This morning, July 15, 2026, the International Bluegrass Music Association announced the nominees and recipients for the 37th Annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards at a special unveiling ceremony at the SiriusXM offices and studios in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The event was co-hosted by Bluegrass Junction on-air host Joey Black with Alison Brown and Stephen Mougin, and was broadcast live over SiriusXM Bluegrass Junction and the IBMA Facebook page. Artists Mason Via and Bronwyn gave special live performances and each received nominations, too – Via for New Artist of the Year and Bronwyn for Fiddle Player of the Year.

Nominated for Entertainer of the Year, arguably the highest honor each year at the IBMA Awards, are Billy Strings, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Sister Sadie, East Nash Grass, and the Del McCoury Band. Meanwhile, the projects nominated for Album of the Year are Can’t Outrun the Blues (Trey Hensley), All Will Be Well (Sister Sadie), All God’s Children (East Nash Grass), Della Jane’s Heart (Appalachian Road Show), and Songs That Sing Me (Becky Buller).

Bryan Sutton is nominated in a handful of categories: Guitar Player of the Year, Instrumental Recording of the Year (“Grandfather’s Clock” with Sierra Hull), and twice for his hilarious and excellent music video for “The Devil Went Down to Deep Gap,” which gained nominations for Music Video of the Year and Collaborative Recording of the Year. Along with his nomination for Entertainer of the Year, Billy Strings is also included in Sutton’s nominations for “The Devil Went Down to Deep Gap,” on which he’s featured, as well as receiving nominations for Instrumental Group of the Year, Collaborative Recording of the Year (with Tony Trischka on “Gentle on my Mind”), and Guitar Player of the Year.

Steve Martin and Alison Brown’s collaborative album, Safe, Sensible And Sane, garnered a handful of nominations for its tracks as well, including Song of the Year, Instrumental Recording of the Year, Collaborative Recording of the Year, and Music Video of the Year. Sister Sadie earned nominations in quite a few categories, as a group and its individual members as well; along with their Entertainer of the Year and Album of the Year noms they’ve landed in Vocal Group of the Year, Collaborative Recording of the Year, and Music Video of the Year. Meanwhile, Dolly Parton is nominated with the Grascals for their collaborative track, “Broken Angels,” in Song of the Year, Collaborative Recording of the Year, and Music Video of the Year.

Representing the up-and-coming artists keeping the music alive and well, the ballot for New Artist of the Year for 2026 includes Jaelee Roberts, Mason Via, Carson Peters & Iron Mountain, Vickie Vaughn, and Daniel Grindstaff & the Uptown Troubadours. Plus, this year’s class of inductees into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame include Byron Berline, Nashville Bluegrass Band, Barry Poss, and the Lost & Found.

Find the full list of nominees, inductees, and Distinguished Achievement Awards recipients below. And make your plans now to be there for the “biggest night in bluegrass.” The IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards will be held in the fall in Chattanooga, Tennessee, during the organization’s annual business conference, World of Bluegrass, on Thursday, October 22. Conference passes and awards show and festival tickets are on sale now.

ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR

Billy Strings
Alison Krauss & Union Station
Sister Sadie
East Nash Grass
The Del McCoury Band

VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR

Alison Krauss & Union Station
Authentic Unlimited
Sister Sadie
Blue Highway
Red Camel Collective

INSTRUMENTAL GROUP OF THE YEAR

Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper
Billy Strings
The Travelin’ McCourys
East Nash Grass
Appalachian Road Show

SONG OF THE YEAR

“Broken Angels”
Artist: The Grascals and Dolly Parton
Songwriters: Dolly Parton/Jamie Johnson
Producer: Kent Wells
Label: Billy Blue Records

“Can’t Outrun the Blues”
Artist: Trey Hensley
Songwriters: Trey Hensley/Bobby Starnes
Producer: Brent Maher
Label: Pinecastle Records

“New Cluck Old Hen”
Artist: Steve Martin and Alison Brown (Feat. Della Mae)
Arrangement: Steve Martin/Alison Brown
Producers: Alison Brown/Garry West
Label: Compass Records

“Cost of Living”
Artist: Authentic Unlimited
Songwriter: Jerry Cole
Producer: Authentic Unlimited
Label: Edisonic Records

“Finding Your Way Home”
Artist: Red Camel Collective
Songwriters: Heather Berry Mabe/Joseph Scott Patrick
Producer: Red Camel Collective/Stephen Burwell
Label: Pinecastle Records

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Can’t Outrun the Blues
Artist: Trey Hensley
Producer: Brent Maher
Label: Pinecastle Records

All Will Be Well
Artist: Sister Sadie
Producer: Deanie Richardson
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

All God’s Children
Artist: East Nash Grass
Producers: Jake Stargel/East Nash Grass
Label: Mountain Fever Records

Della Jane’s Heart
Artist: Appalachian Road Show
Producer: Appalachian Road Show
Label: Billy Blue Records

Songs That Sing Me
Artist: Becky Buller
Producer: Stephen Mougin
Label: Dark Shadow Recording

GOSPEL RECORDING OF THE YEAR

“I Will Someday”
Artist: NewFound Road
Songwriters: Ronnie Bowman/Garnet Bowman/Chris Stapleton/Morgane Stapleton
Producer: Tim Shelton
Label: Billy Blue Records

