100 Greatest Women: 10th Anniversary Edition
#58
Rhonda Vincent
2008 Edition: #63 (+5)
When Rhonda Vincent left bluegrass to cross over to mainstream country music, she didn’t stay away for long, but she received one heck of a homecoming when she returned to her bluegrass roots.
Vincent had been a multi-faced performer from the start. She grew up on stage, playing in her family’s band, The Sally Mountain Show. Her skill with the mandolin, guitar and fiddle was prodigious, and she was soon well-established enough to go out on her own. She gained exposure from a stint on the TNN reality contest, You Can Be a Star, and began singing with Opry legend Jim Ed Brown. By the end of the eighties, she was recording for Rebel Records.
Over the course of just three years, she released four studio albums for Rebel, the final of which – Timeless and True Love – brought her the most critical acclaim. It also caught the attention of James Stroud, a producer who was establishing a Nashville office for Giant Records. The label was off to a strong start with Clay Walker and Carlene Carter, and he thought that Rhonda Vincent had mainstream country potential.
She signed with the label, and released her first country album in 1993, Written in the Stars. It featured “Mama Knows the Highway,” which would become a hit for Hal Ketchum that same year, and “I’m Not Over You,” which she would record again in 2002.
When the album didn’t catch on, Vincent was stuck in limbo for three years. She resurfaced at Warner Bros. and released her second country album, Trouble Free, in 1996. It was a stellar album, far more traditional and featuring gorgeous harmonies from Alison Krauss and Dolly Parton. When the album didn’t meet expectations, however, her deal came to an end.
Vincent chose to rededicate herself to her first love of bluegrass music, and when she returned to the genre at the turn of the century, she found an adoring audience waiting for her. Since releasing Back Home Again in 2000, Rhonda Vincent has been a bluegrass superstar. She won the IBMA Female Vocalist award an unprecedented eight times, breaking the record of five held by Alison Krauss.
When a car accident kept her from live auditions, she hired her band over the internet. She dubbed them The Rage, and they lived up to their names. Rhonda Vincent & The Rage quickly astounded audiences on the bluegrass circuit, and they were honored with the IBMA Entertainer of the Year award in 2001. Vincent would go one to repeatedly win at both the IBMA Awards and at the more conservative Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America Awards.
Ironically, it was her return to bluegrass that brought Vincent her most mainstream success. Her albums now regularly impact the country charts, while also dominating the bluegrass listings. Her collaborations with country stars like Gene Watson and Daryle Singletary have been well received, and as recently as 2018, she topped the charts with a Dolly Parton collaboration, only a few weeks after finally winning her first Grammy Award.
For nearly two decades, Rhonda Vincent has remained the leading female ambassador of bluegrass music, proving that you can indeed go home again.
Essential Singles
- What More Do You Want From Me, 1996
- I’m Not Over You, 2002
- You Can’t Take it With You, 2004
- If Heartaches Had Wings, 2005
- Please (with Dolly Parton), 2018
Essential Albums
- Timeless and True Love (1991)
- Trouble Free (1996)
- The Storm Still Rages (2001)
- One Step Ahead (2003)
- Only Me (2015)
Industry Awards
- Grammy Awards
- Best Bluegrass Album
- All the Rage: Volume One, 2018
- Best Bluegrass Album
- International Bluegrass Music Association Awards
- Entertainer of the Year, 2001
- Female Vocalist of the Year, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010
- Recorded Event of the Year
- Clinch Mountain Country, 1999
- Follow Me Back to the Fold: A Tribute to Women in Bluegrass, 2001
- Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’: Songs of the Louvin Brothers, 2004
- Song of the Year
- Kentucky Borderline, 2004
- Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America
- Bluegrass Band of the Year (with The Rage), 2015
- Bluegrass Hall of Greats, 2013
- Contemporary Female Vocalist of the Year, 2012, 2013, 2015
- Entertainer of the Year, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016
- Female Vocalist of the Year, 2016
- Instrumentalist Group of the Year (with The Rage), 2014, 2016
100 Greatest Women: 10th Anniversary Edition
Next: #57. Jeannie C. Riley
Previous: #59. Jeannie Seely
Not a bluegrass fan but love her voice. My RV collection is limited to “I’ve Forgotten You” from “Ragin’ Live” and her duets album with Gene Watson, “Your Money & My Good Looks”. I’ll have to check out the essential singles.
Rhonda is one of my all time favorite bluegrass artists. Her voice just blows me away every time I hear her songs. Rhonda and Alison Krauss got me into listening to bluegrass.
As a fun fact, Rhonda was in the audience for Marty Stuart’s Late Night Jam last week. Although she did not perform, Marty made a point to mention her a couple of times.