Tag: Entertainer of the Year

Artist of the Month: Billy Strings

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Billy Strings takes things up a notch for Renewal, a long-awaited collection of original songs produced by Jonathan Wilson. But is it bluegrass? Or is it rock ‘n’ roll? Perhaps more on the psychedelic side? Truly there’s no right (or wrong) answer to these questions. As Strings himself puts it, “I’ve learned, you’ve just got to let the song do its thing. So that’s what I try to do — write songs and let them come out however they do.”

Billy Strings is no stranger to the festival circuit, bluegrass or otherwise. His career trajectory over the last few years has netted him international acclaim, a handful of IBMA Awards — including Entertainer of the Year at this year’s IBMA Awards show — and even a Grammy for his 2019 album, Home. A Michigan native who now lives in Nashville, Strings says, “I called my last record Home, and then a few months later that’s where we all got stuck. Right now, we’re heading back into opening back up, and doing some more touring with real concerts and real shows. Hopefully we can renew everything. I think it’s an interesting word. It reminds me of how every morning is a renewed day and another chance.”

With Renewal, Strings seizes upon the opportunity to surprise his listeners and to expand his own musical horizons. By winning the Grammy, he discovered a newfound confidence to consider every creative path that presented itself. Because he’s bringing in his touring bandmates Billy Failing (banjo, vocals, piano), Royal Masat (bass, vocals), and Jarrod Walker (mandolin, vocals, guitar), as well as guests John Mailander (violin), Spencer Cullum Jr. (pedal steel) and Grant Millikem (synth), Renewal is far more than just a singer-songwriter record, even if it exposes his own mindset more than any of his material to date.

“I listen to this album now and it’s emotional,” he says. “I could sit there and tweak it forever, but there’s a point where it’s like building a house of cards. Yeah, I could add an extra tower on top, but it might collapse. I’ve always doubted myself, and I still do, but this album makes me think, ‘Hey, you’re doing all right, kid. You just need to keep going.’”

Read our exclusive two-part interview with Billy Strings here, and enjoy our BGS Essentials playlist below.

Photo credit: Jesse Faatz

Dale Ann Bradley Shares a Message of Grace on ‘Things She Couldn’t Get Over’

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Dale Ann Bradley, a five-time IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year, is back with an album of poignant, inspiring, and moving songs about the disappointments, the shortcomings, and the hopes that mark our journeys together. The self-produced Things She Couldn’t Get Over features Bradley’s crystalline and sometimes tender, sometimes soaring vocals on songs that ponder ways we can see each other’s humanity clearer and how we can take care of each other better.

Things She Couldn’t Get Over is Bradley’s first solo album since her departure from Sister Sadie, the reigning IBMA Entertainer of the Year. BGS caught up with the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame member about gathering these new songs, bringing back an old favorite from the days of Hee Haw, and relying on grace to guide her.

What’s the story of the album?

DAB: It all happened pretty fast, given the times we’re in. I started thinking that it was time to do another album. So, I started writing about the end of July last year. I called up Aaron Bibelhauser and we co-wrote some songs; he is such a great writer. I also started looking at some songs that other writers had sent to me. In October we went in and laid down the tracks. All the songs that ended up on the album were speaking to my heart; they were songs about tough times, and the album took the theme from that. The songs speak to the courage to keep going, the courage to have strength and faith and to follow your dreams.

“Yellow Creek,” which John Anderson made famous — and I was so happy to have a John Anderson song on the album — is a defining one of pain and endurance, being about the removal of Native Americans from their land. The songs on the album are about going through life regardless of circumstances. We know that we’re all imperfect. To be able to walk in someone else’s shoes brings empathy.

“Lynwood” is a touching song that raises important questions.

David Morris has been awfully kind to send me songs. This was just a little demo where the writer was sitting in his living room singing. On the first listen I thought that it’s a story that’s more picturesque than I had ever heard. When I listened again, I thought that this a story that needs to be told and heard. This song is about a Vietnam veteran and his struggles to readjust to society. Everywhere you go there are veterans that are struggling and they shouldn’t be.

You have an exceptional ear for finding songs. Can you talk about your process for selecting songs?

Well, there are some songs that have been with me for a long time, since I started playing bluegrass. When I am listening to a song, I’m listening for songs with a message. They need to say something that might make a difference. When I write a song, I want to explain how I’m feeling myself. If a song helps me, it might help others.

What about “Lost More Than I Knew”? How did that song make it onto the album?

