Becky Buller

She was born on 31 January 1979 in St. James. Her parents, Emory and Linda Buller, played in a bluegrass band, Prairie Grass, with Gordy and Roxy Schultz, and when she asked to join they told her to learn an instrument first; the band had no fiddler, so she chose the fiddle. She took lessons at the Mankato Suzuki School of Music and joined Prairie Grass at twelve. As a teenager she was principal violinist of the Mankato Area Youth Symphony and played in the All-State Orchestra and in the orchestra at Gustavus Adolphus College, and in 1997 she graduated from St. James High School. She then went to East Tennessee State University, graduating in 2001 from its bluegrass, old-time and country music program.

In 2000, while she was at East Tennessee State, she made her first album, Rest My Weary Feet (SRS), of her own songs, with Darrell Webb on guitar and mandolin. After graduating she went on the road as the fiddler in Valerie Smith’s band, toured internationally with Smith for a decade, wrote songs for her and produced some of her records; the two made Here’s a Little Song (Bell Buckle, 2008) together, with Dale Ann Bradley singing in the trio. Her own Little Bird (Bell Buckle, October 2004), made at SoundWave Studio with Ron Block, Adam Steffey, Rob Ickes, Andrea Zonn, Stephen Mougin and Wayne Benson, was almost all her own writing, including “On the South Dakota Wind,” written with Smith, and “Opal, Ruby & Pearl,” written with Carl Jackson. In 2013 and 2014 she toured as the fiddler with Darin and Brooke Aldridge.

Her songs have been recorded by Ricky Skaggs, Rhonda Vincent and Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, and during a break from touring she wrote the title song of Special Consensus’s Grammy-nominated Scratch Gravel Road. She co-wrote “Freedom,” the opening track of the Infamous Stringdusters’ Laws of Gravity, and “The Shaker” on The Travelin’ McCourys, both winners of the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album, and “Good-bye Girl” on Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway’s Grammy-winning Crooked Tree.

With ’Tween Earth and Sky (Dark Shadow, October 2014), on Stephen Mougin’s label, she began fronting her own band, and in 2015 the IBMA named her Emerging Artist and Songwriter of the Year. At the awards show at the Duke Energy Center in Raleigh on 29 September 2016, she accepted Fiddle Player of the Year, the first woman to win it in the award’s history, and then returned to the stage for Female Vocalist of the Year. Crepe Paper Heart (2018), her second Dark Shadow album, reached No. 1 on Bluegrass Unlimited’s album chart in August 2018, and its “Speakin’ to That Mountain,” written with Jeff Hyde, won the IBMA’s Gospel Recorded Performance award. Two recordings brought her the IBMA’s top song and collaboration awards in 2020: “Chicago Barn Dance,” written with Missy Raines and Alison Brown and recorded by Special Consensus with Michael Cleveland and Buller, and “The Barber’s Fiddle,” an all-star fiddle recording led by Buller with Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, Laurie Lewis, Michael Cleveland, Jason Carter and others.

Distance and Time followed in October 2020, then her first Christmas album, The Perfect Gift (December 2022), Jubilee (2024), which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s bluegrass albums chart, and Songs That Sing Me (September 2025), her first album of covers, which includes “Ride On By” by Dick Kimmel, the Minnesota musician whose mandolin playing drew her father into bluegrass and who introduced her parents to the Schultzes. Her road band on that recording was Jacob Groopman on guitar, Ned Luberecki on banjo, Wes Lee on mandolin and Daniel Hardin on bass. She made her Grand Ole Opry debut in 2021. With Alison Brown, Missy Raines, Sierra Hull and Molly Tuttle, each the first woman to win the IBMA award on her instrument, she is a member of the First Ladies of Bluegrass, which recorded “Swept Away” under Raines’s name and has been the subject of an exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame in New Ulm on 14 April 2023, and she also teaches fiddle, singing and songwriting at camps and online.

• 2006 – IBMA Recorded Event of the Year, Back to the Well (the Daughters of Bluegrass)
• 2015 – IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year; Songwriter of the Year; Recorded Event of the Year, “Southern Flavor”
• 2016 – IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year; Female Vocalist of the Year
• 2018 – IBMA Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year, “Speakin’ to That Mountain”; Recorded Event of the Year, “Swept Away”
• 2020 – IBMA Song of the Year, “Chicago Barn Dance”; Collaborative Recording of the Year, “The Barber’s Fiddle”
• 2023 – Minnesota Music Hall of Fame