It was a great evening in Nashville for Alison Krauss and Union Station on Wednesday as they received eight nominations for the International Bluegrass Music Association Awards. Russell Moore and IIIrd Time Out were the only artist to do better, receiving nine nods.
Krauss and her group are up for Entertainer of the Year, Song (Dust Bowl Children) and Album (Paper Airplane). Alison and band guitarist Dan Tyminski are up, respectively, for Female and Male Vocalist while three other members of Union Station are up in the Instrumental categories with Ron Block for banjo, Jerry Douglas for dobro and Barry Bales for bass.
Doyle Lawson was elected to the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. From the IBMA press release:
One of bluegrass music’s most accomplished and respected bandleaders, Doyle Lawson was born in Ford Town, TN on April 20, 1944, grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry and taught himself how to play mandolin at age 11, influenced by Bill Monroe. His piercing, crystalline tenor vocals and crisp musicianship would help him launch his career with jobs in three superb and accomplished bands. When he was just 18, Lawson went to Nashville to play banjo with Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys. Three years later, he started working with J.D. Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys (later the New South). On September 1, 1971, Doyle joined the Country Gentlemen, where he helped create a new distinctive sound for the band, and one of its finest eras. He stayed for almost eight years before leaving to found his own band in 1979. For more than three decades, Quicksilver has been one of bluegrass music’s most important “farm teams,” helping to launch the careers of dozens of future bandleaders and sidemen. The band is known for its delivery of intricate a cappella gospel numbers that regularly bring awestruck crowds to their feet, roaring with approval.
Since 1977, Lawson’s discography has grown to more than 40 bluegrass and bluegrass gospel recordings, supported by a busy touring schedule with Quicksilver that includes their own Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver Festival in Denton, NC each year. On his own and with Quicksilver, which USA Today called “one of bluegrass’ finest bands,” Lawson has received numerous nominations and awards, including the International Bluegrass Music Award for Best Vocal Group an unprecedented seven years in a row. In 2006 he received the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship, granted to traditional and folk artists for career accomplishments. A year later he was awarded an honorary doctorate by King College in Bristol, TN. Known as one of the best-dressed men in bluegrass, Lawson has a closet full of Manuel jackets and is likely one of the few professional bluegrass musicians with his own signature pair of cowboy boots.
Also going in is the late Ralph Rinzler:
A man of extraordinary talents, the late Ralph Rinzler (July 20, 1934 – July 15, 1994) was a scholar, musician, writer, promoter, producer, and social activist whose vision and life’s work inspired the passion, and launched the careers, of generations of musicians and artists. Born in Passaic, NJ, Rinzler learned to play mandolin and banjo at Swarthmore College. He was a member of the legendary Greenbriar Boys, guest-starred on recordings with Clarence Ashley and Joan Baez, and later won a Grammy award for his production work on Folkways: A Vision Shared; Roots of Rhythm and Blues.
His generous relationships with the brightest lights in American music were fluid and adapted themselves to the artist and the adventure. He learned Woody Guthrie’s tunes from Guthrie himself; accompanied Mike Seeger on his travels through Appalachia; produced events with Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and Mary Travers; was an early teacher of David Grisman; and managed Bill Monroe. On a trip to western North Carolina in 1961 to make field recordings of rural folk musicians for Folkways Records, he met Doc Watson and arranged bookings for him in Northeastern urban venues, thus helping gain national recognition for the guitarist.
After he helped co-found the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall in 1967, an annual event featuring art by musicians and craftspeople from across a broad spectrum of international cultures, Rinzler became curator of American art, music, and folk culture at the Smithsonian. Within about a decade, the festival’s profound success prompted the creation of the office that ultimately became the Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies, with Rinzler at its helm. In 1987 he received IBMA’s Distinguished Achievement Award. The Smithsonian Institute named the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections in his honor in 1998. His priceless field recordings have been used to create a number of releases on the Smithsonian Folkways label.
