Tim Stafford

Guitar: Tim Stafford

Tim's distinctive guitar style, vocals, songwriting and arranging contributions are an integral part of his current band, Blue Highway. A Kingsport, TN native, Tim helped found the band Dusty Miller (1990 SPBGMA International Bluegrass Band champions) and, early on, was a key player in Alison Krauss & Union Station when it was named IBMA Entertainer of the Year in 1991. Leaving Krauss's band in May 1992 to spend more time with his infant son Daniel, Tim won a Grammy in 1993 for his work on AKUS's Every Time You Say Goodbye (Rounder 1992), which was also named IBMA Album of the Year (1993). In 1994, Tim organized Blue Highway, whose first project, It's a Long, Long Road, spent six months at the top of the Bluegrass Unlimited charts and won IBMA's Album of the Year Award (1996). Tim's songwriting talent is reflected throughout Blue Highway 's repertoire and in recordings by artists such as Ronnie Bowman, Claire Lynch, Mountain Heart, Dan Tyminski, the Lonesome River Band, Larry Sparks, The Infamous Stringdusters, Kenny and Amanda Smith and Alecia Nugent. "Through the Window of a Train", co-written by Tim and Steve Gulley and recorded by Blue Highway, won IBMA's Song of the Year award in 2008. "Born With A Hammer in my Hand," co-written with Shawn Lane, was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2000 IBMA Awards. Tim's work as a producer is also highly acclaimed, winning an IBMA Album of the Year award in 2007 for The Infamous Stringdusters' Fork In The Road (Sugar Hill 2007) (Tim Stafford & The Infamous Stringdusters, producers), and an IBMA Instrumental Recording of the Year award as producer and performer on Knee-Deep in Bluegrass: The Acutab Sessions. Tim's other projects include Down Around Bowmantown (co-producer) for ETSU's Center for Appalachian Studies and Services, listed on the Library of Congress American Folklife Center's Selected List of American Folk Music Recordings for 1989; Endless Line (FGM Records 2004), Tim's critically-acclaimed solo record; and Flatpicking Guitar Fundamentals instructional video (Flatpicking Guitar Magazine 2001). His Blue Highway solos have been published in a transcription book (Acutab Publications 1998). Tim has played on records by Willie Nelson, Jesse McReynolds, Jorma Kaukonen, Marty Raybon, Kenny Chesney, Tony Trischka, Michelle Shocked, Larry Sparks and many others. Composite Acoustic Guitars released a Tim Stafford signature model in 2009.