- Bill Monroe
William Smith Monroe developed the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader. He is often referred to as "the father of bluegrass." Monroe was born in Rosine, Kentucky. His father, James Buchanan Monroe, was a well-to-do farmer while his mother, Melissa Ann Van Diver, … - Alison Krauss
Alison Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is a renowned American bluegrass-country singer and fiddle player. She entered the music industry at a young age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time on her brother's album at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album at sixteen in 1987. She was invited to join the band with which she still performs, … - Earl Scruggs
Earl Eugene Scruggs (born January 6, 1924) is a musician noted for creating a banjo style (now called Scruggs style) that is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. Scruggs was born in Shelby, North Carolina to Georgia Lula Ruppe and George Elam Scruggs. Scruggs joined Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in late 1945 and his syncopated, three-finger picking style quickly became a sensation. - Ralph Stanley
Ralph Stanley (born February 25, 1927) is an American bluegrass musician. Stanley was born in Big Spraddle Creek, Virginia, near Stratton, Dickenson County, Virginia, USA. The son of Lucy and Lee Stanley, Ralph Edmond Stanley grew up in rural southwestern Virginia. Stanley learned to play the banjo, claw-hammer, style from his mother. It was her inspiration, coupled with Stanley's natural ability, which led Ralph and his older guitar-playing brother Carter, … - Ricky Skaggs
Ricky Skaggs (born July 18 1954, in Lawrence County, Kentucky) is a country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He plays fiddle, guitar, banjo, and, primarily, mandolin. Skaggs' music career began in 1970 when he joined Ralph Stanley's famous bluegrass band, the Clinch Mountain Boys. For a few years, Skaggs was a member of Emmylou Harris's group, Hot Band. He wrote the arrangements for Harris's bluegrass-roots album, "Roses in the Snow". - Doc Watson
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson, born March 3, 1923 in Deep Gap, North Carolina, is a guitar player, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. According to Doc on his three CD biographical recording "Legacy", he got the nickname "Doc" during a live radio broadcast when the announcer remarked that his given name Arthel was odd and he needed an easy nickname to go by. - Del McCoury
Delano Floyd McCoury (born February 1, 1939 in Bakersville, North Carolina) is an American bluegrass musician. As leader of the Del McCoury Band, he plays guitar and sings lead vocals along with his two sons, Ronnie McCoury and Rob McCoury who play mandolin and banjo respectively. McCoury has had a long career in bluegrass. Although originally hired as banjo player, he sang lead vocals and played rhythm guitar for Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys in the 1960s, … - David Grisman
David Grisman is an acclaimed mandolin player. As a teenager, David met and studied with mandolinist/folklorist, Ralph Rinzler. He learned to play the mandolin in the style of Bill Monroe , the father of bluegrass music. David studied English at NYU and became immersed in the proliferating folk music scene in Greenwich Village in the early 1960's. - Sam Bush
Sam Bush (b. April 13 1952 in Bowling Green, Kentucky) is an American mandolin player. As well as being an accomplished bluegrass vocalist, Bush also is a capable instrumentalist on guitar and fiddle. He was a founding member of the New Grass Revival and has been called a modern day Bill Monroe. Sam is one of the main attractions at the annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Telluride, Colorado. - Lester Flatt
Lester Raymond Flatt (June 19, 1914 - May 11, 1979) was one of the pioneers of bluegrass music. Flatt was born in Jackson County, Tennessee to Nannie Mae Haney and Isaac Columbus Flatt. A singer and guitarist, he first came to prominence as a member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in the 1940s. In 1948 he started a band with fellow Monroe alumnus Earl Scruggs, … - Tony Rice
Tony Rice is an acoustic guitarist. Rice spans the range of acoustic music, from traditional bluegrass to jazz-influenced "Spacegrass" music, to songwriter-oriented folk. Over the course of his career, he has played alongside J. D. Crowe and the New South, David Grisman (during the formation of “Dawg Music”), led his own Tony Rice Unit, collaborated with Norman Blake and recorded with his brothers. He has recorded with drums, piano, soprano sax, … - Jerry Douglas
Jerry Douglas is an American Dobro player. He is often referred to as "flux" by his peers, a nickname given to him as a result of his ability to play at amazing speeds with the slide. In addition to his eleven solo releases and countless special projects, Douglas' stellar fretwork has graced over 1000 albums encompassing a dizzying range of musical styles. As a sideman, he's recorded with artists as diverse as Ray Charles, Peter Rowan, Béla Fleck, … - Rhonda Vincent
Rhonda Vincent is an American bluegrass singer and an accomplished mandolin, guitar and fiddle player. She was born July 13, 1962, in Kirksville, Missouri, United States, where she still lives. Her musical career started as a child in her family's band, The Sally Mountain Show, and has spanned almost four decades. She achieved success in the bluegrass genre in the 1970s and '80s, … - Tim O'Brien
