Induction to the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, called the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor from its creation in 1991 through 2006, is managed by the

International Bluegrass Music Association The International Bluegrass Music Association, or IBMA, is a trade association to promote bluegrass music. Formed in 1985, IBMA established its first headquarters in Owensboro, Kentucky. In 1988 they announced plans to create the International ...

, and the Hall itself is maintained at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum,

Owensboro, Kentucky Owensboro is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Daviess County, Kentucky, United States. It is the fourth-largest city in the state by population. Owensboro is located on U.S. Route 60 and Interstate 165 about southwest of Lou ...

Inductee selection

Each year a nominating committee creates a slate of 10-15 candidates. From these names, electors cast ballots to narrow the nominees to five finalists. There are over 200 electors who, themselves, must have participated actively in bluegrass for at least 10 years, and must merit respect and recognition for their accomplishments and/or knowledge in one or more aspects of the field. After the five finalists have been selected, the electors again vote to select the inductee(s) for that year. The name(s) of the newest Hall of Honor inductee(s) are made public immediately following the final stage of balloting and the formal induction takes place each year during the International Bluegrass Music Awards Show. The plaques are displayed at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky.

Inductees

1991

Bill Monroe William Smith "Bill" Monroe (; September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter, who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the " Father of Bluegrass". The genre take ...

Earl Scruggs Earl Eugene Scruggs (January 6, 1924 – March 28, 2012) was an American musician noted for popularizing a three-finger banjo picking style, now called "Scruggs style", which is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. His three-fin ...

Lester Flatt Lester Raymond Flatt (June 19, 1914 – May 11, 1979) was an American bluegrass guitarist and mandolinist, best known for his collaboration with banjo picker Earl Scruggs in the duo Flatt and Scruggs. Flatt's career spanned multiple decades, ...

1992

The Stanley Brothers The Stanley Brothers were an American bluegrass duo of singer-songwriters and musicians, made up of brothers Carter Stanley (August 27, 1925 – December 1, 1966) and Ralph Stanley (February 25, 1927 – June 23, 2016). Ralph and Carter perform ...

Ralph Stanley Ralph Edmund Stanley (February 25, 1927 – June 23, 2016) was an American bluegrass artist, known for his distinctive singing and banjo playing. Stanley began playing music in 1946, originally with his older brother Carter Stanley as part of ...

Carter Stanley Carter Glen Stanley (August 27, 1925 – December 1, 1966) was a bluegrass music lead singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitar player. He formed The Stanley Brothers and The Clinch Mountain Boys band with his younger brother Ralph Stanley. Biogra ...

Reno and Smiley Reno and Smiley were an American musical duo that was composed of Don Reno (May 17, 1925 – October 16, 1984) and Red Smiley (February 21, 1925 – January 2, 1972). They were one of the most acclaimed duos in country and bluegrass music in the ...

Don Reno Donald Wesley Reno (February 21, 1926Trischka, Tony, "Don Reno", ''Banjo Song Book'', Oak Publications, 1977, – October 16, 1984) was an American bluegrass and country musician, best known as a pioneering banjo and guitar player who pa ...

: Arthur Lee "Red" Smiley

1993

Mac Wiseman Malcolm Bell Wiseman (May 23, 1925 – February 24, 2019) was an American bluegrass and country singer. Early life He was born on May 23, 1925, in Crimora, Virginia. He attended school in New Hope, Virginia, and graduated from high school the ...

Jim & Jesse Jim & Jesse were an American bluegrass music duo composed of brothers Jim McReynolds (February 13, 1927 – December 31, 2002) and Jesse McReynolds (born July 9, 1929). The two were born and raised in Carfax, a community near Coeburn, Virginia, ...

:Jim McReynolds :

Jesse McReynolds Jesse Lester McReynolds (born July 9, 1929) is an American bluegrass musician. He is best known for his innovative crosspicking and split-string styles of mandolin playing. Biography McReynolds was born in Coeburn, Virginia. He and his brother J ...

1994

Osborne Brothers The Osborne Brothers, Sonny (October 29, 1937 – October 24, 2021) and Bobby (born December 7, 1931), were an influential and popular bluegrass act during the 1960s and 1970s and until Sonny retired in 2005. They are probably best known for ...

