Rhonda Vincent was fresh off a Kentucky stage when she slowed down long enough to talk, words dipped in twang rolling over the phone line at the same speed as her high-energy band fires off notes.
Life is good for the four-time International Bluegrass Music Association’s Vocalist of the Year (2000-03), whose only competition for that title right now might be childhood friend Alison Krauss.
Vincent headlines the Darrington Bluegrass Festival this weekend with three performances.
Rounder Records has given her free reign to write and produce her own vision, and she’s rewarded the company’s confidence many times over.
“They allow me the liberty to create whatever music I like,” said Vincent, unlike her experiences in country music.
“It was more like an assembly line production. They picked the songs, and the musician was just a singer who comes in and sings the songs,” she said.
“With Rounder … I had the peace of mind knowing that if it didn’t work, I only had myself to blame.”
The mandolin and fiddle player has been playing since she was a child.
When she was 8, her family’s bluegrass group was in a country music show in Missouri. The producer’s rule was that if you didn’t play an instrument on stage, you didn’t get paid.
“Dad gave me a mandolin. He said, ‘Here’s G, C and D.”
By the time she was 23 and ready to go on her own, Vincent had racked up eight LPs with her family’s act, the Sally Mountain Show, which also hosted TV and radio programs.
Although she’s been performing on her own for almost 20 years, it’s just been in the past several that she’s made her mark with bluegrass.
The soprano and her band, The Rage, are on the road most of the year, taking full advantage of their skills and the boost from some opening dates on the post-“O Brother Where Art Thou” Down from the Mountain tour.
“The greatest appeal is the authenticity of bluegrass,” Vincent said. “In other music, there are so many types of electronics enhancing the sound. In bluegrass, you’re listening to the actual sound of the instrument. It’s authentic, and that seems to appeal to people.”
When Vincent concentrated on bluegrass, people told her she should consider doing country music. After a couple of county albums, “They asked if I could get the bluegrass out of my voice. I knew I had come to a crossroads.
“I started my first official band (in 1999), played bluegrass and the response was overwhelming. Everything fell into place. I’ve never been happier.”
Perception, she said, is with the listener. “The difference is in the instrumentation. When I do a slow ballad without a banjo, it’s more country. When I’m singing a hard-driving, in-your-face song, it’s bluegrass.”
She’s scoring big with her mix. Her latest, “One Step Ahead,” earned her first Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album.
She didn’t win (Rounder teammate Krause won with “Live”), but she picked up a Grammy as part of the tribute album “Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’: Songs of the Louvin Brothers,” which won for Best Country Album.
Vincent, who without music might have been an accountant, followed her heart.
“I tell my daughters that it doesn’t matter what they do as long as it’s something they love.”
Vincent is following her own advice.
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