Balsam Range

bluegrass

Balsam Range is a bluegrass band formed in 2007 in Haywood County, North Carolina, taking its name from the Great Balsam Range in the mountains around it. The founding five were all local musicians: Marc Pruett on banjo, Tim Surrett on bass, dobro and baritone and lead vocals, Caleb Smith on guitar and lead and baritone vocals, Buddy Melton on fiddle and lead vocals, and Darren Nicholson on mandolin. The debut Marching Home (2007) brought in guests including Tony Rice and Joe Diffie; Papertown (2012) held number one on the Bluegrass Unlimited chart for five months, and Aeonic (2019) entered Billboard's bluegrass chart at number one. The International Bluegrass Music Association named the band Entertainer of the Year in 2014 and 2018 and Vocal Group of the Year in 2014 and 2015, gave Album of the Year to Papertown in 2013 and Mountain Voodoo in 2017, and Song of the Year to Trains I Missed in 2011 and Moon Over Memphis in 2015. The group has recorded repeatedly with John Driskell Hopkins, a founding member of the Zac Brown Band, including the joint album Daylight (2013). The lineup has turned over since: Nicholson left in November 2022 and was replaced by mandolinist Alan Bibey, and Melton, the last founding fiddler and a principal lead voice, stepped away in January 2025 to concentrate on his engineering work, with Don Rigsby touring on fiddle and tenor vocals through the 2025 season. Since December 2016 the band has hosted the Art of Music Festival, a two-day event held the first weekend of December at the Lake Junaluska Conference Center in western North Carolina, which brings an estimated 400,000 dollars a year into Haywood County.

Official site

Subscribe to this calendar

Upcoming shows