“Ralph was at much at home with potters and small-patch farmers as he was with New England Brahmins, corporate executives, and British aristocracy,” wrote Roger D. Abrahams in his obituary of Rinzler for The Journal of American Folklore. “He had a clear idea of how to bring great tradition-bearers together with the larger public audience by finding within their work the vitality of their cultural inheritance and the genius of the individual artist operating within that tradition.”
Receiving the 2012 Distinguished Achievement Awards:
Byron Berline - Fiddler for artists from Bill Monroe to the Rolling Stones
Joe & Lil Cornett - Founders of the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival
Orin Friesen - Bluegrass radio pioneer
Kisty Kuykendall - Founding member of the IBMA and promoter of bluegrass music
Darrell "Pee Wee" Lambert - Mandolin player for the Stanley Brothers, Curly Parker and the Pine Ridge Boys.
The nominees for the 2012 International Bluegrass Music Awards:
ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
Dailey & Vincent
The Gibson Brothers
Alison Krauss & Union Station
Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers
Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out
VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR
Blue Highway
Dailey & Vincent
The Gibson Brothers
Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver
Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out
INSTRUMENTAL GROUP OF THE YEAR
Blue Highway
The Boxcars
Sam Bush Band
Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper
Punch Brothers
EMERGING ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Darin & Brooke Aldridge
Della Mae
Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers
Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen
Darrell Webb Band
MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Audie Blaylock
Jamie Dailey
Vince Gill
Russell Moore
Dan Tyminski
FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Dale Ann Bradley
Sonya Isaacs
Alison Krauss
Claire Lynch
Rhonda Vincent
SONG OF THE YEAR
A Far Cry From Lester & Earl by Junior Sisk & Ramblers Choice, written by Tim Massey, Rick Purdue & Harry Sisk Jr.
Dust Bowl Children by Alison Krauss & Union Station, written by Peter Rowan
Pretty Little Girl From Galax by Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, written by Milan Miller
Somewhere South of Crazy by Dale Ann Bradley, written by Dale Ann Bradley & Pam Tillis
Sounds Of Home by Blue Highway, written by Shawn Lane
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
All In by The Boxcars (artists & producers), Mountain Home Records
Paper Airplane by Alison Krauss & Union Station (artists & producers), Rounder Records
Prime Tyme by Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out (artists & producers), Rural Rhythm Records
Sounds of Home by Blue Highway (artists & producers), Rounder Records
The Heart of a Song by Junior Sisk & Ramblers Choice (artists), Wes Easter & Ramblers Choice (producers), Rebel Records
GOSPEL RECORDED PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
Beyond The Sunset by Doyle Lawson, Russell Moore, Jamie Dailey & Josh Swift (artists); Doyle Lawson (songwriter); Bob Kelley, Jack Campitelli & Darrel Adkins (producers); Rural Rhythm Records
I Pressed Through The Crowd by Dale Ann Bradley (artist), Joe Isaacs (songwriter), Alison Brown (producer), Compass Records
I Saw Him Walk Out of the Sky by Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver (artists), Dee Gaskin (songwriter), Doyle Lawson (producer), Mountain Home Records
Satisfied by Paul Williams & The Victory Trio (artists), Martha Carson (songwriter), Paul Williams (producer), Rebel Records
Singing As We Rise by The Gibson Brothers with Ricky Skaggs (artists); Joe Newberry (songwriter); Eric Gibson, Mike Barber & Leigh Gibson (producers); Compass Records
