Nashville Bluegrass Band
The Nashville Bluegrass Band is an American bluegrass music ensemble founded in 1984.
The group's members first played together in 1984 as a backing band for Vernon Oxford and Minnie Pearl; each of the members were established musicians from the Nashville bluegrass community.[1] They signed to Rounder Records and recorded their Béla Fleck-produced debut, My Native Home, in 1985. Incorporating elements of black gospel and spirituals, then a rarity in bluegrass, they became critical and popular successes both in America and abroad. The group toured in some 20 countries and were the first bluegrass band to ever play in China.[2]
The group continued to record for Rounder and Sugar Hill into the 1990s; two of the albums, 1993's Waitin' for the Hard Times to Go and 1995's Unleashed, won Grammy Awards for Best Bluegrass Album.[3] Other albums were nominated for Grammys in the same category in 1988, 1990, 1991, 1998 and 2004.[2] After the departure of bassist Gene Libbea and mandolinist Roland White in 1998, the group went on a brief hiatus, but after vocalist Pat Enright sang as one of the Soggy Bottom Boys from O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the group's career saw a revival. They played as the backing group for many performers on the Down from the Mountain tour and album, and toured again on their own in the 2000s.
Members
- Original members
- Alan O'Bryant - banjo
- Pat Enright - guitar, vocals
- Mike Compton - mandolin
- Mark Hembree - bass
- Later members
- Gene Libbea - bass
- Roland White - mandolin
- Stuart Duncan - fiddle
- Dennis Crouch - bass
- Andy Todd - bass
Discography
| Released | Title | Label | Number | Notes |
| 1985 | My Native Home | Rounder | 0212 | LP |
| 1986 | Idle Time | Rounder | 0232 | LP |
| 1987 | To Be His Child | Rounder | 0242 | gospel LP, reissued on CD |
| 1988 | New Moon Rising | Sugar Hill | CD 3762 | Grammy nominee, with Peter Rowan |
| 1990 | The Boys Are Back in Town | Sugar Hill | CD 3778 | Grammy nominee |
| 1991 | The Nashville Bluegrass Band | Rounder | CD 0232 | CD compiled from My Native Home and Idle Time LPs |
| 1991 | Home of the Blues | Sugar Hill | CD 3793 | Grammy nominee |
| 1993 | Waitin' for the Hard Times to Go | Sugar Hill | CD 3809 | Grammy winner |
| 1995 | Unleashed | Sugar Hill | CD 3843 | Grammy winner. Some sources list the pre-release title as Still Unplugged |
| 1998 | American Beauty | Sugar Hill | CD 3882 | Grammy nominee |
| 2004 | Twenty Year Blues | Sugar Hill | CD 3959 | Grammy nominee |
| 2007 | Best of the Sugar Hill Years | Sugar Hill | CD 4036 | compilation, 1990–2004 |
References
- ↑ "Nashville Bluegrass Band Biography". Keith Case & Associates. Retrieved August 21, 2010.
- 1 2 Nashville Bluegrass Band at Allmusic
- ↑ Grammy Awards, Allmusic.com