Both legendary and emerging stars of the genre may be seen and heard on Bluegrass Ridge. Produced by Nashville, TN-based CJM Productions, the half-hour show airs on multiple platforms and television networks with affiliates in more than 200 markets worldwide. Bluegrass Ridge features music videos from top-tier artists such as Rhonda Vincent, Ricky Skaggs, Darin and Brooke Aldridge, and IIIrd Tyme Out, among many others. Each episode also includes artist interviews or rare, behind-the-scenes looks into the making of music videos — giving fans a deeper connection to the stories behind the songs.

”Over 25 years ago I noted the growth and loyal fan base of bluegrass music,” says Jeff Moseley, president of CJM Productions. “There were few outlets for bluegrass artists to expand their brand via television, so I created Bluegrass Ridge to offer a television platform for artists and the art form. Television outlets embraced Bluegrass Ridge and our coverage has grown tremendously.”

Bluegrass Ridge is hosted by Daniel and Carolyn Routh (pictured), the husband-and-wife duo at the heart of the bluegrass band Nu-Blu. “Daniel and Carolyn do an amazing job and are crucial to the success of Bluegrass Ridge due to their deep passion for the music,” Moseley says — noting their dynamic on-screen presence, warmth, insight, and authentic connection to the genre.

“For 25 years, Bluegrass Ridge has been more than just a show—it’s been a bridge between artists and fans, and a platform to preserve and promote the rich tradition of bluegrass music,” says Daniel Routh. “We’re honored to carry that torch and bring bluegrass into homes around the world every week.”

For more information on Bluegrass Ridge and where you can view the show, visit https:// cjmproductions.com/bluegrassridge/.

Poss frequently acknowledged that he didn’t have a very conventional career path. “I used to joke that I had the perfect qualifications for being in the music business,” Poss once wrote. “I had no business training; in fact, no formal music background either but I teach Sociology of deviant Behavior.”

After graduating from Duke, he took a position with County Records in Floyd, Virginia. Poss and its owner, Dave Freeman, launched Sugar Hill Records in 1978, embracing what Poss called “contemporary music grounded in traditional music roots.” A self-described “wayward academic in an entrepreneurial role,” Poss assumed full control of the label in 1980, and moved it to Durham. He operated the label from there until its sale to Welk Music Group 20 years later. He became the group’s chairman in 2002. It’s now part of Concord Music, which also owns Rounder Records.

Among the many artists of note who recorded for Sugar Hill Records during Poss’ tenure were Pat Alger, Byron Berline, Ronnie Bowman, Sam Bush, Guy Clark, Mike Cross, Rodney Crowell, Jerry Douglas, Sara Evans, Cathy Fink, Butch Hancock, Hot Rize, The Infamous Stringdusters, Chris Hillman, Wanda Jackson, Sarah Jarosz, Robert Earl Keen, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Lonesome River Band, Lyle Lovett, Nashville Bluegrass Band, Nickel Creek, Tim O’Brien, Dolly Parton, Dirk Powell, The Red Clay Ramblers, Peter Rowan, Ricky Skaggs, Darrell Scott, Marty Stuart, Bryan Sutton, Chris Thile, Townes Van Zandt, Doc Watson, and Jesse Winchester.

“The identity peg for Sugar Hill is having that traditional connection to contemporary music,” Poss Told Blue ridge Outdoors in 2008. “Some have taken to describing a ‘Sugar Hill Sound,” but I am not going to try to define that. To me, it’s what connect Doc Watson to Chris Thile, ricky skaggs to Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt to dolly Parton. They all exhibit a rootedness in their contemporary expressions of music. I like it because the music comes from a place. It’s not prefabricated or manufactured.”

Douglas and Skaggs had been part of a bluegrass group called Boone Creek, whose One Way Track album was Sugar Hill’s first release in 1978. In a May 18 Facebook post, Douglas wrote of Poss: “His dream was to have a label that mirrored the same idea as Sam Phillips and his famous Sun label, which catered to a specific audience and created a new genre, Rockabilly Plus. Barry knew an audience was there for a specific form of music (bluegrass) and there were certain bands who could grow that audience and the music would evolve with the growth of that audience.”

