Nominees for the 2017 International Bluegrass Music Awards were announced today with Balsam Range and the Earls of Leicester leading the pack with eight nominations each. Balsam Range received six nominations for the band and two for their individual members, while the Earls pulled in five nominations, plus three for individual members. Close behind are the Gibson Brothers, with seven nominations (band and individuals), and Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, with five nominations (band and individuals). On an historic note: Molly Tuttle is the first woman ever to be nominated for an IBMA Guitar Player of the Year Award.
The IBMA is also proud to announce the inductees into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame: trail-blazing bluegrass artists Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard, master fiddler Bobby Hicks, and Roland White, whose impressive career includes contributions to several seminal bands. They will be inducted at the International Bluegrass Music Awards Show, Thursday, September 28, 2017, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Congratulations to all the nominees and inductees!
ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR Balsam Range Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver The Earls of Leicester Flatt Lonesome The Gibson Brothers
VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR Balsam Range Blue Highway Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver Flatt Lonesome The Gibson Brothers
INSTRUMENTAL GROUP OF THE YEAR Balsam Range The Earls of Leicester Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper Punch Brothers
SONG OF THE YEAR “Blue Collar Dreams” — Balsam Range (artist), Aaron Bibelhauser (writer) “Going Back to Bristol” — Shawn Camp (artist), Mac Wiseman/Thomm Jutz/Peter Cooper (writers) “I Am a Drifter” — Volume Five (artist), Donna Ulisse/Marc Rossi (writers) “Someday Soon” — Darin & Brooke Aldridge (artist), Ian Tyson (writer) “The Train That Carried My Girl from Town” — The Earls of Leicester (artist), Frank Hutchison (writer)
ALBUM OF THE YEAR Fiddler’s Dream — Michael Cleveland (artist), Jeff White and Michael Cleveland (producers), Compass Records (label) In the Ground — The Gibson Brothers (artist), Eric Gibson, Leigh Gibson, and Mike Barber (producers), Rounder Records (label) Mountain Voodoo — Balsam Range (artist), Balsam Range (producer), Mountain Home Records (label) Original — Bobby Osborne (artist), Alison Brown (producer), Compass Records (label) Rattle & Roar — The Earls of Leicester (artist), Jerry Douglas (producer), Rounder Records (label)
GOSPEL RECORDED PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR “Give Me Jesus” — Larry Cordle (artist), Traditional/Larry Cordle (writer), Give Me Jesus (album), Larry Cordle (producer), Mighty Cord Records (label) “Hallelujah” — Blue Highway (artist), Public Domain arranged by Blue Highway (writer),Original Traditional (album), Blue Highway (producer), Rounder Records (label) “I Found a Church Today” — The Gibson Brothers (artist), Eric Gibson/Leigh Gibson (writers), In the Ground (album), Eric Gibson, Leigh Gibson, and Mike Barber (producers), Rounder Records (label) “Sacred Memories” — Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers with Ricky Skaggs and Sharon White Skaggs (artist), Dolly Parton (writer), Sacred Memories (album), Joe Mullins (producer), Rebel Records (label) “Wish You Were Here” — Balsam Range (artist), James Stover/Michael Williams (writers), Mountain Voodoo (album), Balsam Range (producer), Mountain Home Records (label)
INSTRUMENTAL RECORDED PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR “Fiddler’s Dream” — Michael Cleveland (artist), Arthur Smith (writer), Fiddler’s Dream (album), Jeff White and Michael Cleveland (producers), Compass Records (label) “Great Waterton” — Kristin Scott Benson (artist), Kristin Scott Benson (writer), Stringworks(album), Kristin Scott Benson (producer), Mountain Home Records (label) “Greenbrier” — Sam Bush (artist), Sam Bush/Scott Vestal (writers), Storyman (album), Sugar Hill Records (label) “Little Liza Jane” — Adam Steffey (artist), Tommy Duncan/James Robert Wills (writers), Here to Stay (album), Adam Steffey (producer), Mountain Home Records (label) “Flint Hill Special” — The Earls of Leicester (artist), Earl Scruggs (writer), Rattle & Roar (album), Jerry Douglas (producer), Rounder Records (label)
