Balsam Range’s ‘Mountain Voodoo’ Wins IBMA’s Album Of The Year Honor!

Flying High After Months On The Bluegrass Charts, Balsam Range’s Mountain Voodoo Wins Album Of The Year Honor at 2017 IBMA!

Asheville, NC — Balsam Range is overjoyed with the news that their most recent release, Mountain Voodoo, is named Album Of The Year at the 2017 International Bluegrass Music Association’s honors and awards show!

Mountain Voodoo is the band’s sixth studio album and was released on Mountain Home Music Company [11/11/17]. Mountain Voodoo offers 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.

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 celebrated their 10th year together this past 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.

 

Watch the Studio Performance of “Blue Collar Dreams”
“These guys just keep getting better. How good is this one?… 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 “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 “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 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 “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 “Stepping over boundaries seems to be a part of Balsam Range’s DNA.” —News & Record Get Mountain Voodoo at iTunes, Amazon, and more → https://clg.lnk.to/3OSAZ 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.