In 2008 a brand-new bluegrass act won both Emerging Artist of the Year and Entertainer of the Year at the IBMA Awards, along with Album of the Year, Vocal Group of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year. This episode explains how Jamie Dailey and Darren Vincent pulled off that impossible debut by spending nearly a decade, from 1999 to 2008, as sidemen with Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver and Ricky Skaggs' Kentucky Thunder, learning the business, refining their tenor-and-baritone blend and building industry trust with promoters like Norman Adams.

The conversation follows their Rounder Records debut, three albums in three years, a 2009 sweep of the SPBGMA Awards, a Dove Award for Singing From the Heart, and the strategy of releasing albums like Dailey and Vincent Sing the Statler Brothers exclusively through Cracker Barrel restaurants to reach a ...