Missy Raines Trio and Tony Furtado

Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Missy Raines is considered one of the most respected, popular, and trailblazing figures in bluegrass today. A seven-time winner of the IBMA bass player of the year award, and a member of Alison Krauss’s first all-female bluegrass band, she has backed greats such as Claire Lynch, Mac Wiseman, Kenny Baker, and Peter Rowan. Raines now leads her own innovative and genre-bending trio: a rich, jazz-tinged combination of her bluegrass roots and thick Americana, featuring George Jackson on fiddle and Ben Garnett on acoustic guitar. With a smoky and seductive alto, Raines heads up this trio featuring mandolin/fiddle, upright bass, and acoustic guitar. The trio covers broad territory and the compass is set by Raines, planted center stage, directing with her bass every bit as much as she plays it. She is set to release her third album for Compass Records in October, Royal Traveller, produced by Alison Brown, featuring lush sounds, thick grooves, and memorable songs. 

Very few musicians of any stripe personify a musical genre as completely as Tony Furtado embodies Americana roots music. Furtado is an evocative and soulful singer, a wide-ranging songwriter, and a virtuoso multi-instrumentalist—adept on banjo, cello-banjo, slide guitar, and baritone ukulele. A native of Pleasanton, California, Furtado took up the banjo at age 12, inspired by the Beverly Hillbillies television show and a sixth grade music report. Beginning with Swamped in 1990, he recorded six critically acclaimed albums for Rounder Records, collaborating with master musicians such as Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brien, Stuart Duncan, and Kelly Joe Phelps. Beginning in the late 1990s—influenced by musical heroes such as Ry Cooder, David Lindley, and Taj Mahal—Furtado added slide guitar, singing, and songwriting to his musical toolbox and began leading his own band.