February has always been a significant month in Pam Gadd’s life. She moved to Nashville from northern Kentucky on February 4 in 1987, the day before her birthday, to seek a career with her banjo and guitar, her songs and her distinctive lead voice—one of the most soulful in any musical genre today. On the same day in 2004, she played her first show with country music legend Porter Wagoner.

Pam is still getting over the shock of losing her singing partner and dear friend, who died October 28, 2007 from lung cancer. Mingled with her grief are feelings of anticipation about the February release of her new album—Pam’s first solo effort in eight years—which will include duets with Dolly Parton and Marty Raybon, and harmony vocals from Dale Ann Bradley and Steve Gulley. Pam, on the five-string, is joined by Bryan Sutton, Aubrey Haynie, Andy Leftwich, Mark Burchfield, and Wanda Vick.

Pam shares production duties with Nancy Gardner on this new, as-yet-untitled CD, which she describes as “a combination of straight ahead traditional bluegrass, [and] songs I’ve written. Some are bluegrass, [and some are] that country folk thing blended with bluegrass.” She especially enjoyed recording the Osborne Brothers tune, “Tennessee Hound Dog” for the project. “It was such a blast,” she relates. “I remember seeing Bobby and Sonny doing that up in Chautauqua Park in Cincinnati in 1971, when I was little.”

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