Larry Stephenson Band

Stephenson started the band after more than a decade with Bill Harrell and the Virginians and the Bluegrass Cardinals. The first lineup was Marc Keller on guitar, Rick Allred on banjo and Doug Campbell on bass, and in November 1989 that group, with Mike Auldridge on Dobro and Rickie Simpkins on fiddle, recorded the band’s first Webco album, Timber (1990), at Big Mo Studio in Kensington, Maryland. The gospel album Close My Eyes to Heaven (1991) followed, then Can’t Stop Myself (1992), made at Doobie Shea Studios in Ferrum, Virginia, with Booie Beach on guitar and Tom Feller on bass, and Wash My Blues Away (1993), with Shannon Slaughter on guitar and Dale Vanderpool on banjo.

In 1992 Stephenson moved to the Nashville area, and the band soon became regulars on the Grand Ole Opry. Born to Sing (1994) and Far Away in Tennessee (1995), the latter produced by Sonny Osborne with Randy Howard on fiddle, completed the Webco run, along with the gospel I See God (1996), on which Kristin Scott first appears on banjo. She stayed for the move to Pinecastle, where Osborne produced On Fire (1998), with Gene Wooten on resonator guitar, and Two Hearts on the Borderline (2000), with Bobby Hicks on fiddle; Mickey Harris played bass. Pinecastle also filmed the band in concert at Cypress Gardens in Florida in 1996, a show later issued on DVD. Aaron McDaris was on banjo for Heavenward Bound (2001) and Clinch Mountain Mystery (2004), whose title song was SPBGMA’s Song of the Year in 2005, and for Life Stories (2006) and Thankful (2008), recorded at the REC Room in Nashville with Missy Raines on bass. Pinecastle gathered the early albums on the double set The Webco Years in 2004.

Kenny Ingram, after seven years with Rhonda Vincent, joined on banjo for 2009 and stayed until 2018. The band marked its twentieth year with Larry Stephenson, 20th Anniversary (released in February 2010), with guests including Ricky Skaggs, Connie Smith, Marty Stuart, Sonny Osborne and Del McCoury; its “Give This Message to Your Heart,” sung with Dailey & Vincent, was the IBMA’s Recorded Event of the Year in 2010. What Really Matters came out on Compass in 2012, with Kevin Richardson on guitar, Danny Stewart on bass and Aubrey Haynie on fiddle. From then on the band recorded for Whysper Dream, the label Stephenson runs with his wife, Dreama: the gospel Pull Your Savior In (2014), SPBGMA’s Album of the Year in 2015, with Colby Laney on guitar and Jimmy Fortune as a guest; Weep Little Willow (2016), with Richardson, Ingram and Matt Wright on bass; and 30 (2019), new recordings of songs from across the band’s catalog.

For 2018 Derek Vaden took over the banjo and Nick Dauphinais the guitar, with Wright staying on bass. In 2022 the band of Stephenson, Dauphinais, Vaden and Andy Brown on bass recorded Cast a Lonesome Shadow, with Deanie Richardson on fiddle, released in February 2024, and Whysper Dream also issued Retrospective, a set of live recordings by earlier lineups.

• 2005: SPBGMA Song of the Year, “Clinch Mountain Mystery”
• 2010: IBMA Recorded Event of the Year, “Give This Message to Your Heart” (with Dailey & Vincent)
• 2015: SPBGMA Album of the Year, Pull Your Savior In
• 2016: SPBGMA Vocal Group of the Year
• Larry Stephenson’s own honors include SPBGMA Male Vocalist of the Year in 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008, the Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame (1996) and SPBGMA’s Preservation Hall of Greats (2018)