The Isaacs

bluegrass

The Isaacs are an American family group from Hendersonville, Tennessee, performing bluegrass, Southern gospel and country built on close family harmony. The group traces to 1971, when Joe and Lily Isaacs began performing sacred music together after the death of Joe's brother in a car accident; billed first as the Calvary Mountain Boys and then Sacred Bluegrass, they took the family name as their children joined. Lily Isaacs, born in Germany in 1947 to Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors and raised in New York City, had begun a secular career, including a Columbia Records contract and nightclub work, before the family turned to gospel. Joe Isaacs, the group's banjo player, left after the couple divorced in 1998. The lineup since is Lily on vocals with her three children, Ben Isaacs on bass, Sonya Isaacs Yeary on mandolin and Becky Isaacs Bowman on guitar, all of whom also sing and write; Sonya and Becky are established Nashville songwriters in their own right. Across more than twenty albums released since the late 1980s on labels including Horizon, Gaither and the family's own Isaacs House imprint, the group has won multiple Dove Awards, Singing News and Southern Gospel Music awards and IBMA recognition, and has collected several Grammy nominations. Naturally: An Almost A Cappella Collection (2009) reached number 25 on Billboard's Christian albums chart and number 12 on its country chart. The Isaacs were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2021 and became members of the Grand Ole Opry on August 10, 2021, where they continue to appear. Their stage show centers on unaccompanied and lightly accompanied family harmony over acoustic bluegrass instrumentation, and Lily, a breast cancer survivor of three decades, often speaks from the stage about the family's history.

Official site

Past shows