RECORDED EVENT OF THE YEAR “East Virginia Blues” — Ricky Wasson and Dan Tyminski (artists), Croweology: The Study of J.D. Crowe’s Musical Legacy (album), Rickey Wasson (producer), Truegrass Entertainment (label) “Going Back to Bristol” — Shawn Camp with Mac Wiseman, Peter Cooper, Thomm Jutz (artists), I Sang the Song (Life of the Voice with a Heart) (album), Peter Cooper and Thomm Jutz (producers), Mountain Fever Records (label) “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” — Bobby Osborne with Sierra Hull, Alison Brown, Rob Ickes, Stuart Duncan, Trey Hensley, Todd Phillips, Kenny Malone, Claire Lynch, and Bryan McDowell (artists), Original (album), Alison Brown (producer), Compass Records (label) “Steamboat Whistle Blues”– Michael Cleveland featuring Sam Bush (artists), Fiddler’s Dream (album), Jeff White and Michael Cleveland (producers), Compass Records (label) “’Tis Sweet to Be Remembered” — Mac Wiseman and Alison Krauss (artists), I Sang the Song (Life of the Voice with a Heart) (album), Peter Cooper and Thomm Jutz (producers), Mountain Fever Records (label)
MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR Shawn Camp Eric Gibson Leigh Gibson Buddy Melton Russell Moore
Artist: Molly Tuttle Hometown: Palo Alto, CA (currently living in Nashville, TN) Song: “Good Enough” Album: Rise Release Date: June 2, 2017
In Their Words: “The song ‘Good Enough’ came out of a feeling of dissatisfaction that I struggle with from time to time. I think that the tendency to feel like something’s missing — whether it be from life, a relationship, a career, you name it — is pretty prevalent in this day and age. The song is about keeping those thoughts in check, finding the good in what we have, and acknowledging that it’s enough.
It was a lot of fun to film this with Bill Filipiak on his back porch with Hasee, Wes, and Eli playing along. Bill timed it perfectly so the sun was just starting to go down and everything looked golden. He has a bunch of cute dogs who really wanted to be in the video, as well. Maybe next time!” — Molly Tuttle
As soon as I get Molly Tuttle and James Elkington on the phone, the conversation immediately turns to who is the better guitar player. There’s no showboating or bragging. On the contrary, each insists the other is much more accomplished, much more refined in their technique. “I hadn’t actually heard much of your music until a couple of days ago,” Elkington admits, “but I have to say that you are the far superior guitar player.”
“No way!” Tuttle insists. “I love your guitar playing.”
Their mutual demurrals stem partly from modesty, but also from the fact that both Tuttle and Elkington practice such different folk traditions that there’s very little overlap in their playing styles. A bluegrass picker who grew up in California and made her stage debut at 11 years old, Tuttle attended the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston and formed the Good-Bye Girls. On her solo debut, an EP titled Rise, her playing is rhythmically complex, technically precise, and remarkably fleet, as though there are two sets of hands running up and down the frets, yet the guitar remains secondary to her evocative songwriting.
Elkington, who originally hails from a small village outside of London but currently lives in Chicago, is a self-taught guitarist with a background in indie rock, most notably with the Zincs, the Horse’s Ha (featuring members of Eleventh Dream Day and Freakwater), and Wilco. However, his new solo debut, Wintres Woma, leans more toward folk music — specifically, the British folk revival of the 1960s, when players like Davey Graham, Bert Jansch, and Richard Thompson were melding early music, rural folk, jazz, and rock.
