NOTE: Saturday Soundtracks are semi-regular weekend updates on musical events, musicians and bands that catch my ear. Enjoy! 

Music is a salve for the soul. When times are difficult, I often find that I haven’t had enough music in my life. As Duke Ellington famously said, there are only two kinds of music: “good music and the other kind.” I go for the good music. That’s why I’ll mix baroque, jazz, blues, the Piano Prince of New Orleans, some good ole’ rock-and-roll, country, folk, and lots of roots music into a hearty musical stew. It is all different and its all good. There are amazing musicians and much to love and admire in each of those genres.

Which brings me to the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) 2025 Award nominees. The 36th Annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards, where the winners, recipients, and inductees will be honored by their peers and fans, is scheduled for September 18th.

For this Saturday Soundtrack I thought it would be fun to pick out a few performances by some of the groups and individual musicians who have been nominated this year. As usual, I went down a rabbit hole. In doing so, I found quite a few new gems.

One of the nominees for the IBMA Entertainer of the Year award, Appalachian Road Show, is among those new finds for me. As you can see in the video for Blue Ridge Mountain Baby, these guys thrive on authentic bluegrass.

Outrun The Rain by Fiddlers Jason Carter and Michael Cleveland is one of the five nominees for Song of the Year. I just love hearing good twin fiddles, and these two masters can really bring it. Their Carter & Cleveland project is also up for Album of the Year.

The all-female bluegrass supergroup Sister Sadie has been nominated for Vocal Group of the Year while band member Gina Britt is a nominee for Banjo Player of the Year (one of three women in that category—more on that in a moment) and lead singer Jaylee Roberts is a nominee in the category of Female Vocalist of the Year.

The Grascals‘ Tennessee Hound Dog—a take on the old Felice and Boudleaux Bryant composition made popular by the Osborne Brothers—is in the running for Music Video of the Year. Oh, and it features another of those great female five-string players up for Banjo Player of the Year: Kristen Scott Benson. Check out her hot break at the 1:20 mark when—in the great tradition of the banjo master Earl Scruggs—she plays amazing licks while her face has an “‘eh, this is nothing” look on it.

Another Music Video of the Year nominee is 5 Days Out, 2 Days Back. The song was written by Alison Brown and Steve Martin and features Tim O’Brien on lead vocal and mandolin, Martin on banjo, Brown on low banjo, Bryan Sutton (a perennial Guitar Player of the Year nominee) on guitar and harmony vocals, Stuart Duncan (Fiddle Player of the Year nominee), Todd Phillips (Bass Player of the Year nominee), and Vickie Vaughn (another Bass Player of the Year nominee) on harmony vocals.

Molly Tuttle, a now perennial Guitar Player of the Year nominee, is someone I’ve featured frequently on MTC. Let’s take a look at several of her recent outings, including a couple of duets with Old Crow’s Ketch Secor . . .

. . . and her most recent pop-influenced tune That’s Gonna Leave a Mark (if you can call having clawhammer guitar on a song pop).

A former member of Molly Tuttle’s Golden Highway band—two-time IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year winner Bronwyn Keith-Hynes—has now been nominated for New Artist of the Year. The first single on her debut album, Can’t Live Without Love, features several members of bluegrass royalty: Molly and Sam Bush sing harmony vocals while master of the dobro Jerry Douglas, guitarist Bryan Sutton, mandolinist Dominick Leslie, banjoist Wesley Corbett, and bassist Jeff Picker round out the studio band.

I’ve mentioned the three female nominees for Banjo Player of the Year (Benson, Bitt, and Brown), but I just want to say that if their terrific version of Ralph’s Banjo Special doesn’t win Instrumental Recording of the Year, then I demand a recount! Ralph Stanley is smiling up in heaven. Check out their smooth exchange of the same banjo beginning just after the 50 second mark, then the duet that Alison and Kristen pull off at the end of that little segment. Unreal! (And you have the added bonus of Bass Player of the Year nominee—the great Missy Raines—playing a short solo at about the 2:20 mark.)

Billy Strings is nominated for Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Instrumental Group of the Year, and Guitar Player of the Year, while his Highway Prayers project is up for Album of the Year. Whew! In the first video, Strings duets with Sierra Hull, a Female Vocalist of the Year and Mandolin Player of the Year nominee, on the Austin City Limits 50th anniversary show.

Here is Strings and the amazing Tommy Emmanuel just going crazy . . .

Malfunction Junction is from the Highway Prayers album. The live version below includes guest picker Sierra Hull.

And after a long absence, Alison Krauss & Union Station are back, leading the nominations following the release of their first album in over a decade, Arcadia. Between Krauss, and Union Station’s band members, the group have amassed nine nominations, including Entertainer of the Year—for which their last win was in 1995—Album of the Year, and Vocal Group of the Year. 

Looks Like the End of the Road is the first single from the Arcadia album.

If you have the time, watch this wonderful interview with Alison where she goes into all sorts of musical places (the good stuff) including riffs on O Brother Where Art Thou (34:00 mark), Tom Jones and Little Richard (at 39:55), followed quickly by Stevie Wonder and Glen Campbell.

Alison also talks about her friend and sometime musical collaborator, the late Tony Rice, at the 14:20 mark, in an explanation of why his version of Hard Love is just about perfect.

Tim O’Brien’s old band Hot Rize is being inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame this year. Here’s a reunion show of the band on e-Town with guests Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, and Sam Bush.

Finally, for the first time in the nearly 40-year history of the IBMA, a Black person will be inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.

“Arnold Schultz, a seminal figure in bluegrass, blues, and old-time credited with greatly influencing the Father of Bluegrass, Bill Monroe, will be the first non-white member of the genre’s hall of honor.”

Shultz’s Dream is the name of a song written on commission by Dom Flemons, The American Songster. It pays tribute to bluegrass pioneer Arnold Shultz (1886-1931). The band is led by Flemons and he is joined by Dante’ Pope (formerly of Crossrhodes), Brian Farrow (of Ganstagrass), IBMA Award winning banjo player Tray Wellington, and Shultz expert Dr. Richard Brown. As Flemons sings, “Let’s send Arnold home” in style, as a Bluegrass Hall of Famer.

As I say at the top, these cats are good!

More to come . . .

DJB

Guitar by 42-north on Unsplash