“Where the Soul Never Dies”
Artist: Bobby Osborne & C.J. Lewandowski
Songwriter: William M. Golden
Producer: C.J. Lewandowski
Label: Turnberry Records

“Some Day”
Artist: Blue Highway
Songwriters: Olive Stockton/Tim Stafford
Producer: Blue Highway/Dan Boner
Label: Rounder Records

“You Don’t Knock”
Artist: Darin & Brooke Aldridge with John Cowan
Songwriters: Cedar Walton/Wesley Westbrooks
Producer: Mark Fain/Darin Aldridge
Label: Billy Blue Records

“Two Old Church Pews”
Artist: Danny Paisley
Songwriters: Mark “Brink” Brinkman/Daryl Mosley
Producer: Greg Cole
Label: Pinecastle Records

INSTRUMENTAL RECORDING OF THE YEAR

“Grandfather’s Clock”
Artist: Bryan Sutton and Sierra Hull
Songwriter: Henry Clay Work arr. Bryan Sutton/Sierra Hull
Producer: Bryan Sutton
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

“Big Daddy Rabbit”
Artist: Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper (Feat. Nathan Livers)
Songwriter: Nathan Livers
Producer: Michael Cleveland
Label: Yeah, Man Records

“Cacklin’ Hen”
Artist: Deanie Richardson and Kimber Ludiker
Songwriter: Traditional
Producer: Deanie Richardson
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

“Let’s Get Out of Here”
Artist: Steve Martin and Alison Brown
Songwriters: Alison Brown/Steve Martin
Producers: Alison Brown/Garry West
Label: Compass Records

“Tom & Jerry”
Artist: Andy Leftwich
Songwriter: Traditional
Producer: Andy Leftwich
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Jaelee Roberts
Mason Via
Carson Peters & Iron Mountain
Vickie Vaughn
Daniel Grindstaff & the Uptown Troubadours

COLLABORATIVE RECORDING OF THE YEAR

“Broken Angels”
Artist: The Grascals and Dolly Parton
Songwriters: Dolly Parton/Jamie Johnson
Producer: Kent Wells
Label: Billy Blue Records

“Gentle on My Mind”
Artist: Tony Trischka and Billy Strings
Songwriter: John Hartford
Producer: Tony Trischka/Lawson White
Label: Down the Road Records

“New Cluck Old Hen”
Artist: Steve Martin and Alison Brown (Feat. Della Mae)
Songwriters: Arr. Steve Martin/Alison Brown
Producers: Alison Brown/Garry West
Label: Compass Records

“The Devil Went Down to Deep Gap”
Artist: Bryan Sutton with Billy Strings
Songwriters: Tom Crain/Charlie Daniels/Taz DiGregorio/Fred Edwards/Charlie Hayward/James W. Marshall adapted by Bryan Sutton/Billy Strings
Producer: Bryan Sutton
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

“Just a Holler Over”
Artist: Sister Sadie and The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys
Songwriters: Robin Macy/Deanie Richardson
Producer: Sister Sadie/C.J. Lewandowski
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR

Dan Tyminski
Russell Moore
Greg Blake
Del McCoury
Trey Hensley

FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR

Alison Krauss
Jaelee Roberts
Heather Berry Mabe
Sierra Hull
AJ Lee

BANJO PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Kristin Scott Benson
Gena Britt
Ron Block
Alison Brown
Tony Trischka

BASS PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Mike Bub
Vickie Vaughn
Missy Raines
Barry Bales
Alan Bartram

FIDDLE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Michael Cleveland
Jason Carter
Bronwyn Keith-Hynes
Deanie Richardson
Andy Leftwich

RESOPHONIC GUITAR PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Justin Moses
Jerry Douglas
Rob Ickes
Andy Hall
Matt Leadbetter

GUITAR PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Trey Hensley
Billy Strings
Bryan Sutton
Cody Kilby
Molly Tuttle

MANDOLIN PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Sierra Hull
Ronnie McCoury
Jesse Brock
Sam Bush
Alan Bibey

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR

“Broken Angels”
Artist: The Grascals and Dolly Parton
Videographer: Natalie Simmons
Producer: Olly Rowland

“The Devil Went Down to Deep Gap”
Artist: Bryan Sutton with Billy Strings
Animator: Pat Bradley, SpringShoe Animation
Producer: Josh Serrato

“Ralph’s Banjo Special”
Artist: Kristin Scott Benson, Gena Britt, & Alison Brown
Videographer: Joseph Spence
Producer: Alison Brown

“New Cluck Old Hen”
Artist: Steve Martin, Alison Brown (Feat. Della Mae)
Videographer: Drew Levin
Producer: Alison Rose Gregory/Scott Roberts

“Let the Circle Be Broken”
Artist: Sister Sadie
Videographer: David Rossow
Producer: Joshua Britt/Neilson Hubbard

BLUEGRASS MUSIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

Byron Berline
Nashville Bluegrass Band
Barry Poss
The Lost & Found

DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT AWARD RECIPIENTS

Gallagher Guitars
Matt Glaser
Derek Halsey
Marshall Family
Gary Reid

Photo Credit: Steve Martin and Alison Brown by Beth Herzhaft; Bryan Sutton courtesy of the artist; Jamie Johnson and Dolly Parton via Billy Blue Records. 