Their albums couldn’t sound more different, despite the shared combination of voice and guitar, yet both bluegrass and folk music value technique in service of interpretation; more important than the fluidity of notes or the deftness of picking is how the artist updates, refines, and furthers the musical ideas of the past.
One of the reasons I wanted to get you two on the phone is because I’m fascinated by the very different strains of folk music that you represent. Both of your albums strike me as using something — bluegrass or British folk revival — as a jumping-off point for something very different, very current, and very personal.
James Elkington: I didn’t really grow up in much of a folk tradition, outside of the fact that we sang those songs at school and they always seemed to be around. It seems like it’s probably part of my DNA. When I started writing my own songs, which was comparatively late, other people told me that I sounded like that. I didn’t really know that it was in there, and it’s one of those things that I’ve subsequently found I have quite a deep connection to. But that’s why I don’t perform an awful lot of traditional music, although subsequently I have gone back and arranged those tunes just because I love playing them. Now it’s part of what I do. That’s where I’m coming from.
Molly Tuttle: I grew up listening to a lot of bluegrass. My dad is a bluegrass music teacher who teaches all the bluegrass instruments, so I always heard him playing traditional songs. They seeped into my brain, I think, so that when I started playing, I was learning all these bluegrass songs and old traditionals. That was my background and, as I got older, I started listening to other genres and styles. I started writing songs and still had the bluegrass form in my head, so it was definitely a starting point for me.
JE: You know, funny thing that I’ve found actually … I find that somehow the physicality of playing folk music demands a certain technical ability. It feels good to play, as well as sounding good, and when I started writing my own songs, I wanted that to factor in somehow. In some ways, it adds not a limitation exactly, but something like that. It sets up a nice boundary to work within, if you use those traditional forms as a jumping-off point.
MT: It does make it accessible for other people to learn the songs and join in, too.
JE: And to actually know where you’re coming from.
What other music informs what you do?
MT: A lot of singer/songwriters, actually. I listened to a lot of Bob Dylan, when I was starting to write songs. Before that, I had heard a lot of bluegrass songs and felt limited by that. But when I heard Dylan, lyrically and musically, he was just breaking so many boundaries and that opened up my songwriting a little bit. I was just really inspired by that. Joni Mitchell and Gillian Welch are big heroes of mine, too, and Dave Rawlings, who plays with Gillian Welch.
JE: He always plays the right thing at the right time. The way he thinks of arrangements is …
MT: Yeah, he’s doing a counter-melody sometimes, just always putting the perfect piece in. What about you? I’m interested to hear about where your playing style comes from.
JE: I started playing guitar when I was about 10. There are vaguely musical people in my family, but no one who really plays anything. And the guitar was something that was just for me — something I could do privately, sort of like my own private little island to go and visit. And when I started out, I was just really into chords. This was in England in the 1980s. I don’t know if you can have any conception of what that was like, but it was a lot of really jangly guitar bands. It was like this Renaissance of underground bands, like the Smiths and the Cure. When I was learning the guitar, I was really into those groups — particularly Johnny Marr, who was the Smiths’ guitar player.
MT: He’s one of my favorites.
JE: That’s great to hear, because he’s like really the last great British guitar hero. His guitar playing on those records is amazing. The strange thing about it is that I found out subsequently that a lot of what he does, in terms of using other tunings and his approach to finger-style guitar, is really from people like Bert Jansch, Martin Carthy, and Joni Mitchell — all this stuff that I didn’t grow up listening to, but somehow it filtered through him in a way.
MT: I listened to the Smiths so much in high school. I was obsessed with Morrissey’s lyrics, and then the guitar playing was a second thing that I got really into, but I’ve never tried to learn any of his parts to figure out what he was doing.
