The Dixie Bee-Liners released their latest CD, Ripe, in the spring of 2008, and it has received wide acclaim within bluegrass circles. The Abingdon, Virginia, group has netted four No.1 songs on the bluegrass charts from Ripe, and the CD’s popularity seems to keep growing. (You can read the New River Voice review of Ripe here!)

If you’ve paid attention to charts such as Bluegrass Now Fan’s Choice, Bluegrass Music Profiles’ Top 20 Hot Singles, or the Roots Music Report Bluegrass Chart, in the past five months, then you’ve most assuredly seen the Dixie Bee-Liners at the top of those listings.

The Bee-Liners had been around a few years when they released an eight-song self-titled EP in 2005. That caught the attention of the music industry and the group soon began to feel that musical success was just around the corner.

Then signed to Pinecastle Records and with a CD produced by Bil VornDick (Alison Krauss, Ralph Stanley, Jim Lauderdale, Bob Dylan, James Taylor), the group indeed has found much-deserved success in bluegrass and Americana circles.

Buddy Woodward is the veteran of this group, having played in bands such as The Ghost Rockets as well as Buddy Woodward and the Nitro Express. Woodward plays mandolin and guitar (and can play a handful of other instruments in a pinch) and also contributes vocals to the band’s sound. He paired with vocalist/guitarist Brandi Hart to form the Dixie Bee-Liners, and the duo are the primary song writers of the group.

Other Bee-Liners include Jeremy Darrow (bass), Rachel Renee Johnson (fiddle, vocals), Jonathan Maness (guitar, mandolin), Sam Morrow (banjo).

You can catch the Dixie Bee-Liners live this month at the Dock Boggs/Kate O’Neill Peters Sturgill Memorial Festival (Norton, Va., Sept. 13), Blue Ridge Performing Arts Center (Hendersonville, NC, Sept. 13), Barter Theatre (Abingdon, Va., Sept. 19), BrewGrass Festival (Asheville, NC, Sept. 20), Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion (Bristol, Va., Sept. 21), and Ralph Stanley Museum Mountain Music Festival (Clintwood, Va., Sept. 27).

Listen to Tim Jackson’s interview with Buddy Woodward of the Dixie Bee-Liners. You can hear it Tuesday night (Sept. 9) at 6:30 p.m. on WVRU FM, 89.9 in Radford. The Dixie Bee-Liners are the first act featured in WVRU’s new weekly radio show called “The Listening Room,” brought to you by WVRU and the New River Voice.