Superstars Alison Krauss and Billy Strings stand out among this year’s IBMA Award nominations, which were announced on Wednesday morning. But a coincidentally timed show at Tuesday’s Bluegrass Nights At The Ryman series went at least as far in telling the story of where the genre is going in 2025. The co-bill featured AJ Lee & Blue Summit and East Nash Grass, artists enjoying their national breakouts and who are both now in the running for major awards in September, when the International Bluegrass Music Association brings its World of Bluegrass convention for the first time to Chattanooga.
East Nash Grass, a group born out of a long-running Monday night residency at Dee’s Lounge in Madison, received its first nomination for Entertainers of the Year, along with veterans Alison Krauss & Union Station, Appalachian Road Show, Billy Strings, and the Del McCoury Band. They’re also up for Instrumental Group of the Year, along with the Strings band, The Travelin’ McCourys, Molly Tuttle’s Golden Highway, and Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper.
AJ Lee enjoys her second nomination in two years as Female Vocalist of the Year, alongside Sierra Hull and past winners Krauss, Jaelee Roberts, and Brooke Aldridge. Lee’s band also took a second consecutive nod in the important New Artist of the Year category, which East Nash Grass won in 2024. Lee’s fellow nominees tell us even more about the shifting dynamics of the music. Two-time Fiddle Player of the Year Bronwyn Keith-Hynes has gone solo after stints with Mile Twelve and Golden Highway. Six-time Fiddle Player of the Year Jason Carter made headlines recently by going solo after decades with the Del McCoury Band and Travelin’ McCourys. Both have superb music out on their own, and they’ve become bluegrass music’s Tim and Faith by getting married last year. Rounding out the New Artists are teenage mandolin sensation Wyatt Ellis and North Carolina band Red Camel Collective, themselves a band offshoot from the award-winning leader Junior Sisk.
Keith-Hynes scored another coup as her Grammy-nominated solo record I Built A World made its way into the Album of the Year category, alongside the industry’s heaviest hitters - Krauss for Arcadia, Strings for Highway Prayers, Tony Trischka for Earl Jam, and the hot fiddling duo side project of Michael Cleveland and Jason Carter, called Carter & Cleveland.
Flashing back to the night before, the Ryman show proved that the talent is ready for the moment. East Nash Grass swings hard and mines bluegrass for some of its most foundational bluesy elements. On Tuesday night, they mixed sharp originals with plenty of interpretations of under-exposed historic songs. Maddie Denton, not knowing she’d soon be a Fiddle Player of the Year nominee, shone as lead singer on the ballad “Just A Few Old Memories,” and bass player Jeff Partin delivered a nice “I Ain’t Broke, But I’m Badly Bent,” a song made famous by David Grisman. A highlight was a fresh read of the old song “Hop High,” with powerful banjo from Cory Walker and unbridled fiddling and singing by Denton. Walker also played fingerstyle lead on a guitar owned by Earl Scruggs in the gospel song “Let The Church Roll On.” The band will be releasing their third album All God’s Children on August 22.
If East Nash Grass met expectations for their Ryman debut, AJ Lee & Blue Summit exceeded them. Lee grew up playing mandolin and singing in the same California bluegrass scene that gave Molly Tuttle her start. In fact they are old, close friends who spent years in Molly’s family band together before heading off for school and life and separate careers as band leaders, with Lee a few years behind. When she started recording, it was clear Lee’s voice is a rare thing - luminous and velvety and perfectly in tune. It was clear, even as she struggled at first with a broken in-ear monitor, that she brings exactly that vocal command to the stage. While the band lets four different musicians take lead vocals, Lee’s singing is the main event; she could unite the tribes that love Krauss, jazz star Samara Joy, and the throwback pop singer Laufey.
Then there’s the Blue Summit band. Sure the name sounds like it was drawn at random from a bag of bluegrass words, but lord they can play. They found an all-new, low-boogie groove for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band hit “Fishing In The Dark.” They bounced charmingly in a bluegrass bop about a dachshund. Fiddler Jan Purat can go anywhere and do anything and he plays off of Lee’s mandolin well. Most conspicuous though is the presence (and interplay) of two lead acoustic guitarists. (Take that, Billy Strings). On the left was Scott Gates and on the right, Sullivan “Sully” Tuttle, who is, to add to the California family lore, Molly’s younger brother. Sully’s baritone singing and picking on the minor-key gypsy style song “Who Walks In (When I Walk Out)” was a thrill. But the show stopper was a long, adventurous interpretation of the railroad tempo “Glendale Train.” They slipped into a lengthy jam in the sneakiest way, trading ideas, raising the temperature, going quiet and charging back to a fierce finale. This band is rolling like a locomotive.
