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The Cluster Pluckers are a quartet of harmony singer-songwriters and country music instrumentalists active since 1980. The original and remaining members are Margaret Bailey, Kris Ballinger and Dale Ballinger, later joined by Mark Howard. [1]
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose, and perform their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies.
In the spring of 1980, the trio of Margaret, Kris and Dale first sang together at a pickin' party. They were then joined by fiddler Frazier Moss.
They performed at the Folklife Festival Exhibition during the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Knoxville is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Knox County. The city had an estimated population of 186,239 in 2016 and a population of 178,874 as of the 2010 census, making it the state's third largest city after Nashville and Memphis. Knoxville is the principal city of the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which, in 2016, was 868,546, up 0.9 percent, or 7,377 people, from to 2015. The KMSA is, in turn, the central component of the Knoxville-Sevierville-La Follette Combined Statistical Area, which, in 2013, had a population of 1,096,961.
In 1984 Kris and Dale performed with fiddler Junior Daughtery at Carnegie Hall as part of a special American Folk Roots Concert Series.
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park.
In 1986 Kris and Margaret sang vocal harmony with Vassar Clements' Hillbilly Jazz Band, on two of the group's albums and on national tour, then performed on The Nashville Network television shows "Nashville Now" and "New Country".
Vassar Carlton Clements was a Grammy Award-winning American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and bluegrass along with roots also in country and other musical traditions.
The Nashville Network, usually referred to as TNN, was an American country music-oriented cable television network. Programming included music videos, taped concerts, movies, game shows, syndicated programs, and numerous talk shows. On September 25, 2000, after an attempt to attract younger viewers failed, TNN's country music format was changed and the network was renamed The National Network, eventually becoming Spike TV in 2003 and Paramount Network in 2018.
The television exposure introduced them to country legend Chet Atkins, with whom they then co-wrote the tongue-in-cheek song "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" which became a minor hit for Ray Stevens, reaching No. 41 on the country chart in 1987, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Chester Burton Atkins, known as "Mr. Guitar" and "The Country Gentleman", was an American musician, occasional vocalist, songwriter, and record producer, who along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson, among others, created the country music style that came to be known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country music's appeal to adult pop music fans. He was primarily known as a guitarist. He also played the mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and ukulele.
Harold Ray Ragsdale, known professionally as Ray Stevens, is an American country and pop singer-songwriter and comedian, known for his Grammy-winning recordings "Everything Is Beautiful" and "Misty", as well as comedic hits such as "Gitarzan" and "The Streak". He has worked as a producer, music arranger, songwriter, television host, and solo artist; been inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, and the Christian Music Hall of Fame; and received gold albums for his music sales.
A Grammy Award, or Grammy, is an award presented by The Recording Academy to recognize achievements in the music industry. The annual presentation ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and the presentation of those awards that have a more popular interest. The Grammys are the second of the Big Three major music awards held annually.
In 1987 Mark Howard joined the trio. Howard is a multi-instrumentalist and recording artist who has been featured with many various country stars, for whom he has also done engineering and production work, as well as writing string arrangements for the Nashville Symphony and others.
The group has its own backup trio of bluegrass instrumentalists, humorously named "Them Other Pluckers", consisting of Brent Truitt on mandolin, Blaine Sprouse on fiddle and Richard Bailey on banjo, all of whom have toured and recorded with a wide range of bluegrass and country artists.
In 1989, they appeared on John Hartford's album Down On The River.
The Cluster Pluckers have recorded four albums on their own label, CPR (Cluster Plucker Records...Music Good for the Heart).
In 1991 they appeared on the PBS music television program Austin City Limits, along with Chet Atkins. [2]
Other television appearances have included:
- American Music Shop, on The Nashville Network
- The Statler Brothers Easter Special, on The Nashville Network
- Reno's Old Time Music Festival, on the Americana Television Network
- A Cluster Plucker Christmas, on PBS, for three years
- Songs of the Civil War, on PBS, with Hoyt Axton, produced by Ken Burns
In 1995, their album Unplucked featured Johnny Cash on the song, "Where the Soul Never Dies."
On radio, the Cluster Pluckers have been featured on:
- Rider's Radio Theater, on National Public Radio with Riders in the Sky
In the 1990s the group performed at a fundraiser event in front of President Clinton and Vice President Gore at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, and also for Tipper Gore's Birthday Bash at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.
In recent years the group also tours and performs internationally.
