by Blair Lovern

Rhonda Vincent and the Rage are pushing bluegrass to another level.

Rhonda Vincent and The Rage

Meandering through the amazon.com reviews of Rhonda Vincent’s recent DVD, Ragin' Live, this one popped up from someone in Corpus Christi: “just plain excellent, I am not going to bore anyone with a more elaborate review than that.”

Yeah, that about sums it up.

If you haven’t seen a Rhonda Vincent & The Rage show yet (they don’t come to Texas often), you’ll get the chance Saturday at the Argyle Bluegrass Festival, where the band is the headliner. She’ll also be in Fort Worth March 28 with Bela Fleck and The Flecktones.

Vincent was born into bluegrass, learning how to pluck a mandolin (and just about every other stringed instrument) from her father and grandfather in her hometown of Kirksville, Mo. She played in a family band for years but ultimately went out on a country music crossover journey of her own for about 10 years. The success never followed.

When she returned to her roots, though, all that changed. Vincent released her first bluegrass CD, Back Home Again in 2000. Six years later she’s won about every bluegrass award many times over, except for a Grammy – although she and The Rage were nominated this past year for their CD, also called Ragin' Live. (The Del McCoury Band won the Grammy.)

Non-bluegrass fans have known about, say, Allison Krauss for a while, but Vincent is now making a push toward that level.

“I wish the world would go ahead and let her in,” Marty Stuart said about Vincent recently, “because she's been knocking on the door a long time, and she's going to get in one way or another.”

One big knock will be the Ragin' Live video being played on PBS stations nationwide this year. (A spokeswoman at Dallas station KERA said they are not sure when it will air locally.)

“Of course we’ve got a lot of old fans, but have so many new fans now – people who are just discovering the music,” Vincent said. “The PBS broadcast will open up a whole new audience for us and it’s really exciting. I remember the first time I saw Nancy Griffith on TV. I was watching PBS and she came on and I said to myself, ‘Who is this girl?’ PBS can be such a wonderful place to discover music.”

The Grammy nomination this past year and for the 2004 CD, One Step Ahead, of course, were also big knocks on the door. Vincent said she was even a little star struck at the award show, since it was her first time actually going.

“It was such an incredible experience,” she said. “I’m not sure really how to describe it, it’s such an overwhelming feeling sharing stage with all your musical friends and seeing people like Paul McCartney and Tom Hanks. Unbelievable, really.”

It’s not uncommon for The Rage to spend about 300 days on the road each year, and this can also include cramming in a recording session. Vincent and The Rage just wrapped up the mix earlier this week on their newest CD, which is scheduled for release on May 23.

“Most people take off three months to do a project, except me," Vincent said. "I wake up every morning with a to-do list of about 50 things and I’m running around all the time. I might get about 20 of those things done.”

One of the songs Vincent wrote for the new CD is called "God Bless This Soldier" about her visit to wounded vets at the army hospital in Ft. Hood. Another song features a duet with one of Vincent’s musical idols, Dolly Parton.

“I don’t think we’ve heard too many female duets like this one I’m doing with Dolly,” Vincent said. “I’ve recorded with Dolly before on her records and I was so happy she could do this with me. I was sick for a little bit last summer and Dolly came to my house to check up on me. She’s a very sweet person.”

Vincent said she’s been thrilled with the growing popularity of bluegrass in recent years. She even sponsors bluegrasscruise.com, which sailed a big boat of music fans down to the Mexican Riviera this year and will travel to Alaska and the Bahamas in 2007.

“The band and myself have the passion to go out and perform at our best all the time, and with all the traveling we’ve been doing I appreciate so much the incredible attendance we’ll have shows. For example, we just did a show in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, and had to turn 150 people away. Some of them drove a long way to get there, too. We had kind of the same experience at a show last month in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

“But I’d say that of all the shows we play each year, we probably love playing the big festivals like the one at Argyle the most because of all the great people you always meet there.”

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