Anyway, artists like AJ Lee and team and East Nash Grass are walking the path cut by their elders, and the IBMA nominations are an annual reminder of that with their announcements of the new inductees into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame. IBMA Executive Director Ken White revealed them: Hot Rize, the quartet of Tim O’Brien (mandolin), Pete Wernick (banjo), Charles Sawtelle (guitar), and Nick Forster (bass), brought smooth vocal harmonies and sharp songwriting to traditional bluegrass while establishing a 1980s bluegrass scene in Colorado that’s been on fire ever since. The Bluegrass Cardinals were a great west coast band formed by Don Parmley in 1974 that played suit-and-tie bluegrass until their disbanding in the late 1990s. Rounding out the inductees is the legacy category selection of Arnold Shultz, the African American fiddler and guitarist who influenced great Kentucky artists Merle Travis and the Father of Bluegrass himself, Bill Monroe.
Sierra Hull, who is nominated once again as Mandolin Player of the Year (she could win her seventh), co-hosted the nominations celebration with SiriusXM Program Director Joey Black. Hull also performed a few numbers with her band, as did the Travelin’ McCourys, the future-looking core of the Del McCoury Band, which is still going strong with their 86-year-old patriarch. Both bands joined new hall of famers Tim O’Brien and David Parmley (son of Don), to close out the event with Monroe’s iconic “I’m Blue, I’m Lonesome.”
Bluegrassers in the 21st century are a lot less lonely than they claim in song. There’s always a youth brigade coming up because it’s a musical community with a farm system. But it’s an especially potent time with a national surge of interest in roots music, the arena-scale success of Billy Strings, and the return to touring by Alison Krauss after a decade of doing other things. The Earl Scruggs Festival (where in disclosure I work as an artist interviewer) already knows it will set an attendance record on Labor Day weekend in North Carolina, thanks in part to AKUS. Molly Tuttle has made a shift toward pop with a new band and sound, so that may make further room for other younger artists. Mr. Monroe didn’t know he was handing us a century-spanning metaphor when he named his band the Blue Grass Boys. This music just never stops growing.
A complete list of IBMA Award nominees follows. The 36th annual awards ceremony will take place September 18 at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Learn more about the incoming World of Bluegrass 2025 here.
ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
Alison Krauss & Union Station
Appalachian Road Show
Billy Strings
East Nash Grass
The Del McCoury Band
SONG OF THE YEAR
5 Days Out, 2 Days Back - Alison Brown, Steve Martin, Featuring Tim O'Brien
Songwriters: Steve Martin/Alison Brown
Producers: Alison Brown/Garry West
Label: Compass Records
Big Wheels - Authentic Unlimited
Songwriter: Jerry Cole
Producer: Authentic Unlimited
Label: Billy Blue Records
Coal Dust Kisses - The Grascals
Songwriters: Susanne Mumpower/Jerry Salley
Producer: The Grascals
Label: Mountain Home Music Company
My Favorite Picture of You - Darin & Brooke Aldridge
Songwriters: Darin Aldridge/Brooke Aldridge/Dennis Duff
Producers: Darin Aldridge/Mark Fain
Label: Billy Blue Records
Outrun the Rain - Jason Carter & Michael Cleveland
Songwriters: Terry Herd/Jimmy Yeary
Producers: Jason Carter/Michael Cleveland
Label: Fiddle Man Records
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Arcadia - Alison Krauss & Union Station
Producer: Alison Krauss & Union Station
Label: Down the Road Records
Carter & Cleveland - Jason Carter & Michael Cleveland
Producers: Jason Carter/Michael Cleveland
Label: Fiddle Man Records
Earl Jam - Tony Trischka
Producers: Tony Trischka/Lawson White
Label: Down the Road Records
Highway Prayers - Billy Strings
Producers: Billy Strings/Jon Brion
Label: Reprise Records
I Built a World - Bronwyn Keith-Hynes
Producers: Brent Truitt/Bronwyn Keith-Hynes
Label: Sugar Petunia Records
VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR
Alison Krauss & Union Station
Authentic Unlimited
Blue Highway
Sister Sadie
The Del McCoury Band
INSTRUMENTAL GROUP OF THE YEAR
Billy Strings
East Nash Grass
Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
The Travelin' McCourys
GOSPEL RECORDING OF THE YEAR
Blue Collar Gospel - Jerry Salley Featuring The Oak Ridge Boys
Songwriters: Rick Lang/Bill Whyte/Jerry Salley