Douglas, who also produced a number of recordings for Sugar Hill Records, noted that he and Poss were “very close friends. Confidants really. He was like my wingman and brother at any event we collided with. We would spend hours talking about the direction of the music and the parameters he wanted his label to maintain no matter the current climate.” Poss was also godfather to Douglas’ daughter Nola. “Barry loved my family, and Jill and I, along with our children, will forever press his memory closer to our hearts.”

In addition to spending many years at the helm of Sugar Hill Records, Poss was a founding board member of the Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky and helped to launch the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA).

“Barry Poss was not just a champion of roots music and the artists that made it, but he was instrumental in the founding of our organization,” Ken White, IBMA’s executive director, said in a statement. “For that and so much more, we will always be grateful.”

Poss was a recipient of the IBMA’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 1998. The Americana Music Association also honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006 in recognition of Sugar Hill’s pivotal role in both preserving and reinvigorating traditional music, while he was inducted into the Oak Ridge Music Hall of Fame in 2023.

Closer to home, Poss also served on the boards of the Carolina Theater, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, MerleFest, the North Carolina, Folklife Institute, and WUNC-FM.

While many artists and others have shared tributes to Poss since his passing, for his part Poss once said: “It’s the artists who make the music to which I’m the most indebted. They had something important to say. They needed to be heard. And I wanted to be part of their creative lives – because it mattered.”

“We lost one of the greatest banjo players to ever pick up the five,” tweeted fellow banjoist Bela Fleck, just one of numerous artists who took to social media to share their thoughts about the master of the bluegrass banjo in the days following his passing.

“He was an absolute legend… He will be remembered as one of the greatest to ever play bluegrass music,” maintains acclaimed roots guitarist Billy Strings. “He had tone, taste and timing like no other. The space between the notes he played and the way he rolled them out just kept the band driving, running on all cylinders like a V* engine. He was just the best bluegrass banjo player out there, man,” he tweeted.

In social media posts, Mark O’Connor, a noted roots fiddler and guitarist, who had a brief stint in Crowe’s band when he was just 14 in the mid-1970s, called Crowe “one of the absolute greats in bluegrass, and a really wonderful mentor to me when I was a young boy coming.” In O’Connor’s view, there’s “no better bluegrass banjo player the history [of the genre] other than Earl Scruggs.” Crowe might be considered a disciple of Scruggs and, like him, he played in a three-fingered style. However, although he respected and sought to preserve the tradition and the legacy of the genre, Crowe was not a bluegrass purist. He also experimented and expanded bluegrass music’s traditional boundaries and helped redefine the genre and widen its appeal in the process. His pioneering progressive bluegrass band, J.D. Crowe and the New South, his pioneering progressive bluegrass band featured such notable players as Jerry Douglas, Keith Whitley, guitarist Tony Rice (who died last Christmas), Ricky Skaggs, Phil Leadbetter, and Don Rigsby over the years.

James Dee Crowe was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1937. While just a teenager and still in school, he performed and toured with acclaimed bluegrass guitarist Jimmy Martin in the mid-1950s. Returning home to Lexington in 1961, he partnered with mandolinist Doyle Lawson and bassist Bobby Sloane to form the Kentucky Mountain Dogs, which became J.D. Crowe and the New South in the 1970s and featured a revolving lineup of players. The group’s 1975 Rounder Records release, The New South, is considered one of bluegrass music’s seminal albums. In 1983, J.D. Crowe and the New South won a Grammy Award for Country Instrumental of the Year for “Fireball.”

Here’s a link to view a video of J.D. Crowe and the New South performing “Fireball”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-2rv9lxNlw

Crowe also formed and recorded with the Bluegrass Album Band featuring Lawson, guitarists Rice and Douglas, fiddlers Vassar Clements and Bobby Hicks, and Todd Phillips and Mark Schatz rotating on bass. He was a recipient of numerous awards and accolades. He was inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 2003, received the Bluegrass Star Award in 2011, an honorary doctorate from the University of Kentucky in 2012, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lexington Music Awards in 2016. Although he gave up touring in 2019, Crowe had continued to record.

Here’s a link to view a video of the Bluegrass Album Band performing “Big Spike Hammer” during an IBMA Awards Show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO__VTOMNJo

Chris Thile, one of the younger artists whom Rice influenced, expressed his thoughts on social media: “I’m beyond heartbroken to hear about the passing of Tony Rice. No one has had a more profound impact on my musical world. His playing, singing, writing, and arranging broke the bluegrass mold and will eternally attest to the fact that music can take you anywhere, from anywhere.”

