Andy May, my daughter's father, has won a significant music-industry award: The International Bluegrass Music Association's 2008 Recorded Event of the Year award for the album Everett Lilly and Everybody and Their Brother.
(In addition to being my daughter's dad, Andy was also my husband for a number of years; because he will always be her father, that's how we refer to him around here.)
Reading about what this album went through to get made is quite the story: several of the musicians are no longer around, and the rest just kept trucking until it was done. Several generations of the bluegrass community participated, evidence of the Lilly brothers' profound influence on the genre.
Musicians include: Everett Lilly, Bea Lilly, Charles Lilly, Daniel Lilly, Mark Lilly, Marty Stuart, Rhonda Vincent, Darrin Vincent, Billy Walker, Ronnie McCoury, Rob McCoury, David Ball, Charlie Cushman, Larry Stephenson, Joe Spivey, Eddie Stubbs, Jason Carter, Dickey Lee, Freddy Weller, Mike Bub, Rad Lewis, Andy May, Marcia Campbell, Clay Rigdon, Eric Blankenship & Bill Wolfenbarger (artists), Charles Lilly & Bill Wolfenbarger (producers).
Andy's also a producer, although for this album he was one of the musicians (mandolin on one track) and then released the album on his label, Swift River Music. It's interesting to look at the artists' page and see some friends from those days are still making good music.
It's great to see some of Andy's work receiving high-level recognition. We live in different parts of the world, and it's nice to be able to appreciate—from over here—the acknowledgment he's getting for part of his talent and dedication. His own music is also outstanding and I hope it, too, is recognized at this level some day.