Whether it’s Bill Monroe, Sam Bush, Sister Sadie, or Billy Strings, bluegrass has always pushed boundaries. At the forefront of that movement sits jamgrass, which brings together a barrage of influences performed with grassy, stringed arrangements and an improvisational sensibility that makes each song and show feel like a living organism – and results in each performance having its own qualities and quirks.

However, despite many tying the origins of jamgrass to ’90s upstarts like Leftover Salmon and Yonder Mountain String Band, its roots actually go back at least a half-century – and in some cases to the very origins of bluegrass music itself.

“When Bill Monroe started the Blue Grass Boys and they came on the Grand Ole Opry with that band, they were so far removed and different from other string bands of that same era even though they had the same instrumentation,” says Bush. “They were light years ahead of all the rest of the music on the Grand Ole Opry in terms of progressiveness and innovation, so in his own way Bill Monroe was a rebel. The Opry audience was just astounded with the way they played, and then when Bill introduced a great fiddler like Chubby Wise and the banjo playing of Earl Scruggs, that’s what kicked what we call bluegrass into gear.”

That same trailblazing spirit of Monroe could also be found in Bush himself several decades later, with the formation of the Bluegrass Alliance and, shortly after, New Grass Revival. The latter went against the grain of traditional bluegrass in nearly every way imaginable, from covers of Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Marley, and The Beatles to their long hair and the tie-dye they dressed themselves in. All more akin to Deadheads and the hippie movement than bluegrass at the time. Per Bush, the group was inspired by bands that had already deviated from the old-time ways of bluegrass like the Osborne Brothers, Jim & Jesse, the Country Gentlemen, the Dillards, the Greenbriar Boys, Area Code 615, and even John Hartford – who he’d later pay tribute to with his 2022 album Radio John.

That being said, New Grass Revival and the movement they helped spark also held the tradition of bluegrass in as high regard as anyone, even as the band pushed the music in a direction it had never been before. “We always said that if you want to play newgrass, you first have to know how to play bluegrass,” recalls Bush.

The band’s rise gave way to the progressive leaning newgrass movement that saw an influx of outside influences and experimentation flood into the music that Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys made famous, with one of the most notable being Leftover Salmon. Formed in 1989 – the same year New Grass Revival first broke up – in Boulder, Colorado, Salmon brought together acoustic and electric arrangements with percussion to create an offshoot of newgrass they coined “Cajun slamgrass.” The outfit’s hybrid sound was an instant hit, and by the early ’90s the band found itself on the H.O.R.D.E tour with rock and jam bands like Phish, Widespread Panic, Spin Doctors, and Blues Traveler. This further connected the worlds of bluegrass and jam, resulting in what many refer to as the official launch of the jamgrass movement later in the decade when Yonder Mountain String Band burst onto the scene.

In fact, Yonder’s bassist, Ben Kaufmann, recalls attending that H.O.R.D.E tour and credits it for sending him down the rabbit hole of bluegrass. But being from Boston and growing up a Deadhead, he knew that any music he’d go on to create would be radically different from what had come before it.

“We didn’t grow up in the rural South,” explains Kaufmann. “We were suburban kids, which was critical to whatever Yonder ended up achieving. If we weren’t, the band likely would’ve leaned much more traditional. We thought the music of Flatt & Scruggs, Bill Monroe, and the Stanley Brothers were the coolest things ever, even though it was born out of an environment that’s not ours.

“That, combined with the influences of our formative years, helped to mold our own little version of what a bluegrass band could be, even though not everyone thought it was the ‘right’ way to play it. For a while the bluegrass community didn’t want any part of us, which made me realize that if people weren’t going to invite us to their party that we’d create our own, which is exactly what we did.”

From there, Yonder integrated their high-strung and energetic live show even more than the jam band circuit, piecing together the foundations of what would soon become the jamgrass scene in the process. That momentum reached a fever pitch for the band in the late 2000s when the band was headlining bigger rooms than it ever had before and landing opening slots on arena tours with the Dave Matthews Band and Widespread Panic, similar to the gigs New Grass Revival had opening similar venues for Leon Russell in 1979.

Thinking back on that era of the band, Kaufmann says it made him understand the full potential of what jamgrass and bluegrass could achieve if given the opportunity, which he says is now being realized with artists like Billy Strings, Mountain Grass Unit, and others.

“Even in the late aughts when Yonder was at max room capacity and opening these arena shows, we wondered if bluegrass would ever work in rooms this big. And, to our amusement, it did – you just needed to fill the venue with the right people. We didn’t know if that would be us headlining those places one day, but playing those gigs showed us it was something that could happen.

“With that in mind, it’s no surprise to see a young gun like Billy Strings come along and set the world on fire. In the little amount of time we’ve spent together it was obvious that he is a special talent, so observing his rise and all he’s done for this kind of music has been mind-blowing.”

Yonder’s success lit a spark for the jamgrass movement that’s been burning ever since, with countless performers crediting the band for the influence they’ve bestowed upon them. One of those people is Kyle Tuttle, who grew up following the band around on tour in the early 2000s before eventually landing a spot playing in founding member Jeff Austin’s band after Austin departed Yonder in 2014.