Tim O'Brien (b. March 16 1954 in Wheeling, West Virginia) is an American bluegrass musician. O'Brien plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, bouzouki and mandocello and is an accomplished vocalist. He moved to Boulder, Colorado in the 1970s and became part of the music scene there. In 1978, he founded the bluegrass group Hot Rize. Hot Rize had its own ofshoot band called Red Knuckles & The Trailblazers. The band would walk off stage, change clothes, … - Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia (August 1, 1942 - August 9, 1995) was an American musician, songwriter, and artist perhaps best known for being the lead guitarist and vocalist of the psychedelic rock band the Grateful Dead. Garcia was viewed by the media as the leader or "spokesman" of the group. Performing with the Grateful Dead for its entire three decade career (which spanned from 1965 to 1995), Garcia participated in a variety of side projects, … - J. D. Crowe
James Dee Crowe (August 27, 1937 in Lexington, Kentucky) is an American banjo player best known as J.D. Crowe. He plays Bluegrass Music with his band, The New South. They tour the country, primarily in the South, playing Bluegrass festivals and the Grand Ole Opry on occasion. Crowe got his professional start playing with Jimmy Martin's Sunny Mountain Boys while still in his teens. - Doyle Lawson
Doyle Lawson is an American bluegrass musician. He was born on April 20, 1944 in Ford Town, Sullivan County, Tennessee, near Kingsport, the son of Leonard and Minnie Lawson. Doyle Lawson is best known as an accomplished mandolin player and leader of the 5-man group Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver which he formed in April, 1979. Prior to that, he was a member of the Country Gentlemen and of J.D. Crowe's New South. - Jimmy Martin
Jimmy Martin was an American bluegrass musician, known as the "King of Bluegrass". Born James H. Martin in Sneedville, Tennessee, beginning in 1949 Martin was lead vocalist for Bill Monroe's "Bluegrass Boys,". Martin's high voice mixed with Monroe's tenor came to be known as the "high lonesome" sound. His influence radically changed Monroe's music from the fast-paced but smooth style of the "original" 1945 band with Flatt and Scruggs. - Peter Rowan
Peter Rowan (b. July 4 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American bluegrass musician and composer. Rowan plays guitar and mandolin, yodels and sings. While in high school in 1956, Rowan formed the Tex-Mex group The Cupids, which became locally famous. They self-released a single. In 1963, he joined the Mother Bay State Entertainers and played mandolin on their record, The String Band Project. - John Hartford
John Cowan Hartford (December 30 1937- June 4 2001) was an American folk, country and bluegrass composer and musician known for his mastery of the fiddle and banjo, as well as for his witty lyrics, unique vocal style, and extensive knowledge of Mississippi River lore. Hartford performed with a variety of ensembles throughout his career, and is perhaps best known for his solo performances where he would interchange the guitar, banjo, and fiddle from song to song. - Dan Tyminski
Dan Tyminski (b. June 20, 1967) is a bluegrass composer, vocalist, and instrumentalist. He is a member of the band "Alison Krauss and Union Station" and has released a solo album entitled "Carry Me Across the Mountain" (2000) on the Doobie Shea Records label. He is likely best known for the song "Man of Constant Sorrow," which was featured in the movie "O Brother, … - Laurie Lewis
Laurie Lewis (born September 28, 1950 in Long Beach, California), is an American bluegrass musician. In the mid-1970s, she cofounded the Good Ol' Persons, an all-female bluegrass band with Kathy Kallick. In 1979 she founded the Grant Street String Band, also including Beth Weil, Tom Bekeny, Greg Townsend, and Steve Krouse, in which her own songwriting came to the forefront. In the late '80s, she formed "Laurie Lewis and Grant Street". - Chris Thile
Christopher Scott Thile (pronounced THEE-lee) (born February 20 1981) is both a renowned mandolin player and founding member of the progressive bluegrass trio Nickel Creek, along with Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins. The three met in Carlsbad, California at "That Pizza Place" in 1989, whilst listening to weekly bluegrass shows with their parents. Soon they were taking lessons from the same instructor, playing festivals, and even recording albums, their first, … - Mac Wiseman
Malcolm B. Wiseman (born May 23 1925 in Crimora, Virginia), better known as Mac Wiseman, is a bluegrass singer, nicknamed "The Voice with a Heart". The bearded singer is one of the cult figures of Bluegrass music. He studied at the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in Dayton, Virginia but besides his first attempts as musician he had to work as discjockey at the radio station WSVA in Harrisonburg, Virginia. - Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch (born October 2 1967 in New York City) is a singer-songwriter whose musical style combines elements of bluegrass, neotraditional country, Americana, old time string band music and folk into a rustic style that she dubs "American Primitive". All of her recordings feature the close-harmonies and unconventional guitar work of her musical partner, David Rawlings. Her music is often described as haunting or soothing. - Tony Trischka
Tony Trischka (born 1949 in Syracuse, New York) is an American banjoist. He was born in Syracuse, New York and was inspired to play banjo in the 1960s, listening to the Kingston Trio. In the mid-60s he joined the Down City Ramblers, then joined Country Cooking and Country Granola. In 1973 he joined Breakfast Special. Tony was musical leader for the Broadway production of "The Robber Bridegroom". - Claire Lynch
