Outstanding in Our Field

Brad Paisley is a critically acclaimed singer, songwriter, guitarist, and entertainer whose talents have earned him numerous awards, including three Grammys, two American Music Awards, 14 Academy of Country Music Awards, and 14 Country Music Association Awards (including Entertainer of the Year), among many others. He has been a proud member of the Grand Ole Opry since 2001. The most recent of Brad's dozen albums is 2014's Moonshine in the Trunk (Arista Nashville).

Even as a preschooler, Sturgill Simpson knew he wanted to make music. The Kentucky-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter is living up to his childhood dreams - dreams that grew out of watching Hee-Haw with his beloved grandfather, who pointed out the good performers. After years fronting the country group Sunday Valley, Sturgill went solo in 2012. His new recording is Metamodern Sounds in Country Music (High Top Mountain Records). The band: Kevin Black (bass), Little Joe (guitar), and Miles Miller (drums).

Sam Bush was just 11 when he got his first mandolin. By the time he was 17, he had won the title of National Junior Fiddle Champion for three years running. And he had made his recording debut, Poor Richard's Almanac. Founder of cutting-edge bands like New Grass Revival and Strength in Numbers, he has also been the go-to sideman for Lyle Lovett, the Flecktones, and dozens of others. The most recent of his solo albums is Circles Around Me (Sugar Hill Records).

Multi-instrumentalist Stuart Duncan took up fiddle at age seven. Since then, he has chalked up a career that includes two Grammys, a slew of Academy of Country Music Awards, and being named the International Bluegrass Music Association's Fiddle Player of the Year nine times. He was a founding member of the Nashville Bluegrass Band and is perennially one of Nashville's most sought-after session musicians, performing on thousands of recordings.

Born in Denmark and now living in Brooklyn, Brian Dan Christensen is a poet, novelist, singer-songwriter, and translator. He has published poetry and literary criticism, and has translated American writers such as E.E. Cummings, Norman Mailer, and Garrison Keillor into Danish. Brian's first novel, The Island of Nine Bridges, a thriller with a sense of humor, was published in Denmark in 2011. He is currently putting the final touches on another novel.