“I was just starting to see real bluegrass and already loved the Grateful Dead, so when Yonder Mountain String Band came along and overlapped with those two worlds, it was like a dream come true,” Tuttle explains. “I’d been seeing all these suit-and-tie bands playing straight bluegrass and loved it, but at the same time I was also wondering where I fit into it. Then Yonder pops up and it feels like what I’d been waiting my whole life to discover.”

Tuttle played his first gig with the Jeff Austin Band in 2016 and remained in the group up until the singer’s untimely death in 2019. He went on to perform with the GRAMMY Award-winning Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway from 2021 to early 2025. Now he leads his own collective, the Kyle Tuttle Band, where he intertwines original compositions with traditional bluegrass covers and other off-the-wall influences as he puts his own spin on what jamgrass is.

“It’s a common perspective for people to not want you to mess with their bluegrass and tradition, whereas the jamgrass world tends to be more wide open,” admits Tuttle. “Fans nowadays are ready to hear whatever interesting mashup you create, which makes for a really nice union.”

With how wide open the jamgrass has become, even bands outside its periphery have found their way into the community from time to time. Take Fruition for example, a band that began busking on the streets of Portland over 15 years ago with a mix of string instruments and a poppy folk sound that sits on the far outer reaches of the jamgrass spectrum. Similar to how Yonder struggled to be embraced by the bluegrass community in its early days, Fruition’s Kellen Asebroek said it was the jamgrass community that first embraced and welcomed the band when nobody else would. “There’s no telling where we’d be if they hadn’t welcomed us into their family.”

“I was introduced to [jamgrass] in 2002 before I even knew what it was,” recollects Asebroek. “My uncle was a big Leftover Salmon fan and gave me an audience recording from the ’90s to listen to that left me in awe wondering what the hell it was they were doing. I grew up in more of a punk, reggae and classic rock world, so that was the first time I heard something remotely grassy. It wasn’t until we started Fruition and were busking on the street that people began referring to us as a jamgrass band. That being said, Fruition tends to be on the more structured side, so much so that I wouldn’t even call ourselves a jam band. We’ve always been in a unique place in that world in the sense that the jamgrass community is who took us in as babies and showed us around even though we were on the fringes of it.”

Also on the fringes of jamgrass is Daniel Donato, who began picking country and bluegrass tunes on Nashville’s Broadway strip as a teenager before launching his own project, Cosmic Country, in 2015 after seeing shapeshifting country singer Sturgill Simpson at the Ryman. The sound that grew out of that moment is equal parts Simpson and the Dead, but Donato says that bluegrass legends like Bill Monroe are also critical to what he creates as well, even though he utilizes mostly electric instrumentation.

“Jerry Garcia also had a really sophisticated understanding and appreciation for bluegrass music,” compares Donato. “The arrangements of the Dead were not succinctly bluegrass, but there was a ton of bluegrass influence that went into the way he played, especially with Old & In The Way and the Jerry Garcia Band. My goal has been to tap into a similar feeling, but with a slightly more prominent country twang.”

Someone else who’s spent plenty of time in the jamgrass scene despite not always producing music that would be categorized as such is Sierra Hull. The mandolin prodigy grew up on a heavy dose of traditional bluegrass in East Tennessee, with acts like Blue Highway, the Seldom Scene, and Lonesome River Band being the soundtrack of her youth. While she’s tended to lean more towards “chambergrass” and singer-songwriter styles in her adult life, she also takes plenty of time to let loose and jam, whether it’s stretching out her own material or joining artists like Cory Wong, the String Cheese Incident, Greensky Bluegrass, Béla Fleck, and Sam Bush on stage. The latter of whom she credits – along with luminaries like Peter Rowan and David Grisman – for planting the seeds that later grew to become jamgrass.

“For people like me, [Sam] was such a huge gateway to a lot of these other musicians who were really open-minded about what they played and who they collaborated with,” confides Hull. “Coming from a more traditional background, what I’ve enjoyed most about getting out to these bluegrass and jam festivals [is] mixing it up with folks. I’ve become a fan of jamgrass from seeing it all happen up close, rather than having grown up on albums – which I feel is the case for a lot of fans of jam music. The recorded music is still awesome, but the live shows are where the spirit and energy of jamgrass truly live.”

Hull continued, stressing how despite the current momentum behind jamgrass it’s still a very niche genre that nobody gets into expecting to become famous from it, which makes the heights Billy Strings and others are taking it to that much more mesmerizing.

“There’s something really cool about seeing folks who maybe don’t know who Bill Monroe or Doc Watson is, but they can go to a Billy show and immediately connect to the authenticity of what the music is,” exclaims Hull. “We live in a day and age where people are ripping on their pedals and doing more progressive stuff than they ever have before with string music, but at the same time most all of these bands have their moments where they throw that all away and just play a straight-up bluegrass tune. Seeing people resonate with that is central to what this music is and does.”

Another woman staking out a career in and around jamgrass is Lindsay Lou, who first discovered the subgenre witnessing the early days of Greensky Bluegrass performing in Michigan. Although she’d already been vaguely familiar with Yonder and Leftover Salmon, Lou credits Greensky’s sound and proximity to her as the driving factors for introducing her not just their music, but jamgrass as a whole.

