The Grascals

The Grascals are a contemporary bluegrass band formed in 2004 by professional Nashville musicians who also happened to all be great friends. Each of the band's six members had been performing bluegrass music for roughly two decades before forming the Grascals, and knew each other either from childhood or professional gigging with artists like the Osborne Brothers, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, and Jimmy Martin, among countless other noted artists. The group consists of Indiana natives Terry Eldredge and Jamie Johnson, Kentucky natives and childhood friends guitarist Danny Roberts and fiddler Jimmy Mattingly, North Carolina-born bassist Terry Smith, and Canadian-born banjo player David Talbot (who met Eldredge while performing with Larry Cordle). The band gained national attention when it toured with Dolly Parton in 2004. The Grascals released a three-song single EP in late 2004 and their self-titled debut in 2005. Long List of Heartaches arrived in the summer of 2006, followed by Keep on Walkin' in 2008. Ace banjo player Kristin Scott Benson joined the group for its fourth album, The Famous Lefty Flynn's, which appeared in 2010. One year later, an association with Cracker Barrel produced the restaurant-exclusive The Grascals & Friends: Country Classics with a Bluegrass Spin. Also arriving in 2011 was the EP Dance Til Your Stockings Are Hot & Ravelin': A Tribute to the Music of The Andy Griffith Show. A new full-length, Life Finds a Way, followed in 2012. ~ Megan Frye, Rovi