Sam Bush (born April 13, 1952 in Bowling Green, Kentucky) is an American bluegrass mandolin player considered an originator of the Newgrass style.

Sam Bush was exposed to country and bluegrass music at an early age through his father Charlie's record collection, and later by the Flatt & Scruggs television show. Buying his first mandolin at the age of 11, his musical interest was further piqued when he attended the inaugural Roanoke, VA Bluegrass Festival in 1965. As a teen Bush took first place three times in the junior division of the National Oldtime Fiddler's Contest in Weiser, ID. He joined guitarist Wayne Stewart, his mentor and music teacher during Sam's teen years, and banjoist Alan Munde (later of Country Gazette) and the three recorded an instrumental album, Poor Richard's Almanac, in 1969. In the spring of 1970, Bush attended the Fiddlers Convention at Union Grove, NC, and was inspired by the rock-flavored progressive bluegrass of the New Deal String Band. Later that year, he moved to Louisville and joined the Bluegrass Alliance. In the fall of 1971, the band dissolved and reformed as the New Grass Revival.

Jerry Douglas (born Gerald Calvin Douglas, May 28, 1956 in Warren, Ohio) is an American record producer and resonator guitar player. Called "Dobro's matchless contemporary master," by The New York Times, and lauded as "my favorite musician" by John Fogerty, Douglas is one of the world’s most renowned musicians.

In addition to his thirteen solo recordings, Douglas has played on more than 1600 albums. As a sideman, he has recorded with artists as diverse as Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Phish, Dolly Parton, Paul Simon, Mumford & Sons, Keb' Mo', Ricky Skaggs, Elvis Costello, and Johnny Mathis, as well as performing on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. He has been part of such notable groups as The Whites, J. D. Crowe and the New South, The Country Gentlemen, Strength in Numbers, and Elvis Costello's "Sugar Canes".

As a producer, he has overseen albums by Alison Krauss, the Del McCoury Band, Maura O'Connell, Jesse Winchester and the Nashville Bluegrass Band. Along with Aly Bain, he serves as Music Director of the popular BBC Television series, "Transatlantic Sessions".

Mark O'Connor (born August 5, 1961 in Seattle, Washington) is an American bluegrass, jazz, country and classical violinist fiddler, composer and music teacher. O'Connor's music is wide-ranging, critically acclaimed, and he has received numerous awards for both his playing and his composition. As a teenager he won national string instrument championships for his virtuoso playing of the guitar and mandolin as well as on the fiddle. His mentors include Texas old-time fiddler Benny Thomasson who taught O'Connor to fiddle as a teenager, French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli whom O'Connor toured as a teenager and guitarist Chet Atkins.

At an early age Mark O'Connor was considered a child prodigy winning national titles on the fiddle, guitar and mandolin as a teenager. In 1975 at age thirteen, O'Connor won the prestigious Grand Masters Fiddle Championships in Nashville against amateur and professional competitors of all ages. Later that year in 1975, after turning to age 14, he accomplished the same feat on acoustic guitar at the National Flatpick Guitar Championships in Winfield, KS. At age 19, he won the Buck White International Mandolin Championship in Kerrville, TX. He is a four-time grand champion at the National Oldtime Fiddlers Contest in Weiser, Idaho —1979, 1980, 1981 and 1984.

Susan Tedeschi ( /təˈdɛski/; born November 9, 1970, Boston, Massachusetts, United States) is an American blues and soul musician, who has received multiple Grammy Award nominations, and is well known for her singing voice, guitar playing, stage presence, and marriage to blues guitarist Derek Trucks. She is also known for her performances as part of "Soul Stew Revival", a conglomeration of her band, The Derek Trucks Band, and assorted other personnel.

Tedeschi served as a judge for the 7th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.

Susan Tedeschi was born on November 9, 1970, in Boston, Massachusetts to a family of Italian ancestry, (Tedeschi means Germans in Italian) and was raised in Norwell, Massachusetts. She is the daughter of Dick Tedeschi, granddaughter of Nick Tedeschi and great-granddaughter of Angelo Tedeschi, of the supermarket and convenience store family well known in Massachusetts. Tedeschi has always been musically inclined, and made her debut public performance as a six-year old understudy in a Broadway musical. Also, she sang for family members and listened to her father's record collection of old vinyl recordings, like Mississippi John Hurt and Lightning Hopkins. Raised as a Catholic, she found little inspiration in the church choir, and so attended predominantly African-American Baptist churches, feeling the music was "less repressed and more like a celebration of God." She has played in bands since the age of 13. At the age of 18, she formed her first all-original group, The Smokin' Section, in the nearby town of Scituate, Massachusetts.

Derek Trucks is an American guitarist, songwriter and founder of the Grammy Award winningThe Derek Trucks Band. He became an official member of The Allman Brothers Band in 1999 and formed the Tedeschi Trucks Band in 2010 with his wife Susan Tedeschi. His musical style encompasses several genres and he has twice appeared on Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Trucks was born June 8, 1979, in Jacksonville, Florida. His uncle, Butch, is a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band and according to Trucks, the name of Eric Clapton's band; Derek and the Dominos had "something to do with the name [Derek] if not the spelling”. His younger brother, Duane, is a drummer^{[citation needed]} and his great-uncle, Virgil Trucks, was a professional baseball player.

Trucks bought his first guitar at a yard sale for $5 at age nine and became a child prodigy who played his first paid performance at age 11. After taking lessons from his father and from Jim Graves, a well known local musician,^{[citation needed]} Trucks began playing the guitar using a "slide" because it allowed him to play the guitar despite his small, young hands.