Five wins in six years is the kind of run that stops being a trend and starts being a verdict. On Thursday night, October 22nd, Billy Strings was named Entertainer of the Year at the 37th Annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards, the fifth time he has taken the genre’s top honor after previous wins in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2025. The ceremony unfolded at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with mandolin great Sam Bush and Sierra Hull sharing hosting duties, a pairing that carried plenty of symbolism for an evening about where bluegrass has been and where it is headed.

A Night That Belonged to Strings, and Then to East Nash Grass

Strings did not leave with only the headline award. He also shared Music Video of the Year with Bryan Sutton for “The Devil Went Down to Deep Gap,” a project that puts two of the instrument’s most respected flatpickers on the same screen. In his acceptance remarks he thanked his band, Alex Hargreaves, Billy Failing, Royal Masat, and Jarrod Walker, and pointed back to Bill Monroe and Doc Watson as the foundation everything else rests on, a reminder that the biggest name in the modern scene still frames his career as an extension of the tradition rather than a break from it. He closed out the week with sold out celebration shows at Chattanooga’s newly renovated Tivoli Theater.

If Strings owned the spotlight, East Nash Grass owned the trophy table. The band took home both Album of the Year, for All God’s Children, and Instrumental Group of the Year, a sign of how quickly the Nashville group has moved from the edges of the scene to the center of it. Trey Hensley won Song of the Year for “Can’t Outrun the Blues,” and Authentic Unlimited was named Vocal Group of the Year. The Grascals teamed with Dolly Parton for Collaborative Recording of the Year with “Broken Angels,” and Mason Via was named New Artist of the Year.

Sierra Hull, fresh from co-hosting, picked up her eighth Mandolin Player of the Year award, while her husband Justin Moses was named Resophonic Guitar Player of the Year. The instrument categories read like a roll call of the working elite: Kristin Scott Benson on banjo, Mike Bub on bass, Andy Leftwich on fiddle, and Cody Kilby on guitar. Greg Blake and Jaelee Roberts took the male and female vocalist honors, Blue Highway won Gospel Recording of the Year with “Some Day,” and Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, featuring Nathan Livers, took Instrumental Recording of the Year for “Big Daddy Rabbit.” The night also honored the genre’s history with Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame inductions for Byron Berline, The Nashville Bluegrass Band, Barry Poss, and The Lost and Found.

Where to Hear It: NewGrass Radio

Every Monday night, NewGrass Radio on JamFest is built for exactly this kind of conversation, with traditional artists and the new generation of players blending styles under a simple banner, Music Without Rules. The name has deep roots. In the 1970s, several bands began pushing bluegrass toward a more open minded sound, and none did it more influentially than New Grass Revival, a group that at various points included Sam Bush, Courtney Johnson, Ebo Walker, Curtis Burch, Butch Robins, John Cowan, Bela Fleck, and Pat Flynn. It is fitting that Bush was on stage in Chattanooga hosting an awards show in which the lines between tradition and experiment were harder to see than ever.