“Greensky was my gateway to the jam world, because we were both part of the same scene,” says Lou. “I started hanging with them and soon found myself at festivals with other like-minded bands that sent me diving into the music of the Grateful Dead and others.”

One of those artists she wound up connecting with was a young Billy Strings, who she’d grow close with and later live across the street from in Nashville. The two would even go on to co-write a number of songs together including “Freedom” and “Nothing’s Working,” which both appeared on Strings’ albums Home and Renewal, as well as the latter appearing on Lou’s Queen Of Time. “It’s been really cool having written songs with Billy and hearing him perform them to arenas packed with 30,000 all singing along.”

“It’s no surprise to me that Billy has brought so many people to jam and bluegrass music in the same way that Yonder and Greensky did for so many before him, including Billy himself,” she stresses. “It’s been so much fun watching a young hippie kid like him take a traditional song to places you never thought it could go due to him embracing the musical conversation that jam music is centered around.”

Someone at the heart of the Billy Strings phenomenon is Jarrod Walker, who’s played mandolin in the Michigander’s band since 2018. Similar to Sam Bush, Walker believes the roots of jamgrass can be traced all the way back to Bill Monroe, due to how he took popular songs of the day and breathed new life into them with stringed arrangements – similar to how modern day jam bands pull from influences far and wide to create something entirely new. And although he credits Sam Bush as being a central figure for the movement, he also holds the Seldom Scene – who recorded an extended version of the Grateful Dead’s “I Know You Rider” (simply called “Rider”) on its 1973 album Act III – in a similarly high regard.

“There have been a smorgasbord of different influences in jamgrass from the very beginning with Irish and English music and gospel and blues – all of it was an integral part of what Bill Monroe originally did,” says Walker. “Then someone like Jerry Garcia comes along and follows Monroe like people would soon be following the Dead, which led to Old & In The Way, continuing the prophecy that’s still playing out to this day.”

But even as that prophecy continues to play out, Walker is amazed by where it’s taken not just the Billy Strings band, but string music as a whole. Having been accustomed to gigging at performance art centers and other smaller, seated venues for most of his pre-Billy picking days, he says that the experience of performing at rock clubs and now arenas with fans going crazy for bluegrass music has been mind-boggling and a phenomenon he’ll never stop being captivated by.

“[Playing arenas] is something none of us saw coming and is a combination of being at the right place at the right time and the contributions of everyone who came before us that paved this path for us to do it,” states Walker. “Billy is also a fantastic musician and student of bluegrass whose love for the music combined with his other influences is emblematic of the cohesion that is core to jamgrass and everything it stands for.”

Like all forms of music, jamgrass is a living, breathing organism that is constantly evolving and bringing new ideas and influences to the table. Whether it’s traditional and progressive bluegrass or rock, blues, punk, soul, country and everything in between, it all has a place in the jamgrass setting and is without a doubt the biggest driving factor of the genre’s success. It truly is a “rising tide lifts all boats” scenario that may have been a long time coming to arrive, but now that it’s here and thriving shows no signs of departing anytime soon.

“It took a long time for listening tastes to catch up with this kind of music and these instruments, but it’s no surprise to me that someone as talented as Billy is having the success he’s having,” declares Bush. “It’s only natural that the music is going to grow, and it’s in a really healthy place right now. But even with the rise of jamgrass you still have good ole Del McCoury leading the pack with his Bill Monroe style of bluegrass, and the same audience that loves jamgrass loves him too.”

Continue exploring our Jamgrass in July coverage here. This content brought to you in partnership with Preston Thompson Guitars.

Photo Credit: Sam Bush courtesy of Crossover Touring; Sierra Hull courtesy of the artist; Ben Kauffman courtesy of Crossover Touring.

What does it mean to inhabit a creative life when that container itself changes? We sit down on The Other 22 Hours with GRAMMY-nominated, multi-platinum crossover superstar Amy Grant. Having shaped the landscape of pop and contemporary Christian music for over four decades, Grant found herself navigating an unexpected wilderness following a series of medical setbacks – including a traumatic bike accident – and a rewritten relationship with her own processing speed. In this soulful, luminous conversation, she explores the deliberate art of slowing down, the creative sanctuary of “Craftopia,” and why she now views aging not as a loss of identity, but as a continual invitation to let go.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • AMAZON • MP3

In This Episode:

– Vince Gill
– Eagles
– Mac McAnally
– Jimmy Buffett
– Coral Reefer Band
– Barefoot Republic
– NPR’s Wildcard podcast
– Ray Charles
– Cicely Tyson
– Roots (miniseries)
– Viktor Frankl
– Man’s Search for Meaning
– Gene Miller
– Dr. Jim Netterville
– Suleika Jaouad

Go Deeper: 

Watch: View this entire conversation above or on YouTube.
Explore: Find similar conversations in these themed playlists.
Connect: Join the conversation on Instagram.

The Other 22 Hours is hosted by Aaron Shafer-Haiss (producer, mixer, musician) and Michaela Anne (songwriter, artist, creative coach). More about Aaron’s work. More about Michaela Anne’s work.

Produced by Aaron Shafer-Haiss. Original music written, performed and produced by Aaron Shafer-Haiss.