Writing that one kind of kicked in the charge of putting the album together. You want to be the first responder to help people. Not only did they lose the situation in which they found themselves, but they also lost their pride. I got stuck on this song and contacted Aaron, and he got me back on track.

Why did you choose “L.A. International Airport” for this album?

That came along after I had chosen the other songs for the album. It’s a song I loved as a little girl and watching Susan Raye sing it on Hee Haw. It’s a sad song in its way, and it fit in the album in a perfect way.

Talk a little about the title track for the album.

This song’s about a girl I went to high school with. She had mental illness. It was an obsessive-compulsive disorder, but back in 1979-1980, nobody knew what to call it. She would walk out of class and roam the halls. She was really funny, too, but people just left her alone. I saw her again later in life after I had moved back to Kentucky, and she had declined a good deal. Her story just found its way to me. This needs to be spoken about and sung about. If we can reach out to somebody in need, give them a smile or a cup of coffee and recognize their needs, we can get over this together. If you have the boldness to call yourself a Christian, then you’re asked to reach out and help others.

You have a way of singing about the Lord without being sanctimonious. How do you achieve that quality?

Honey, we do not need to be high falutin’ about ourselves. [Laughs] Anybody and anything that come our way come by grace. When we look around us, we see things that need to be done — like taking care of each other — that we should have been doing all along.

The final song on the album, “In the End,” is very moving.

The night before we were going to record this song, Debbie and Steve Gulley were going to come down to Nashville to sing harmony on the song the next day. Debbie called me to say that Steve was very sick and that she was taking him to the hospital. She called me later to say that he had been diagnosed with cancer, and it wasn’t too long after that he died. I had sung a scratch vocal on the song, and I left it there because I couldn’t sing it again. Some people call this a “come to Jesus moment,” but that night Jesus came to me. What matters is that what you leave behind is good; that’s true spirituality. We’re not here forever. All this hoopla and things that do not make any sense are unimportant in the end. That’s true spirituality to me.

What do you hopes listeners will take from the album?

I hope it’ll bring some courage. I hope it’ll bring some empathy. I hope it will encourage people to think a little before they judge. You know, if you see a fellow human being needs a sandwich, just get her one. We’re all broken; we just don’t know it.

Photo credit: Bonfire Music Group

Sister Sadie: Bluegrass Entertainers, Teachers, and Most of All, Friends

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Sister Sadie is a bluegrass supergroup featuring no-holds-barred instrumental and vocal talent presented as world-class entertainment. To list each member’s history in bluegrass and their accomplishments would take up more space than this entire interview, but their music speaks for itself. These women have spent their lives perfecting their craft. The band originally formed to play a one-off show at the historic Station Inn in Nashville. Once they started playing, they knew that they had found something special.

Since that night they have gone on to perform on the Grand Ole Opry, receive a Grammy nomination, and rack up two historic awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association. In 2019 they were the first all-female group to win IBMA Vocal Group of the Year and in 2020 they became the first all-female group to win IBMA Entertainer of the Year. These awards represent not only their individual lifetimes’ worth of hard work and passion, but also the work and love that they put into their music and each other.

BGS caught up with three of the band’s founding members — Tina Adair (mandolin, vocals), Gena Britt (banjo, vocals), and Deanie Richardson (fiddle) — for our Artist of the Month interview.

BGS: Since IBMA was virtual this year I haven’t gotten to see any of y’all in person to congratulate you on your award. I imagine this recognition must feel exciting since you’ve all been playing for your entire lives. Does winning Entertainer of the Year hold any special significance to you?

Tina Adair: I’ve been singing on stage since I was 3 years old. As big of a ham as I am now, I was as big a ham back then, too. I’ve always loved the stage and I love entertaining people and making people feel good and having a good time. I think people go out to see shows to get a break from the everyday world and to enjoy music because music is very therapeutic. It’s always been a goal of mine to make sure that people leave smiling bigger than they did coming into the show and feeling like they’re part of something. I know that Gena and Deanie are the same, all we’ve ever known has been music, you know? It’s not just a part of our lives — it is our life. So to get to do this as a profession, just makes us even luckier. And then to be recognized by your peers. Entertainer of the Year has always been something that I’ve dreamed about all my life. It’s been very special and we’re very honored and grateful.

Gena Britt: That’s pretty much everything I would’ve said.

