Rhonda Vincent & The Rage Come to Mayo Performing Arts Center, 4/18

Rhonda Vincent, dubbed "The New Queen of Bluegrass" by the Wall Street Journal, performs at the Mayo Performing Arts Center on Thursday, April 18, 2013. Tickets are $29-59.

With over seventy awards to their name, Rhonda Vincent and the Rage are the most celebrated band in bluegrass, with honors including a coveted Entertainer of the Year award from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) and a staggering seven consecutive IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year awards. Vincent's music draws deeply from the haunting mountain soul of Bill Monroe-styled bluegrass, while incorporating a modern feel that make her songs both classic and contemporary.

Rhonda Vincent has earned and benefited from a lifetime's worth of experience, gathered in a remarkably short time. The fifth generation of musicians in her family, Vincent was quite literally born into the business. Her parents Johnny and Carolyn helmed the popular bluegrass outfit the Sally Mountain show, with whom Rhonda made her stage debut at age five, singing and tapping a snare drum. She began playing mandolin onstage at age eight, and quickly mastered an array of stringed instruments, from guitar to fiddle. As she grew as a vocalist and musician, she augmented her love of traditional bluegrass with a growing appreciation for such contemporary mavericks as the New Grass Revival and Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver. She made the transition from being a member of the Sally Mountain Show to a being a solo artist, cutting her first solo album in 1986.

After a series of well-received solo recordings for venerable bluegrass label Rebel Records, Vincent signed to Giant Records for a pair of major-label country projects - an invaluable experience that greatly furthered her understanding of the music business. Her triumphant return to bluegrass began with her 1999 signing to Rounder Records, and continued through a series of acclaimed releases which grew her audience exponentially and made her the recipient of vast critical acclaim, commercial success, radio airplay (with several long-term, chart-topping appearances on the Bluegrass Unlimited survey), and heightened visibility in the media, including a top-five video on CMT for "You Can't Take It With You When You Go." Her eight Rounder albums (including a beloved Christmas collection Beautiful Star and the powerful,in-concert career survey Ragin' Live, also released on DVD) established her as an inventive, intuitively ingenious recording artist, blending the very best of the classic and modern.

In 2001, Vincent signed a high-profile endorsement contract with Martha White baking products, the company who first sponsored bluegrass icons Flatt and Scruggs in 1953. Like Flatt and Scruggs before her, Vincent now rolls into every show on the Martha White Bluegrass Express tour bus, and she has even composed a new Martha White theme song.

Rhonda Vincent and the Rage
Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 8 pm: Tickets: $29-59

Mayo Performing Arts Center
100 South St., Morristown, NJ 07960
box office (973) 539-8008
online: www.mayoarts.org
fax (973) 455-1607 / admin (973) 539-0345 ext.6529

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