Bobby Osborne Bobby Osborne (born December 7, 1931) is an American bluegrass musician. He is the co-founder (with his brother Sonny Osborne) of the Osborne Brothers and a member of the Grand Ole Opry and the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. He also ...

Sonny Osborne Sonny Osborne (October 29, 1937October 24, 2021) was an American bluegrass musician and founding member of the Osborne Brothers. Personal life Born on October 29, 1937 in Thousandsticks, Kentucky, Sonny Osborne's father was a farmer, teacher, ...

1995

Jimmy Martin James Henry Martin (August 10, 1927 – May 14, 2005) was an American bluegrass musician, known as the "King of Bluegrass". Early years Martin was born in Sneedville, Tennessee, United States, and was raised in the hard farming life of rural ...

1996

* Peter V. Kuykendall *

The Country Gentlemen The Country Gentlemen was a progressive bluegrass band that originated during the 1950s in the area of Washington, D.C., United States, and recorded and toured with various members until the death in 2004 of Charlie Waller (American musician), C ...

: Charlie Waller :

John Duffey John Humbird Duffey Jr. (March 4, 1934 – December 10, 1996) was a Washington D.C. based bluegrass musician. Duffey was born in Washington, D.C., and lived nearly all his life in the Washington D.C. area. He graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Cha ...

Eddie Adcock Eddie Adcock (born June 21, 1938) is an American banjoist and guitarist. His professional career as a 5-string banjoist began in 1953 when he joined Smokey Graves & His Blue Star Boys, who had a regular show at a radio station in Crewe, Virgin ...

Tom Gray Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

1997

Josh Graves Josh Graves (September 27, 1927 Tellico Plains, Monroe County, Tennessee – September 30, 2006), born Burkett Howard Graves, was an American bluegrass musician. Also known by the nicknames "Buck," and "Uncle Josh," he is credited with introduci ...

1998

Chubby Wise Robert Russell "Chubby" Wise (October 2, 1915 – January 6, 1996) was an American bluegrass fiddler. Originally starting out playing the banjo and guitar, Wise began playing fiddle at age 12, working locally in the Jacksonville area. He joined ...

Carlton Haney Lawrence Carlton Haney (September 19, 1928 – March 16, 2011) was an American booking agent, festival promoter, and songwriter primarily active in bluegrass music. Once dubbed “The P.T. Barnum of Country Music” for his large personality, Ha ...

1999

* Kenny Baker

2000

*Lance LeRoy *

Doc Watson Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson (March 3, 1923 – May 29, 2012) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music. Watson won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. W ...

2001

Carter Family Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound impact on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop and rock musicians as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s. ...

: A. P. Carter :

Sara Carter Sara Elizabeth Carter (née Dougherty, later Bayes; July 21, 1898 – January 8, 1979) was an American country music musician, singer, and songwriter. Remembered mostly for her deep, distinctive, mature singing voice, she was the lead singer on ...

Maybelle Carter "Mother" Maybelle Carter (born Maybelle Addington; May 10, 1909 – October 23, 1978) was an American country musician and "among the first" to use the Carter scratch, with which she "helped to turn the guitar into a lead instrument". It ...

2002

* The Lilly Brothers & Don Stover :Michael Burt "Bea" Lilly :Charles E. "Everett" Lilly :Don Stover * David Freeman

2003

J. D. Crowe James Dee Crowe (August 27, 1937December 24, 2021) was an American banjo player and bluegrass band leader. He first became known during his four-year stint with Jimmy Martin in the 1950s. Crowe led the bluegrass group New South from 1971 until ...

2004

* John Ray "Curly" Seckler *

Bill Vernon Bill Vernon (July 4, 1937 – November 20, 1996) was an American radio DJ He was born in Brooklyn, New York City. In his early teens he became enamoured with Bluegrass music and publicized and promoted that genre in many ways. He was a ...

2005

Red Allen Henry James "Red" Allen, Jr. (January 7, 1908 – April 17, 1967) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist whose playing has been claimed by Joachim-Ernst Berendt and others as the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstr ...

