OUTSTANDING FIDDLE player Becky Buller has worked in music education for 25 years and has helped students all over Manchester learn about the beauty of bluegrass music. She was the first female to win the Fiddle Player Of The Year award, just one of many accomplishments.
She is also on the board of the International Bluegrass Music Association Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). The board members give out scholarships, fellowships, and small grants to put bluegrass band teaching programs in schools.
Buller said, “It’s a true American art form, and I’m passionate about passing it along to the next generation because if we don’t do that, it’s going to die.”
The 10-time IBMA award winner watched her parents play bluegrass music as a child. She said she always wanted to play the fiddle with their band because the only thing the family band didn’t have was a fiddle player.
She said, “In a bluegrass band, everybody plays something.”
The traditional five-piece bluegrass band consists of the banjo, guitar, mandolin, bass, and fiddle. The bluegrass sound came together in the 1940s with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Monroe played the mandolin, Lester Flatt played the guitar, Earl Scruggs was on the banjo, Chubby Wise was on the fiddle, and Howard Watts was on the bass.
Originally from Minnesota, Buller moved to Manchester after she married her husband, Jeff Haley, in 2009. They met at a bluegrass barbecue.
“Through the music, I have met wonderful people from all over the world, from all different walks of life.” Buller said she is blessed by the breath of experiences she had. It has broadened her worldview and enlarged her heart for many different people. Now she shares her experiences with her students to help them achieve their musical goals.
“Being a girl from a small farming community in Southern Minnesota, I [got to travel] all over the world just because I learned how to play this little bitty instrument called the fiddle. And I [got] to meet these amazing people, and it’s enriched my life so much.”
From having dreams of joining her family band to creating her own, Buller is living the life she always wanted.
“I really enjoy my band. I work with an incredibly talented group of musicians.”
Buller’s band consists of herself; Ned Lubereki, 2018 IBMA Banjo Player of the Year and DJ on Sirius Satellite Radio, Bluegrass Junction, on the banjo; Daniel Hardin on the bass; and Wes Lee on the mandolin. The band members are weekend players and have full-time jobs during the week. Hardin works at Jack Daniels, and Lee works for Springer Mountain Chickens in Gainesville, GA.
Buller said her main gig is happily raising her 9-year-old daughter, Romy.
Buller said her role model is Rhonda Vincent, the queen of bluegrass music and Buller’s fairy godmother.
“She has been so open and kind about mentoring me and being a band leader and female band leader specifically.”
Vincent was a guest player on a couple of Buller’s records.
Famous country singer Dolly Parton is another role model to Buller. She loves that at a Dolly Parton concert, you see people from all walks of life who get along and sing her songs. Buller said Parton brings people together, and she’s a quasar.
“I want to be that kind of light to people.”
She hopes people feel refreshed, rejuvenated, and hopeful when interacting with her or her group. Buller said a role model to her is someone we want to model our path after.
“Somebody that’s doing stuff the way we would like to do it and giving us wisdom and insight into how to walk that path better.”
Buller continues to navigate life as a self-employed artist.
“It can be rewarding and very exhausting all at the same time, but I’m gradually building a team around me and learning how to do things in different ways.”
She said it is important to change with the times, and she’s grateful to set her own schedules. She said it takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice, and she hopes she keeps the right balance of God first, then family, then bluegrass music.
Buller’s ultimate goal is to continue doing what she’s doing.
“I hope to keep making records that folks enjoy and music I feel good about.” GN
