Tradition Through Innovation

Audie Blaylock currently resides in Auburn, Indiana but was born in Texas, and spent part of his childhood in the Cumberland Gap area of Virginia; an area rich in Appalachian traditions. In the mid-60s his family moved to Michigan for work, but they would visit family in Virginia often. So Audie grew up with a musical family exposed to the deep rooted traditions. “Playing music is the only thing from the earliest age that I can ever remember wanting to do,” Audie told me.

Audie grew up listening to his dad’s traditional Country and Bluegrass music, and knocked around in high school bands as a teenager. “Growing up through the 70s and 80s I was fortunate enough to catch music like the Allman Brothers, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Bob Seger, and all that cool classic rock music. It all comes from the same place – it’s all great music,” he said.

Audie started playing music on the road professionally with Jimmy Martin at the age of 19, where he spent nine years playing mandolin and singing tenor with Jimmy. “I feel very lucky and fortunate to be able to have that connection with him – bluegrass music draws a lot from tradition and roots, and Jimmy was a big part of the foundation.”

Audie formed his own band, Audie Blaylock and Redline, in 2004, and quickly began earning industry honors along the way including IBMA nominations and awards; Instrumental Group of the Year, Guitar Player of the Year, Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, and even a Grammy nomination.

“We like to say we honor tradition through innovation – we’re a traditional bluegrass band but we do listen to lots of different kinds of things, so there’s a lot of different musical influences we try to draw from. More so attitude that anything else though,” he said. The band has five CDs to their credit, with new music and a sixth CD on the way.

To find out more, visit
www.audieblaylock.net