Benny Martin Benny Edward Martin (May 8, 1928 – March 13, 2001), was an American bluegrass fiddler who invented the eight-string fiddle. Throughout his musical career he performed with artists such as the Bluegrass Boys, Don Reno, the Smoky Mountain Boys ...

2006

The Lewis Family The Lewis Family is a family of gospel and bluegrass musicians from Lincolnton, Georgia. They are known as the "First Family of Bluegrass Gospel". Background The family was founded by Pop and Mom Lewis (Roy Lewis Sr. and Pauline Lewis, née H ...

Syd Nathan Sydney Nathan (April 27, 1904 – March 5, 1968) was an American music business executive who founded King Records, a leading independent record label, in 1943. He contributed to the development of country & western music, rhythm and blues a ...

2007

*Howard Watts ("Cedric Rainwater") *

Carl Story Carl Story (May 29, 1916 – March 31, 1995) was an American bluegrass musician, and leader of his band the Rambling Mountaineers. He was dubbed "The Father of Bluegrass Gospel Music" by the governor of Oklahoma. Biography Story was born in Len ...

2008

Bill Clifton Bill Clifton (born William August Marburg; April 5, 1931) is an American bluegrass musician and singer who is credited with having organized one of the first bluegrass festivals in the United States in 1961.Wolff, Duane 2000, p. 209. Earl ...

*Charles Wolfe

2009

Lonesome Pine Fiddlers The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers (1938- 1966) were an early bluegrass band. Throughout their formations, they included notable "first generation" bluegrass musicians such as Ezra Cline, Bobby Osborne, Paul Williams, Melvin Goins, Charlie Cline, Curl ...

The Dillards The Dillards are an American bluegrass and country rock band from Salem, Missouri. The band is best known for introducing bluegrass music into the popular mainstream with their appearance as "The Darlings" on ''The Andy Griffith Show''. Band ...

2010

John Hartford John Cowan Hartford (December 30, 1937 – June 4, 2001) was an American folk, country, and bluegrass composer and musician known for his mastery of the fiddle and banjo, as well as for his witty lyrics, unique vocal style, and extensive kno ...

* Louise Scruggs

2011

Del McCoury Delano Floyd McCoury (born February 1, 1939) is an American bluegrass musician. As leader of the Del McCoury Band, he plays guitar and sings lead vocals along with his two sons, Ronnie McCoury and Rob McCoury, who play mandolin and banjo respec ...

George Shuffler George Shuffler (April 11, 1925 – April 7, 2014) was an American bluegrass music, bluegrass guitar player and an early practitioner of the crosspicking style. During his career Shuffler played with The Bailey Brothers and the Happy Valley Boys, ...

2012

Doyle Lawson Doyle Lawson (born April 20, 1944) is an American traditional bluegrass and Southern gospel musician. He is best known as a mandolin player, vocalist, producer, and leader of the 6-man group Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. Lawson was inducted into ...

Ralph Rinzler Ralph Rinzler (July 20, 1934 – July 2, 1994) was an American mandolin player, folksinger, and the co-founder of the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall every summer in Washington, D.C., where he worked as a curator for American a ...

2013

Tony Rice David Anthony Rice (June 8, 1951 – December 25, 2020), known professionally as Tony Rice, was an American guitarist and bluegrass musician. He was an influential acoustic guitar player in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and a ...

*Paul Warren

2014

*Neil Rosenberg * The Original Seldom Scene

2015

Larry Sparks Larry Sparks (born September 25, 1947) is an American Bluegrass singer and guitarist. He was the winner of the 2004 and 2005 International Bluegrass Music Association Male Vocalist of the Year Award. 2005, won IBMA for Album of the Year and Re ...

* Bill Keith

2016

*Ken Irwin *Marian Leighton-Levy *Bill Nowlin *

Clarence White Clarence White (born Clarence Joseph LeBlanc; June 7, 1944 – July 15, 1973) was an American bluegrass and country guitarist and singer. He is best known as a member of the bluegrass ensemble the Kentucky Colonels and the rock band the Byrds, ...

2017

Hazel Dickens Hazel Jane Dickens (June 1, 1925 – April 22, 2011) was an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, double bassist and guitarist. Her music was characterized not only by her high, lonesome singing style, but also by her provocative pro- unio ...