Deanie Richardson: Yeah, that was pretty good. I’d say we’ve all been going to IBMA since we were teenagers. We all dreamed of being nominated for awards, but I don’t know if we ever thought it would happen. And like Tina said, that Entertainer of the Year category is special for some reason, so winning is just the icing on the cake. It means that we’ve not only gone out and played our best, but entertained them. Tina’s a great entertainer. She can grab that crowd and take them on a big journey. They’ll laugh and cry and anything they need to feel emotionally she can do that with an audience. To pull this off, to experience these awards and what we’ve accomplished together as five friends who have grown up knowing each other and going to IBMA that’s the really special part for me.

You all have this connection to mentoring the next generation, which is such a big part of the bluegrass tradition. How do you feel about being able to influence the generation of bluegrass in general and of women and bluegrass?

TA: Each of us has had such a lifelong journey, and we’re not old, but we’re middle aged now. So we’ve got some experiences to share. With age comes wisdom. I’ve been [working] at Belmont [University] for 20 years now. Personally I love that college age, because it’s such a transitional period in a person’s life. That’s the age where you’re coming into being a young adult and learning to make decisions. I love to be involved in lives at that point in time. I love to be able to provide advice to the kids and share any kind of tips. One of the best pieces of advice I always give to my students that I learned from one of my mentors is to do something every day to help forward yourself towards a goal or the career that you want to go after. Whether you spend five minutes on it or 10 hours that day on it, do something every single day.

And then, as far as influencing women and everything, I hope I can be an influence to a female that doesn’t fit the typical mold of what people think you’re supposed to look like in society. You know what I mean? People who need to be encouraged to get on stage or find the courage to want to learn how to play something even if they’re just sitting in their living room. I think that’s important — having that self-confidence and awareness of knowing who you are and knowing what you stand for. And being okay with yourself. Lord knows I’m not a size four, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve got the confidence of a size two. I love people. And I think if you give love to people then they’re gonna give back to you. I really feed off the energy of an audience because if I’m interacting with them and they’re interacting with me, then they’re invested just as much as I’m invested in them, you know? If I can influence one person that may have thought they couldn’t do something but changed their mind after seeing a Sister Sadie show, then that’s made our journey worth it.

DR: We’re not ones to harp on this whole “We’re women, blah, blah, blah.” But there are lots of women out there who paved the way for us like Laurie Lewis, Lynn Morris, and Kathy Kallick. We look up to them and they made it possible for us to win these awards. Somebody said the other day in an interview, “No woman has ever won this award” or all-female band or whatever. It is a male-dominated business, but there have always been women in this genre. There have been women always working towards what we just accomplished and they helped us get to where we are. And I hope that we’re paving the way for the next group of women to come right behind us. I think we’re working past saying, “Here are some women, and they just did this.” Because, you know what? We’re freaking good. And we just did this. Eighty percent of my roster that I teach is young girls playing fiddle and I want them to not have to worry about being a man or a woman. I want them to just want to be good, or to be the best, and to get out there and do this because that’s their goal.

Gena, I had a question for you because you played in Petticoat Junction, which is another historically significant, all-female group. Do you feel like there’s much of a difference performing in an all-female group now versus back then?

GB: Back then, there were a few other all-female bands, and at the time, if you called a promoter to book a show or something, they would say, “Well, we’ve already got a female band that weekend. We don’t need another female band.” I think we’ve grown so much since then. It hasn’t completely gone away, but we have stepped away from that. Yes, we are women, we are in our 40s, we all have these jobs that we’re doing, like, I have a day job and everything. But people are recognizing our music and we’ve been given these awards, because we’re carrying our own and we’re doing as best we can as musicians.

It’s great to see all of that progress. Bluegrass has this thing where men age into reverence, kind of no matter how talented they are. If you’ve been around for long enough, then people recognize that you have some wisdom which is turned into social capital. But women don’t seem to get that same treatment. It seems like it’s much harder for them to age into legends. You just stop hearing about them as much. It’s a really unsettling phenomenon. So I think it’s doubly exciting for you all to, uh, as… I’m trying so hard to not say, and I’m not saying at all that you guys are —

TA: Just say it, Tristan!

You’re only older than me! You’re not old, I’m just a baby.

TA: I mean, we’re all one step away from menopause. At least I really hope I am, because if I’m not, there’s something else wrong with me. [Laughs]

GB: I was 18 when I joined Petticoat Junction. That was 30 years ago. I’m 48. That gives some perspective on how long we’ve been out here doing this.

