For practically twenty years, bluegrass duo Dailey & Vincent has used their mix of bluegrass, nation and Gospel sounds to not solely forge hits similar to “By The Mark” and “Once I’ve Traveled My Final Mile,” however frequently place a highlight on basic artists which have influenced their very own music, similar to their 2010 tribute album to nation group the Statler Brothers.
Now, with their new album, A Stunning Life, which releases as we speak (June 12), Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent are honoring one other act: Osborne Brothers. Whereas they by no means deliberate to document their model of the 1970 Osborne Brothers basic “Ruby” (which has additionally been recorded by Buck Owens), that modified when the Grand Ole Opry got here calling.
Final summer time, Opry members Dailey & Vincent have been requested to participate in a tribute to the Obsorne Brothers and Jim & Jesse, the place the Opry recreated the its remaining present on the Ryman Auditorium in March 1974, earlier than the famed venue moved to its present location on the Opry Home.
“They wished us to learn the teleprompter and say precisely what the Osborne Brothers and Jim & Jesse mentioned on that night time on WSM Radio, and ‘Ruby’ was one of many choices they despatched for us to sing, as a result of the Osborne Brothers had sang it that night time,” Dailey recollects. “Once we walked on the market and sang it, the viewers’s response from the primary word was overwhelming. We got here offstage and determined we might document it. However that tune won’t ever be recorded or carried out nearly as good as Bobby and Sonny of the Osborne Brothers. It could actually’t be carried out. This was our greatest effort to honor them one of the simplest ways we may.”
On Dailey & Vincent’s model, which opens A Stunning Life, Dailey’s unmistakable excessive tenor lead vocal is enchanting, at one level holding a full-throated, crystalline excessive word for about 18 seconds. “All I do know was I used to be holding on for expensive life,” Dailey says. “For me, personally, I used to be frightened of it due to how excessive it’s important to sing it, and you may’t sing these notes falsetto — it’s important to sing it full voice.”
Their new album additionally highlights songs written by well-known musical associates and colleagues, together with Dolly Parton, Invoice Anderson and Carrie Underwood. “I take a look at the songwriters on this document and I’m nearly embarrassed, [they] have written Mercedes and Maserati [caliber] songs, and my songs are like tricycle songs,” Dailey chuckles modestly.
Anderson, Underwood and Jon Randall wrote the title monitor, whereas the album additionally features a model of the Bruce Hornsby and John Hornsby-written “Jacob’s Ladder,” initially recorded by Huey Lewis and the Information.
The Parton-penned “Smoky Mountain Reminiscences,” was initially recorded underneath the title “Appalachian Reminiscences” on Parton’s 1983 album Burlap & Satin. Parton later recorded it as “Smoky Mountain Reminiscences” on the 1994 dwell album Heartsongs: Reside From Residence. When Dailey introduced the tune to Vincent as a chance for the album, Vincent was already very acquainted with it. “Jamie had picked that one out and I mentioned, ‘Man, I’ve already recorded that with Dolly on that Heartsongs album,’” Vincent recollects, noting he sang harmonies on the album.
One other standout tune that made its means onto A Stunning Life is “Once I Meet My Maker,” a solo write from singer-songwriter Tenille Townes. “On the publishing assembly, ‘Meet My Maker’ got here on and I made them play it three extra occasions,” Dailey says. “I’m the form of man, after I hearken to songs, I’ve to hearken to it a number of occasions to ensure all of the nuggets are within the tune that I feel are there. I used to be in tears and was like, ‘We have now to document this.’ Darrin liked it, and it’s been shifting our audiences onstage.”
Dailey contributed two songs on the album, together with the beautiful solo write “I’ll Hold Going,” which he crafted particularly with Vincent in thoughts. “Darrin has sure songs and types that he likes to sing, and never everyone writes songs in that fashion which might be new,” Dailey says. “We are able to discover lots which have already been written and recorded, however I wished him to have one thing recent and new to sing.”
Provides Vincent: “’I’ll Hold Going’ goes to be one other bluegrass normal, in my view. It’s only a nice mid-tempo tune.”
They credit score their supervisor, Morris Higham Administration’s Robert Filhart, for serving to them supply songs for the album. “He’s the most effective songsters in Nashville,” Dailey says. “He’s labored in publishing and been across the best writers. We’d by no means have gotten to a few of these songs if it had not been for Robert.”
The album additionally contains “I Grew Up in Heaven,” written by Josh Kear and Nation Music Corridor of Famer Don Schlitz — a tune made extra poignant on condition that Schlitz, identified for songs together with “Ceaselessly and Ever, Amen,” handed away in April.
“His spouse had texted Robert [Filhart] and mentioned this was the final lower,” Vincent says. “Jamie had all the time been kidding with him, ‘When’s Dailey & Vincent going to do a Don tune?’ And positive sufficient, we obtained the final lower. When he had handed, I obtained a textual content from Jerry Douglas, who performed dobro on there, and he mentioned, ‘I suppose we performed on Don’s remaining lower,’ and I mentioned, ‘Certainly, we did.’ The musicianship we had on this document, it’s actually unbelievable and we’re simply so grateful that folks assist us create music that we love.”
Mainstays and trailblazers within the bluegrass style, Dailey & Vincent are three-time Worldwide Bluegrass Music Affiliation (IBMA) Awards entertainer of the yr winners and have earned six No. 1 albums on Billboard’s Bluegrass Albums chart, most not too long ago with 2018’s holiday-oriented venture The Sounds of Christmas. Now, they’re additionally watching as artists together with Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle and Sierra Hull have continued to additional open doorways for bluegrass music.
“It’s fantastic,” Dailey says. “They’ve introduced in plenty of new ears and eyes and it’s nice. It’s nice music and to see artists like Billy Strings going again and getting Doc Watson cuts and all these older songs and bringing them to a youthful viewers, is the good factor. We’re on a distinct circuit clearly, however with [the The Dailey & Vincent Show] at RFD-TV, we’re taking the older fashion of music and new stuff we discover and placing it on [the show].”
Dailey & Vincent are actually on the highway headlining their A Stunning Life Tour, which runs by means of October, together with their annual Dailey & Vincent Music Pageant slated for Sept. 17-19 in Hiawassee, Georgia. The fest contains performances from Rhonda Vincent, Ricky Skaggs and Wyatt Ellis. Whereas the pageant has been a mainstay within the South for over a decade, the duo views it in the identical boundaryless means they’ve approached their music.
“We all the time considered doing a type of festivals like that on the West Coast,” Vincent says. “We all the time cater to our dwelling areas, however we’ve all the time had a dream of teaming up and doing one thing like that for the West Coast.”

