Award-winning singer, fiddler and songwriter Becky Buller and The Becky Buller Band will perform Saturday at the 14th Annual Granville Johnson Bluegrass Festival at the Park Theatre Civic Centre in North Vernon.
A lifelong bluegrass musician, Buller was the first person to ever, in 2016, receive both the International Bluegrass Music Association awards of Fiddler of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year, according to the biography on her website.
She was born in Minnesota to parents who were musicians in the Prairie Grass Band, and she learned bluegrass at an early age. Buller studied classical violin throughout her high school years, but during her years at East Tennessee State University she took part in the Old Time and Country Music Program and concentrated on bluegrass music, according to her biography.
After graduating in 2001 with a degree in public relations, she played the fiddle for Valerie Smith and Liberty Pike and spent the next 10 years with the group. She also wrote music and receiving awards as a songwriter.
Buller’s music has been recorded by popular artists. For example, Ricky Skaggs did “Music to My Ears”, Rhonda Vincent recorded “Fishers of Men,” Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver recorded “Be Living.”
In 2011, Buller set out on her own as a performing artist until 2013, when she teamed up with Darin and Brooke Aldridge and their band. In 2015 she formed her own band with Dan Boner, Nate Lee, Daniel Hardin and Ned Luberecki, according to her biography.
The festival at which Buller and her band will perform is named in honor of a well-known local musician who died at a time when improvement work was being performed on the theater. The event raises money for scholarships for students.
Park Theatre Civic Centre manager Bill Reichenbach said the festival usually sells out, and added that as of Wednesday he had already sold 200 tickets for the show. The theater’s seating capacity is 332.
“This is going to be a good year for the Granville Johnson Festival,” Reichenbach said.
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What: 14th annual Granville Johnson Bluegrass Festival.
When: 7 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Park Theatre Civic Centre, 25 N. Madison Ave., North Vernon.
Why: Festival named in honor of the Jennings County musician who died in 2004. Proceeds go to scholarships.
Cost: $20 per person. Tickets can be purchased ahead of time or at the door if it is not sold out.
Information: call 812-346-0330 Monday thru Friday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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