Born in Danville, Virginia on June 8, 1951, Rice moved with his family to Los Angeles, California as a very young child. It was there that he first became acquainted with the bluegrass music scene – along with his brothers Larry, Wyatt and Ronnie, with whom he also performed during his career. Initially a mandolin player, Rice turned to the guitar and developed his own flatpicking style that melded elements of acoustic jazz, traditional country and folk with bluegrass.

In addition to playing with J.D. Crowe & The New South in the 1970s, Rice performed with the David Grisman Quintet, the Bluegrass Album Band, Tony Rice Unit (whose 1979 release, Manzanita, is widely considered to be his seminal recorded work), and Rice, Hillman & Pedersen (with brother Larry Rice, ex-Byrd Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen). Besides Skaggs, Rice also collaborated with such artists as Norman Blake, Bela Fleck, Jerry Garcia, and Peter Rowan over the years. A Grammy Award-winner for Best Country Instrumental Performance for The New South’s “Fireball” in 1983, Rice was also the recipient of a bevy of awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), including its highest honor – induction into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2013.

It was during the IBMA’s 2013 awards show in Raleigh, North Carolina that Rice last publicly performed on guitar. Arthritis and lateral epiconylitis (tennis elbow) had made playing his Martin D-28 both difficult and painful. Some 20 years earlier, a diagnosis of muscle-tension dysphonia, a vocal chord condition, prompted him to give up singing.

In addition to performing and recording music, Rice made instructional audiotapes beginning in the late 1970s. Happy Traum, who produced and recorded those tapes for his company, Homespun Tapes, hailed Rice as “indisputably, the most gifted and influential acoustic guitarist of our time.” In a post on his Facebook page, Traum, himself a noted guitarist and folksinger, wrote that Rice “was a genius of the flat-pick style, with an unmistakable touch, impeccable taste and incredible tone. In addition, Tony was a fine singer. He was able to bridge the gap between traditional country, bluegrass, folk and acoustic jazz styles with alacrity.”

Tony Rice will surely be missed, but his musical influence will be felt for years to come.

This year’s Album of the Year honors went to Special Consensus for Rivers & Roads, while the four-member acoustic bluegrass band led by banjo player Greg Cahill (a former president and board chair of the International Bluegrass Music Association) was also honored for Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year. “If I’d Have Wrote That Song” — recorded by Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers and written by Larry Cordle, Larry Shell and James Silvers — was named 2018’s Song of the Year.

A listing of all the award winners appears below:

Entertainer of the Year: Balsam Range
Album of the Year: Rivers & Roads – Special Consensus (artist), Alison Brown (producer), Compass Records (label)
Song of the Year: “If Id Have Wrote That Song” – Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers (artist), Larry Cordle, Larry Shell and James Silvers (writers)
Male Vocalist of the Year: Buddy Melton (of Balsam Range)
Female Vocalist of the Year: Brooke Aldridge
Vocal Group of the Year: Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver
Instrumental Group of the Year: Travelin’ McCourys
Banjo Player of the year: Ned Luberecki (of the Becky Buller Band)
Bass Player of the Year: Tim Surrett (of Balsam Range)
Dobro Player of the Year: Justin Moses
Fiddle Player of the Year: Michael Cleveland
Guitar Player of the Year: Molly Tuttle
Mandolin Player of the Year: Sierra Hull
Emerging Artist of the Year: Po’ Ramblin’ Boys
Recorded Event of the Year: “Swept Away” – Missy Raines with Alison Brown, Becky Buller, Sierra Hull and Molly Tuttle (artists), single release – Alison Brown (producer), Compass Records (label)
Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year: “Squirrel Hunters” – Special Consensus with John Hartford, Rachel Baiman & Christian Sedelmyer (10 String Symphony), & Alison Brown (artists), Traditional arranged by Alison Brown/Special Consensus (writers), Rivers & Roads (album), Alison Brown (producer), Compass Records (label)
Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year: “Speakin’ to That Mountain” – Becky Buller (artist), Becky Buller and Jeff Hyde (writers), Crepe Paper Heart (album), Stephen Mougin (producer), Dark Shadow Recording (label)

In addition, Tom T and Dixie Hall, Ricky Skaggs, and Paul Williams were inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame during the awards show hosted by Hot Rize.