JE: When I was a kid, I thought that’s really how you had to play the guitar. What changed me was that, when I was in my late teens, I started working in a music store, and there was a guy there who was really into bluegrass. He wanted me to come and play tunes with him, and for some reason, I had no interest in playing the guitar in that setting. But I had this strange attraction to the five-string banjo. I never got very good at it, but I learned the basic rules. Then, when I’d been doing it long enough to realize that I couldn’t play it well, I just applied all of that to the guitar, and that was the start of me doing finger-style stuff.
MT: I play three-finger banjo, so when I play finger-style guitar, I feel like I’m using some banjo stuff, as well.
JE: So you play banjo and guitar? Do you play anything else? Any fiddle or anything like that?
MT: I’ve tried to play fiddle, but I can’t get the hang of it. I play a little bit of mandolin, but not very well. I saw that you play a lot of different instruments.
JE: To a medium-low standard, I would say. I started out playing drums, which I loved. The drums are my favorite instrument, but I didn’t ever seem to get any better at it. For some reason, guitar is somehow easier for me to play. I do play some other things, but it’s not to the point where I could actually say, “I’ve really got this down.” I think I have a really short attention span, is what it is. I tend to move around a lot.
But you played most of the instruments on your album, right?
JE: Yes, but the arrangements are pretty sparse. My friend Nick Macri plays all the upright bass on it. I’ve been playing on and off with him for a long time. And I have some string players who are part of the jazz and new music scene here in Chicago. But mostly it was just me. It’s some fairly simple stuff. I’m mostly self-taught on most instruments. I really took the slow way round. I learned mainly just from trying to play along with the record. Molly, I saw some footage of your band playing, and they all seem equally amazing. Where did you meet those people? Do you always play with the same people?
MT: It’s a little bit of a rotating cast. For the most part, I’ve been playing with Wes Corbett, who’s a banjo player I met in Boston when I was studying at Berklee College of Music. He was teaching there, and we started playing together after I graduated. Right now, I’m on the road with Joe Walsh, who’s also currently teaching at Berklee. He’s an amazing mandolin player and singer. And then Hasee Ciaccio is playing bass with me right now for the summer and fall, and she’s a great upright bass player who lives in Nashville. We’re actually neighbors. What made you gravitate toward Chicago?
JE: It was a few different things. When I was in my later teens and early 20s, all my favorite music was coming out of Chicago — the underground and experimental rock stuff. I had a chance to come and visit here with friends, and I found that it was almost exactly what I wanted it to be. I’m sure, when you moved to Nashville, it was because you wanted to be around that music and be part of that community. I felt exactly the same thing with Chicago. I felt immediately at home here, like this was the place where I wanted to be. It actually all worked out, too. I really did end up playing music with people whose records I had. It’s really a “Hey, let’s all pull together and make something” type of place. I lived in London before, and I never really felt like that there.
MT: That’s how I feel about Nashville.
JE: Did you make your record in Nashville?
MT: I did. It’s my first solo release, so it’s all original stuff that I’ve been working on for years. I did it in Nashville with producer Kai Welch. It has some of my favorite musicians on it. It was great to finally make something of my own, because I’ve done stuff with other bands before but never released anything under my own name.
JE: That’s something I wanted to ask you: Have you played in other people’s bands a lot? Have you ever been just a guitar player in someone’s band?
MT: A little bit, with different bluegrass people. When I was living on the East Coast, I used to play a little bit with this banjo player Tony Trischka, who is like a great …
JE: Oh my God! Really?
MT: You know him?
JE: Let’s briefly go back to 1989 here. When I thought I was going to be this banjo ripper, Tony Trischka wrote THE best books. This friend of mine was really into that resurgence of bluegrass that Rounder Records were putting out — Tony Rice, Hot Rize. He would give me all these records — Béla Fleck records, stuff like that — and Tony Trischka was one of two people who had written sensible, up-to-date books on how to approach the five-string banjo. So you used to play with him?
MT: I did a few tours with him. I always have a lot of fun playing in someone else’s band and being more of a sideperson. I find that a really fun role. And I have another band called the Good-Bye Girls that I play with. It’s all people I met when I was in Boston. We do a couple of tours a year, but that feels more like less of a lead role to me. I like stepping into different roles and not always doing stuff where I’m the lead.
