Tennessee Bluegrass at Crooked Lane

Music | August 26th, 2015

Singer, fiddler and banjoist Becky Buller to perform in North Dakota

When bluegrass musician Becky Buller returns to North Dakota this Sunday, what she’s really hoping for is rhubarb pie.

“I am trying to grow some rhubarb down here in Tennessee but it’s so hot that it doesn’t do very well,” she said to HPR.

Perhaps she’ll get a slice at her upcoming concert at Crooked Lane Farms in Colfax, N.D. Buller will be one of the most significant acts to perform at the one-of-a-kind venue located about 30 minutes outside of Fargo.

Born and raised in southern Minnesota, Buller was bred to become a bluegrass musician since she was five years old. She got started in her family’s bluegrass outfit.

“In a bluegrass band everybody has to play something,” she said. “And I mean, nowadays you might see somebody who’s just singing but usually everybody plays something or multiple somethings. Fiddle was the only instrument they didn’t have. So they got me lessons about a year later.”

Nowadays Buller, who also plays banjo and sings, is a seven-time International Bluegrass Music Association award nominee, including Fiddler, Female Vocalist, Songwriter, Broadcaster, Song of the Year (for "Southern Flavor"), Recorded Event Of The Year (for "Southern Flavor") and Emerging Artist.Her only solo record, which came out earlier this year, has been near the top of the bluegrass charts for the past four to five months.

Before becoming a bluegrass frontwoman – as of January 2015 – Buller played in the band Valerie Smith and Liberty Pike for a decade. She’s also been a classical/bluegrass violin teacher, a session player and a songwriter. One of her tunes, “Music To My Ears,” was recorded by bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs.

Buller’s music life changed when her daughter, Romy, was born.

“Romy, after she turned one, just started walking and everything went crazy at that point,” Buller said. “I realized I needed to make my own schedule so that I could be home more.”

Up until this year, Buller had always worked for someone else. She said leading her own band is something she had always wanted to do.

“In a way I wish I had done it a long time ago but I know I wasn’t ready,” she said. “And I had really great experiences with the folks that I worked for and I knew what it was going to be like, starting my own band with the logistics and the business side of it. That’s what kept me from doing it for so long is because everything that it takes to get a group on the stage, it’s pretty exhausting. But it’s good and I’m glad to be doing it right now and I’m just taking it a day at a time and hoping I get everything done.”