The International Bluegrass Awards Show was a centerpiece of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA)’s five-day World of Bluegrass, which is considered the genre’s annual industry gathering and family reunion. Held in Raleigh for the sixth consecutive year, World of Bluegrass also featured a wide array of professional development seminars, meetings and forums, artist showcases and late-night hospitality functions, an exhibit hall, plenty of networking and relationship-building opportunities, and the Wide Open Bluegrass Music Festival.

This year’s contest attracted nearly 750 entries in four categories (bluegrass, country, general and gospel). Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale served as volunteer contest chairperson and led a songwriting mentoring session, along with the on-site judges, in which all of the finalists took part.

The winners in the bluegrass and general categories are listed below.

Bluegrass: First Place: Aaron Biebelhauser (Louisville, KY) for “Blue Collar Dreams,” Second Place: Courtney Rorrer (Madison, NC) and Asa Gravely (Beckley, WV) for “Midnight Tears,” and Third Place: Cindy Giejda (Farmingdale, NJ) for “Jail Break.”

General: First Place: Sarah Sample (Sheridan, WY) for “A Heart That Falls apart” and Adam Bonomo (Brooklyn, NY) for “Redshifted,” and Second Place: David Morris (Gaithersburg, MD) and Chris Dockins (Burke, VA) for “Weeds.”

Although AcousticMusicScene.com generally does not cover country and gospel music, the winners in those categories are as follows:

Country: First Place: Buddy Guido (Mohawk, NY), Paul Kelly (Santa Fe, NM) and Willie Scheollkopf (Buffalo, NY) for “This Livin’ May Be Killing Me,” Second Place: Sarah Morris (Shoreview, MN) for “I Go Back,” and Third Place: Meris Gantt of Handlebar Betty (Blowing rock, NC) for “House of Cards.”

Gospel/Inspirational: First Place: Marcy Each (Cedar Rapids, IA) for “On the Cross Built for Me,” Second Place: Austin Stanley (Nashville, TN) for “The Face of God,” and Third Place: Corey Smith and Allen Smith (Fayetteville, NC) for “The Road.”

The Chris Austin Songwriting Contest was established to honor the memory of Chris Austin, a songwriter and former sideman for Ricky Skaggs. Austin’s life was tragically cut short when a private plane carrying him and six other members of Reba McEntire’s band, as well as her tour manager, crashed in California in 1991. In the contest that is open to those whose primary source of income is not derived from songwriting or publishing, songs are judged based on originality, lyrics, melody and overall commercial potential. Previous winners of the contest include Gillian Welch, Tift Merritt, Michael Reno Harrell, Adrienne Young, Martha Scanlan, David Via, Eliot Bronson and Johnny Williams. Net proceeds from the contest help support the Wilkes Community College Chris Austin Memorial Scholarship that has provided financial support to 81 students since its inception.

Founded in 1988 in memory of the late Eddy Merle Watson, son of American music legend Doc Watson, MerleFest is considered one of America’s premier music festivals. Initially created to celebrate “traditional plus” music – a mix of music based on the traditional, roots-oriented sounds of the Appalachian region — the four-day event now embraces Americana, country, blues, rock and other musical styles as well.

The half-hour music, entertainment and lifestyle show – set for a 26-episode run extending through August 2016 – will feature live performances by the duo and special guest artists (including Vince, Dan Tyminski and The Oak Ridge boys, among others), along with cooking and interview segments.

“Words can’t describe the joy and humbleness I feel as our TV show comes to life,” said Darrin Vincent. “We’ve been conceptualizing this show for years, and it brings happy tears to my eyes now that our dreams have come true.” Echoing his sentiments, Jamie Dailey noted: “As a teenager, I used to lie on the floor and watch my favorite TV shows, Nashville Now and The Statler Brothers Show, and dream about what it would be like to have my own TV show someday. That dream has come true, and I couldn’t be more excited or thankful.”

The duo’s latest studio album, Dailey & Vincent Sing The Statler Brothers, a bluegrass tribute to the legendary country music quartet, spent many weeks on Billboard Magazine’s Top Bluegrass Albums Chart and was named Album of the Year in the International Bluegrass Music Awards last year. More recently, Dailey & Vincent released Alive in Concert on both CD and DVD.

Stanley, a banjo player and vocalist, was elected a fellow in the humanities and arts category this year, along with actor and director Al Pacino, novelists John Irving and Annie Proulx, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer and former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, among others.

