Balsam Range

Balsam Range is a bluegrass and acoustic music group founded in 2007 in Haywood County, North Carolina. The five members are all from Haywood County in western North Carolina. They are the 2014 and 2018 IBMA Entertainer of the Year recipients. Their other accolades include IBMA Vocal Group of the Year (2014, 2015), Song of the Year (2011, 2015), and Album of the Year (2013, 2017).[1] Balsam Range consists of its original five members: on fiddle and lead tenor, Buddy Melton; on mandolin and vocals, Darren Nicholson; on upright bass, resonator guitar, and vocals, Tim Surrett; on guitar and vocals, Caleb Smith; and on banjo, Dr. Marc Pruett.

Members

Buddy Melton (fiddle, vocals) picked up fiddle in college, and is also accomplished on the bass. He performed with Jubal Foster before joining Balsam Range. Buddy has also performed with David Holt and Doc Watson. Melton won the honor of "Male Vocalist of the Year" at the 2014 and 2018 International Bluegrass Music Awards.[2]

Darren Nicholson (mandolin, vocals) has performed many times on the Grand Ole Opry stage, and has toured with The Crowe Brothers and Alecia Nugent among many other artists. He is a Grammy nominee and multiple IBMA award-winner. He has released three solo albums, including 2014's Things Left Undone (featuring John Driskell Hopkins and Rhonda Vincent as well as many others) and 2018's Fret a Spell, a collection of instrumental bluegrass recordings.[3][4]

Tim Surrett (bass and dobro) has performed with the gospel group The Kingsmen Quartet, winning multiple awards for "Gospel Musician of the Year". He also has a place in the Southern Gospel Hall of Fame. Surrett has also performed with Tony Rice, Ralph Stanley, Brad Paisley and Vince Gill. In 2014, Surrett won the "Mentor of the Year" award at the IBMAs for his inspiration and work with young artists.[5][6][7]

Caleb Smith (guitar, vocals) performed as a founding member of gospel group Harvest and also won "Male Vocalist of the Year" and "Guitar Player of the Year" for the Power Grass Music Awards. He is also an accomplished luthier, building Smith Custom Guitars for clients such as Zac Brown, Bryan Sutton, and many more. [8][9]

Dr. Marc Pruett (banjo) is a Grammy-winning banjo picker who has played on 4 albums with Ricky Skaggs including his first record in 1974 and the 1997 Grammy award winner Bluegrass Rules! He also led the Marc Pruett Band for 10 years. His music was used for over a dozen years in the highly acclaimed outdoor drama Unto These Hills in Cherokee, NC. Dr. Pruett earned his honorary doctorate from Western Carolina University in 2010 for his contributions to bluegrass music.[10][11]

Founding and Early Years

"In the beginning, we just got together, five guys from the same county that just wanted to play music together just for the fun of it," said Buddy Melton in a 2018 interview. "We were just living in the same town and happened to be great friends, so it was an ideal scenario." [12] Melton and Dr. Marc Pruett had recently performed together as members of Whitewater Bluegrass Company, and band members had recently recorded on each solo efforts by Melton, Nicholson, and Surrett.[13] When the young band gathered to record their first album, they did not yet have a name. Inspiration for a band name came from the Great Balsam Range, a mountain range that surrounds their home county. “We thought it was a little pretentious to have ‘great’ in there, so we just stripped that off of it and called us Balsam Range,” Melton says. [14] From these initial recording sessions came Marching Home, Balsam Range's debut album, released in October of 2007. The album included guest appearances from Joe Diffie, Doyle Lawson, Jim Van Cleve, Tony Rice, and Jerry Salley,[15] and featured "Blue Mountain," which remains the band's most-requested song. [16]

Albums and Achievements

Balsam Range followed up Marching Home with Last Train to Kitty Hawk in 2009, with the title song hitting #1 on Bluegrass Unlimited's National Bluegrass Survey in September of that year. [17]Trains I Missed, the title song of their third album, earned Balsam Range their first IBMA Award, Song of the Year, in 2011. Named for their hometown of Canton, North Carolina, which houses a paper mill, Papertown spent five consecutive months at the number one spot on the Bluegrass Unlimited National Bluegrass Survey chart. The project garnered seven IBMA nominations for Balsam Range in 2013, and they walked away with the Album of the Year honor. In typical Balsam Range style, the band's response was to immediately think of fans, especially those at home in Haywood County. "We're just blown away," Surrett said. "We're so proud of our home area and we get to carry this back to the real Papertown. That's what it's been about all along: the people."[18]

    Discography
    • Marching Home (2007)
    • Last Train To Kitty Hawk (2009)
    • Trains I Missed (2010)
    • Papertown (2012)
    • Daylight (with John Driskell Hopkins) (2012)
    • Live at the Altamont (2013)
    • Five (2014)
    • Mountain Voodoo (2016)
    • It's Christmas Time (2017)
    • Mountain Overture (with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble) (2018)
    • Aeonic (January 4, 2019)
    • The Gospel Collection (2019)

    Singles
    • The Girl Who Invented the Wheel (2018)
    • Hobo Blues (2018)
    • Get Me Gone (2018)
    • Richest Man (2020)

    References
    1. "Recipients & Inductees". IBMA. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
    2. "Balsam Range website about Buddy Melton". Archived from the original on 2014-06-02. Retrieved 2014-06-02.
    3. "Darren Nicholson Music page".
    4. https://www.balsamrange.com/band/2019/3/21/darren-nicholson
    5. "Balsam Range Website about Tim Surrett". Archived from the original on 2014-06-02. Retrieved 2014-06-02.
    6. "artists. Article on Tim Surrett".
    7. "2014 IBMA Winners".
    8. "Balsam Range website about Caleb Smith". Archived from the original on 2014-06-02. Retrieved 2014-06-02.
    9. "Smith Custom Guitars Website".
    10. "Musician Tip No. 61 – Marc Pruett". Bluegrass Country. WAMU. Archived from the original on July 7, 2010. Retrieved August 5, 2016.
    11. "Balsam Range Website about Marc Pruett". Archived from the original on 2014-06-02. Retrieved 2014-06-02.
    12. Zimmerman, Lee (2018-12-20). "Buddy Melton talks Balsam Range and the evolution of bluegrass". Bluegrass Today. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
    13. Admin. "Newly formed Balsam Range features some of the finest". www.smokymountainnews.com. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
    14. "Balsam Range Interview, Plus Listen to 'The Rambler' Song Premiere". Billboard. 2019-01-03. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
    15. Thompson, Richard (2007-09-29). "Balsam Range are Marching Home". Bluegrass Today. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
    16. admin (2018-06-11). "Strings Done Differently". Americana Music Magazine - Bluegrass, Roots, Folk, Blues, and Old-Time. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
    17. Admin. "'Mountain Traditions' concert to benefit Shindig on the Green". www.smokymountainnews.com. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
    18. "Cross Roads Music".
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