Nashville, Tenn. — Tickets to the 19th Annual IBMA Awards Show (Oct. 2) go on sale today, September 19, to the general public. Hosted by the legendary Del McCoury, who with his band has won the IBMA’s Entertainer of the Year award for an unprecedented nine times and is nominated again this year, the show will feature performances by this year’s top nominees, including Blue Highway, Dale Ann Bradley, Dailey & Vincent, The Del McCoury Band, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, The Grascals, The Infamous Stringdusters, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, The SteelDrivers, The Steep Canyon Rangers and others.

Reigning Entertainers of the Year, the Grascals will perform and have hopes of taking home the crystal trophies they’ve held in that category for the last two years. Seven time Vocal Group of the Year Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver will showcase their tight harmonies and showmanship while songbird Dale Ann Bradley, reigning IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year, will give the audience a taste of why she is nominated again this year.

Dailey & Vincent, in their first year as a duo, have ten award nominations, including Entertainer of the Year, Vocal Group of the Year, Album of the Year and two Song of the Year nods. Supergroups Blue Highway and Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder will demonstrate the virtuosity that earned both of them six nominations, including Instrumental Group of the Year and Album of the Year. In fact, the audience will be treated to performances by all of the artists with Album of the Year nominations, including the SteelDrivers, a group that also earned a nod for Emerging Artist of the Year, and the Infamous Stringdusters, who took home the Emerging Artist award in 2007. Del McCoury will celebrate his 50th anniversary in the music business with a performance with his band.

A highlight of the IBMA Awards Show will be the induction of this year’s Hall of Fame honorees — Bill Clifton, a pioneering artist, songwriter and international ambassador for bluegrass music, and the late author and historian, Charles K. Wolfe.

The current list of award presenters include nominees Sierra Hull, Sonya Isaacs, Claire Lynch, Bradley Walker, Marshall Wilborn and Josh Williams, along with Terry Baucom, Ron Block, Larry Cordle, G2 Bluegrass Band, Carrie Hassler, Vince Gill, Kathy Mattea, Lynn Morris, Alecia Nugent and Tony Trischka.

Tickets go on sale to the public today, Friday, September 19, by logging on to the Ryman website at www.ryman.com, calling the Ryman Box office at 615-889-3060 or through TicketMaster at 615-255-9600.

To read about this year’s IBMA nominees please browse through the IBMA Nominees category here on BluegrassJournal.com

For more information about the IBMA Awards or Bluegrass Fan Fest which follows (October 3-5 at the Nashville Convention Center) contact IBMA at 1-888-438-4262 or visit www.ibma.org