JE: I’ve found exactly the same thing. I’ve found that actually being able to play in different bands and have the focus be different each time means I never need to take a vacation from it, because it’s different enough each time. If I was just a singer, I think I would need to take a break from time to time. But I never really feel like that, and I think it’s because I have enough plate-spinning that I’m always mixing it up. I can tell from the way that you play that you have a deep knowledge of the bluegrass songbook, that when people call tunes, you can just play them — which is not something that I can do. I can’t even play my own songs sometimes when someone asks me to do that. That’s always something I admire in other people.
MT: Oh, thanks. It’s a really nice tradition, because once you have learned enough bluegrass songs, you can make it through most of the standards, even if you don’t know them. A lot of the songs have similarities, and you can jump in, which makes it fun. Even people who are new to the genre can jump into jams and find their way through songs they don’t know very well.
JE: I stopped listening to bluegrass for a while, but then, a few years ago, a friend of mine who has a band called Freakwater was doing a tour to celebrate an album that came out 20 years ago [Old Paint]. This album had a lot of dobro on it, and they wanted me to play dobro. I play a little bit of lap steel, but I’ve never really played dobro before. So I bought a cheap dobro and really got into it! It totally took over for about a year. That’s all I was doing. But now I don’t get asked to play it very much. I played it a little bit on my own record and I’m planning on playing it more, but I think you actually have throw yourself more into the bluegrass community.
MT: Was it a steep learning curve for you, or did you find it similar to lap steel?
JE: It was not too bad. I could already play some lap steel, and I’ve played bottleneck slide, so I had a little bit of understanding. But I had to watch a lot of Jerry Douglas YouTubes! You don’t even think some of that stuff is possible unless you actually see and hear and do it.
MT: Is this your first solo album?
MT: Whenever I feel lost, sometimes I’ll try a different tuning, and that’s where I can always find the coolest stuff that I wouldn’t have thought of.
JE: I think my control issues have previously stopped me from doing much with other tunings. Because I like to know where I am all the time. But this was something that I just wholeheartedly went for, without being able to fall back into those regular shapes and patterns that you start getting into if you play a lot. Did you do anything like that on your record?
MT: I have one song that’s in a different tuning — it’s not in DADGAD, but I think the tuning is DGDGCD?
JE: This is going to be way too nerdy for publication, probably, but it’s not very different in a way because you get that pair, that pair that are one note apart, it’s like DADGAD but moved up one string. That’s the next on my list.
MT: You can play around with it. I love it because you can make it sound major key or minor. It’s got much more of a question mark hanging over it than standard tuning.
So you had a period of not writing many songs before this album came about?
JE: Yes. I took a long break from it, which I enjoyed. It was fun just to be playing in other people’s bands — just show up with my guitar and plug in and play and then go home, and not have to worry about it. But I always want to go and do whatever the things is that I’m not doing. That’s what happened. I wasn’t putting myself under any pressure and I really wasn’t intending for these songs to be heard by anyone. It wasn’t really something that I needed to do, and I think it worked better for me to write without imagining that there’s any audience for it.
MT: I find that I get writer’s block when I’m thinking about how other people will react to the song, when I’m writing it for people to hear. That’s when I become self-conscious and I have a harder time. I try to get into that headspace when I’m writing because I find that I feel freer and come up with better ideas when I’m not as concerned about other people hearing it. But it’s hard to find a balance sometimes.
JE: It’s quite hindering to creativity sometimes to have to quantify something you do by how it’s going to be received. But it’s also taken me a really long time to appreciate that the audience is such a big component of it. It’s somehow not even really completed until someone else has heard it.
Molly Tuttle photo by Kaitlyn Raitz. James Elkington photo by Tim Harris.