Claire Lynch is a American bluegrass singer, songwriter, and session vocalist who joined her first band, then called Hickory Wind, in 1973. After changing its name to the Front Porch String Band, the group worked regularly throughout the Southeast over the next several years, becoming fan favorites on the strength of its open-minded musical approach and lead singer. Lynch and her family lived in Poughkeepsie, New York until the age of 12, … - Bobby Osborne
Bobby Osborne is a bluegrass musician known for his mandolin playing and high lead vocals. Born December 7, 1931 in Leslie County, Kentucky, Bobby Osborne is known primarily for his collaborations with his brother Sonny Osborne in their band, the Osborne Brothers. He was a pioneer in conceiving the now-popular "high lead" vocal trio concept. He has released numerous recordings since the 1950s. Most notably, the Osborne Brothers recordings of "Rocky Top", … - Jesse McReynolds
Jesse Lester McReynolds (born July 9, 1929, in Coeburn, Virginia) is known for his innovative crosspicking and split-string styles of mandolin playing, is an innovator of bluegrass music and is a forty two year member of the Grand Ole Opry. Jesse McReynolds, along with his late brother, Jim McReynolds, formed the bluegrass pioneering band Jim and Jesse in or around 1947. In 1993 he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor. - Rob Ickes
Rob Ickes is a resophonic guitar player in the contemporary bluegrass band "Blue Highway". - John Duffey
John Duffey (March 4, 1934 - December 10, 1996) was a Washington DC-based bluegrass music innovator and musician. Duffey founded two of the most influential groups in bluegrass, The Country Gentlemen and The Seldom Scene. His tastes and sources were eclectic, often raiding folk song books and Protestant hymnals for material. He embraced the music of Bob Dylan and his style of playing was rock and jazz-inflected. The son of a singer at the Metropolitan Opera, … - Carter Stanley
Carter Stanley (Born August 17, 1925 - Died December 1, 1966) was a bluegrass music lead singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitar player. He formed the Stanley Brothers together with his brother Ralph. The Stanley Brothers are generally acknowledged as the first band after Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys to play in the bluegrass genre. - Norman Blake
Norman Blake (born March 10, 1938 in Chattanooga, Tennessee)) is a Grammy-nominated instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter who has played in a number of folk and bluegrass groups. When Norman was one year old, his family moved to Sulphur Springs, Georgia where he was raised. Although known as one of the most prominent acoustic guitar flatpickers of his day, Norman Blake is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. - Mike Marshall
Mike Marshall is a mandolin player and has been an instrumental part of new acoustic music for the past 25 years. He has performed and recorded with many musicians in a variety of styles, including bluegrass, classical, jazz and Brazilian music. In addition to several instruments in the mandolin family, Marshall also plays the guitar and violin. Marshall has recorded and toured with other contemporary acoustic musicians such as David Grisman, Tony Rice, Mark O'Connor, … - Don Reno
Donald Wesley Reno better known as Don Reno was a country musician (retrospectively considered a bluegrass musician). Although known primarily for his banjo work, Reno was also quite talented on the guitar, and was nicknamed "King of the Flat-Picking Guitarists". He is best known for his collaborations with Arthur Lee "Red" Smiley as leaders of the Tennessee Cut-ups from 1951 to 1964, and from 1971 until Smiley's death in 1972. - Bryan Sutton
Bryan Sutton is an American musician. Primarily known as a virtuoso flatpicked acoustic guitar player, Sutton also plays many other instruments including mandolin, banjo, and electric guitar. Sutton first came to prominence as part of Ricky Skaggs' bluegrass band Kentucky Thunder. Sutton eventually left the band to focus on session work. He has become a first-call Nashville session player due to his fluency in multiple music styles and his mastery of the guitar. - Josh Graves
Josh Graves (September 27, 1927 Tellico Plains, Monroe County, Tennessee – September 30, 2006), born Burkett Howard Graves, was an American bluegrass musician. Also known by the nicknames "Buck," and "Uncle Josh," he is credited with introducing the dobro into bluegrass music shortly after joining Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys in 1955. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1977. - John Cowan
John Cowan is a vocalist and bass player. He has a background in soul music and now performs progressive bluegrass. From 1974 until their final breakup in 1989, he was the lead vocalist and bass player of the New Grass Revival. - Béla Fleck
Béla Fleck is an American virtuoso banjo player. He is most well known for his work with the band Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, which he has described as "a mixture of acoustic and electronic music with a lot of roots in folk and bluegrass as well as funk and jazz." Many of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones' songs were featured on The Weather Channel's "Local On The 8s" segments. - Hazel Dickens
Hazel Dickens (born June 1, 1935, Mercer County, West Virginia) is an American bluegrass singer. She was the eighth child of an eleven-child mining family in West Virginia. Her music is characterized by not only her "high lonesome" singing style, but also by her provocative pro-union, feminist songs. Poverty drove the Dickens to move to the Baltimore, Maryland area when Dickens was nineteen.
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