2022; Songwriter: Bill Monroe; Label: Pinecastle Records; Producer: Scott Vestal
WINNER: “Kissimmee Kid” – Artist: Jason Carter; Songwriter: Vassar Clements; Label: Fiddle Man Records; Producers: Jason Carter and Brent Truitt
“Scorchin’ the Gravy” – Artist: Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen; Songwriter: Frank Solivan; Label: Compass Records; Producer: Frank Solivan
Banjo player of the year
WINNER: Kristin Scott Benson
Alison Brown
Béla Fleck
Ned Luberecki
Scott Vestal
Bass player of the year
Mike Bub
Todd Phillips
Missy Raines
Mark Schatz
WINNER: Vickie Vaughn
Fiddle player of the year
WINNER: Jason Carter
Michael Cleveland
Stuart Duncan
Bronwyn Keith-Hynes
Deanie Richardson
Resophonic guitar player of the year
Jerry Douglas
Andy Hall
Rob Ickes
Matt Leadbetter
WINNER: Justin Moses
Guitar player of the year
Chris Eldridge
WINNER: Trey Hensley
Billy Strings
Bryan Sutton
Molly Tuttle
Mandolin player of the year
Alan Bibey
Jesse Brock
Sam Bush
WINNER: Sierra Hull
Ronnie McCoury
Music legend Willie Nelson may be best known for as a country superstar, but some might not realize he’s visited many other Billboard album genre charts outside of the Top Country Albums chart — where’s racked up a record 53 top 10s, with 18 of them hitting No. 1. Over the years, Nelson has placed high-charting efforts on these genre-specific album rankings: Blues Albums, Kid Albums, Reggae Albums, Traditional Jazz Albums, Jazz Albums, Americana/Folk Albums and Top Christian Albums.
Now, Nelson’s new Bluegrass album, released on Sept. 15, appropriately debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Albums chart (dated Sept. 30), marking his first appearance on the 21-year-old tally. On the album, Nelson reinterprets a dozen of his older songs, joined by a bluegrass ensemble. Billboard’s Bluegrass Albums chart ranks the top-selling bluegrass albums of the week in the U.S., based on traditional album sales, as tracked by Luminate. In the week ending Sept. 21, Nelson’s Bluegrass sold 3,000 copies.
Below is a recap of Nelson’s history on Billboard’s major album genre charts, aside from Top Country Albums. (In addition, Nelson has logged 83 entries on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart.)
Chart NameAlbum Title, Peak Position, Peak Date
Blues AlbumsMilk Cow Blues, No. 2, Oct. 7, 2000
Kid AlbumsRainbow Connection, No. 7, June 30, 2001
Reggae AlbumsCountryman, No. 1 (nine weeks at No. 1), July 30, 2005
Traditional Jazz AlbumsTwo Men With the Blues (Nelson and Wynton Marsalis), No. 1 (four weeks), July 26, 2008Here We Go Again: Celebrating the Genius of Ray Charles (Nelson & Wynton Marsalis featuring Norah Jones), No. 1 (five weeks), April 16, 2011Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin, No. 1 (five weeks), March 19, 2016My Way, No. 2, Sept. 29, 2018That’s Life, No. 1 (two weeks), March 13, 2021
Jazz AlbumsTwo Men With the Blues (Nelson and Wynton Marsalis), No. 1 (four weeks), July 26, 2008Here We Go Again: Celebrating the Genius of Ray Charles (Nelson & Wynton Marsalis featuring Norah Jones), No. 2, April 16, 2011Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin, No. 1 (three weeks), March 19, 2016My Way, No. 2, Sept. 29, 2018That’s Life, No. 1 (two weeks), March 13, 2021
Americana/Folk AlbumsLast Man Standing, No. 1, May 12, 2018Ride Me Back Home, No. 1, July 6, 2019First Rose of Spring, No. 1, July 18, 2020The Willie Nelson Family, No. 12, Dec. 4, 2021A Beautiful Time, No. 3, May 14, 2022
Top Christian AlbumsJust As I Am: 18 Hymns and Gospel Favorites (Willie Nelson and Bobbie Nelson), No. 37, Aug. 27, 2022
Bluegrass AlbumsBluegrass, No. 1, Sept. 30, 2023
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway is nominated in three marquee categories – entertainer, album and song of the year – for the 2023 IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards. Appalachian Road Show and Billy Strings are each nominated in two of those three categories.
