Kentucky Thunder

By high school, he aspired to be a studio musician, a multi-instrumentalist who could adapt to a wide variety of sounds and settings, and he achieved that goal.

But along the way, he got job offers he couldn't refuse, including a pivotal three-year stint with the Grammy-winning band Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder.

He was a 22-year-old phenom who could play fast, clean, and imaginative solos in the hottest band on the circuit, and it made him a leading light in bluegrass music.

After 2000, Sutton took on many varied projects.

... let's just, let's just do this.

[upbeat bluegrass music]

That is the Bill Monroe instrumental Rawhide from Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder's breakthrough album Bluegrass Rules.

And you can get a sense there of the kind of impression that young Bryan Sutton made on the audience when he emerged out of Asheville in the late 1990s.

Yeah, Mitch Simpson, uh, he had a, um, a Chevrolet dealership in Cleveland, Georgia, and he would put on these awesome bluegrass festivals there.

That year I think he had Ron Sutton & Friends, uh, you know, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Del McCoury.

I think David Grisman came that year.

Okay.

Daly and Vincent are Jamie Daly and Darren Vincent, two of Bluegrass Music's best-known harmony singers and performers.

Jamie first came to national attention with Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, while Darren spent more than a decade with Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder.

The pair officially launched, Daly and Vincent, in 2007. and quickly became one of the most successful acts in modern bluegrass, collecting more than 30 industry awards and becoming members of the Grand Ole Opry in 2017.

Darren is also the brother of Rhonda Vincent, making Bluegrass very much a family affair.