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DALE ANN BRADLEY:
Dale Ann Bradley was born and raised in the mountains of Pineville, KY. Her father was a coal miner and primitive Baptist Minister whose church  had no musical instrumentation in their worship service. The congregation sang from a book called the Gobble Hymnal that shows no musical staffs or notes. Without question it was in those numerous worship services she developed her incredible ear for tone and pitch.
She began performing publicly at the age of fourteen in a trio with her high school band director and his wife. They performed at Pine Mountain State Park during the summers. This led to her joining her first bluegrass band, Back Porch Grass. They gained popularity in Southeastern Kentucky and East Tennessee and in 1984 ended up in the finals of The Marlboro Country Music Roundup. It was there she heard another bluegrass band that would eventually become part of her musical history, The New Coon Creek Girls.
In May of 1986 she married and moved to Jacksonville, Florida where her former husband was stationed in the Navy. She didn’t perform for the next two and a half years. During this time she gave birth to a son. Upon moving back to Kentucky she immediately called upon long time friend and band mate from her former group Back Porch Grass, Harold McGeorge to seek his advice and help to get back into the swing of performing. They put together a demo and set up appointments with publishers and promoters in Nashville. On the way back from Nashville she made the trip on into the famous Renfro Valley in Southeastern, Kentucky and dropped off a tape. She received a call before she made it back home. She accepted the invitation to appear on that weekends Barndance show. After the guest spot she was hired full time appearing on all the shows.
In January of 1991, the New Coon Creek Girls returned to Renfro Valley after several years of being away. The position of lead singer/guitarist came open and the group approached her. She accepted and performed with them for the next six years touring the country and recording four albums for Pinecastle Records. In 1997, the group disbanded and she became a solo artist where she recorded East Kentucky Morning and Old Southern Porches both produced by Sonny Osborne on the Pinecastle label.
Dale Ann recorded Cumberland River Dreams for Doobie Shea Records where she worked with Tim Austin and Dan Tyminski as co-producers. Send the Angels an all gospel album followed on the Mountain Home label. In 2006 she joined Compass Records headed up by Banjo Wizard Allison Brown and Garry West. Catch Tomorrow has been one of her most acclaimed projects so far. It was voted album of the year by popular bluegrass magazine Bluegrass Now with several songs being in the top 10 on the bluegrass charts.
Dale Ann’s recordings have been reviewed and highly acclaimed by some the major music publications in the business including Music Row Magazine, Billboard, Country Music Weekly, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post and USA Today just to name a few. In 2007 and 2008, she was named the International Bluegrass Music Associations' Female Vocalist of the Year during their awards ceremony in Nashville, TN.
Along with a touring schedule that takes her all over the globe Dale Ann is still a part of the music at Renfro Valley. A place she will always consider her home. She will be the first to tell you that she feels very blessed to make a living at something she loves to do. “Music is as much a part of me as breathing," says Dale Ann. Once you hear her sing you’ll know why.
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