Strings, who won entertainer of the year the last two years in a row, is nominated again this year. Other nominees in that category are the Del McCoury Band, which has won a record nine times (from 1994-2004), The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys (their third nod in the category), Tuttle & Golden Highway (their second) and Appalachian Road Show (their first).
The multitalented Steve Martin, a 2023 Primetime Emmy nominee for his work on Only Murders in the Building, is nominated in two categories – collaborative recording of the year and instrumental recording of the year for “Foggy Morning Breaking,” which he recorded with Alison Brown.
Also announced were three inductees into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame: Sam Bush, known as “The King of Newgrass”; Wilma Lee Cooper, one of bluegrass’ most important early women musicians; and David Grisman, an influential mandolin player.
Additionally, The Bluegrass Situation, Tom Ewing, Red Wine, Terry Baucom, and Carl Goldstein were named as recipients of the Distinguished Achievement Award.
Awards are voted on by the professional membership of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), the professional nonprofit association for the bluegrass music industry.
Results of the balloting will be revealed at the IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards on Thursday, Sept. 28, at the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh, N.C. Tickets are now on sale for the 34th annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards, and for all IBMA World of Bluegrass events; visit worldofbluegrass.org for details.
Here’s the complete list of nominations for the 2023 IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards:
Entertainer of the year
Appalachian Road Show
Billy Strings
Del McCoury Band
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys
Album of the year
Crooked Tree – Artist: Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway; Label: Nonesuch Records; Producer: Jerry Douglas and Molly Tuttle
Lovin’ of the Game – Artist: Michael Cleveland; Label: Compass Records; Producers: Jeff White, Michael Cleveland, and Sean Sullivan
Lowdown Hoedown – Artist: Jason Carter; Label: Fiddle Man Records; Producers: Jason Carter and Brent Truitt
Me/And/Dad – Artist: Billy Strings and Terry Barber; Label: Rounder Records; Producers: Billy Strings and Gary Paczosa
Radio John: The Songs of John Hartford – Artist: Sam Bush; Label: Smithsonian Folkways; Producer: Sam Bush
Song of the year
“Blue Ridge Mountain Baby” – Artist: Appalachian Road Show; Songwriters: Barry Abernathy/Jim VanCleve; Label: Billy Blue Records; Producer: Appalachian Road Show
“Crooked Tree” – Artist: Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway; Songwriters: Molly Tuttle/Melody Walker; Label: Nonesuch Records; Producers: Jerry Douglas and Molly Tuttle
“Diane” – Artist: Sister Sadie; Songwriters: Jeffrey Nath Bhasker/Samuel Tyler Johnson/Cameron Marvel Ochs; Label: Mountain Home; Producer: Sister Sadie
“Heyday” – Artist: Lonesome River Band; Songwriters: Barry Huchens/Will Huchens; Label: Mountain Home Music Company; Producer: Lonesome River Band
“Power of Love” – Artist: Rick Faris; Songwriters: Johnny Colla/Huey Lewis/Christopher Hayes; Label: Dark Shadow Recording; Producer: Stephen Mougin
Male vocalist of the year
Greg Blake
Del McCoury
Danny Paisley
Larry Sparks
Dan Tyminski
Female vocalist of the year
Brooke Aldridge
Dale Ann Bradley
Jaelee Roberts
Molly Tuttle
Rhonda Vincent
Vocal group of the year
Authentic Unlimited
Balsam Range
Blue Highway
Del McCoury Band
Sister Sadie
Instrumental group of the year
Billy Strings
Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper
The Infamous Stringdusters
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
The Travelin’ McCourys
New artist of the year
Authentic Unlimited
East Nash Grass
Henhouse Prowlers
The Tennessee Bluegrass Band
Tray Wellington
Collaborative recording of the year
“Alberta Bound” – Artist: Special Consensus with Ray Legere, John Reischman, Tisha Gagnon, Claire Lynch, Pharis & Jason Romero; Songwriter: Gordon Lightfoot; Label: Compass Records; Producer: Alison Brown
“Big Mon” – Artist: Andy Leftwich with Sierra Hull; Songwriter: Bill Monroe; Label: Mountain Home Music Company; Producer: Andy Leftwich