Photo Credit: Ed Rode

Sixthman Soundcheck, presented by BGS, is the chance of a lifetime for emerging artists to introduce to the Cayamo family. We’re looking for 3 awesome, up-and-coming acts to join us on Cayamo! Do you have what it takes? Keep reading to find out how it all works…

Round 1: The Top 10 semi-finalists will be voted on by guests booked on Cayamo, as well as your fans, to determine the Top 5 acts. Voting will be hosted here on this page. Our booked guest votes will be weighted during the first round of decisions, regardless of the overall total number of voters.

Round 2: The Top 5 acts will be narrowed down to 3 Soundcheck winners by our booked guests.

Timeline

Tuesday, July 21st at 11:59pm ET: Artist deadline to complete the submission form.

By Late August: All Semi-finalists chosen by a panel of Cayamo experts at Sixthman as well as BGS, will be notified to move on to the voting round. A public announcement will be coordinated soon thereafter.

By September: 5 finalists, chosen by your fans and our booked guests, will be notified and move to the next round of voting where booked guests will select the final 3 winners.

Friday, September 18th: Final Voting closes at 11:59pm ET

Late September: The 3 Soundcheck winners will be notified and secured on Cayamo. A public announcement will be coordinated soon thereafter.

Curious about the cruise? See our Cayamo 2026 recap on BGS.

The Fine Print

All bands who enter should be available for the week of February 26th – March 5th, 2027. Each Soundcheck winner will perform three (3) 60 – 75 min sets on board the Norwegian Jewel. Set times and location TBD. Each Soundcheck winner will receive stateroom accommodations (up to 2 staterooms) provided with $1500 guarantee payable on board. Travel to and from the Port of Miami NOT included. Festival backline will be provided. More details about production will be sent to Soundcheck winners. All 3 Soundcheck winners will be featured on the Cayamo website and social media. Previous Cayamo soundcheck winners are not eligible to win.

Art courtesy of Cayamo and Sixthman.

When the world locked down during COVID in 2020, Steve Wariner was determined to use his time productively by dedicating himself to his two passions: guitar and art. That meant a lot of writing, practicing, and painting – and expanding his skills by exploring new areas.

“I told myself that I’m going learn some things, I’m going to go to work,” he says. “Of course I started writing. I’m always writing songs, so the music part of what I do will never go away. I write all the time, and I’m lucky to write with some wonderful co-writers. I wrote with a lot of people by Zoom. That was a weird thing. I did a bunch of that.

“I painted every day and built up a pretty good body of work. I started diving into oils, which I never did much before. I didn’t like how long it takes to dry, and using chemicals with it – turpentine, linseed oil, so forth. But the reasons I was hesitant are the exact reasons I love it now. You can go back and paint a week later, it’s still wet, and you can add things to it.”

He worked diligently with no specific goal in mind, other than broadening his horizons and satisfying his need to create. “I really paint for myself,” he says. “It’s like my songs. I just write, and if they get heard, if they get out there in the world, that’s great. If not, that’s cool too. I write for me, mainly, and same way with painting. I’m lucky that people every now and then hear my songs and cut them, and every now and then I sell paintings.

“I sold a couple pieces last year. And of course, this year at the show we’ve sold some. But it’s not something I’m aspiring to do all the time or make a living doing it. It’s something I do because it’s therapy and something I love. It’s joyful to get out and paint. You get in the zone, too. It’s real easy to get lost in it.

What he didn’t expect was that his time and effort would lead to the aforementioned “show.” Through mutual friends, the staff of the Monthaven Arts & Cultural Center, in Hendersonville, Tennessee, found out about his work and requested a viewing. The result is the Flip Side, a collection of 60 pieces in various mediums. The show opened on June 21 and runs through July 26. On June 25, Wariner performed an intimate concert as part of The Monthaven’s Heritage Music Series, making him the first artist/musician to simultaneously exhibit art and perform onstage.

Music has always been Wariner’s first love. His tremendously successful career is filled with dozens of Top 10 and Number 1 hits and a multitude of industry awards and recognitions. He has also painted throughout most of his life, and sold his first piece, a pencil drawing of a country store, when he was a high school sophomore – his art teacher purchased it for twenty dollars.

He is no stranger to exhibiting his work, and sometimes donating it to the best possible causes. In 2014, he created a fiberglass Basset Hound statue for Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary’s fundraising auction. In 2016, he participated in an artists’ exhibit at the Tennessee State Museum.

Between then and now, he has shown his paintings in California and sold numerous pieces, but “never anything on this scale,” he says about The Flip Side. “When this started out, we were talking about 35 to 40 pieces of art, and I thought that was pretty overwhelming. I’ve got tons of art, but Ruth Chase, the curator, and Cheryl Strichik, the executive director of Monthaven, looked at about 89 pieces of my work, total, and wanted to run with 60 pieces for the show.

“It is daunting, the work that goes into doing this. People don’t see that work and I never realized it either, to be quite honest. It’s time-consuming, and it takes a lot to frame and wire and get everything ready. Even placing it on the walls, matching it up, is an art. When you walk into the museum, it’s really nice; it’s got a nice flow to it, how they put it together. I’m really pleased.”

