Nashville Bluegrass Band

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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. They signed to Rounder Records and recorded their Bela 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.[1]

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.[2] They were also nominated for a Grammy for 1998's American Beauty.[1] 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 2000's.

[edit] Members

Original members
  • Alan O'Bryant - banjo
  • Pat Enright - vocals
  • Mike Compton - mandolin
  • Mark Hembree - bass
Later members
  • Gene Libbea - bass
  • Roland White - mandolin
  • Stewart Duncan - fiddle
  • Dennis Crouch - bass

[edit] Discography

  • My Native Home (Rounder Records, 1985)
  • Idletime (Rounder, 1986)
  • The Nashville Bluegrass Band (Rounder, 1987)
  • To Be His Child (Rounder, 1987)
  • New Moon Rising (Sugar Hill Records, 1988)
  • The Boys Are Back in Town (Sugar Hill, 1990)
  • Home of the Blues (Sugar Hill, 1991)
  • Waitin' for the Hard Times to Go (Sugar Hill, 1993)
  • Still Unplugged (Sugar Hill, 1995)
  • Unleashed (Sugar Hill, 1995)
  • American Beauty (Sugar Hill, 1998)
  • Twenty Year Blues (Sugar Hill, 2004)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Nashville Bluegrass Band at All Music Guide
  2. ^ Grammy Awards, Allmusic.com