Rhonda, Rage and Rounder Artists Round up at 2008 SPBGMA awards
Rhonda Vincent photo by Albert SanchezBurlington, MA - Rounder Records is pleased to announce that its artists garnered 13 awards at the 34th annual SPBGMA [Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America] Music Awards show held Sunday in Nashville.
Rounder artists were the top winners overall, including seven awards for Rhonda Vincent & the Rage and three for The Grascals. Vincent was voted Entertainer of the Year and Best Contemporary Female Vocalist while she and her band won Vocal Group of the Year. The Grascals scored three awards including Bluegrass Band of the Year and Instrumental Group of the Year. J.D. Crowe & The New South won Song of the Year for “Lefty’s Old Guitar,” the title track from their Grammy® nominated (Best Bluegrass Album) release.
For a second time, NewFound Road and Alecia Nugent picked up their respective awards for Gospel Group of the Year (Contemporary) and Female Vocalist of the Year (Traditional) while James King returned to the throne of Male Vocalist of the Year (Traditional).
Below is the complete list of Rounder Records’ SPBGMA award winners:
Entertainer of the Year
- Rhonda Vincent
Song of the Year
- “Lefty’s Old Guitar” - J.D. Crowe & The New South
Bluegrass Band of the Year (Overall)
- The Grascals
Instrumental Group of the Year
- The Grascals
Vocal Group of the Year
- Rhonda Vincent & The Rage
Gospel Group of the Year (Contemporary)
- NewFound Road
Female Vocalist of the Year (Contemporary)
- Rhonda Vincent
Female Vocalist of the Year (Traditional)
- Alecia Nugent
Male Vocalist of the Year (Traditional)
- James King
Mandolin Performer of the Year
- Danny Roberts (member of The Grascals)
Fiddle Performer of the Year
- Hunter Berry (member of Rhonda Vincent & The Rage)
Banjo Performer of the Year
- Kenny Ingram (member of Rhonda Vincent & The Rage)
Bass Fiddle Performer of the Year
- Mickey Harris (member of Rhonda Vincent & The Rage)
Rhonda Vincent interview on CMT.com
“Good Thing Going” (Rounder)CMT.com’s Edward Morris has a great interview with Rhonda Vincent currently online.
In the interview, Vincent shares some of here “secrets” to staying organized with such a chaotic schedule between life on the road, building a new studio and finding time to record her latest album “Good Thing Going” that was released January 8th on Rounder Records. She also discusses how she convinced James Stroud to come play pizza box percussion on the new record.
But the oddest guest appearance is by drummer James Stroud, who was brought in to play a pizza box on one of the cuts. Stroud used to head the now-defunct Giant Records, and Vincent was the first act he signed to the label. That was back in the early 1990s when she was attempting to establish a career in country music. While that particular goal never came to fruition, Vincent credits Stroud with teaching her the essentials of recording and of how the music business works.
This wasn’t the first time Vincent had used pizza-box percussion on a recording session, but it was the first time Stroud had heard of such goings on.
“James thought it was a joke when I called him,” Vincent says with a chuckle. “He said, ‘Are you serious? Do you want me to do this?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely!’ He said, “If you’ll have the pizza box and brushes, I’ll be there.’ So I ran to the Pizza Hut over in Hermitage, and I got small, medium and large pizzas. We had the brushes there. He checked them out. We ended up [choosing] a medium [box], and we were good.”CMT.com
You can read the whole Rhonda Vincent interview on CMT.com.
No commentsVincent to make Nashville appearances
Rhonda Vincent - “Good Thing Going”On the heels of the release of her new CD, Rhonda Vincent and her band, The Rage, will host the Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree at midnight Saturday at the Ernest Tubb Record Shop on Music Valley Drive in Nashville, Tenn.
Admission to the show is free for those in and around the Nashville area. For those of you who can’t be there in person, tune your radio dials to 650 AM WSM or listen online at www.wsmonline.com.
That appearance will follow a show on the televised portion of the Grand Ole Opry that evening. The telecast is shown on cable channel GAC. The Opry shows are also broadcast over XM Satellite Radio and WSMonline.com, or on 650 AM, the Opry’s home for years on the radio dial.
Vincent and the Rage this week released their latest CD, “Good Thing Going,” to rave reviews.
“By now it should be obvious that Rhonda Vincent is simply incapable of making anything but good albums. Even by her own lofty standards, though, Good Thing Going is something special — a fully realized bluegrass beauty in which all the elements of songwriting, musicianship, arrangements, and production are state of the art and really couldn’t be better,”David McGee - Barnes & Noble critic
The CD features five Vincent-penned cuts and duets with IIIrd Tyme Out’s Russell Moore and country singer Keith Urban. Besides the Rage, guest musicians include fiddler Stewart Duncan and premiere acoustic guitarist Bryan Sutton.
No commentsRounder has Rhonda Vincent Interview online
Rounder Records currently has 2-part interview with Rhonda Vincent online discussing her forthcoming release “Good Thing Going” on Rounder. The CD is currently scheduled for a release date of January 8th, 2008.
In the interview Rhonda discusses the projects special guests, the original songs, and life on the road with her backing band “The Rage.”
No commentsIn most everything that we do, we’re always attempting to create something unique. I think having my own studio gives me the freedom to do that. There’s no longer this time constraint, someone saying “You have to finish this up because we have somebody else coming in.” Most of the time, we have the freedom to create. Some of the musicians that were in the studio were saying, “You’re not just here recording tracks, you’re creating something,” which is good to hear! Rhonda Vincent
Rhonda Vincent talks about “Good Thing Going”
In this video Rhonda discusses how the title for the new album came about, where some of the songs came from, and the freedoms gained during the recording process by owning her own studio. There’s also some behind the scenes footage from the studio and Rhonda talks about her Brother Darin and what a crucial role he plays in the studio.