Let’s try something different with this interview, drawing parallels between painting and playing guitar. Let’s start with the tools: selecting the medium, brushes, paper, and so forth and selecting guitars, amps, pedals. The signal chain for each craft.

Steve Wariner: My first thought was watercolors would be like the acoustic guitars. In my guitar collection I have some old Martins and an old Epiphone Broadway that’s more of a jazz kind of guitar. Watercolor is very loose and free and unforgiving. If you mess up with watercolor, you start over because there’s no fixing it, unlike other mediums. I think that’s why a lot of times watercolor is harder than anything.

I think people take acoustic guitar for granted sometimes. If you’re not in that bluegrass or Americana world, where it’s very acoustic-driven, a lot of people think, “Oh, yeah, that’s acoustic.” No. It’s an art unto itself. People that play acoustic really well, the great players like Tony Rice, Mac McAnally, Bryan Sutton, they make it look easy, but it’s not. And that’s watercolor.

An oil painting, let’s say a beautiful English landscape, is like a vintage D’Angelico or Gretsch or some kind of beautiful archtop electric guitar that’s smooth and nice and elegant. That’s what I would equate with an oil painting. If you switch over to an abstract painting, something that’s more hard, that’s very expressive and can be loud, that would be the rock guitars, a Les Paul into a Marshall amp, or a Fender Strat, something very expressive, with a Nobels pedal or any kind of overdrive. That’s the abstract painting.

There are so many parallels with music and art. You start with a blank sheet of paper and you start writing, you start making something out of nothing. You start writing a song and you put a few words on there. On the blank canvas, you start putting a few colors on it and then, “Oh, this looks good with that.” With writing a song, you go, “Oh, that sounds good with that. If I say this, maybe I should…” It’s same with painting. It builds up as you go along.

With music and art, it’s not about what you hear or see. It’s about what you feel. A lot of people don’t understand why they love a painting, and it doesn’t matter; they just love it. A lot of the reasons why are the colors, the values, the way it’s put together, the composition, the harmony of it. In music you talk about tone, harmony, values, space. You hear a song and you love it right away. The song just hits you and it connects with you.

We always hear that tone is in the hands, it’s in the individual player, which is a parallel to painting and the individual painter.

Two people can pick up the same guitar and it sounds different. Two artists will look at the same thing, their paintings look different, and both are beautiful. I really do believe … a little bit of my faith has to come through because I think it’s a God-given talent in a way. You can hone it, like music, and when you love it so much, you’re going to do it. You’re driven to do it. But part of it is a God-given thing. I think you’re just born with it. You can hone it. It can be taught. But a lot of it is natural ability, too, I believe, and it’s something you’ve just got to do.

Does mood affect the choice of medium and, if so, how does that parallel mood and choice of guitar?

It is the mood. Some days I feel like doing a watercolor, and some days I say, “I’ve got a giant canvas out there and I want to just put some paint on it. I don’t know how I’m going to do it, or what or where it’s going to take me, but I’m going to put my old overalls on and paint.”

That’s me with the guitar, too. Some days I go out to my recording studio and, for example, I’ll say, “I feel like doing a Hawaiian song today,” and I’ll get out my Rickenbacker lap steel and start. It’s where the mood takes you. That’s what you feel like doing, and you can dive in and be creative.

You mentioned that with watercolor, you can’t make mistakes. Watercolor is to painting what tape is to recording?

That’s exactly correct. Chet Atkins used to talk about direct-to-disc recording, which means they would have one shot at it. It’s basically being cut into a disc when they record it, and you didn’t want to be the one making a mistake, because if somebody messed up, that’s it. That’s a watercolor painting.

The musicianship in that era was so strong. Their ear training was great because they had to figure everything out. Technology today makes it easy. You can tune it, fix it, slide it, do all these things. Don’t get me wrong – there are some great players today. But tape makes you really on point because if you mess up, it’s over with.

That’s the way it is with watercolor. If you mess up, you have to start over, and that’s what I like about it – the danger thing. I’ve done it before, where you have a beautiful thing going and you have to start over. With oils it’s still wet, so you can wipe it away and go over it, or when it’s dry, just paint over it.

Oil is Pro Tools. You can fix it in the mix.

Totally. Absolutely. The “undo” button makes you bold!

Do you sometimes sketch first, or do you go directly to paint?

I do both. I keep sketchbooks and I sketch. My wife Caryn and I have a little RV and sometimes we go on road trips. I don’t want to carry all my stuff, so a lot of times I’ll just sketch, make notes on colors, and go back to it later. I also use my phone and iPad sometimes.

Sketching is the demo process, the pre-production.

That’s correct. There’s the demo in my sketchbook, now let’s make a record. Let’s get out the big canvas and make the painting.

Does your music or your guitar playing ever inspire a painting, and conversely, do you sometimes paint something, “hear” it on the canvas, and then it becomes a riff or a melody?

The answer is yes, to the first. I have thought of some guitar pieces, compositions. Both are compositions, but I have thought of that. Sometimes I paint with a certain mood or riff or song in mind, and if I have a name for the music piece, I call it that.