Among the last living founders of bluegrass music, Stanley has been hailed as “a bluegrass deity” by Vanity Fair and “a cultural treasure” by the Los Angeles Times. He has performed around the world for 68 years and has recorded dozens of albums. Many of the songs that he has written and recorded have become bluegrass standards, while Stanley has inspired other notable artists across the musical spectrum such as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Vince Gill and Dwight Yoakam.

In 1946, Stanley partnered with his older brother Carter, a singer-songwriter, to form the Stanley Brothers. Over the course of 20 years performing, recording and appearing on television together and with their band, the Clinch Mountain Boys, the Stanley Brothers became one of the most popular brother acts in country music history. They were known for such songs as “Angel Band” and “Man of Constant Sorrow.” Tragically, Carter Stanley died in 1966, at age 41.

Although distraught over the loss of his brother, Stanley carried on in music. Accompanied by a re-formed Clinch Mountain Boys that, over the years, included such country and bluegrass notables as Ricky Skaggs, Larry Sparks and the late Keith Whitley, Stanley became an iconic figure in bluegrass music and a three-time Grammy Award-winner.

However, he did not receive his first Grammy Award until 2002. Stanley’s haunting rendition of the dirge ‘O’ Death,” a plaintive plea against dying that was featured in the popular 2000 movie “O’ Brother Where Art Thou” and also appears on its seven million-selling soundtrack, secured him the award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.

Over the years, Stanley, who grew up in and still lives in and derives inspiration from the rural mountainous region of southwestern Virginia, has received a number of other accolades and honors. He performed at the inaugurations of two U.S. Presidents (Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton) and received a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship and National Medal of the Arts from President Ronald Reagan and President George W. Bush, respectively. The Library of Congress bestowed on Stanley its Living Legend award in 2006, while Virginia’s General Assembly named him an Outstanding Virginian in 2008. He’s also been inducted into the International Bluegrass Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry and has been a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from Folk Alliance International. Earlier this year, Stanley was awarded an honorary doctor of music degree from Yale University. Lincoln Memorial University had previously conferred one on him.

Stanley’s autobiography, entitled Man of Constant Sorrow: The Life and Times of a Music Legend and written with Eddie Dean, was published in 2009. Stanley continues to perform in concert, although now well into his 80s.

Rolling Stone has referred to him as “a master performer without an expiration dates,” and noted that “Ralph Stanley continues to make American mountain music, playing the bluest grass with the baddest ass.”

Although Stanley had billed his current concert tour, which extends through this December, as his last, he has since opted not to retire this year. “God has had his hand in my career for the past 68 years. It’s up to him wen I quit,” reads a message posted on Stanley’s website. “I have no plans of slowing down. I love my fans, and I love performing.”

Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale chaired a volunteer panel of music industry professionals that selected the writers of 12 songs from among nearly 600 entries in four categories (bluegrass, country, general and gospel) for the opportunity to compete on the Austin Stage at MerleFest on Friday afternoon, April 25. The finalists in the bluegrass and general categories are listed below.

Bluegrass: Jim Crews (Boone, NC) for “Crossties,” Paul Harrigill (Murfreesboro, TN) and Amber Nugent (Ferriday, LA) for “I’m Blue,” and Chelsea McBee of The Random Assortment & the Christian Lopez Band (Shepherdstown, WV) for “Gone-A-Rye”).

General: Clint Alphin (Dunn, NC) for “Nobody Knows My Name,” Sarah Potenza and Ian Crossman (both of Nashville, TN) for “My Turn,” and Joseph Terrell of Mipso (Chapel Hill, NC) for “Angelina Jane is Long Gone.”

Although AcousticMusicScene.com generally does not cover country and gospel music, the finalists in those categories are as follows:

Country: Dan Buchner (Salt Lake City, UT) and Ben Childs (Oxford, MS), both of Hollering Pines, for “Cadillac,” Kelsi Robertson-Harrigill (Murfreesboro, TN) for “If You Never Let Me Go,” and Becky Warren (Nashville, TN) for “Call Me Sometime.”

Gospel/Inspirational: Gary Alan Ferguson (Alexandria, VA) for “Time To Praise the Lord,” Frank Hurd (Raleigh, NC) for “Light,” and Allen Smith and Corey Smith of Ash Breeze (Robbins, NC) for “Without Love.”

