Nickel Creek is an American bluegrass band consisting of Chris Thile (mandolin), and siblings Sara Watkins (fiddle) and Sean Watkins (guitar). Formed in 1989 in Southern California, they released six albums between 1993 and 2006. The band broke out in 2000 with a platinum-selling self-titled album produced by Alison Krauss, earning a number of Grammy and CMA nominations.
Christopher Scott Thile is an American mandolinist, singer, songwriter, composer, and radio personality, best known for his work in the progressive acoustic trio Nickel Creek and the acoustic folk and progressive bluegrass quintet Punch Brothers. He is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow. From 2016 to its cancellation in 2020, he hosted the radio variety show Live from Here.
This Side is the Grammy-winning third album by the progressive bluegrass band Nickel Creek, released on Sugar Hill in the summer of 2002. It gained attention in indie rock circles due to the group's recording of a Pavement song, "Spit on a Stranger". Alison Krauss acted as a producer for the album.
Ronald Delano McCoury, known as Ronnie McCoury, is an American mandolin player, singer, and songwriter. He is the son of bluegrass musician Del McCoury, and is best known for his work with the Del McCoury Band and the Travelin' McCourys.
Nickel Creek is an album by the acoustic/newgrass trio Nickel Creek. The group had released two albums prior to this; however, their earlier albums are no longer in print, and the band redefined their style before the release of Nickel Creek. It was released by Sugar Hill Records, and produced by bluegrass star Alison Krauss.
Gerald Calvin "Jerry" Douglas is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer. He is widely regarded as "perhaps the finest Dobro player in contemporary acoustic music, and certainly the most celebrated and prolific." A fourteen-time Grammy winner, he has been called “dobro’s matchless contemporary master,” by The New York Times, and is among the most innovative recording artists in music, both as a solo artist and member of numerous bands, such as Alison Krauss and Union Station and The Earls of Leicester. He has been a co-director of the Transatlantic Sessions since 1998.
The Grass Is Blue is the thirty-seventh solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. It was released on October 26, 1999, by Sugar Hill and Blue Eye Records. The album won a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album and "Travelin' Prayer" was nominated for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
Little Sparrow is the thirty-eighth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. It was released on January 23, 2001, by Sugar Hill and Blue Eye Records. The album received a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album and "Shine" won Best Female Country Vocal Performance. The album is dedicated to Parton's father, Lee Parton, who died in November 2000.
How to Grow a Woman from the Ground is a 2006 album by Chris Thile and Punch Brothers. It was released on Sugar Hill on September 12, 2006. The album is named after a song on the album; a cover of the original by folk singer Tom Brosseau.
David Freeman was an American collector, historian, and authority on old-time and bluegrass music. Freeman started the County Records label in 1963 in his native New York to focus on Southern string band music, and began the companion mail-order record retail company County Sales in 1965. He moved both businesses to Floyd, Virginia, in 1974. In 1977, Freeman started the Record Depot wholesale distribution company in Roanoke, Virginia, specializing in bluegrass and old-time music. In 1978 he helped his graphic artist Barry Poss start a bluegrass music record label, Sugar Hill Records, in Durham, North Carolina. In 1980, Freeman bought Charlottesville-based Rebel Records, a pioneering bluegrass label, from Charles Freeland, one of the label's founders. Freeman was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 2002. Freeman died on December 25, 2023, at the age of 84.
Not All Who Wander Are Lost is the third solo album by American virtuoso mandolinist Chris Thile. It was released on Sugar Hill in 2001.
Rickie Lee Skaggs, known professionally as Ricky Skaggs, is an American neotraditional country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, mandocaster, and banjo.
Weather and Water is a 2005 studio album by the Austin, Texas progressive bluegrass band The Greencards. Their second Dualtone album release of 2005, after their debut 2003 album Movin' On was re-released earlier in the year by their label Dualtone Records, Weather and Water was released on June 28. In a review of Weather and Water in The Washington Post, it was noted that on this album, unlike their debut, the focus was on the music supporting lyrics, rather than the blues virtuosity of Movin' On. In another review, Jim Abbott of the Tribune News Service described The Greencards as polished, "earthy, charming roots music with a sophisticated sheen", but noted that some bluegrass purists may miss the vocal idiosyncrasies that can be found on other bluegrass bands such as the Del McCoury Band. All three members of the band sing on Weather and Water, but Young's voice was noted for its "dreamy, haunting quality". Their music through the Weather and Water album had been called Celtic-influenced and bluegrass-flavored, but noted that the band had a distinctly American sound despite their overseas origins.
Gary Paczosa is an audio engineer, producer and A&R rep for Sugar Hill Records. He has been nominated 11 times for the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
Sarah Ellen Jarosz is an American singer-songwriter from Wimberley, Texas. Her debut studio album, Song Up in Her Head, was released in 2009 and the song "Mansinneedof" was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Country Instrumental Performance. Her second studio album, Follow Me Down, released in 2011, received a Song of the Year nomination from the Americana Music Association's 2012 Honors and Awards. Her third studio album, Build Me Up from Bones, was released on September 24, 2013 through Sugar Hill Records. Build Me Up from Bones was nominated for Best Folk Album at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, and its title track was nominated for Best American Roots Song. In 2016, Jarosz released her fourth studio album, Undercurrent. The album won two Grammy Awards.
County Records was a Virginia-based independent American record label founded by David Freeman in 1963. The label specialised in old-time and traditional bluegrass music.
Stephen Craig Buckingham is an American record producer and musician working in Nashville, Tennessee.
Scott Vestal is an American banjoist, songwriter and luthier, known for his innovative approach to playing and designing the banjo.
Randy Alan Kohrs is an American multi-instrumentalist best known for his resonator guitar prowess, but he plays 13 instruments. He is also a Grammy-winning producer and recording engineer.
