Rhonda Vincent by Rebecca Sharp
Mandolin virtuoso Rhonda Vincent has a way of pulling at strings—including those connected to the heart. And throughout the past year, this respected past recipient of the Uncle Dave Macon Days’ “Trailblazer” award has traveled a long and winding road. But finally this February she can once again take the stage to proudly prove that long and winding road leads back to the Opry House’s door. Maybe even that road is a country one, taking her home, to the place where she belongs.
On Feb. 28, 2020, fate (in the form of Opry member Jeannie Seely) found a gasping, “thank you Lord”-ing Vincent surprised with an invitation to join the storied institution of the Grand Ole Opry. Her gloriously ravishing Facebook cover photo serves well in capturing the elation of that moment.
Initially, that official induction ceremony was set to happen one month later. Fast forward (almost) one full year . . . and that membership still remains unofficial.
This Queen of Bluegrass is one woman who’s earned those membership dues. Vincent shared her thankful thoughts about the Opry induction, new music, involvement with movie soundtracks and much more in this exclusive Pulse interview.
But the waiting is the hardest part. The sold-out induction show takes place Feb. 6 and can be seen via Circle All Access on TV, online and of course heard around the world on 650 AM, WSM.
“It’s kind of cool. It’s historic,” she says of the wait with a smile. “I was hoping that the Opry would be open completely—but hey, I’m just glad to become a member, so whenever they want to do it is fine with me,” she says with a joyful laugh.
“I waited this long, so I was happy when they called [with a tentative time frame] . . . people are coming in from everywhere. They’re coming from New York State, Oregon . . . It’s crazy! I mean, my childhood friends, people that I just never would even expect . . . from every aspect of my life, from my personal life to my public life. Every aspect. How amazing is it that these people have all come together? I would have never dreamed it all.”
When plans don’t pan out, she says, she has a very optimistic by-the-numbers reason to blame as to why.
“Most everything I do, it’s never the norm. And I was born on Friday the 13th. So I always credit that and say, ‘Well, that’s my lucky day. It’s the rest of the days I have trouble with. That’s usually my reasoning for the answer to ‘what’s happened now?’.”
When asked before the induction what songs she’d perform for the grand event, she admits “that I haven’t decided. I have a new album that’s coming out and people say, ‘Well, you should do songs from the new album,’ but then someone says (I) should do (my) most popular song, like ‘Kentucky Borderline,’ so, I haven’t decided on that. And I don’t use a set list. So I might switch it up literally before I walk out.
“Now, I recorded a bluegrass version of ‘Unchained Melody’ [complete with banjo!] on the new album. I would love to be able to do that. I’ve only sang it once on stage and they gave me a standing ovation. So it was a really good time. But I was shaking when I got done singing it and I don’t really want to go out there and do something where I might just fall into the floor because my nerves would take over,” she said in anticipation. “But then on the other hand what a great place to debut a brand new song, and ‘Unchained Melody’ of all songs.”
Vincent chalks up some of the nervousness to her and her band the Rage being off of the road over the past few months. Despite the lack of road Rage, though, Vincent’s kept herself busy with musical endeavors aplenty. She was an integral part of 2020’s digital-only Roots Rendezvous festival (organized by the folks behind the Uncle Dave Macon Days festival) and elsewhere in the interim has helped fill another niche’s virtual void by offering mandolin webinars.
“I’d never done it before,” the picker says excitedly. “My daughter kept urging me to do something like that. And I’m so glad I did. People are inquiring, like, ‘What are we doing for the next one?’ Because they want to learn more chords. And I also had hosted last time a jam night where I just sat and played songs and we used the chords that we learned to play some songs.”
During some recent season’s greetings Vincent sang on a song with Justin Peters in the opening scene for the TV movie The Farmer and the Belle: Saving Santaland (and its soundtrack) which was released last year. But that’s not her first brush with Hollywood. Before Belle she dipped her toes into the movie business with Dumplin’, the acclaimed 2018 Netflix original movie starring Jennifer Aniston and featuring songs by Dolly Parton.
“This is two years in a row that I have had my voice in a movie,” Vincent says. “In Dumplin’ we sang the song ‘If We Don’t’ and I did the song with Dolly. It ended up being a trio. I played mandolin and sang harmony and then Alison Krauss also played fiddle and sang harmony on it. So it was a trio with Dolly, Alison and I. I knew it was in the soundtrack for the movie. But I had no idea that the song would be in the movie. I’m watching the movie and 40 minutes into the movie, that song comes on. I said, ‘Now, this is cool. Wow.’”
But back to the basics of merriment in lands a little less far away—the Opry jubilation is cause for plenty of celebration and, as luck would have it, Vincent and the Rage are in for a Middle Tennessee music-making triple-play. On the Friday night prior to the induction, the Rage takes the stage at Nashville’s infamous bluegrass haunt The Station Inn (and Vincent has confirmed she “will be in the crowd that night”).
Then it’s time for the big night . . . but after, she’s hatched plans to play right across the street to record a full hour with special guest Vernon Lee Johnson for WSM 650’s radio show The Midnite Jamboree (coincidentally, the world’s longest-running radio show second to only the Grand Ole Opry) at the Texas Troubadour Theatre on Music Valley Drive. The taping will take place at 10 p.m., and is free and open to the public, complete with meet-and-greet. That show will hit the air soon after (at, you guessed it, the stroke of midnight).
There’s more—Vincent invites fans to “join her at church” in Lebanon at Family Baptist on 81 Franklin Rd. that Sunday morning. So she may just be requested to join in with the choir on a song or two.
Following her No. 1 bluegrass hit “Like I Could,” written by Jeannie Seely, Erin Enderlin and Bobby Tomberlin, Vincent is currently closing in on a sound decision as to what her next single will be and hopes to release her new album shortly.
Other planned shows in the area include Park Theatre in McMinnville on May 21 and in August at The Caverns in Pelham, Tennessee.
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For more on Rhonda Vincent, visit rhondavincent.com.
