
B I O G R A P H Y
Nashville Bluegrass Band
With
two Grammy awards, two Entertainer of the Year honors from the
International Bluegrass Music Association, and four wins as IBMA's
Vocal Group of the Year, Nashville Bluegrass Band is no stranger to
acclaim from both critics and fans alike.
In
the spring of 2001, NBB broke new ground by performing with the
Nashville Chamber Orchestra on classical violinist Conni Elisor’s
composition for the group, "Whiskey Before Breakfast: Partitas
for Chamber Orchestra and String Band." The collaboration took
place at three concerts in Music City, and was taped for broadcast on
National Public Radio. This adventure is merely one example of NBB's
willingness to experiment and expand conventional musical boundaries.
In
2002, Pat Enright became one of the voices of the Soggy Bottom Boys,
the fictional old-time singing trio led onscreen by George Clooney in
the movie O Brother, Where Art
Thou?
Alan O'Bryant
, Mike Compton and
Stuart Duncan also appeared on the film's soundtrack, and NBB began
performing as a core element of the “Down From the Mountain” tour.
In 2003, Stuart Duncan’s fiddling was featured throughout the
soundtrack of Cold Mountain and, again, NBB was an integral part of
the “Great High Mountain” tour, which featured the music from both
movies. The band celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2004, with the
release of their Grammy nominated album Twenty
Year Blues, and in 2006, NBB was invited to the White House by
President George W. Bush to entertain in honor of visiting president
of China, Hu Jintao.
Nashville
Bluegrass Band was initially formed to accompany Minnie Pearl and
others on a 1984 package tour, and through the years, NBB has
continued to perform with other stellar artists such as Lyle Lovett
and Mary Chapin Carpenter, as well as playing a sold-out concert with
the legendary gospel group, Fairfield Four, at famed Carnegie Hall.
The band has recorded with artists as diverse as Bernadette Peters and
Clint Black, and collaborated with Johnny Cash on the film soundtrack,
Dead Man Walking. NBB also
performed for R.E.M. at their private party, in addition to playing at
Wynonna Judd's wedding reception.
Although
Nashville Bluegrass Band can be as traditional sounding as any
pioneering bluegrass band, the band’s repertoire is extremely
varied, laced with blues compositions and songs from African-American
gospel tradition (the gospel ensemble, Fairfield Four, was featured on
two NBB records). NBB was the first bluegrass group to perform in the
People's Republic of China, and the band’s concerts have spanned the
globe, with performances in Egypt, Brazil, Crete, Bangladesh, Bahrain,
Qatar, The Azores, Iraq, Israel, in addition to Denmark, Germany,
France, Ireland, Switzerland, Turkey, Japan, Italy, Spain and England.
NBB is also one of the few bluegrass bands to have videos in heavy
rotation on the CMT network.
The
members of Nashville Bluegrass Band came together in Nashville from
all points on the compass: Mike Compton (mandolin) is from
Mississippi, Pat Enright (guitar) from Indiana, Alan O'Bryant (banjo)
hails from North Carolina, Stuart Duncan (fiddle) was born in
California, and
Andy Todd
(upright bass) is
a Tennessee native. All band members are on-call session musicians in
constant demand by Nashville's mainstream country stars; yet all the
while, Nashville Bluegrass Band’s nine albums have virtually defined
the modern bluegrass sound. These gifted musicians have joined
together under a name that salutes their adopted hometown to create an
unmatched all-American sound. Nashville Bluegrass Band's talents have
been celebrated, literally, around the world, but the band’s appeal
is as basic as a small-town general store.
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