IBMA Nominated! After Months On The Bluegrass Charts, Balsam Range Flies High With Mountain Voodoo

Balsam Range. Photo by David Simchock

Balsam Range Casts Acoustic Spells with Mountain Voodoo,
Their Most Recent Release on Mountain Home Music Company

Flying High After Months On The Bluegrass Charts,
Balsam Range Nominated for Eight IBMA Awards!

Balsam Range is overjoyed with the news of today’s IBMA Awards Nominations in the following eight categories: Entertainer of the Year, Vocal Group of the Year, Instrumental Group of the Year, Song of the Year: “Blue Collar Dreams”, Album of the Year: Mountain Voodoo, Gospel Recorded Event of the Year: “Wish You Were Here”, Male Vocalist of the Year: Buddy Melton, and Bass Player of the Year: Tim Surrett!

Balsam Range, along with Sierra Hull and Justin Moses, performed live earlier today for the awards announcement with SiriusXM Bluegrass Junction host Kyle Cantrell. You can rewatch it over on IBMA’s facebook page from their Facebook Live stream.

The band is flying high with their sixth studio album, Mountain Voodoo, which came out on Mountain Home Music Company [11/11/17]. With Mountain Voodoo they offer something that is continuing to mesmerize fans of bluegrass and beyond with elements of jazz, country, gospel, swing, and old-time music that are all infused into the fresh sound of this unique Southern band. It’s five distinct personalities creating one remarkable musical experience.

The 13-tracks are like the book of life “Chapter Six” for Balsam Range and are filled with songs of journey, home, sense of place, hardcore drive, and longing. There are fiery instrumental parts alternating with heavy, deep ballads overlaid by the vocal harmonies the group has become known for.

Their song “Blue Collar Dreams” has stayed at #1 on Bluegrass Unlimited’s Radio chart for June, July, and August. The same song also spent three consecutive months at number one on the Bluegrass Today charts earlier this year! Two other songs from the album have also landed at #1 on Bluegrass Today’s chart including “Something ‘Bout That Suitcase” and “El Dorado Blue.”

Balsam Range is Buddy Melton (Fiddle, Lead and Tenor Vocals), Darren Nicholson (Mandolin, Octave Mandolin, Lead Vocals, Baritone and Low Tenor Vocals), Dr. Marc Pruett (Banjo), Tim Surrett (Bass, Dobro, Baritone and Lead Vocals), and Caleb Smith (Guitar, Lead & Baritone Vocals). The five original members, who are celebrating their 10th year together this March, are all acoustic musicians and singers from North Carolina. They thoughtfully and respectfully adopted the name of a majestic range of mountains that surrounds part of their home county of Haywood, NC where the Smokies meet the Blue Ridge, the Balsam Range.

Balsam Range is humbled and honored to receive nominations for this years IBMA Awards in the following categories:

Entertainer of the Year
Vocal Group of the Year
Instrumental Group of the Year
Song of the Year: “Blue Collar Dreams”
Album of the Year: Mountain Voodoo
Gospel Recorded Event of the Year: “Wish You Were Here”
Male Vocalist of the Year: Buddy Melton
Bass Player of the Year: Tim Surrett

Get Mountain Voodoo at iTunes, Amazon, and more → https://clg.lnk.to/3OSAZ

Watch the studio version of “Blue Collar Dreams”

Critical Acclaim for Balsam Range and Mountain Voodoo:

“These guys just keep getting better. How good is this one? There’s a potential song of the year here… the laurels go to Aaron Bibelhauser’s ‘Blue Collar Dreams’, an anthem for working stiffs everywhere that’s been dominating the charts. The song has quite a pedigree.”
—Bluegrass Today, David Morris’ Top Albums of the 2016

“No matter what your taste in bluegrass might be, every listener can find something here to like. Take a listen to ‘Blue Collar Dreams’ or ‘Eldorado Blue’ with Buddy Melton and see if you agree.”
—IBMA

“Mountain Voodoo parts the curtains between heaven and earth as it speaks to those that have passed in ‘Wish You Were Here’, and sees leaving making an exit with ‘Something ‘Bout That Suitcase’ as Balsam Range walk a ‘straight and narrow line’ with empty pockets in ‘Blue Collar Dreams.’”
—The Alternate Root, Danny McCloskey

“So consistently impressive that we no longer expect their albums to be ‘better than their last,’ in less than a decade Balsam Range has hit the plateau of excellence few groups achieve. Like The Del McCoury Band, Blue Highway, and Alison Krauss & Union Station before them, a new release from Balsam Range is measured against their individual legacy. Mountain Voodoo lacks nothing.”
—Country Standard Time, Donald Teplyske’s Favorite Bluegrass Albums of 2016

“Stepping over boundaries seems to be a part of Balsam Range’s DNA.”
—News & Record/ Greensboro.com, Grant Britt

“They kick the album off with a bang. Pure (what they at one time called) Newgrass, the kind of stuff on which Tony Rice and Ricky Skaggs based their reputations. Acoustic guitar (mostly picked), bass, mandolin, fiddle and banjo, and voices. The voices are crucial. You can jig and reel and you can breakdown without vocals but you cannot have the best of what bluegrass offers without voices. Think Seldom Scene and Doyle Lawson. Think harmonies sung by angels. Think harmonies stacked to the ceiling. There isn’t anything like it, or as some of my friends would say, ‘There ain’t nothin’ lak it.’”
—No Depression, Frank Gutch Jr.

“They’re groovy. Balsam Range reminds us that bluegrass can be dancing music, hip-swinging music, backbeat music, as rhythmically hypnotic as all the plugged-in genres that formed in its wake. ‘It’s hillbilly soul!’ says mandolin player Darren Nicholson.’”
—The Bluegrass Situation, Joseph Terrell

“Some of the best vocal harmonies I can recall in quite some time… Bluegrass aficionado or not, you absolutely need to hear Balsam Range.”
—Elmore Magazine, Jim Hynes

For more information, tour dates, and more, please visit www.balsamrange.com. Stay up to date with current news on www.facebook.com/balsamrange, www.twitter.com/BalsamRange, and www.instagram.com/balsamrange.