Blue Highway
Biography Blue Highway
Blue Highway
Highly esteemed bluegrass band Blue Highway have earned 25 collective IBMA Awards, 6 SPBGMA Awards, one Dove Award, and two Grammy nominations. Tim Stafford recently received honors as 2015 SPBGMA Guitar Player of the Year and 2014 IBMA Songwriter of the Year. Rob Ickes reigns as the Most Awarded Instrumentalist in the history of IBMA with 15 Dobro Player of the Year honors, and was recently nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Folk Album for his collaborative album "Three Bells" with Jerry Douglas and the late great Mike Auldridge.
Blue Highway's "The Game" soared to #1 on the national Bluegrass Unlimited Album Chart and held the top spot for a jaw-dropping 7 consecutive months (Jun-Dec 2014). The IBMA 2012 Vocal Group of the Year also sent the title track of The Game to #1 on multiple charts, including Bluegrass Today and Roots Music Report, as well as standing tall at #1 for three consecutive months on the national Bluegrass Unlimited Song Chart (Aug-Oct 2014).
"The Game" was named the #1 Bluegrass Album of the Year by critic Daniel Mullins in his end of the year Top 20 Albums of 2014 list published in Bluegrass Today.
Blue Highway stormed national charts garnering the Most Radio Airplay of any Bluegrass Artist for 2014, per the 2014 Bluegrass Radio Airplay Chart released by Bluegrass Today. Blue Highway's chart-topping The Game sent three songs soaring into the Top 30 for the year with a total of 12,115 spins. (The Game - # 6 - 4531 spins ... Talk Is Cheap - # 11 - 3922 spins ... Remind Me of You - # 14 - 3662 spins) The queen of bluegrass Rhonda Vincent was just behind at #2 in radio airplay for 2014, with two songs in the Top 30 and 8,300 aggregate spins.
Blue Highway broke into 2015 with Sold Out shows accounting for half of their concerts to date. The band has received 14 cumulative award nominations in the past 6 months, with all five of the band's founding powerhouse members still intact, including: Jason Burleson (banjo, vocals), Rob Ickes (dobro, vocals), Shawn Lane (mandolin, fiddle, vocals), Tim Stafford (guitar, vocals), and Wayne Taylor (bass, vocals).