“Foggy Morning Breaking” – Artist: Alison Brown with Steve Martin; Songwriter: Alison Brown/Steve Martin; Label: Compass Records; Producer: Alison Brown and Garry West
“For Your Love” – Artist: Michael Cleveland with Billy Strings and Jeff White; Songwriter: Joe Ely; Label: Compass Records; Producer: Jeff White, Michael Cleveland, and Sean Sullivan
“From My Mountain (Calling You)” – Artist: Peter Rowan with Molly Tuttle and Lindsay Lou; Songwriter: Peter Rowan; Label: Rebel Records; Producer: Peter Rowan
Gospel recording of the year
“The Glory Road” – Artist: Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers; Songwriters: Paul Martin/Harry Stinson/Marty Stuart; Label: Billy Blue Records; Producers: Joe Mullins and Adam McIntosh
“Jordan” – Artist: Darin & Brooke Aldridge with Ricky Skaggs, Mo Pitney and Mark Fain; Songwriter: Fred Rich; Label: Billy Blue Records; Producer: Darin Aldridge and Mark Fain
“The Scarlet Red Lines” – Artist: Larry Sparks; Songwriter: Daniel Crabtree; Label: Rebel Records; Producer: Larry Sparks
“Take a Little Time for Jesus” – Artist: Junior Sisk; Songwriter: David Marshall; Label: Mountain Fever Records; Producers: Junior Sisk and Aaron Ramsey
“Tell Me the Story of Jesus” – Artist: Becky Buller with Vince Gill and Ricky Skaggs; Songwriter: Fanny Crosby, arrangement by Becky Buller; Label: Dark Shadow Recording; Producer: Stephen Mougin
Instrumental recording of the year
“Contact” – Artist: Michael Cleveland with Cody Kilby, Barry Bales, and Béla Fleck; Songwriter: Michael Cleveland; Label: Compass Records; Producer: Jeff White, Michael Cleveland, and Sean Sullivan
“Foggy Morning Breaking” – Artist: Alison Brown with Steve Martin; Songwriters: Alison Brown/Steve Martin; Label: Compass Records; Producers: Alison Brown and Garry West
“Gold Rush” – Artist: Scott Vestal’s Bluegrass 2022; Songwriter: Bill Monroe; Label: Pinecastle Records; Producer: Scott Vestal
“Kissimmee Kid” – Artist: Jason Carter; Songwriter: Vassar Clements; Label: Fiddle Man Records; Producers: Jason Carter and Brent Truitt
“Scorchin’ the Gravy” – Artist: Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen; Songwriter: Frank Solivan; Label: Compass Records; Producer: Frank Solivan
Banjo player of the year
Kristin Scott Benson
Alison Brown
Béla Fleck
Ned Luberecki
Scott Vestal
Bass player of the year
Mike Bub
Todd Phillips
Missy Raines
Mark Schatz
Vickie Vaughn
Fiddle player of the year
Jason Carter
Michael Cleveland
Stuart Duncan
Bronwyn Keith-Hynes
Deanie Richardson
Resophonic guitar player of the year
Jerry Douglas
Andy Hall
Rob Ickes
Matt Leadbetter
Justin Moses
Guitar player of the year
Chris Eldridge
Trey Hensley
Billy Strings
Bryan Sutton
Molly Tuttle
Mandolin player of the year
Alan Bibey
Jesse Brock
Sam Bush
Sierra Hull
Ronnie McCoury
Bluegrass musician Bobby Osborne, who helped popularize the song “Rocky Top,” died early Tuesday, according to a statement from the college where he worked. He was 91. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Osborne and his brother Sonny made up The Osborne Brothers, and their version of […]
In December 1945, Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium hosted the meshing of sounds that was Bill Monroe’s mandolin, Earl Scruggs’ three-finger banjo-picking style and Lester Flatt’s guitar, along with Chubby Wise’s fiddle and Howard Watts’ upright bass, becoming what would become the exemplar for the sound of bluegrass music.
Just over 77 years later, on Sunday evening (Feb. 26), another Bill held court on that same hallowed stage, playing to a sold-out crowd of bluegrass aficionados, as an artist revitalizing the genre and taking it to greater heights. Since releasing his debut album in 2017, Billy Strings has won a Grammy for best bluegrass album (2021’s Home), been named artist of the year at the Americana Music Awards, picked up six International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Awards and performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Strings’ performance at the Ryman concluded a trifecta of Nashville shows over the weekend, which also included two sold-out shows at Nashville’s approximately 20,000-seat Bridgestone Arena. The arena shows are among several such dates included on Strings’ current tour — a rarity in bluegrass, and a testament to Strings’ gut-punch vocals, fleet-fingered guitar prowess and high-octane approach to performing.
