(website) Nashville Bluegrass Band

Nashville Bluegrass Band The four original members of the Nashville Bluegrass Band -- banjoist Alan O'Bryant, guitarist and vocalist Pat Enright, mandolinist Mike Compton and bassist Mark Hembree -- came together as a backing band for a 1984 tour featuring country veterans Vernon Oxford and Minnie Pearl. All were veterans of the Nashville scene and had been involved with top bluegrass bands in the 1970s.
The Nashville Bluegrass Band signed to the Rounder label, and their debut, My Native Home, was released in 1985. Produced by Bela Fleck, the album announced its innovative leanings with its very first track, an a cappella version of Sister Rosetta Tharpe's "Up Above My Head." My Native Home became one of several releases on which the band turned to black gospel. The all-gospel 1987 album To Be His Child included several pieces of African-American origin, and the 1991 album Home of the Blues featured the Fairfield Four as guest vocalists. Such a project was unheard-of in the virtually all-white world of bluegrass, but it made the Nashville Bluegrass Band into a major touring attraction well beyond the usual festival circuit. Sometimes sharing the stage with the Fairfield Four, they appeared in major U.S. folk venues and became the first bluegrass band to perform in the People's Republic of China. They performed in nearly 20 countries on five continents.
The band suffered a bus accident in 1988 near Roanoke, Va., which seriously injured Hembree. Shortly after that, Hembree was replaced by Gene Libbea and Compton by Roland White. In addition, Fiddle stalwart Stuart Duncan has appeared on every album beginning with 1986's Idletime. Still, they maintained a consistent sound and experienced strong success over a series of albums in the late '80s and much of the 1990s. They moved to the Sugar Hill label with 1988's New Moon Rising (which featured Peter Rowan and Maura O'Connell) and worked mostly with Jerry Douglas as producer in the '90s. Their 1993 album Waitin' for the Hard Times to Go and 1995's Unleashed both won Grammys for best bluegrass album.
After the Grammy-nominated 1998 album American Beauty, the group seemed ready to wind up a stellar career as Libbea and White departed for other projects. But the Nashville Bluegrass Band got a second wind after Enright became one of the voices of the Soggy Bottom Boys, the fictional old-time singing trio led onscreen by George Clooney in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (The other behind-the-scenes musicians were Dan Tyminski and Harley Allen). Compton and Duncan also appeared on the film's soundtrack, and Compton began performing as part of the Down From the Mountain tour band. From these events emerged a reconstituted Nashville Bluegrass Band, now with bassist Dennis Crouch (a student of Hembree) and Compton on mandolin once again. The band celebrated its 20th anniversary with the 2004 album Twenty Year Blues.

(website) Dailey & Vincent

Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent are veterans of Bluegrass music having some twenty years experience between the two of them from long tenures with Bluegrass and Country legends Doyle Lawson and Ricky Skaggs.
In 2003, long time friends and colleagues, Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent, were asked to perform on a Koch Records recording titled "Christmas Grass Vol.2 2004. Jamie and Darrin recorded a well known Christmas song, "Beautiful Star of Bethlehem", with just a guitar and mandolin and their two voices. Their version of this song rose to number one on the Prime Cuts of Bluegrass. It was at this time that Jamie and Darrin decided that they would like to perform together more often and perhaps record again. This eventually evolved into the early planning and structuring of a new duo and band that would become Dailey and Vincent. It has been suggested that they have created a new business model for forming a Bluegrass band that new artists are sure to emulate.
Their first recording called Dailey and Vincent was completed in August 2007 and is due to be released in January 2008. Dailey and Vincent signed with Rounder Records in early September 2007 with over 100 tour dates scheduled for 2008.
 

(website) NewFound Road

NewFound Road The music of NewFound Road is marked by a refreshing clarity – a sense of honesty and purpose rarely heard in today’s bluegrass. For with the increased popular interest in bluegrass music has come an increased willingness to sweeten and tamper: maybe a touch of percussion here, a pedal steel there, a little piano on the chorus. Yet with their visceral, road-honed attack and disarming purity of vision, NewFound Road are a vivid reminder of the power inherent in undiluted, stripped-down bluegrass. This unflinching immediacy is bolstered by a wide range of stylistic influences, the presence of three remarkably soulful vocalists, and strong in-house songwriting talent, making NewFound Road among the most dynamic and thrilling contemporary bluegrass bands on today’s thriving scene.
 