INSTRUMENTAL RECORDED PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
Angeline The Baker by the Lonesome River Band (artists & producers), Rural Rhythm Records
Carroll County Blues by Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out (artists & producers), Rural Rhythm Records
Manzanita by Tony Rice, Josh Williams, Aaron Ramsey, Aubrey Haynie & Rob Ickes (artists); Anthony D. Rice (songwriter); Bob Kelley, Jack Campitelli & Darrel Adkins (producers); Rural Rhythm Records
Roaring Creek by Blue Highway (artists & producers), Jason Burleson (songwriter), Rounder Records
That’s What She Said by The Boxcars (artists & producers), Adam Steffey (songwriter), Mountain Home Records
RECORDED EVENT OF THE YEAR
Beyond The Sunset by Doyle Lawson, Russell Moore, Jamie Dailey & Josh Swift (artists); Bob Kelley, Jack Campitelli & Darrel Adkins (producers); Rural Rhythm Records
Life Goes On by Carl Jackson, Ronnie Bowman, Larry Cordle, Jerry Salley, Rickey Wasson, Randy Kohrs, D.A. Adkins, Garnet Bowman, Lynn Butler, Ashley Kohrs, Gary Payne, Dale Pyatt, Clay Hess, Alan Bibey, Jay Weaver, Ron Stewart & Jim VanCleve (artists); Jerry Salley, Carl Jackson, Larry Cordle, Jim Van Cleve & Randy Kohrs (producers); Rural Rhythm Records
Monroe by Special Consensus with Josh Williams & Chris Jones (artists); Alison Brown (producer); Compass Records
Old Violin by Larry Cordle & Michael Cleveland (artists); Bob Kelley, Jack Campitelli & Darrel Adkins (producers); Rural Rhythm Records
Singing As We Rise by The Gibson Brothers with Ricky Skaggs (artists); Eric Gibson, Mike Barber & Leigh Gibson (producers); Compass Records
INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMERS OF THE YEAR
Banjo:
Kristin Scott Benson
Ron Block
J.D. Crowe
Sammy Shelor
Ron Stewart
Bass:
Barry Bales
Mike Bub
Missy Raines
Mark Schatz
Marshall Wilborn
Fiddle:
Hunter Berry
Jason Carter
Michael Cleveland
Stuart Duncan
Ron Stewart
Dobro:
Mike Auldridge
Jerry Douglas
Rob Ickes
Randy Kohrs
Phil Leadbetter
Guitar:
Tony Rice
Kenny Smith
Bryan Sutton
Doc Watson
Josh Williams
Mandolin:
Wayne Benson
Jesse Brock
Sam Bush
Sierra Hull
Adam Steffey
BLUEGRASS BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR
Kyle Cantrell; Sirius XM Satellite Radio; Nashville, TN
Katy Daley; WAMU’s Bluegrass Country; Washington, D.C.
Chris Jones; Sirius XM Satellite Radio; Nashville, TN
BLUEGRASS EVENT OF THE YEAR
Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion; Bristol, TN/VA
La Roche Bluegrass Festival; La Roche, France
ROMP, produced by the International Bluegrass Music Museum; Owensboro, KY
BLUEGRASS PRINT MEDIA PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR
Marty Godbey, author of Crowe on the Banjo: The Music Life of J.D. Crowe (Univ. of Illinois Press)
Derek Halsey; the Herald Dispatch in Huntington, W.Va. and Bluegrass Unlimited magazine
Ted Lehman; Ted Lehmann’s Bluegrass, Books & Brainstorms
BEST GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR A RECORDED PROJECT
Bedrock Manufacturing (designer) for Nobody Knows You, by the Steep Canyon Rangers (Rounder Records)
Caroline Hadilaksono (designer) for Beat the Devil and Carry a Rail, by Noam Pikelny (Compass Records)
Lynch Graphics (designer), for Home from the Hills, by Jimmy Gaudreau & Moondi Klein (Rebel Records)
BEST LINER NOTES FOR A RECORDED PROJECT
Geoffrey Himes (liner notes), for John Duffey: the Rebel Years: 1962-1977, by John Duffey (Rebel Records)
Marian Leighton Levy (liner notes), for Tony Rice: The Bill Monroe Collection, by Tony Rice (Rounder Records)
Bill Nowlin (liner notes), for Bill Monroe Centennial Celebration: A Classic Bluegrass Tribute, by Various Artists (Rounder Records)
BLUEGRASS SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR
Tom T. & Dixie Hall
Donna Ulisse
Jon Weisberger
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