Take a good look at the cover of this month’s issue of Bluegrass Now and consider this: when you look at 3 Fox Drive’s Kim Fox, you’re looking at an important part of bluegrass music’s future. A compelling singer and a guitarist who’s widely admired for her solid rhythm work, Kim stands out as one of the most gifted and memorable songwriters in the bluegrass scene of the last 20 years. Perhaps what is most important, she has the determination that’s needed to achieve lasting success in music. The obstacles have been many, and there are surely more to come, but Kim Fox’s commitment—and her talent—remain unshakable.

Born and raised in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York, she was introduced to bluegrass early in life. “I grew up in a little town called Old Forge—one road in, one road out,” she recalls with a smile. “They call it the Snowmobile Capital of the East. There are about fifteen hundred year-round residents and one school; I graduated with 30 kids.

“My father is retired now, but back then he was a lineman for the power company. I had four brothers and sisters growing up, so my mom didn’t do too much as far as work outside of the house goes. Anyhow, my dad was really into bluegrass—I guess he heard it from my grandfather, who had a banjo—and he tried to play sometimes, but he was always trying to get somebody to listen to it. We kids just kind of laughed about it for a long time. But my mom had been singing in a rock’n’roll band when she met my dad, and when I was nine, she showed me how to play guitar. Finally, one day my dad got me to sit down and learn, “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round The Mountain” on the banjo.



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