(website) Donna Hughes

  (website) John Jorgenson Quintet

(website) The Bagboys

The Bagboys formed when Bobby Bag (acoustic guitar, vocals) and Harvey Bag (bass, vocals) were still in grade school. Although it would be another 15 years before they picked up their guitars, the themes of their songs and the inimitable Bagboys' philosophy developed during those years.
As a duo, the Bagboys spent many hours playing in Boston's subway stations, sometimes making as much as $200 a day, and sometimes as little as pocket change! Harvard Square provided another lucrative venue in those early years. On one memorable day, a cowboy on horseback dropped $5000 in silver coins into their guitar case.
The duo soon added mandolin player Tom Sullivan, and performed at such venues as the Boston Bluegrass Union's Joe Val festival. At this time, the Boys produced their cassette "Here and Now", which received airplay on local stations, including WERS, WHRB, WZBC and WUMB, and attracted favorable reviews from Metronome and The New England Beat. Later, the Boys joined forces with Paul Burch (pictured - now recording in Nashville for Dixie Frog) and Larry Hirschberg, and began their residency at the Plough & Stars, 912 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge. In 1992, the Bagboys placed 2nd in the WFNX music poll in the Country Music category.
Upon the departure of Burch and Hirschberg for Nashville and Montana respectively, the Boys began searching for new band mates to pursue a more traditional string band sound. They were soon joined by Otis Ray (mandolin, vocals), Sister Gretchen (banjo, vocals) and later Spider Mike Sortor (violin, vocals).
In 1997 the group released their first CD: "Sensible Music for Troubled Times". That same year, the Bagboys were invited to perform at the Winterhawk Bluegrass Festival contest in Ancramdale, NY where they were praised by the judges for their tuneful compositions and singing. Here's a link to a profile of the band (written at the time of "Sensible Music's" release) from Country Standard Time.
Dusty (resonator guitar, vocals) became a Bagboy in early 1999, and Stan (violin, vocals) joined in the fall of ’99 after Spider Mike left the group. The Boys now have six members, and the group is not considering adding a horn section, or former Yes keyboard player Rick Wakeman. A collaboration is planned though with drummer Harry Hafchin. In the year 2000 the Bagboys celebrated their 10th year at the Plough & Stars, and released their second CD "Just Say Moo".

The Muddy Marsh Ramblers are a four piece, all acoustic band from Portland, Maine. Playing traditional and their own original bluegrass, they also incorporate old time Celtic reels and jigs into their repitoire. Utilizing a highly-animated, single-microphone stage show, the Ramblers' originals have been getting considerable air-play throughout New England.

Since forming in the spring of 1994, Bill Smith, Lori Smith, Bobby St. Pierre, Ted DeMille, and Don Smith have been entertaining festival and concert audiences with their hard driving style of bluegrass music. North Star blends the traditional songs of Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Reno & Smiley, Jimmy Martin, and especially The Stanley Brothers with dynamic original material. North Star's brand of bluegrass is anchored by a relentless, driving rhythm section, and augmented by precise and inventive soloing. Strong, expressive lead vocals are complemented with heart-felt duo and trio harmonies. The North Star stage show includes up-tempo instrumentals, brother duets, and stirring gospel singing. When they gang around a single microphone, North Star delivers the goods.

(website) The Katahdin Valley Boys

The Katahdin Valley Boys, one of Maine's most popular and respected Bluegrass bands, have been performing around Maine and northern New England for 10 years now. The Katahdin Valley Boys take pride in presenting audiences with top quality traditional and contemporary Bluegrass and Gospel music. Each member brings many years of experience and professional showmanship to the band's hard driving traditional Bluegrass sound. Every member of the band shares lead and harmony vocals. Their repertoire features tight harmonies and smooth solos. Their show has a fresh, personal approach and an exciting format. The band’s members are Wayne Burtt on mandolin, Jeff Folger on banjo, Dale Hodgdon on guitar, Terry Spearrin on bass and Kip Yattaw on fiddle.