But on Sunday night, he told the fervent, sold-out crowd that had gathered at the 2,362-person capacity venue, that the Ryman had special significance for him and his genre. “This is hallowed ground. This is ground zero for bluegrass music.”
For the Ryman show, Strings teamed with Nashville-based clothing line Imogene + Willie for an exclusive merch collection — which was well-received, judging by a merch line that wound from the Ryman’s upstairs lobby into the auditorium itself, snaking behind the upper-most wooden pews. Last year, Strings performed three sold-out shows at the iconic venue.
During Sunday’s show, instead of diving deep into his own catalog of music, as he did with his Bridgestone concerts, Strings’ Ryman concert leaned heavily on the copious amount of songs he learned to play since first picking up a guitar as a child. Donning suits and their signature hats, Strings and his bandmates — banjo/vocalist Billy Railing, bassist Royal Masat, mandolin player Jarrod Walker and fiddle player Alex Hargraves — launched their Ryman show with the appropriate “Tennessee,” followed by the Dillards’ “Old Home Place,” and soon after, renditions of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” “Katy Daley,” and Larry Sparks’ “A Face in the Crowd.”
“Each of us has been playing this music since we were little kids so it’s fun to just play bluegrass,” Strings told the crowd. “We’re sure glad y’all like it, because we’d be sitting here doing this shit either way.”
His nearly-three-hour show did not feature an opener; instead, the evening was all Strings and his band, who played two sets with a brief intermission.
“Freeborn Man,” with its lyrics, “You may not like my appearance, may not like my song/ May not like the way I talk, But you like the way I’m gone,” drew especially fervent cheers, feet stomping and rafter-scrapping singing from the crowd. Strings also performed “Long Journey Home (Two-Dollar Bill),” which he recorded on his 2022 album Me/And/Dad, with his father Terry Barber.
His sole guest during the nearly three-hour show was banjoist Rob McCoury, who joined for a rendition of “Bringing Mary Home,” and “Eight More Miles to Louisville.” McCoury played banjo on Me/And/Dad.
Strings said of making the project, “It was so awesome to be in the studio with you and your brother to make that record. We made the whole record and Rob never had to overdub anything or change one part. Everything he played was just fine and I asked him, ‘How did you do that? You got through the whole record with every take was the one.’ He said, ‘Man, those notes are flying by so fast anyway that nobody notices the wrong ones.’”
Joking about letting a few curse words fly while onstage in the Mother Church, Strings said, “Gonna need to do a gospel number now. We could do that, or I could just get a haircut,” before introducing mandolin player Walker, who led the Clinch Mountain Boys in the Stanley Brothers classic “Nobody’s Love Is Like Mine.” Hargreaves led on “Ashland Breakdown,” while the band followed with another Monroe classic, “My Sweet Blue-Eyed Darling.”
“Thank you for coming out tonight. We love and appreciate you,” Strings concluded the set’s main run, before introducing each member of the band once again. “I’m Bill. What a thrill,” he said. However, given that the audience had not sat down once during this nearly three-hour show, it was clear that wouldn’t be their last song.
From there, they offered another Monroe classic, “Roll On, Buddy, Roll On,” which seemed appropriate, given that’s just what Strings will be doing on tour for the majority of the year, bringing his celebrated brand of bluegrass to new converts. “Thank you and goodnight,” Strings offered in closing.
“I really do feel like it’s my best,” Dierks Bentley says of his upcoming 10th studio album, Gravel & Gold, which arrives Friday, Feb. 24 via UMG Nashville.
It’s the kind of platitude that artists often say with every new project they set out to promote. However, Bentley says it with the kind of steady confidence borne of the painstaking process of scrapping two previous album-making attempts in order to craft the new album, picking up portions of those previous projects and adding new songs and recordings.
“I feel like this is my best representation of the kind of country music I’m trying to do, the kind I’ve been trying to work on since I moved to town,” Bentley says.
The third attempt worked, resulting in an adept synthesis of the sleek, commercial country sounds that have permeated previous projects such as 2016’s Black, his ‘90s country influences, and the organic, bluegrass leanings that swathed previous projects including 2010’s Up on the Ridge (helmed by Jon Randall) and 2018’s The Mountain (Randall and Ross Copperman).