You’ve been doing this your entire lives and have been actively involved in the scene the entire time and I think it’s reflected in your music. You’re all talented musicians. The music that you play has its own sound, but clearly has a lot of different influences. How do you bridge the gap between bluegrass and folk and country and blues?

DR: Going into the studio and picking material is a hard thing for five people to do, and as women who all have different tastes and different senses of artistic creativity, it’s a challenge. Everybody brings songs to the table and then we choose as a unit what we think works as a band. That’s a hard process for us, but I feel like, at the end of the day, we work really well through our differences. Hell, we’re probably gonna break into a fight, but it’s gonna be alright. We’re gonna make it through it. And at the end of the day, there’s gonna be 12 songs on the record that we can kick ass on. Part of it comes down to Tina has a singing style that works for her, Gena has a singing style, and Dale Ann had one as well. So that brings in the blues, the hardcore traditional, the folky, from each of us.

GB: It’s all those influences. The East Kentucky, Alabama and the blues from Tina, I’m straight-ahead, traditional bluegrass from here in the heart of North Carolina. And it’s like you said, it is a cohesive sound. We’re all together. All those influences do help create our sound.

TA: It’s what brings it together.

You all clearly put a lot of work and love into your music and it’s really paid off.

DR: The one thing I am most proud of about this band is that we started as five friends played that show at the Station Inn. It went from there to another show, to another show, to a record to another record, to a Grammy nomination, to the Opry, to Vocal Group of the Year, to Fiddle Player and Entertainer of the Year. I wouldn’t have won that Fiddle Player or the Year award without this band so I’m truly grateful for all of that. But we’ve done this all by ourselves. We are five women who love each other, who work through our differences, and who have worked hard together.

We’ve done the booking, we’ve done the managing, we’ve done the publicity — it’s all been organic. It’s not something we’ve gone out and pushed, it’s not something we’ve gone out and publicized a great deal. It’s just all happened organically. It took on its own life. Everything that has happened with Sister Sadie has happened because it was meant to happen. And it’s just out of our love for this music and for each other. That is what I’m most proud of. Five women who raise kids, who work day jobs, who teach, who play professionally. Five women who have done this together. I’m super, super proud of that.

TA: Me, too. I want to piggyback off of that because that’s an important point. We didn’t start off to make it big or anything. We just wanted to play music together and instead of doing it in our living room, we thought, “Well, we could do it at the Station Inn, and that would be fun.” Because Station Inn is like all of our home away from home. So that’s how it all started. I think everything has a time and a place and everything happens the way it’s supposed to happen. I think that night at the Station Inn was supposed to happen. That is what led us down this road to accomplishing and achieving some things that have been lifelong dreams of ours that may not have ever come true had Sister Sadie not been formed. We just love each other dearly and hopefully that comes across. I hope the concept of Sister Sadie comes across as nothing more than we’re trying to love. I love people, we love each other, and love making music. We love bluegrass.

Photo credits: Deanie Richardson by Kerrie Richardson; Tina Adair by John Dorton; Gena Britt by Mike Carter

ARTIST OF THE MONTH: The Gibson Brothers

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The fact that reigning IBMA “Entertainer of the Year” siblings THE GIBSON BROTHERS hail from the Adirondacks of upstate New York might surprise some, but dedicated bluegrass fans will be quite familiar with this highly-regarded band, fronted by Eric and Leigh Gibson. Since nabbing IBMA’s “Emerging Artist of the Year” honors in 1998, the group has built a reputation through their memorable live performances and impressive recordings.

Eric, the banjo-playing brother, shared his thoughts about his band, the IBMA victory and their new Compass Records release They Called It Music.

What went through your mind when you heard your band’s name announced as “Entertainer of the Year?”

Shock! We didn’t expect it at all. The competition was all friends of ours. We thought another band would win it because of this or that; I never thought about us. Maybe it was our turn – that we were just being rewarded for hanging in there and consistency. I’ve had a lot of people say to me: ‘Eric, you guys deserved it; you’ve earned it.’ I think we’ve made some music to be proud of.

Did winning the award influence how you recorded your new album?

I think we went in to the recording studio with more confidence, but not cockiness or overconfidence. This is about the music; not about hype. I didn’t see bringing in a ton of guest players just because we won an award. I love my band.

I was thinking about it the other day. We made an album with five guys who have probably played together 300 shows together or more. There’s a comfort level there. Making good music is about being comfortable and having musical conversations with the guys you’re making music with. You can put the hottest musicians together and it’s not glued together like a band that has traveled and worked on the road together. I think you develop a sound that way.

