William Smith Monroe was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter, and created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the "Father of Bluegrass".
Charles Samuel Bush is an American mandolinist who is considered an originator of progressive bluegrass music. In 2020, he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame as a member of New Grass Revival. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame a second time in 2023 as a solo artist.
Benny Edward Martin, was an American bluegrass fiddler who invented the eight-string fiddle. Throughout his musical career he performed with artists such as the Bluegrass Boys, Don Reno, the Smoky Mountain Boys and Flatt and Scruggs, and later performed and recorded with the Stanley Brothers, Hylo Brown, Jimmy Martin, Johnnie and Jack, and the Stonemans, among others. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2005.
Randall Franks is an American entertainer known for his work as a film and television actor, author, and bluegrass singer and musician. He plays various instruments including the fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and mountain dulcimer. Franks has received multiple nominations and awards throughout his career, including nominations for Inspirational Vocalist and Musician of the Year at the Josie Music Awards at the Grand Ole Opry House 2023 and 2024. He has been inducted into several halls of fame, such as the Tri-State Gospel Music Hall of Fame (2022), America's Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame (2019), and the Independent Country Music Hall of Fame (2013). The International Bluegrass Music Museum & Hall of Fame recognized Franks as a Bluegrass Legend in 2010. He has also received accolades from various regional organizations, including the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame Induction, Carolinas Country, Bluegrass and Gospel Hall of Fame Legend Award, Catoosa County, Georgia, which designated him as the "Appalachian Ambassador of the Fiddle" in 2004, and was inducted into the Chamber Business Person Hall of Fame In 2020, Franks was selected as the inaugural recipient of the AirPlay Direct Evolution Grant.
Vassar Carlton Clements was an 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. He was posthumously inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2018.
Bobby Van Osborne was an American bluegrass musician. He was the co-founder of the Osborne Brothers, a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. Osborne was a member of the United States Marine Corps, received a Purple Heart for his service, and was honorably discharged in 1953.
Laurie Alexis Lewis is an American singer, musician, and songwriter in the genre of bluegrass music.
Jim & Jesse were an American bluegrass music duo of brothers, Jim McReynolds and Jesse McReynolds. They were born and raised in Carfax, a community near Coeburn, Virginia, United States.
The Greencards are an American progressive bluegrass band that formed in 2003 in Austin, Texas, and relocated in 2005 to Nashville, Tennessee. The band was founded by Englishman Eamon McLoughlin and Australians Kym Warner and Carol Young. The musicians originally performed in local Austin bars, and soon found increasing acclaim. They released one independent album, Movin' On, in 2003, and two albums, Weather and Water and Viridian, on the Dualtone record label. Their fourth album, Fascination, was released on Sugar Hill in 2009. Their fifth album, The Brick Album (2011), was self-produced with the direct support of their fans. Pre-production donors were recognized with their names inscribed on the "bricks" that make up the cover art.
Kym Warner is an Australian musician and record producer, and a founding member of the American bluegrass band The Greencards. Warner was an aspiring bluegrass musician after inheriting the music from his father, an early Australian bluegrass pioneer. The winner of the Australian National Bluegrass Mandolin Championship for four consecutive years, Warner had toured with country music artists Gina Jeffreys, and with Young again in Kasey Chambers's band. Before the band formed, Carol Young and Warner both knew each other, and according to Warner had been drawn to bluegrass and American roots music through an appreciation of George Jones and Merle Haggard. After meeting, Warner and Young made the decision to emigrate to America, to pursue musical careers there. Later, Young and Warner were living together in Sydney, and trying to find work in the moribund Australian bluegrass scene. After leaving Australia, they spent time in West Texas before relocating to Austin.
Carol Young is an Australian musician, and a founding member of the American bluegrass band The Greencards.
Robert Caldwell Hicks was a Grammy Award-winning American bluegrass fiddler and musician with more than fifty years of experience. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2017.
"Orange Blossom Special" is a fiddle tune about the luxury passenger train of the same name. The song was written by Ervin T. Rouse (1917–1981) in 1938 and was first recorded by Rouse and his brother Gordon in 1939. Often called simply "The Special" or "OBS", the song is commonly referred to as "the fiddle player's national anthem".
Gordon Terry was an American bluegrass and country music fiddler and guitarist. He was a member of Merle Haggard's backing band The Strangers. He was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the Fiddlers Hall of Fame.
Buddy Spicher is an American country music fiddle player. He is a member of The Nashville A-Team of session musicians, and is Grammy-nominated. He was nominated as Instrumentalist of the Year by CMA in 1983 and 1985. He was the first fiddler in the "Nashville Cats" series of the Country Music Hall of Fame. He recorded with virtually every major country star of the sixties, seventies, and early eighties, including Faron Young, Johnny Paycheck Little Jimmy Dickens, Reba McEntire, George Jones, Don Williams, Dolly Parton, Crystal Gayle, Loretta Lynn, Bob Wills, Asleep at the Wheel, Don Francisco, Ray Price, Willie Nelson, George Strait, Bill Monroe, David Allan Coe, and Emmylou Harris.
Viridian is a 2007 studio album by the Austin, Texas bluegrass band The Greencards. Their third Dualtone Records studio album, it was released on March 6, 2007. It was nominated at the 2007 ARIA Music Awards for Best Country Album, but lost to Keith Urban for Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing.
The McGee Brothers were an American old-time performing duo of brothers Sam McGee and Kirk McGee. Sam typically played guitar and Kirk usually played banjo or fiddle, although they were both proficient in multiple string instruments. The McGee Brothers were one of the most enduring acts on the Grand Ole Opry during the show's first fifty years. They made their initial appearance on the Opry in 1926 and the following year joined Uncle Dave Macon's band, the Fruit Jar Drinkers. In the 1930s, the McGees teamed up with early Opry fiddler Arthur Smith to form a string band known as the "Dixieliners," and in the 1940s they played and toured with Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys and several other notable acts.
Ruby Jane Smith is an American fiddle player, singer, and songwriter in the traditional bluegrass and Americana music genres. The youngest fiddler invited to play the Grand Ole Opry, Smith has toured and recorded with Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson, Drake Bell, and Willie Nelson, and has performed on Austin City Limits.
Hubert Dwane "Hoot" Hester was an American fiddle player, multi-instrumentalist, and country music and bluegrass artist. He was born on a small farm near Louisville, Kentucky, on August 13, 1951. Hester played with a number of well-known bands, and later became a session musician and a longtime member of the Grand Ole Opry's staff band. Hester was also a featured performer at the NAMM Show during the time it was held in Nashville c. 1993 and 2004.
