Sam Bush up for a CMA Award

Sam Bush hosting the 2011 IBMA Awards show - photo © Dean HoffmeyerAs the years have gone by those who frequent these pages will have become increasingly less interested in what the Country Music Association (CMA) has to say.

However, on Tuesday, September 10, the CMA announced the nominees for this year’s, the 47th, CMA awards. It will come as no surprise to learn that it is right at the bottom of the list that it issued that one has to go to find anything of interest to bluegrass enthusiasts, where included in the five nominees for the Musician of the Year award is the name, once again, of mandolin ace Sam Bush.

Bush’s nomination is his third in as many years.

Alternately known as the King of Telluride and the King of Newgrass music, Bush has been honored by the Americana Music Association and the International Bluegrass Music Association, but not by the CMA, yet!

His journey to legendary status includes a 20 year stint as leader of New Grass Revival.

While at school he started Poor Richard’s Almanac. Later he recorded with Jerry Douglas, Mark O’Connor, Tony Rice and Mark Schatz in a group called Strength in Numbers. Subsequently, he was a member of Emmylou Harris’ band The Nash Ramblers and toured with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.

In 1998 he formed The Sam Bush Band, an ensemble that he still fronts.

In 2007 he hosted the IBMA Awards Show and that evening he won the IBMA award for Mandolin Player of the Year, the award that he also won in 1990, 1991 and 1992.

Up for the CMA Musician of the Year award along with Bush are steel guitar player Paul Franklin, Dann Huff (guitar), Brent Mason (guitar) and multi-instrumentalist Mac McAnally.

The 47th CMA Awards show will be televised on Wednesday, November 6th at 7:00 p.m., Central Time, on the ABC Television Network, but don’t expect Sam Bush to be invited to participate in the televised portion of the show.

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About the Author

Richard Thompson

Richard F. Thompson is a long-standing free-lance writer specialising in bluegrass music topics. A two-time Editor of British Bluegrass News, he has been seriously interested in bluegrass music since about 1970. As well as contributing to that magazine, he has, in the past 30 plus years, had articles published by Country Music World, International Country Music News, Country Music People, Bluegrass Unlimited, MoonShiner (the Japanese bluegrass music journal) and Bluegrass Europe. He wrote the annotated series I'm On My Way Back To Old Kentucky, a daily memorial to Bill Monroe that culminated with an acknowledgement of what would have been his 100th birthday, on September 13, 2011.