2018 International Bluegrass Music Awards Presented

Entertainer of the Year, the top honor in the 29th Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards – presented Sept. 27 at Raleigh, North Carolina’s Duke Energy Center for the Arts – went to the Tar Heel State’s own Balsam Range. The five-member acoustic ensemble previously won this award in 2014. Balsam Range’s Buddy Melton was voted 2018 IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year, while Tim Surrett was named Bass Player of the Year.

Balsam Range, which takes its name from a majestic mountain range that surround part of its home county in western North Carolina, where the Smokies meet the Blue Ridge, formed in 2007. Besides Melton on vocals and fiddle and Surrett on bass, dobro and vocals, its members include Caleb Smith (guitar, vocals), Darren Nicholson (mandolin, vocals), Mark Pruett (banjo), and Caleb Smith ((guitar, vocals). Balsam Range has previously received more than a dozen other IBMA honors – including the 2017 and 2013 Album of the Year awards for Mountain Voodoo and Papertown, respectively.

This year’s Album of the Year honors went to Special Consensus for Rivers & Roads, while the four-member acoustic bluegrass band led by banjo player Greg Cahill (a former president and board chair of the International Bluegrass Music Association) was also honored for Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year. “If I’d Have Wrote That Song” — recorded by Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers and written by Larry Cordle, Larry Shell and James Silvers — was named 2018’s Song of the Year.

A listing of all the award winners appears below:

Entertainer of the Year: Balsam Range
Album of the Year: Rivers & Roads – Special Consensus (artist), Alison Brown (producer), Compass Records (label)
Song of the Year: “If Id Have Wrote That Song” – Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers (artist), Larry Cordle, Larry Shell and James Silvers (writers)
Male Vocalist of the Year: Buddy Melton (of Balsam Range)
Female Vocalist of the Year: Brooke Aldridge
Vocal Group of the Year: Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver
Instrumental Group of the Year: Travelin’ McCourys
Banjo Player of the year: Ned Luberecki (of the Becky Buller Band)
Bass Player of the Year: Tim Surrett (of Balsam Range)
Dobro Player of the Year: Justin Moses
Fiddle Player of the Year: Michael Cleveland
Guitar Player of the Year: Molly Tuttle
Mandolin Player of the Year: Sierra Hull
Emerging Artist of the Year: Po’ Ramblin’ Boys
Recorded Event of the Year: “Swept Away” – Missy Raines with Alison Brown, Becky Buller, Sierra Hull and Molly Tuttle (artists), single release – Alison Brown (producer), Compass Records (label)
Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year: “Squirrel Hunters” – Special Consensus with John Hartford, Rachel Baiman & Christian Sedelmyer (10 String Symphony), & Alison Brown (artists), Traditional arranged by Alison Brown/Special Consensus (writers), Rivers & Roads (album), Alison Brown (producer), Compass Records (label)
Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year: “Speakin’ to That Mountain” – Becky Buller (artist), Becky Buller and Jeff Hyde (writers), Crepe Paper Heart (album), Stephen Mougin (producer), Dark Shadow Recording (label)

In addition, Tom T and Dixie Hall, Ricky Skaggs, and Paul Williams were inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame during the awards show hosted by Hot Rize.

The International Bluegrass Awards Show was a centerpiece of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA)’s five-day World of Bluegrass, which is considered the genre’s annual industry gathering and family reunion. Held in Raleigh for the sixth consecutive year, World of Bluegrass also featured a wide array of professional development seminars, meetings and forums, artist showcases and late-night hospitality functions, an exhibit hall, plenty of networking and relationship-building opportunities, and the Wide Open Bluegrass Music Festival.