I have a piece in the show called “The Ocean’s A Little Bit Bigger Tonight.” It’s the name of the painting. It sold the other night. It’s a large abstract landscape, but it was inspired by a song I wrote with Bill Anderson called “Two Teardrops.” The first line of the chorus is, “Oh, the ocean’s a little bit bigger tonight, two more teardrops somebody cried…” That song is about the circle of life, and that’s the painting. As I was painting it, I kept thinking you could see the ocean way back in the back. It’s very abstract, but it has a lot of textures.

Bill came to the opening of my show and I showed him that painting. I said, “Bill, it’s like you when we first started writing this,” because he had part of it started and he was saying, “Wariner, you’re going to think I’ve either lost my mind or I’m a genius, I don’t know which, but it’s about two teardrops talking to each other.” The painting is that way. I told Bill, “You may think I’ve lost my mind with this abstract painting, but to me, that’s what it represented: two teardrops.”

Could abstract art be parallel to instrumental music? It’s open to interpretation from the viewer or listener, versus a painting of a specific subject being more like lyrics – even though those things can certainly mean different things to different people, too.

That’s a good way to look at it. It could be instrumental music, or more to me, I think freestyling. When you look at a jazz or bluegrass band, they get to the back half of the song and they’re just passing it around. Everybody’s playing – “Now you play eight bars, now you play eight,” or whatever. They’re freestyling. To me, that’s more what it is. It’s whatever you feel, it’s whatever you are interpreting, and I always loved that.

My first thought is Sam Bush. I love playing with him because with those songs where you do freestyle, I can’t wait for him to get ahold of his eight bars when it’s his turn, because he’s into it all the way. A lot of times that’s what I think an abstract might be, something like that. I like jazz, too, and some of those players get lost in their own world. They’re painting, they’re really layering and throwing some colors on there. It’s about the freedom.

You had to select 60 pieces for this exhibit. Is that parallel to putting together a song list for a show or sequencing an album?

Yes. It came down to that. It was interesting for me and very liberating, because I wasn’t in on making the set list necessarily. My suggestions were there, but that would be the difference. When I play, I make the set list, but they had the curator Ruth Chase, who’s wonderful, and she’s an artist in her own right. She had some great suggestions and great ideas, so she helped me put together the set list.

The curator is the co-producer.

Exactly, and the director is the engineer. She puts the whole thing together. It really is a team, the players.

In addition to your exhibit, something else that’s in the news is 75 years of Telecasters. Would you agree that it’s still the guitar that defines and is associated with country music?

That’s true. Number one, it’s so versatile. Maybe distinct is a better word. The West Coast guys, Roy Nichols, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard … they were certainly using them in Nashville, too, but the Bakersfield records really made the Telecaster, in my mind. It’s an iconic instrument.

James Burton turned me on to the Telecaster, no question. I saw him bending strings when I was a kid. I didn’t know how he was doing it, but I wanted to do it. It was like a magic trick I had to learn. Later we became great friends and we still communicate. He’s the king of the Telecaster, in my opinion. Roy Nichols was a big influence too.

We know you have quite a guitar collection. When did you get your first Tele?

I didn’t own a guitar until I was a sophomore in high school. I learned to play on my dad’s Jazzmaster, which he bought brand new in, I think, 1962. I still have it. Every time I played it, I dreamed and acted like it was a Telecaster. In my mind, it was a Telecaster, even though it didn’t sound or twang like a Telecaster.

When I was a sophomore, I had saved up about 400 bucks and I bought a Telecaster sight-unseen from a catalog. I ordered it from a store in Fort Worth, Texas. It was a ’71 or something like that. They sent it to me and I drove like a maniac to what is now Indianapolis International Airport to pick it up. I had an old 1964 Volkswagen and I blew the engine up going to get that guitar. I left it on the side of the road on [Interstate] 465, called my dad at work, and he came and got me and took me to pick up my guitar. We left my car sitting there for five days. I got my Telecaster and I was absolutely thrilled. That was my first guitar, and it’s now on display in a case at the Musicians Hall of Fame.

With all this talk of guitars and painting and writing, are we going to enjoy new music from you anytime soon?

I’ve got a stockpile of songs that I’ve been writing and going, “Ooh, I like this. I’ll put that over here.” I’ve got probably thirty songs or so that I just love, new ones I’ve written and that I’ve not really pitched around. I don’t have any plans right now. I don’t play them for anybody. I just sit on them. But I’ve thought about getting back in, getting some players together, having some fun, and see what comes out.

In the press release about the exhibit, there’s a quote: “Painting has always been a kind of therapy. It’s my sanctuary and escape.” How do painting and guitar fulfill and heal you therapeutically?

I think any artist will attest that you’ve got to find a place that you can go and just get away, get in a zone. It’s the free time that you’re not thinking about [anything else]. Music does the same thing. If I’m writing a song, I’m concentrating on what the song says. I have to force myself not to write about what I’m trying to escape from. But that’s good, too, to actually talk about it sometimes.

Painting is a place where I can turn my phone off. I’m listening to music in my headphones and I’m painting. I don’t know what time it is and I don’t care. I just go and go. No phones, no bother, nobody worrying you, nothing going on. It’s an escape and it’s great. It’s a really safe, free place.

Photo Credit: David Abbott. 

Reproductions of Steve Wariner’s visual art appear with permission, titles as marked. Images courtesy of the artist.