Nashville Bluegrass Band brings roots music to TRC
Release Date: 4/8/2002. Expired: 5/18/2002
The Grammy Award-winning Nashville Bluegrass Band will bring its mountain roots music, laced with a little taste of other genres, to The Renaissance Center stage May 18.
The band is enjoying new popularity since band member Pat Enright provided harmony on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, which won the 2002 Grammy as Album of the Year. Enright sang harmony for I am a Man of Constant Sorrow on the tremendously popular album from the movie.
Comprised of Enright on guitar, Alan O’Bryant on banjo, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Mike Compton on mandolin, and Dennis Crouch on upright bass, NBB has become the most awarded bluegrass group ever to come together. Two Grammy awards, two Entertainers of the Year awards and four Vocal Group of the Year awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association are just a few, not to mention their numerous individual awards.
Having toured extensively, the NBB has taken its unique sound and show to Italy, Iraq, Israel, Brazil, Britain, Germany, France, Egypt, Japan and The People’s Republic of China.
In recent months the group has been seen several times on The Grand Ole Opry and last spring joined the Nashville Chamber Orchestra for three concerts and a taping for National Public Radio.
“We are so fortunate to be able to have Nashville Bluegrass Band at The Renaissance Center,” said Elaine Sherrill, senior director of Music at The Renaissance Center. “With their increased touring schedule this year due to the O Brother soundtrack as well as the popularity they’re gaining in their own right, I didn’t know if they would be able to find an open date for us. I was elated when their manager said, ‘Yes, they can fit you in!’ I feel especially fortunate now to have them booked because they have just recently been signed to do another O Brother tour this summer.”
Sherrill has even more reason to celebrate. The concert will hook her up again with her former music student, bass player Dennis Crouch, who lives in Charlotte.
“Yes! A student of mine!” she said. “He’s been a professional musician for many years but never learned to read music. He took music reading lessons from me in order to feel more prepared for the many recording sessions he’s now called upon to do.”
Mike Compton is also taking music lessons at The Renaissance Center from Charles Li for similar reasons, Sherrill said.
“Mike’s wife and daughter also participate in music classes at the center. Both Dennis and Mike have shared their musical talents at the center previously as band members in the annual Christmas variety show I produce.”
Members of the NBB represent some of the top musicians in Nashville. Stuart Duncan is on the A-list of session musicians who became more in demand when fiddler Mark O’Connor stopped doing sessions. Crouch is the stand-up bass man to call.
“In my opinion, Nashville Bluegrass Band is indeed the coolest bluegrass band around,” Sherrill said. “They are the band of choice to bluegrass musicians.”
Heading into the studio for its 10th album, NBB is always looking for “what’s next,” according to O’Bryant.
“Change is good,” he said. “You’re always looking for ways to reinvent yourself. We’ve always been interested in what’s next. We do some of our old stuff whenever we perform, but really part of the reason for having this band is for whatever’s coming next.”
NBB was originally established as a back-up band for Minnie Pearl and others on a 1984 package tour. The band also performed with Lyle Lovett and Mary Chapin Carpenter to a sold-out Carnegie Hall, and backed artists Bernadette Peters and Clint Black in the studio. The band collaborated with Johnny Cash on the movie soundtrack for Dead Man Walking, and played casuals for an R.E.M. party and Wynonna Judd’s wedding reception.
The Nashville Bluegrass Band will take the Performance Hall stage at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 18. Tickets are $15.
To purchase tickets or for more information call The Renaissance Center at (615)740-5600.
The Renaissance Center is located at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 minutes west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.