Saturday, April 3, 2010

Bluegrass in Their Blood

Rhonda Vincent, one of bluegrass music's brightest stars, recently stepped out of the spotlight and played mandolin for a band of upstarts.
"I had the greatest time of my life," Vincent says from a recording studio in Nashville, Tenn. "I had such a wonderful time, just being a sideman -- loading in merchandise, carrying in instruments and loading back out and traveling in a van."
Vincent, who will perform Saturday with her band, the Rage, along with Nash Street, Nothin Fancy, Jesse McReynolds and Bobby Osborne at American Music Theatre, wasn't doing the grunt work for just anybody. She journeyed from her home in Missouri to Chicago to play with her two daughters, Sally, 21, and Tensel, 23, who have their own bluegrass band, the Next Big Thing.
Vincent, who reigned as the International Bluegrass Music Association's Female Vocalist of the Year from 2000 through 2006, says she was caught by surprise when her daughters decided to follow her into the music business
She said neither seemed to care much about music while they were growing up.
"They had absolutely no interest," says Vincent, 47, who talks just about as fast as she plays. "It was what their mom did. They played sports, they played basketball, softball. They could sing but I had to beg them to sing a song with me."
That changed when her daughters both decided to attend East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tenn., and then enrolled in the school's music program.
"Sally calls me and says, 'Mom, I've had an epiphany; there's bluegrass in my blood,'" Vincent recalls.Full story.

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