The album has a rather wide range of covers (from Loretta Lynn to Pee Wee King to Mark Knopfler). How do you pick a song to record?

Leigh and I talked a lot about this in getting ready for this record. We wanted to vary our tempos and themes – to have each song have a different feel from every other song on the album. We are always on the lookout for a good song. We love Mark Knopfler. That song (“Daddy’s Gone To Knoxville”) has been in the back of our minds for a few years, and we never cut a Delmore Brothers song before. It felt great to play tribute to them, plus it’s a great gospel song (“Home On A River”). We thought our harmonies sounded as tight as they ever have on that song.

How do you work out singing harmonies with your brother Leigh?

Leigh and I have been singing together since our teens, so maybe it comes easier than somebody who hasn’t been doing it that long, but we still work at it. All those vocals were done live on one mic facing each other. It sounds like we do live on a good night. We’ve been doing that on the last several records. It works a lot better for us than having one guy going in and singing his lead and then the other guy going in and trying to harmonize with that.

There aren’t a lot of brother duets in the business right now. It’s kind of our calling card. I think that is the biggest factor in us choosing material. We thought about doing a brothers’ tribute record, which is something we will do at some point, but we got writing a bunch of songs and the ones we ended up using were ones that lent themselves to harmony.

How do you write the songs with your brother?

It all depends. My brother loves to swoop in on a song that is 90% done and make a suggestion that I can’t ignore. My natural inclination is that it is good the way it is and then I think “dang it, he’s right.’

This time around I had more stuff; Leigh didn’t contribute as many original songs as he normally does. Maybe next time he’ll have more stuff ready. I am proud of the originals on this record. I think it is some of the strongest writing we’ve done.

Are there ones that you are particularly proud of?

I really like the title track. That one kind of wrote itself. I was given the idea by Joe Newberry; he’s written a lot of songs for us for the last few albums. He told me a story about asking an old man who played the banjo what they called his music when you were a young man. Did they call it country or bluegrass or old time folk? ‘Son, they called it music.’ We just had a good laugh about that. Then it occurred to me weeks later that it’s a song and I have to write that. I called Joe up and said ‘Joe, we wrote a song.’ I would never have written that song if it wasn’t for him.

I also thought about how important music has always been to people – the music that was never recorded and the music that was made not to make a buck. I remember my grandfather singing me a song that he had learned in the lumber camps and thinking ‘how cool is that?’

The one we wrote with Shawn Camp (“Something Comin’ To Me”) is another favorite. We wrote that less than a month after our dad died. Shawn is one of our heroes and we’d been wanting to write with him forever, and we finally got the chance but nothing was happening.  It wasn’t him; it was us. We just had this cloud over us but we didn’t realize it. He was very nice and said ‘boys, some days I just don’t have it’.”

He got up and left the room, and we looked at each other like we blew our chance to write with Shawn. He came back in and I was noddling around on the guitar. He asked, ‘What do you have there?’ and I said, ‘Nothing, it’s just something coming to me’.” And we wrote a song called, ‘Something Comin’ to Me’.” What a master that guy is. We can’t help but improve as writers being around guys like him.

How do you view the current state of the bluegrass scene?

I think bluegrass could benefit from the popularity that having the most popular band in the land (Mumford & Sons) has a banjo. We shouldn’t be close-minded if young people come to acoustic music through that way. I hope I’m not shooting myself in the foot and making anyone mad here. I’m just saying I think we have to mix it up. We want the young folks hopefully to come to bluegrass, to come to Bill Monroe. And you’re hearing this from a guy whose favorite bluegrass is hardcore bluegrass. I still love the old stuff the best. If I want to listen to bluegrass, I crank Jimmy Martin, but I think we have to be more inclusive as a genre for this to grow.

What should fans expect from the Gibson Brothers this year on tour?

We’ll definitely lean on this album pretty hard. We made a record that is really fun to play, but we will also be mixing favorites and, of course, we always try to honor as many requests as possible.

We don’t even know what we are going to play ‘til we are heading on the stage. We’ve always prided ourselves on doing a different show every night. One woman last year went to 17 shows and I want her to see 17 different shows. We play songs on stage that we never record. I want to keep it fresh for us and the audience. We’ve always tried to make it about the music. We have never been the best people in the world about marketing us. I’m proud of my band and what we have done.