Pam Gadd

Before she embarked on a career as a solo recording artist in 1997, Pam Gadd was a member of two groups, the traditional bluegrass-oriented New Coon Creek Girls and the country outfit known as Wild Rose. She effectively blended the best of both genres on The Long Road, her first solo album, that was aimed at the alternative bluegrass market. The native of Kentucky played banjo and guitar, and contributed lead vocals to Wild Rose; the group broke into the Top Ten with "Breaking New Ground" in 1989. Gadd and the group's other four members recorded for Universal Records and Capitol Records, and took home a Grammy Award before breaking up in 1991.

Gadd became a professional performer in 1979. Her career spans appearances on eight albums and half-a-dozen videos, as well as television appearances on the programs Hee Haw, Nashville Now, The Late Show With David Letterman, and The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. She has contributed her considerable skills on the banjo to recordings by such artists as Terri Clark and Emmylou Harris, and she received a nomination from the International Bluegrass Music Association in 1999 for that year's Emerging Artist Award. The Time of Our Lives, a 2001 release from OMS, includes "Patiently Waiting" by Gillian Welch, Gadd's "All the Old Men Are Gone," and "Acousticizer," an instrumental penned by Randy Scruggs. Other tunes include "A Whole Lot of Heart," "Virginia Man," and "Hold Your Horses." Her earthy vocals vie with her strong banjo picking.