Each of the finalists will be provided with free admission and lodging for three nights at MerleFest and will participate in a mentoring session with Lauderdale. First place winners in each category will perform on the Cabin Stage on Friday night during the festival. Noted songwriters Darrell Scott, Charles Humphreys III (Steep Canyon Rangers) and Niall Toner will be among the second-round judges who determine this year’s winners.

The Chris Austin Songwriting Contest was established to honor the memory of Chris Austin, a songwriter and former sideman for Ricky Skaggs. Austin’s life was tragically cut short when a private plane carrying him and six other members of Reba McEntire’s band, as well as her tour manager, crashed in California in 1991. In the contest that is open to those whose primary source of income is not derived from songwriting or publishing, songs are judged based on originality, lyrics, melody and overall commercial potential. Previous winners of the contest include Gillian Welch, Tift Merritt, Michael Reno Harrell, Adrienne Young, Martha Scanlan, David Via, Eliot Bronson and Johnny Williams. The contest was established to honor the memory of Chris Austin, a songwriter and former sideman for Ricky Skaggs. Austin’s life was tragically cut short when a private plane carrying him and six other members of Reba McEntire’s band, as well as her tour manager, crashed in California in 1991.

Founded in 1988 in memory of the late Eddy Merle Watson, son of American music legend Doc Watson, MerleFest is considered one of America’s premier music festivals. Initially created to celebrate “traditional plus” music – a mix of music based on the traditional, roots-oriented sounds of the Appalachian region — MerleFest now also embraces Americana, country, blues, rock and other musical styles as well. More than 130 artists and acts will perform on 13 stages during the four-day event.This year’s festival will feature what’s being billed as a “BanjoRama” — a one-time only assembly of some of music’s top banjo players in performance together. More information on the festival may be found at www.merlefest.org.

Rhonda Vincent, the reigning and multi-time SPBGMA Entertainer of the Year, again won that coveted honor, and also was inducted into the organization’s Hall of Greats. Vincent and her band, The Rage, also were named Instrumental Group of the Year, while band members Josh Williams and Mickey Harris were named Guitar Player of the Year and Bass Player of the Year, respectively.

The Gibson Brothers’ “They Called It Music,” written by Eric Gibson and Joe Newberry, took Song of the Year honors just as it did in the 2013 International Bluegrass Music Awards last September. The Gibson Brothers, who hail from upstate New York, also are the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA)’s reigning Entertainers and Vocal Group of the Year.

Dailey & Vincent (featuring Rhonda’s brother Darrin) were honored as Vocal Group of the Year and Gospel Group of the Year (Contemporary), while Jamie Dailey was again named Male Vocalist of the Year (Contemporary). – adding to the bevy of awards the duo has received
since releasing its debut album in 2008 after apprenticing for years under Doyle Lawson and Ricky Skaggs, respectively.

Junior Sisk & Ramblers Choice was feted as Bluegrass Band of the Year, while Nothin’ Fancy was named Entertaining Group of the Year.

A complete list of SPBGMA award winners follows:

Entertainer of the Year: Rhonda Vincent

Entertaining Group of the Year: Nothin’ Fancy

Album of the Year: In a Country Town – Farm Hands Quartet (Farm Country Music)

Song of the Year: “They Called It Music” – The Gibson Brothers (Compass Records)

Bluegrass Band of the Year: (Overall) Junior Sisk & Ramblers Choice

Female Vocalist (Contemporary) of the Year: Sonya Isaacs

Female Vocalist (Traditional) of the Year: Dale Ann Bradley

Male Vocalist (Contemporary) of the Year: Jamie Dailey

Male Vocalist (Traditional) of the Year: James King

Vocal Group of the Year: Dailey & Vincent

Instrumental Group of the Year: Rhonda Vincent & The Rage

Gospel Group (Contemporary) of the Year: Dailey & Vincent

Gospel Group (Traditional) of the Year: Paul Williams & the Victory Trio

Songwriter of the Year: Tom T. and Dixie Hall

Top Instrumental Performers: Mickey Harris (bass fiddle), Tim Graves (dobro), Josh Williams (guitar), Danny Roberts (mandolin), Sammy Shelor (banjo), Michael Cleveland (fiddle)

Promoter of the Year: Bertie Sullivan

Radio Station of the Year: Sirius XM 061, Nashville, TN.

DJ of the Year: Kyle Cantrell – Sirius XM 061, Nashville, TN