Sam Bush

Though he admits a certain discomfort with the moniker “King of Newgrass,” Sam Bush has more than earned it. As cofounder and leader of the seminal progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival through 18 years during the 1970s and ’80s, Bush may not be the only person responsible for newgrass — the wild bluegrass stepchild that features rock ’n’ roll grooves and extended virtuosic jams — but since New Grass Revival’s dissolution in 1989, Bush has certainly been one of the most brilliant of newgrass’ many bright lights.

Besides helming the ever-popular Sam Bush Band, featured on his latest release Laps in Seven, the mandolin prodigy from Kentucky has been a prodigious influence on musicians young and old. Bands like Nickel Creek, Yonder Mountain String Band, and String Cheese Incident, to name just a few, are indebted to Bush’s example, not only in his wide-ranging choice of material and rock-based acoustic grooves, but by his captivating, high-energy live shows, which have made him an in-demand headliner, and fan fave at important festivals like Telluride and MerleFest.

When not heading his own band, Bush has spent the past 15 years as a super-sideman with the likes of Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, and the Flecktones; spearheaded boundary-stretching collaborations with Edgar Meyer, Mark O’Connor, and David Grisman; and driven nearly every “bluegrass supergroup” imaginable with his inimitable mandolin playing.

Sam Bush’s ability to be continually touched and amazed by new music may be the quality that makes him such a successful and virtuosic performer and bandleader. He helped create newgrass music almost 35 years ago, but Laps in Seven is evidence that he’s still as vital a presence on the acoustic music scene as ever.

Jim Lauderdale

Jim Lauderdale is a multi-talented performer and songwriter, with successes in both country and bluegrass music. His roots stem from the Carolinas, yet his career has taken him all over the United States and abroad, making him an international recording artist with an ever-growing fan base.

He has hosted the Americana Music Awards for the past three years and won their first Artist of the Year and Song of the Year awards. He is among Nashville's "A" list of songwriters, with songs recorded by artists such as Patty Loveless, Dixie Chicks, Mark Chestnut, Vince Gill and George Strait. He also contributed several songs to the successful soundtrack of the film, "Pure Country." His songs continue to strike a chord with a new generation of artists including Gary Allan and Blake Shelton.

Jim's musical influences include the legendary Dr. Ralph Stanley and George Jones. These influences and his unique sense of melody and lyric help forge a sound that is truly his own. As a performer his credits include production, writing and collaborating on albums such as, "Wait 'Til Spring" with Donna the Buffalo, "Headed for the Hills” with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, "I Feel Like Singing Today" and the Grammy winning “Lost in the Lonesome Pines” with Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys.

Jim’s solo albums include “The Hummingbirds” (Dualtone 2002), “The Other Sessions” (Dualtone 2001), “Onward Through it All” (RCA 1999), “Whisper” (BNA 1997), “Persimmons” (Upstart 1996), “Every Second Counts” (Atlantic 1995), “Pretty Close to the Truth” (Atlantic 1994), and “Planet of Love” (Reprise 1991), as well as his two new releases “Country Super Hits, Volume 1” and “Bluegrass” (Yep Roc 2006).

Buddy Miller

Buddy Miller’s newest album, Universal United House of Prayer, finds his feet planted firmly in the territory that he staked out over the course of five previous records. Again Buddy effortlessly blends a dozen American styles and idioms and evokes the mongrel force that breathed life into America’s best mid-century pop and folk music.

Behind the music is a modest man of extraordinarily broad skills. Emmylou Harris, in whose band Buddy served for 8 years, calls the Nashville transplant “one of the best guitar players of all time.” Steve Earle, another former bandmate, pronounces him “the best country singer working today.” Records by artists ranging from Lucinda Williams to Trisha Yearwood have benefited from Buddy’s vocal and instrumental prowess and hit-makers Lee Ann Womack, Brooks & Dunn, and the Dixie Chicks have affirmed Buddy as one of Music City’s most valuable writers. Then there is his superiority as a producer and engineer along with a nice sideline mastering records.

Buddy is a master of many disciplines – but note how all this mastery is ultimately pressed into service. With Your Love and Other Lies, Poison Love, Cruel Moon, the co-billed Buddy and Julie Miller (a 2001 Grammy nominee for Best Contemporary Folk Album), Midnight and Lonesome, and his latest, Buddy, have created a niche in American music all his own. Here, rich tones are coaxed from plastic guitars and trash cans, human desires are unveiled, picked over and mourned, and remote musical origins are honored. Buddy’s singularity is in his willingness to subordinate his extravagant technical gifts to a specific program: the creation of a music that is purposefully personal, naturally eccentric, and spiritually substantial. He is, simply, a thoroughgoing auteur, the only one in country music.