Alice Gerrard Alice Gerrard (born July 8, 1934) is an American bluegrass singer, banjoist, fiddler, and guitar player. She performed in a duo with Hazel Dickens, and as part of The Strange Creek Singers (with Dickens, Mike Seeger, Tracy Schwarz, and Lamar ...

Bobby Hicks Bobby Hicks (born July 21, 1933) is a Grammy Awardbr>winningAmerican bluegrass fiddler and a professional musician with more than fifty years of experience. Career Hicks was born in Newton, North Carolina and learned to play the fiddle before ...

Roland White Roland Joseph White (né LeBlanc; April 23, 1938 – April 1, 2022) was an American bluegrass music artist, performing principally on the mandolin. Biography White was born in Madawaska, Maine, on April 23, 1938, as Roland Joseph LeBlanc, and ...

2018

Vassar Clements Vassar Carlton Clements (April 25, 1928 – August 16, 2005) was an American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and ...

Tom T. Hall Thomas Hall (May 25, 1936 – August 20, 2021), known professionally as Tom T. Hall and informally nicknamed "the Storyteller," was an American country music singer-songwriter and short-story author. He wrote 12 No. 1 hit songs, with 26 more ...

& Dixie Hall *

Mike Seeger Mike Seeger (August 15, 1933August 7, 2009) was an American folk musician and folklorist. He was a distinctive singer and an accomplished musician who played autoharp, banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, mouth harp, mandolin, dobro, jaw harp, ...

Allen Shelton Allen Shelton was an American five-string banjo player mostly known for being a member of the bluegrass band Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys since the 1960s. Shelton was born in Rockingham County, North Carolina on July 2, 1936. Shelton started p ...

Ricky Skaggs Rickie Lee Skaggs (born July 18, 1954), known professionally as Ricky Skaggs, is an American neotraditional country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, ma ...

*Jake Tullock *

Joe Val Joseph 'Val' Valiante (June 26, 1926 - June 11, 1985) was a bluegrass musician and singer from New England, known for his mandolin playing and his high tenor voice. Life and career Joe Val was born Joseph Valiante in Everett, Massachusetts. Al ...

* Paul Williams *Terry Woodward

2019

Mike Auldridge Mike Auldridge (December 30, 1938 – December 29, 2012) was an American Dobro player and a founding member of the bluegrass group The Seldom Scene. The ''New York Times'' described Auldridge as "one of the most distinctive dobro players in the ...

Bill Emerson Norvell William Emerson (January 1, 1938 – June 22, 1996) was an American politician. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri from 1981 until his death from lung cancer in Bethesda, Maryland in 19 ...

* The Kentucky Colonels

2020

* J.T. Gray *

Johnson Mountain Boys The Johnson Mountain Boys were a popular bluegrass band throughout the 1980s from the Washington, D.C. area. Their style favored a more traditional approach to bluegrass than some of their contemporaries. They released two 45 RPM single record ...

New Grass Revival New Grass Revival was an American progressive bluegrass band founded in 1971, and composed of Sam Bush, Courtney Johnson, Ebo Walker, Curtis Burch, Butch Robins, John Cowan, Béla Fleck and Pat Flynn. They were active between 1971 and 1989, r ...

2021

Alison Krauss Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer and musician. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of 8 and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with ...

Lynn Morris Lynn Morris (1954–2017) was a Christian fiction author. She was the daughter of Gilbert Morris and co-wrote with him on most of her books. Books by Lynn Morris Cheney Duvall, M.D. Series This series was co-written with her father, Gil ...

* The Stoneman Family

2022

* Norman Blake *Paul "Moon" Mullins *

Peter Rowan Peter Rowan (born July 4, 1942) is an American bluegrass musician and composer. Rowan plays guitar and mandolin, yodels and sings. Biography Rowan was born in Wayland, Massachusetts to a musical family. From an early age, he had an interes ...

References

International Bluegrass Music Museum's Hall of Fame list of inductees by year
an
the induction process

External links

{{Bluegrass music Bluegrass music Music halls of fame

Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

Awards established in 1991 1991 establishments in Kentucky