Awards acceptance speeches like this one are rare.
Just about a year ago, at the International Bluegrass Music Awards in Raleigh, North Carolina, Bryan Sutton (Hot Rize, Telluride House Band, five solo albums) accepted his (unprecedented) ninth Guitar Player of the Year Award. It was no surprise that the dominant flatpicker of his era won again or that he was magnanimous and humble.
But he did something incredibly gracious for a moment like this. Instead of thanking his business team, God, and family, he took his time to acknowledge 15 young guitarists who are out there ripping it up — no doubt with Sutton as one of their key generational influences. This was, in a nutshell, what’s wonderful about bluegrass music: It supports and nurtures its next wave of talent and fans without fear of being displaced or outgunned. And it was an interesting and very public forum in which to do so.
Here’s the speech followed by a quick guide, in no particular order, to the young pickers Sutton urged us to keep an eye on.
Seth Taylor: A North Carolina native, he won numerous contests including first prize on guitar at the 2008 Merlefest. He co-founded the band Monroeville and joined Mountain Heart in 2012.
Rebecca Frazier: She was the first woman to make the cover of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine. The Virginia native swept awards as a member of Hit & Run Bluegrass. She still fronts the group and records under her own name, as well.
Chris “Critter” Eldridge: Son of Ben, banjo player with the legendary Seldom Scene, Chris was briefly with the Infamous Stringdusters before joining Punch Brothers where, for six years, he’s made some of the most complex and beguiling string band music of all time. He also tours and records with young jazz master Julian Lage.
Jake Workman: He grew up on AC/DC and the Beatles, has a jazz guitar degree, and plays bluegrass like a master. Based in Salt Lake City, he’s a member of the band Driven.
Trey Hensley: Adept at both acoustic and twangy electric country styles, Hensley has become a very popular musician in his home region around East Tennessee. Now he’s in Nashville, working in a duo with Rob Ickes and showing singing/writing chops that are impressing veterans like Marty Stuart.
Caleb Smith: A life-long resident of Haywood County, North Carolina, Smith began his bluegrass career chiefly as a singer. But, as he’s ramped up his guitar playing, now as a member of star band Balsam Range, he’s ramped up his guitar building, too. His hand-made dreadnaughts are prized posessions.
Chris Luquette: Straight out of Seattle, he’s capable of grace or grunge on acoustic guitar and many other instruments, as well. Find him shredding or tastefully touching up in the music of Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen.
Courtney Hartman: She moved from her native Colorado to Boston where she studied at Berklee and joined the mighty and creative Della Mae. With that band on hiatus, Courtney (an Acoustic Guitar magazine cover subject) is songwriting, collaborating, and readying a solo release.
Jordan Tice: His bluegrass picking family in Maryland helped get him ready to record his first album as a leader and composer at age 17. Since then, he’s collaborated with and supported the best acoustic musicians in the world. He tours in a chamber grass trio with bassist Paul Kowert and fiddler Brittany Haas.
Grant Gordy: This versatile, jazz-schooled player filled the guitar shoes of Tony Rice and Mark O’Connor in the David Grisman Quintet for six years before moving on to other pursuits, including his band Mr. Sun with fiddler Darol Anger.
Billy Strings: His aunt gave him the nickname Billy Strings when he was a boy and he’s sure lived up to it. The Michigan native came to notice in a flexible duo with mandolinist Don Julin. Now, as a band leader, he’s crafting an explosively powerful new twist on bluegrass tradition.
Jon Stickley: A North Carolina native who went West and became known in the band Broke Mountain. Now in Asheville, he leads a power trio dedicated to original instrumental jazz-grass. Stickely is an inventive player who finds new timbres and means of coaxing sound out of the flattop box.
Zeb Snyder: The young hotshot from North Carolina (that state again) spits notes and funky grooves on acoustic and electric guitar in the tradition-bucking Snyder Family Band. He channels much Southern soul and is especially gifted playing the blues.
