Friday, January 18, 2008
Rhonda Vincent is all The Rage
By GERRY GALIPAULT
Should this bluegrass thing not work out, Rhonda Vincent can always fall back on a role she filled last June: wedding planner.
Not only did Vincent plan the wedding for her publicist and personal assistant, Julia Yoakum, she wrote and performed the wedding song and served as matron of honor.
"It was such an exhausting day," she said in a recent phone interview. "It started so early, because of the scheduling at the Ryman (Auditorium in Nashville); it got changed the night before. The rehearsal, which you do the day before, we had to do the same day. Then I played at the Bluegrass Series that night at the Ryman and stayed after to sign autographs."
But she says it was all worth it, especially singing "I Give All My Love to You," a track off her new Rounder Records album, "Good Thing Going" (released Jan. 8).
"Julia wasn’t finding a song she could use for the wedding, so as I was planning the wedding out, I was writing down all the things she had said before, like 'I'll never find anyone,' 'There's nobody for me,' " Vincent said. "Before I knew it, I came home and we made it a family project. I left the lines to the song in the living room and my husband, daughter and I would add to it.
"The very first time I sang it was at her wedding. I was so nervous. It was at the Ryman Auditorium on June 28, and I think it's on YouTube somewhere.
(In fact, you can see it here: tinyurl.com/26b583.)
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Will Vincent help plan her own daughters’ wedding some day? No way, she says.
"That's my first and last. Never again. Besides, both my daughters told me they don’t want me planning their wedding. Thank goodness for that."
So, Vincent's stature in the bluegrass world is safe and secure. She has won seven straight International Bluegrass Music Association awards for best female vocalist, from 2000 to 2006. With "Good Thing Going," she will likely add an eighth trophy to her mantle.
The album's highlight is "The Water Is Wide," a lilting duet with Keith Urban.
"I'm really excited that people recognize that song when I perform it," Vincent said. "It came from a Karla Bonoff record (1979’s 'Restless Nights'). Everybody wants to sing along with it. I always wanted to record that.
"I actually recorded that song for the previous album, 'All American Bluegrass Girl,' but it has to fit the project and it didn't seem to fit with that bunch of songs. So when we worked on this album, I knew, 'Yeah, this is the one.' And I just knew Keith would be the guy. Karla sang with James Taylor on her cut of that. I just thought that Keith had the perfect voice for it."
Vincent, who co-produced the album with her brother, Darrin, knows a thing or two about recording. The 45-year-old mandolin player has been in the business since she was 5. There was no way around it; music is ingrained in her family's history in Kirksville, Mo.
"My first recording was with my family in 1967," she said. "I sang two songs on the 'Sally Mountain Singers' album. I grew up in this musical family that spans like five generations and hopefully it'll be six generations. My daughters are singing and my brother's children are singing.
"It was this wonderful life of music, and it was a very intense life of music. When I was 5, we had a radio show and a TV show. We were performing locally and regionally because of the TV show. My dad would pick me up from school every day and we would sing till dinner, and after dinner friends would come over and we would sing till bedtime. It was a concentrated life of music that evolved into a career."
Her solo career didn't take off until after she formed her band, The Rage, in the 1990s. With each album in the 2000s, her sales and popularity have soared.
Over the years, Vincent earned respect within mainstream country, much like Alison Krauss has.
"We actually grew up together, and we're friends," Vincent said. "In 1985, I did a show called 'You Can Be a Star,' and I went to Nashville for a brief period and I got a job with the host of that show, Jim Ed Brown. My family was still performing and there were some shows I missed; this one time, my dad discovered this 12-year-old girl from Champaign, Ill. He hired her. She wore my clothes and she toured with my family. It was Alison!
"I've watched her blossom into this incredibly talented young lady. She has created her own style of music much beyond bluegrass."
Should this bluegrass thing not work out, Rhonda Vincent can always fall back on a role she filled last June: wedding planner.
Not only did Vincent plan the wedding for her publicist and personal assistant, Julia Yoakum, she wrote and performed the wedding song and served as matron of honor.
"It was such an exhausting day," she said in a recent phone interview. "It started so early, because of the scheduling at the Ryman (Auditorium in Nashville); it got changed the night before. The rehearsal, which you do the day before, we had to do the same day. Then I played at the Bluegrass Series that night at the Ryman and stayed after to sign autographs."
But she says it was all worth it, especially singing "I Give All My Love to You," a track off her new Rounder Records album, "Good Thing Going" (released Jan. 8).
"Julia wasn’t finding a song she could use for the wedding, so as I was planning the wedding out, I was writing down all the things she had said before, like 'I'll never find anyone,' 'There's nobody for me,' " Vincent said. "Before I knew it, I came home and we made it a family project. I left the lines to the song in the living room and my husband, daughter and I would add to it.
"The very first time I sang it was at her wedding. I was so nervous. It was at the Ryman Auditorium on June 28, and I think it's on YouTube somewhere.
(In fact, you can see it here: tinyurl.com/26b583.)
Will Vincent help plan her own daughters’ wedding some day? No way, she says.
"That's my first and last. Never again. Besides, both my daughters told me they don’t want me planning their wedding. Thank goodness for that."
So, Vincent's stature in the bluegrass world is safe and secure. She has won seven straight International Bluegrass Music Association awards for best female vocalist, from 2000 to 2006. With "Good Thing Going," she will likely add an eighth trophy to her mantle.
The album's highlight is "The Water Is Wide," a lilting duet with Keith Urban.
"I'm really excited that people recognize that song when I perform it," Vincent said. "It came from a Karla Bonoff record (1979’s 'Restless Nights'). Everybody wants to sing along with it. I always wanted to record that.
"I actually recorded that song for the previous album, 'All American Bluegrass Girl,' but it has to fit the project and it didn't seem to fit with that bunch of songs. So when we worked on this album, I knew, 'Yeah, this is the one.' And I just knew Keith would be the guy. Karla sang with James Taylor on her cut of that. I just thought that Keith had the perfect voice for it."
Vincent, who co-produced the album with her brother, Darrin, knows a thing or two about recording. The 45-year-old mandolin player has been in the business since she was 5. There was no way around it; music is ingrained in her family's history in Kirksville, Mo.
"My first recording was with my family in 1967," she said. "I sang two songs on the 'Sally Mountain Singers' album. I grew up in this musical family that spans like five generations and hopefully it'll be six generations. My daughters are singing and my brother's children are singing.
"It was this wonderful life of music, and it was a very intense life of music. When I was 5, we had a radio show and a TV show. We were performing locally and regionally because of the TV show. My dad would pick me up from school every day and we would sing till dinner, and after dinner friends would come over and we would sing till bedtime. It was a concentrated life of music that evolved into a career."
Her solo career didn't take off until after she formed her band, The Rage, in the 1990s. With each album in the 2000s, her sales and popularity have soared.
Over the years, Vincent earned respect within mainstream country, much like Alison Krauss has.
"We actually grew up together, and we're friends," Vincent said. "In 1985, I did a show called 'You Can Be a Star,' and I went to Nashville for a brief period and I got a job with the host of that show, Jim Ed Brown. My family was still performing and there were some shows I missed; this one time, my dad discovered this 12-year-old girl from Champaign, Ill. He hired her. She wore my clothes and she toured with my family. It was Alison!
"I've watched her blossom into this incredibly talented young lady. She has created her own style of music much beyond bluegrass."
# posted by Gerry Galipault/Pause & Play @ 1:12 PM 
