"If we’d like to be honest about gender in the music world, we need to address all parties. Women need to invest in themselves, hustle for gigs, network, and do the work of forming bands and cultivating their own talents if they would like to be taken seriously. The industry pretty much always rewards women who do these things. I’m not interested in any special handout just for being a woman. But on the other hand, if a woman is doing these things, yet she’s told ‘We already have enough women on the bill, so we’ll call you next year’—now that’s an issue. No one says to a male artist, ‘We already have enough men on the bill!’"

"The first woman to be featured on the cover of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, Frazier’s talent as a guitarist is much respected in bluegrass circles."

"I think the bluegrass scene was broken wide open in the ‘70s and ‘80s revival -- Not only to women, but also an expanded definition of the genre. That revolution fostered this new generation of pickers that have grown up largely up encumbered by past limitations. We still encounter echoes of the past, but as we grow and the next generation of young players comes along, we all become an integral part of the industry and change it from within. We are starting to have some much more open and radical conversations within the IBMA about breaking those next barriers of inclusivity, and making sure LGBT and people of color are included, and that even more political and musical viewpoints are welcome. It’s really exciting, and it makes me proud of my scene and hopeful for the future."

"Melody Walker is an outspoken force in bluegrass. She routinely calls out the sexism, racism and injustice she sees in the world, a difficult thing to do in an industry still run by many conservative elements. A product of the Left Coast bluegrass world, Walker came up in the Bay Area bluegrass scene. The progressive bluegrass world on the West Coast is sometimes pejoratively referred to as “CPG” by Eastern conservatives-CPG stands for “Colorado Pussy Grass.” It’s a title that Walker and others have reclaimed, making it almost a badge of honor."

"Bill [Monroe], in some ways, he was very inarticulate about his feelings. In other ways, he was very profound about his feelings. And when you got him into a certain mood where he was being more introspective, he really could be very profound, I felt."

"Gill says that, after leaving home as a young man, he spent his entire savings on a single guitar. One thing is for certain: It was in good hands. He’s one of the best in the business."

"Sure, Gill earned initial acclaim for his work with Pure Prairie League in the late 1970s, but when he went out on his own, the Oklahoma native achieved truly tremendous success. Among his many prodigious musical talents—singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, et al.—Vince Gill can play a Telecaster just about any way there is to play one. With his compressed, snappy tone, he’s a master of country Tele techniques and is at home in seemingly any genre, be it traditional country, bluegrass, R&B, country rock and much more."

"With traditional clean Telecaster tone typically running straight into the amp (usually a Princeton Reverb or Deluxe Reverb) and often drenched in shimmering reverb, country hit-maker Marty Stuart deftly rolls Don Rich, Ralph Mooney and Clarence White all into one and makes it look easy. Stuart is the prime exponent in modern country of the sinuous pedal steel sound of the B-Bender Telecaster."