“All the pieces were there for the 10th project, and those earlier sessions were good, it just ultimately wasn’t right,” Bentley says. “I hadn’t been in the studio much, and I hadn’t been writing a lot of songs; I had taken a lot of time off during the pandemic. With every album, you gotta leave out some songs. It’s gonna hurt when you are going in there to make the final sequence — and it should be painful; it means you are cutting out good stuff to get to the best songs you can.”
Gravel & Gold marks Bentley’s first time as an album co-producer, working on tracks with Randall, Copperman and F. Reid Shippen.
The album is the result of Bentley falling back in love — with Nashville, with music — after a year spent living in Telluride, Colorado. Arizona native Bentley had been trying to find a respite from Nashville for 15 years, longing to spend more time out West, though his touring and recording schedule didn’t allow for it. In 2020, when tours shut down during the height of the COVID-19, pandemic, he relocated to Colorado for a year with his wife Cassidy and their three children, Evie, Jordan and Knox.
“I was really happy being out there, but when I came back to Nashville, I realized how much I love Nashville and how great the town has been to me — the history I have here, the friends I have here. It’s realizing that gravel can be gold; it’s just about your perspective on it and the way you look at it. That’s the underlying theme I had going into the making of the album, and certainly on that third go-around of making it. It felt like I settled back into Nashville.”
While other artists have used the pandemic become ever-more prolific in their songwriting, and issue multi-part albums, Bentley opted for a tightly-constructed project across a comparatively lean 14 tracks.
“I love that a lot of guys are putting out double and triple albums, but for me personally, I can’t consume much more than like 11 or 12 songs. But it’s a different world. I also see kids’ attention spans are so little these days — so it’s hard to get through a whole album, let alone a double or triple album.”
Taken together, the songs are a natural evolution for an artist who discovered his love of bluegrass while taking in countless shows at Nashville’s longtime bluegrass hotbed Station Inn and playing some of his earliest shows at Exit/In. He released his debut album in 2003 and earned a Country Airplay-topping hit with the sleek “What Was I Thinkin’.” In the 20 years that have elapsed, he’s become a consistent hitmaker (with 18 No. 1 Country Airplay hits), a 14-time Grammy nominee and an artist unafraid to take risks to follow his creative inclinations.
“Something Real” is straightforward about Bentley’s intentions for substantive music.
“I had ‘Gone’ and ‘Beers on Me’ on the radio, and those are fun songs that needed to be there at the time, coming through this whole pandemic, songs that feel good,” Bentley says. “But I really wanted to make an album that has great country songwriting that packs a whole lot of emotion, feeling and story into three minutes.”
The humor fans know from songs like “Drunk on a Plane” returns in the clever “Beer at My Funeral.” Meanwhile, a similar tone to Bentley’s 2013 hit “I Hold On” — which displayed a fierce loyalty to “dancing with the one that brought ya,” whether it be worn, lived-in trucks or guitars — permeates “Cowboy Boots,” featuring recent Grammy winner Ashley McBryde,
“Everyone loves Ashley McBryde,” Bentley says. “She’s a great singer, songwriter, a great personality. I was lucky enough to get to tour with her last year and just watch her command a stage every night. She has this great mix of rock, country and attitude. The first time I saw her perform, I was blown away by her whole deal.”
Bentley has utilized the music videos accompanying the songs on this album to spotlight music venues around Nashville, including Exit/In (“Same Ol’ Me”) and Robert’s Western World (“Cowboy Boots”).
“This album is all about returning to Nashville, with a new appreciation for all that we have here, that I’ve kind of taken for granted — places like Exit/In, Station Inn and Robert’s. Robert’s is one of my favorite bars — I used to go down there and watch BR-549, Brazilbilly, Wayne ‘The Train’ Hancock. It was nostalgic for me to go back to these venues where I cut my teeth.”
Reprising his previous bluegrass-centric work, Bentley pays homage to weed and bluegrass on the album’s closing track, “High Note,” while welcoming red-hot bluegrass picker Billy Strings, as well as a host of musicians including Jerry Douglas (dobro), Sam Bush (mandolin), Charlie Worsham (guitar) and Bryan Sutton (guitar/banjo). Since making his debut in 2017, Strings has risen from clubs to selling out a string of arenas on his current tour — a rarity for a bluegrass artist.