Producer: Jerry Salley
Label: Billy Blue Records
Dear Lord - Darin & Brooke Aldridge
Songwriter: Daniel Davis
Producers: Darin Aldridge/Mark Fain
Label: Billy Blue Records
Even Better When You Listen - Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers
Songwriters: Rick Lang/Mark BonDurant
Producer: Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers
Label: Billy Blue Records
He's Gone - Jaelee Roberts
Songwriter: Kelsi Harrigill
Producer: Byron House
Label: Mountain Home Music Company
Wings of Love - Authentic Unlimited
Songwriters: Jesse Brock/Stephen Burwell/Jerry Cole/Eli Johnston/John Meador
Producer: Authentic Unlimited
Label: Billy Blue Records
INSTRUMENTAL RECORDING OF THE YEAR
Bluegrass in the Backwoods – Jason Carter & Michael Cleveland
Songwriter: Kenny Baker
Producers: Jason Carter/Michael Cleveland
Label: Fiddle Man Records
The Drifter – Danny Roberts
Songwriter: Danny Roberts
Producers: Danny Roberts/Andrea Roberts
Label: Mountain Home Music Company
A Drive at Dusk – Authentic Unlimited
Songwriter: Jesse Brock
Producer: Authentic Unlimited
Label: Billy Blue Records
Kern County Breakdown – Jason Carter & Michael Cleveland
Songwriter: Buck Owens/Don Rich
Producers: Jason Carter/Michael Cleveland
Label: Fiddle Man Records
Ralph's Banjo Special - Kristin Scott Benson, Gena Britt & Alison Brown
Songwriter: Ralph Stanley
Producer: Alison Brown
Label: Compass Records
NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR
AJ Lee & Blue Summit
Bronwyn Keith-Hynes
Jason Carter
Red Camel Collective
Wyatt Ellis
COLLABORATIVE RECORDING OF THE YEAR
5 Days Out, 2 Days Back - Alison Brown & Steve Martin Featuring Tim O'Brien
Songwriters: Steve Martin/Alison Brown
Producer: Alison Brown/Garry West
Label: Compass Records
A Million Memories (A Song for Byron) - Darin & Brooke Aldridge Featuring Vince Gill
Songwriter: Vince Gill
Producers: Darin Aldridge/Mark Fain
Label: Billy Blue Records
Cora Is Gone - Bobby Osborne & C.J. Lewandowski Featuring Rob McCoury & Billy Strings
Songwriter: Mac OdellProducer: C.J. Lewandowski
Label: Turnberry Records
Outrun the Rain - Jason Carter, Michael Cleveland, Jaelee Roberts & Vince Gill
Songwriters: Terry Herd/Jimmy Yeary
Producers: Jason Carter/Michael Cleveland
Label: Fiddle Man Records
Ralph's Banjo Special - Kristin Scott Benson, Gena Britt & Alison Brown
Songwriter: Ralph Stanley
Producer: Alison Brown
Label: Compass Records
MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Billy Strings
Dan Tyminski
Del McCoury
Greg Blake
Russell Moore
FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
AJ Lee
Alison Krauss
Brooke Aldridge
Jaelee Roberts
Sierra Hull
BANJO PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Alison Brown
Gena Britt
Kristin Scott Benson
Ron Block
Tony Trischka
BASS PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Barry Bales
Mike Bub
Missy Raines
Todd Phillips
Vickie Vaughn
FIDDLE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Bronwyn Keith-Hynes
Jason Carter
Maddie Denton
Michael Cleveland
Stuart Duncan
RESOPHONIC GUITAR PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Andy Hall
Jerry Douglas
Justin Moses
Matt Leadbetter
Rob Ickes
GUITAR PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Billy Strings
Bryan Sutton
Cody Kilby
Molly Tuttle
Trey Hensley
MANDOLIN PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Alan Bibey
Jesse Brock
Ronnie McCoury
Sam Bush
Sierra Hull
MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR
5 Days Out, 2 Days Back - Alison Brown & Steve Martin Featuring Tim O'Brien
Songwriters: Steve Martin/Alison Brown
Producer: Alison Brown/Garry West
Videographer: Joseph Spence
Label: Compass Records
A Million Memories (A Song for Byron) - Darin & Brooke Aldridge Featuring Vince Gill
Songwriter: Vince Gill
Producer: Jenny Gill
Videographer: Travis Flynn
Label: Billy Blue Records
Big Wheels - Authentic Unlimited
Songwriter: Jerry Cole
Producers: Bryce Free/Kyle Johnson
Videographer: Bryce Free
Label: Billy Blue Records
Gallows Pole - Appalachian Road Show
Songwriter: Traditional arr. Barry Abernathy/Jim VanCleve/Darrell Webb
Producer: Steve Kinney
Videographer: Steve Kinney
Label: Billy Blue RecordsTennessee
Hound Dog - The Grascals
Songwriter: Felice Bryant/Boudleaux Bryant
Producer: Ty Gilpin
Videographer: Nate Shuppert
Label: Mountain Home Music Company
The Auctioneer - The Kody Norris Show
Songwriters: Leroy Van Dyke/Buddy Black
Producer: James Gilley
Videographer: Nate Wiles
Label: Rebel Records