Molly Tuttle: This slight young woman with spidery fingers grew up in California with a dad who was a performer and mentor/teacher to most of the up-and-coming bluegrassers in her area. Formal training at Berklee put a razor’s edge on her intricate and personal style. Nashville-based, she sings and writes beautifully, too.
Presley Barker: Okay, he’s ALSO from North Carolina and he’s barely 12 years old and he’s fantastic. So just enough already. Truly the next generation, Barker was raised on Doc Watson records and the tutelage of the great Wayne Henderson.
April may be the cruelest month, but September is by far the coolest one because we get to head to Raleigh, North Carolina, for one of our favorite events — IBMA's World of Bluegrass. Taking place September 27 – October 1, the event brings bluegrass fans from around the globe together for the pickin'- and grinnin'-est party this side of, well, anywhere. If you're heading to Raleigh and struggling to get your schedule together — we get it, there's a lot to choose from! — allow us to do some of the heavy lifting for you and check out seven of the acts we can't wait to see.
10 String Symphony
Nashville duo 10 String Symphony, also known as Christian Sedelmyer and Rachel Baiman, are no strangers to the stage, with Sedelmyer a member of Jerry Douglas's touring band and Baiman having fiddled alongside the likes of Kacey Musgraves. Their project together, though, brings those individual talents together for an acoustic, genre-defying sound that is truly like no other.
Missy Raines and the New Hip
Missy Raines has more Bass Player of the Year IBMAs than anyone out there, and there's no better way to find out why that is than to watch her kicking bass and taking names on stage. She and her band, the New Hip, fuse elements of jazz and Americana with her more traditional bluegrass leanings.
Bill and the Belles
Johnson City, Tennessee, quartet Bill and the Belles pay homage to their mountain upbringings with Tin Pan Alley covers and Appalachian-inspired arrangements. They're a joy to watch live, and we bet you can't make it through their set without smiling.
Hot Buttered Rum
With a name like Hot Buttered Rum, the music better be good, and, sure enough, it is. Just like the drink, a live set from Hot Buttered Rum goes down easy and leaves you with a smile on your face.
Molly Tuttle Band
Nashville multi-instrumentalist Molly Tuttle has a sonic range unlike many musicians out there, able to captivate listeners with tender vocals just as easily as she is with virtuosic guitar chops. This full band set should deliver, as the kids say, all the feelings.
Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder
If one of the greatest living mandolin players doesn't tickle your fancy, well, you just might be at the wrong festival. Whether you've never seen Skaggs live or this will be your 12th rumble with Kentucky Thunder, this is a set you won't want to miss.
Greensky Bluegrass
Just over a decade-and-a-half into their career, Greensky Bluegrass has never sounded better. Their forthcoming album, Shouted, Written Down and Quoted, is a sure sign that bluegrass is still alive and well.
Artist:Korby Lenker with Molly Tuttle Hometown: Nashville, TN Song: "Friend and a Friend" Album:Hidden Lakes (Kickstarter exclusive) Release Date: November 6 Label: Short and Sweet
In Their Words: "I met Molly at a show at the Basement in Nashville a few months ago. I was blown away by her talent … probably jealous is more the word. She rips up a D18 like David Grier, if he were a pretty girl. We met at the show and, a month or so later, we sat down to write. We both tour a lot, so it made sense to write something about what that’s like — the constant uncertainty, the waking up in your car sometimes. It’s a real song, but it’s positive too. I think we both feel lucky to get to play music for people.
'Friend and a Friend' is the fourth of five songs I recorded for my Kickstarter campaign, which ends Friday morning. Anyone who backs the campaign gets a five-song EP called Hidden Lakes featuring this song plus tracks with Liz Longley, Robby Hecht, and more. It ships Friday to anyone who backs the campaign, at any level." — Korby Lenker
Photo credit: Blaque Reily
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