“I’m just lucky that I got the chance to meet [Billy] as he was coming up five or six years ago,” Bentley says. “His rise is unbelievable. Charlie Worsham wrote [“High Note”] and I wanted to have some bluegrass on this project. We cut it with drums and gave it a bit of a country-rock feel. It’s just a great collection of people coming together, playing on a fun song. I would love for that song to be a single on country radio, but I don’t know if it would work. It’s a great way to end the project and go out on a high note.”
The album’s blend of well-crafted songwriting across an array of styles from ‘90s honky-tonk, pop-country, and bluegrass leanings is uniquely positioned, given country music’s current sonic landscape. The highly produced works of Morgan Wallen top the country charts alongside the decidedly less-polished acoustic-rock works of Zach Bryan and the ‘90s country influence of Luke Combs, while Strings’ progressive bluegrass and Tyler Childers’ raw roots music draw ever-surging audiences, and Elle King powers her country-rock with banjo.
Though perhaps not reaching the threshold of a full-fledged bluegrass/roots music resurgence on the scale of 2001-2002 — spearheaded by the juggernaut soundtrack of O Brother Where Art Thou?, which dominated the charts alongside albums from Tim McGraw, LeAnn Rimes and Lonestar, while artists like Patty Loveless and Dolly Parton released acoustic albums and Nickel Creek won Grammys for their breakthrough album — hints of rootsier leanings are apparent. The landscape could be more akin to early 1980s, when two former members of Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys (Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley) went on have chart-topping country music careers.
In 2015, Bentley and his touring band delved deeper into his ‘90s country influences, often serving as tour openers for themselves via the side project Hot Country Knights, which released an album, The K Is Silent, in 2020. In recent months they have continued their bluegrass connection by launching bluegrass group Long Jon, with a slate of regular performances on the first Tuesday of each month at Station Inn.
“I think for me and the guys, it’s about chasing that first-time feeling again, musically,” Bentley explains. “With Hot Country Knights, it was scary, that first time walking on stage like that. I thought my whole career was gonna come to a crashing halt, but it ended up obviously being super fun. With Long Jon, I have a huge respect for the Station Inn stage. To me, the Station Inn is as important to Nashville as the Ryman. And I’m a little biased, but my band’s incredible and I’m so proud of them to be able to jump between all these different gigs. It keeps us all on our toes.”
Billy Strings has added a hot streak of summer 2023 tour dates to his schedule, beginning July 13 with a three-night run at Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary, North Carolina. The tour is currently slated to wrap up on August 26 at The Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama.
Headlining arena tours is rare for a bluegrass act, but Strings is doing just that. Prior to his summer run, Strings is taking his show on a cross-country tour this spring, featuring several arena shows, including three sold-out nights at Nashville, Tennessee’s Bridgestone Arena later this month.
Last year, Strings released the project Me/And/Dad, featuring renditions of classic bluegrass and country tracks recorded alongside his father, Terry Barber. The album was spearheaded by the songs “Life to Go” and “Long Journey Home.” The project followed his 2021 album, Renewal, and his Grammy-winning album Home, which picked up the golden gramophone for best bluegrass album.
Among Strings’ other recent accolades are being named artist of the year at the 2022 Americana Music Honors & Awards, and winning song of the year (“Red Daisy”) at last year’s International Bluegrass Music Awards.
See the full list of new 2023 tour dates below:
July 13 — Cary, NC @ Koka Booth Amphitheatre
July 14 — Cary, NC @ Koka Booth Amphitheatre
July 15 — Cary, NC @ Koka Booth Amphitheatre
July 19 — Norfolk, VA @ Chartway Arena
July 21 — Bridgeport, CT @ Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater
July 22 — Essex Junction, VT @ Midway Lawn at Champlain Valley Expo
July 23 — Essex Junction, VT @ Midway Lawn at Champlain Valley Expo
July 25 — Boston, MA @ Leader Bank Pavilion
July 26 — Boston, MA @ Leader Bank Pavilion
July 28 — Portland, ME @ Thompson’s Point
July 29 — Portland, ME @ Thompson’s Point
July 30 — Newport, RI @ Newport Folk Festival (sold out)
August 7 — Frankfurt, Germany @ Batschkapp
August 8 — Berlin, Germany @ Huxleys
August 9 — Hamburg, Germany @ Grobe Freiheit 36
August 24 — Knoxville, TN @ Knoxville Civic Coliseum
August 25 — Huntsville, AL @ The Orion Amphitheater
August 26 — Huntsville, AL @ The Orion Amphitheatre