The Grascals

The Grascals came together as a Grammy-nominated bluegrass ensemble in the opening years of the 2000s, assembled by veteran Nashville players who shared deep personal bonds. Before the group existed, its six founding musicians had each spent nearly twenty years playing bluegrass and had first encountered one another either during childhood or while working road gigs alongside the Osborne Brothers, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Jimmy Martin, and additional artists. After their self-titled Rounder Records debut appeared in 2005, the band scored repeated number-one placements on the bluegrass charts with Long List of Heartaches, Keep On Walkin', and And Then There's This…. In 2021 the long-running sextet delivered its eleventh studio album, Up All Night.

Originally the lineup featured Indiana natives Terry Eldredge on guitar and vocals alongside Jamie Johnson on guitar and vocals, Kentucky-born childhood companions Danny Roberts on guitar and Jimmy Mattingly on fiddle, North Carolina native Terry Smith on bass, and Canadian banjoist David Talbot, who first met Eldredge during a stint with Larry Cordle. National visibility arrived when the musicians joined Dolly Parton’s touring entourage in 2004. Late that year they issued a three-song EP containing Parton’s guest vocals on a version of “Viva Las Vegas,” then followed with their full-length debut on Rounder in 2005. Long List of Heartaches reached stores in summer 2006, while Keep On Walkin’ arrived in 2008 and introduced fiddler Jeremy Abshire, who had entered the group the previous year.

Ace banjoist Kristin Scott Benson came aboard for the 2010 fourth album The Famous Lefty Flynn’s. The following year a partnership with the Cracker Barrel chain yielded the exclusive set The Grascals & Friends: Country Classics with a Bluegrass Spin, and the band also released the EP Dance Til Your Stockings Are Hot & Ravelin': A Tribute to the Music of The Andy Griffith Show. Life Finds a Way emerged in 2012 as their first project for Mountain Home Records, succeeded by When I Get My Pay in 2013—the same season fiddler Adam Haynes replaced Jeremy Abshire. Founding member Jamie Johnson departed in 2015, after which guitarist and singer John Bryan took his spot. January 2016 brought the eighth album And Then There's This…, supported by an extensive run of live dates, and the spirited ninth release Before Breakfast followed in 2017. After founding guitarist and vocalist Terry Eldredge stepped aside in favor of Chris Davis, the band recorded its tenth album Straighten the Curves in 2019. Two years later came the tenth studio effort Up All Night, featuring the singles “Sleepy Little Town” and “Flowers and Lace.”