Gary Ruley and Mule Train - Distinctions, Honors, and Awards

Distinctions, Honors, and Awards

• 2010 winners of the Rockbridge County, Virginia Chamber of Commerce Rockbridge Community People’s Choice Awards “Group Arts/Entertainer of the Year”.
• Ann Marie Calhoun was the winner of the "My Grammy Moment" contest at the 50th Grammy Awards on February 10, 2008, playing live with the Foo Fighters during the broadcast.
• In 2006 Brennan Gilmore won the prestigious Secretary of State's Award for Public Outreach from the U.S. State Department for “ground-breaking efforts to engage non-traditional audiences and promote Arab-American cultural understanding through music” after founding Kantara—a musical group that creates an "alchemy of Appalachian old-time and bluegrass and North African melodies and rhythms"—and touring the world with it.
• The Pat Ruley Trophy for Best All Around Blue Grass Performer at the Maury River Fiddler's Convention—which held its 17th annual event in 2010 in Buena Vista, Virginia—was named for Gary's father and has been won by members of his group: Will Lee won the trophy in 2008 and Mary Simpson in 2005.
• In the past half-decade members of Gary Ruley and Mule Train have won numerous performance awards at the Maury River Fiddler's Convention including first place finishes for Will Lee on guitar in 2005, 2007, and 2008, and for Mary Simpson on bluegrass fiddle in 2005. Second place awards have gone to Nate Leath for old-time fiddle in 2010, to Danny Knicely for bluegrass fiddle in 2007 and 2009, and to Will Lee for guitar in 2006.
• Will Lee’s father joined the legendary Stanley Brothers as lead guitarist after playing with Bluegrass Tar Heels, special protegées of Bill Monroe. On his mother's side, Grandpa Clark was a fine ragtime pianist whose two sons both play guitar, while William Penmon Lee, the grandfather he was named after, was a respected clawhammer banjo player in Alabama and Mississippi.
• Danny Knicely’s grandfather, A. O. Knicely, played old time guitar, mandolin, and fiddle as leader of the Knicely Family Band. His father played bass and banjo in A.O.K.’s band; he also led his own country and bluegrass band, Dominion Express. Danny's mother had two groups: Heartland, a country and gospel band, as well as a large dance troupe, the Massanutten Mountain Cloggers.
• Magraw Gap, a band comprising Will Lee, Larry Keel, and Danny Knicely, took first place at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 1995.