String duo Dailey & Vincent will be recognized at the 50th Annual Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree and Crafts Festival on Saturday, July 3, in downtown Smithville, Tennessee, for their contributions as one of the most popular bands in contemporary American music, embracing bluegrass, country and gospel.
Darrin Vincent will be celebrated by the State of Tennessee with an unveiling of his Tennessee Music Pathways marker on the square in his hometown during the Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree at 5 p.m. Launched by the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development in 2018, Tennessee Music Pathways is an online planning guide that connects visitors to the state’s rich musical heritage at tnmusicpathways.com. From the largest cities to the smallest communities, Tennessee Music Pathways stretches across the state’s 95 counties and features hundreds of landmarks from seven genres of music that call Tennessee home.
Jamie Dailey will also be honored at the event as the recipient of the Fiddlers’ Jamboree’s 2021 Blue Blaze Award. The Blue Blaze Award is designed to honor an individual or group that keeps the embers of bluegrass music burning for future generations. The Jamboree’s Blue Blaze Panel Committee unanimously agreed on Dailey’s nomination for the 2021 award citing his long-running contributions to bluegrass music. Following the presentations, Dailey & Vincent will perform a mini-concert on the main stage.
Although Dailey & Vincent only began performing regularly as a duo in 2008, both members of the duo had extensive careers in bluegrass and had sung together informally since 2001. Vincent met Dailey, then working with Doyle Lawson, in October 2001 at the International Bluegrass Music Association awards show in Louisville. When they sang together, they discovered that their voices blended well. Their first duet recording was for a multi-artist collection, Christmas Grass Volume 2, produced by Vincent and released in 2004. They performed “Beautiful Star of Bethlehem” for the collection.
Dailey and Vincent then decided to work together as a duet. In January 2007, they handed in one-year notices to Ricky Skaggs (Vincent performed with Skaggs’ band, Kentucky Thunder) and to Lawson. The duo’s first show together was at the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium on Dec. 29, 2007. Their debut album, Dailey & Vincent, was released in January 2008 and success swiftly followed.
The much-awarded twosome, with numerous Grammy, Dove and IBMA awards to its credit, continues to record and tour prolifically.
In March 2017, the duo was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry—the event both members cite as the highlight of their careers.
For more information on Dailey & Vincent, visit daileyandvincent.com.
