Stevie Barr

Born in 1975 in Galax, Virginia, at the center of old-time string band territory, Stevie Barr established himself early as a skilled bluegrass banjo player. The son of Rebecca and Thomas Barr, he was raised in a household devoted to music and had already taken up the banjo by age four. His father, a fiddle maker who ran Tom Barr's Fiddle Shop in Galax, created a hub that drew bluegrass and old-time players from around the globe; Stevie spent his childhood inside that shop, absorbing its atmosphere and developing his own command of the instrument. His debut recording, a cassette devoted to bluegrass banjo classics, appeared in 1986. He later assembled the bluegrass ensemble No Speed Limit alongside bassist Jacob Eller and vocalist Amber Collins, who was sixteen at the time the band formed; guitarists Josh Pickett and mandolinist Ryan Blevins joined afterward. The group issued its first CD, Bluegrass Lullaby, in 2005 and followed it the next year with Sweet Virginia. Barr also issued two solo albums, Then and Now Bluegrass Banjo and Along the Crooked Road, the latter released by Arhoolie Records in 2007.