Rhonda Vincent

From the Sally Mountain Show to Giant

Rhonda Lea Vincent was born on July 13, 1962 in Kirksville, Missouri, and raised in Greentop, singing from early childhood with the family group, later called the Sally Mountain Show (at age five by Wikipedia, at three by Country Standard Time). She took up mandolin at eight and fiddle at twelve. Her first single, "Mule Skinner Blues", came out in 1970, and in 1985 she won TNN's You Can Be a Star. The solo debut New Dreams and Sunshine (Rebel) came in December 1988, followed by A Dream Come True (1990) and Timeless and True Love (1991).

She signed to Giant, a Warner label, and made Written in the Stars (October 12, 1993) and Trouble Free (January 16, 1996), which did not produce a hit; she told Country Standard Time in 2001 that the label treated her as just another girl singer and that it was an internship where she learned about recording and production, with bad timing as Shania Twain emerged.

Rounder and the bluegrass return

Back Home Again (January 11, 2000, Rounder) returned her to bluegrass, self-produced, and The Storm Still Rages followed on June 5, 2001. She was the International Bluegrass Music Association's female vocalist of the year seven years running, from 2000 to 2006, and its entertainer of the year in 2001. Her albums One Step Ahead (2003, 2 on the bluegrass chart) and All American Bluegrass Girl (2006, 1) followed, and in 2010 she left Rounder and founded her own label, Upper Management Music, with Taken (September 21, 2010, 1 on the bluegrass chart). All the Rage: In Concert Volume One won the Grammy for best bluegrass album at the 60th ceremony in 2018. She was invited to join the Grand Ole Opry on February 28, 2020 and inducted on February 6, 2021. The band is Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, and Wikipedia counts nineteen IBMA awards, eight Grammy nominations and one win.