Her win broke a seven-year winning streak by Rhonda Vincent. Also nominated for the award was Alison Krauss, Sonya Isaacs and Claire Lynch.
“I appreciate this more than I can ever tell you,” a tearful Bradley said on accepting the award. “This is a celebration of the music we love so much. The most important things to me are the stories I share with the people who tell me what this music means to them.”
Bradley is described by many as one of bluegrass music’s hidden treasures.
A native of Bell County (she was raised in the Williams Branch Community and graduated from Bell County High School), Bradley is the daughter of Roger Price and the late Pearlie Ann Wilson Price.
Described by Alison Krauss as a “one of the most gifted vocalists bluegrass and country music has ever heard,” Bradley has been making a name for herself within bluegrass circles since 1992, but she has been singing forever.
Bradley grew up immersed in the culture and tradition of Bluegrass music, and by the time she was fourteen, she had picked up guitar and joined her high school choir director, Mearl Risner, and his wife, Alfa, to form a trio which performed in regional venues. The trio grew into band, Backporch Grass, and they were soon a regional favorite.
On hearing that Bradley had been named IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year, Mearl Risner said, “Wonderful! Dale Ann is a wonderful singer, she has the greatest voice I have ever heard, and I have heard a lot. We sure wish her the best because she is not only a wonderful singer, but a wonderful person as well.”
Bradley left the group when she married and moved to Jacksonville, Fla. When her marriage failed, she left Jacksonville with her young son, Gerald, and put together a demo to take to Nashville. On a whim, she also stopped to audition at the Renfro Valley Barn Dance, and became a regular performer there in 1989.
In 1992 the guitar and lead vocal position opened in the New Coon Creek Girls, and Bradley was the woman for the job. The New Coon Creek girls made four albums with her as a member before they dissolved. In 1997 Bradley and Vicki Simmons, a founding member of the New Coon Creek Girls, formed a new band, Dale Ann Bradley and Coon Creek, and released “East Kentucky Morning,” which was enthusiastically received by critics and fans alike, even being included on a Billboard editor’s best-of-the-year list.
Now a solo performer, her third solo album, Catch Tomorrow, and her first for Compass Records, was released in 2006. Catch Tomorrow , which showcases Bradley in the company of some very special guests including Jim Lauderdale, Tim O’Brien, Jeff White, Steve Gulley (Mountain Heart) and producer Alison Brown, established Bradley on the national stage as one of the most important talents in modern bluegrass.
Catch Tomorrow Stand out tracks include an exquisite gospel duet with Larry Sparks on “Pass Me Not”, a traditional country duet with Marty Raybon (Shenandoah) on “Holding on to Nothing” and a collaboration with Irish super group Lunasa. She also delivers some hard driving bluegrass on “Run Rufus Run” (about running ‘shine up Highway 119 in Bell County and co-written with bassist and Bradley’s long time friend Vicki Simmons), “Julia Belle” and the soon to be classic “Rita Mae” with the help of her past and current band mates including Michael Cleveland and Jesse Brock.
Bradley will return to Kentucky to perform at Renfro Valley on Oct. 16, and in Morehead, Ky., on Oct. 26. Other performances have her booked in Illinois, Pennsylvania and Canada.
For more information visit Bradley’s website at www.daleann.com.
Information for this article was also the Associated Press and the Tennessean
Lifestyles/Business Editor Donna Greene can be reached by e-mail at dgreene@middlesborodailynews.com
Photo above: IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year Dale Ann Bradley, pictured above right with longtime friend and bandmember Vicki Simmons at the 2006 Cumberland Mountain Fall Festival. DONNA GREENE/Daily News
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