IBMA Award Winners

By Paul Moffett

The 1998 IBMA Award Winners were:

Entertainer of the year, Del McCoury Band; vocal group of the year, IIIrd Tyme Out; male vocalist of the year, Ronnie Bowman; female vocalist of the year, Lynn Morris; album of the year, Bluegrass Rules!, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder; song of the year, "Lonesome Old Home," Longview, written by Ed Hamilton.

Instrumental group of the year, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder; instrumental album of the year, Fiddle Patch, Bobby Hicks; instrumental performers of the year, banjo, Sammy Shelor; bass, Missy Raines; dobro, Rob Ickes; fiddle, Jason Carter; guitar, Kenny Smith; mandolin, Ronnie McCoury.

Recorded event of the year, Longview, Longview; emerging artist of the year, the Gibson Brothers; gospel recorded performance of the year Stanley Gospel Tradition: Songs About Our Savior.

Hall of Honor inductees were Chubby Wise and promoter Carlton Haney; IBMA Certificates of Merit went to Barry Poss, founder of Sugar Hill Records; Ed Ferris, bassist for the Country Gentlemen; disc jockey Gary Henderson, and Lexington's Bob and Jean Cornett, founders of the Festival of the Bluegrass.