Vincent started singing at age 3, and spent her childhood immersed in music as a member of her family band The Sally Mountain Show. She was the first signing to Giant Records' Nashville imprint in the 1990s. Vincent recorded two albums with Giant under the guidance of label head James Stroud. In spite of critical acclaim, Vincent's Country albums did not meet with mainstream success.
"When I played bluegrass, people would always say that 'your voice is so Country,' but when I got to Nashville and made Country records people said 'You sound so Bluegrass," she said.
After her stint at Giant, Vincent was at a crossroads, and decided to start her own band. Her group The Rage has evolved into one of the tightest and most entertaining bands working today. At an early performance of Rhonda Vincent & The Rage, she notes that fans told her that they loved her Country Music. This led her to the realization that the labels being tossed around were less important than the perception of the listener, and that a great performance doesn't need to be categorized.
Vincent refers to her stint in the Country Music business as a "graduate program" in the music industry. She learned valuable lessons about touring, merchandising and sponsorship that have served her well in her bluegrass career.
Signing with the legendary roots music label Rounder Records, Vincent saw her career take a dramatic upturn when the label began to produce music videos that were aired heavily on CMT and later GAC. "When we started getting the video airplay is when we saw the album sales start to climb towards the 100,000 mark," Vincent said. "Before that, selling 10,000 in bluegrass was considered to be a huge success."
In the absence of widespread radio airplay, Vincent has developed her career by maintaining a vigorous show schedule.
She continues a longstanding tradition of appearing in her merchandise booth after every performance to meet fans, sign autographs and pose for photos.
For several years, she has been sponsored by Martha White, which provides her with a tour bus bearing their company logo. Vincent, whose merchandise tent is called the Martha White Boutique, is the first modern bluegrass artist to have such a high profile endorsement deal.
Vincent is looking forward to another busy year of live performances.
She is often asked by young artists, many of them women, for advice on how to build and maintain a career. She advises them to play live as much as they possibly can, for as many people as they can. "If you play enough shows, every embarrassing thing that can happen, will eventually happen to you. It's great experience."
© 2006 CMA Close Up News Service / Country Music Association, Inc.
