Kate Long is an American writer, journalist and songwriter. Her songs been recorded by dozens of artists and won national awards, including the International Bluegrass Music Association Song of the Year. She was the writing coach for The Charleston Gazette for 33 years and produced for West Virginia Public Broadcasting. She hosted and produced the national award-winning In Their Own Country public radio series. She founded Try This West Virginia [1] [2] and Voices of West Virginia and co-founded the Good News Mountaineer Garage.
Ralph Edmund Stanley was an American bluegrass artist, known for his distinctive singing and banjo playing. He began playing music in 1946, originally with his older brother Carter Stanley as part of The Stanley Brothers, and most often as the leader of his band, The Clinch Mountain Boys. Ralph was also known as Dr. Ralph Stanley.
Alison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, fiddler and music producer. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of eight and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in 1987. She was invited to join Union Station, releasing her first album with them as a group in 1989 and performing with them ever since.
Hazel Jane Dickens was an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, double bassist and guitarist. Her music was characterized not only by her high, lonesome singing style, but also by her provocative pro-union, feminist songs. Cultural blogger John Pietaro noted that "Dickens didn’t just sing the anthems of labor, she lived them and her place on many a picket line, staring down gunfire and goon squads, embedded her into the cause." The New York Times extolled her as "a clarion-voiced advocate for coal miners and working people and a pioneer among women in bluegrass music." With Alice Gerrard, Dickens was one of the first women to record a bluegrass album. She was posthumously inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame alongside Gerrard in 2017.
Timothy O'Brien is an American country and bluegrass musician. In addition to singing, he plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki and mandocello. He has released more than ten studio albums, in addition to charting a duet with Kathy Mattea entitled "The Battle Hymn of Love", a No. 9 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts in 1990. In November 2013 he was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
David Anthony Rice was an American bluegrass guitarist and singer. He was an influential acoustic guitar player in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and acoustic jazz. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2013.
Rhonda Lea Vincent is an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.
Malcolm Bell Wiseman was an American bluegrass and country singer.
Alison Brown is an American banjo player, guitarist, composer, and producer. She has won and has been nominated for several Grammy awards and is often compared to another banjo prodigy, Béla Fleck, for her unique style of playing. In her music, she blends bluegrass, jazz, Latin and Celtic influences.
Blue Highway is an American contemporary bluegrass band formed in 1994 and based in Tennessee. The band's albums include Wondrous Love (2003), Marbletown (2005), and Original Traditional (2016).
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 Grascals are a six-piece American bluegrass band from Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in February 2004, the band has gained a level of fame by playing on the Grand Ole Opry and bluegrass festivals around the country, as well as with Dolly Parton.
Carl Eugene Jackson is an American country and bluegrass musician. Jackson's first Grammy was awarded in 1992 for his duet album with John Starling titled "Spring Training." In 2003 Jackson produced the Grammy Award-winning CD titled Livin', Lovin', Losin': Songs of the Louvin Brothers – a tribute to Ira and Charlie Louvin. He also recorded one of the songs on the CD, a collection of duets featuring such artists as James Taylor, Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, and others.
Nothin' Fancy is a bluegrass band based in Buena Vista, Virginia and was formed in September 1994. Its "parent band" East Coast Bluegrass Band was formed Summer 1985 to compete in the East Coast Bluegrass Championship in Crimora, Virginia.
Michelle Nixon is a bluegrass and acoustic country music artist. Born Michelle Denice Thurston on December 10, 1963 she grew up in central Virginia where she became involved in music at an early age. Nixon joined her first band at the age of 14, embarking on a musical journey that found her singing a variety of gospel and classic country music with different Virginia based bands. Gathering inspiration and style from, among others, Loretta Lynn and Emmylou Harris, Nixon quickly developed her own powerful sound.
Sierra Dawn Hull is an American bluegrass singer-songwriter, mandolinist, and guitarist.
The Davidson Brothers are an Australian bluegrass and country music duo. Originally from Yinnar, Victoria, the brothers are Hamish and Lachlan Davidson. They have written and performed together since their youth, and "are multi-instrumentalists on banjo, fiddle, and mandolin and have won many awards on the country circuit". They released their first album, Blue Spruce, in 1999 when they were both in their early teens. This was the beginning of what would span into numerous recordings and national awards. "With their dynamic brand of classic bluegrass and more contemporary newgrass music, the pair has not only blitzed the Australian country music industry, but has attracted plenty of attention in the United States and Europe as well."
Gloria Belle Flickinger was an American bluegrass vocalist and musician, playing the banjo, bass, and mandolin. She was probably the first female lead singer in bluegrass, having begun her music career as early as 1957.
Kathy Kallick is an American bluegrass musician, bandleader, vocalist, guitar player, songwriter, and recording artist.
Donald DePoy is an American bluegrass musician, music educator, and music event organizer. He is a fifth-generation bluegrass musician from the Shenandoah Valley and a multi-instrumentalist. He and his wife Martha Hills have performed as the duo Me & Martha since 2005. He is founder of the Shenandoah Music Trail and the first "bluegrass church". He won first place in dulcimer at the 2017 Old Fiddlers' Convention in Galax, Virginia.