The ETSU Bluegrass Band performed at the celebration of Ralph Stanley's 80th Birthday and 60th year in the music business. For the spring 2007 semester, the band is made up of Matt Bright, Sara Cull, Travis Houck, Tyler Kufta, Sara Needham, Jordan Ramsey, Leona Tokutake, and Robert Trapp.

IBMA Awards To Seven ETSU Bluegrass Alumni

Seven ETSU Bluegrass, Old Time and Country Music alumni were honored at the 17th Annual International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) awards held at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee on September 28, 2006.

Tim Stafford and Barry Bales, both natives of Kingsport, Tennessee as well as ETSU Bluegrass alumni, were honored for their contributions to the IBMA Album of the Year, Celebration of Life:  Musicians Against Childhood Cancers.  ETSU’s Adam Steffey (also from Kingsport, Tennessee) won--for the fifth time—the award for Mandolin Player of the Year.

Four young women who had earlier traveled long distances to hone their musical skills at ETSU shared in the honors for IBMA’s Recorded Event of the Year, Back To the Well, by the Daughters of Bluegrass.  The ETSU alumnae included Minnesota’s Becky Buller, Wisconsin’s Beth Lawrence, and Megan McCormick and Angela Oudean, both from Alaska.