Folk musician
Nancy Blake was born Nancy Short in Independence, MO. She took up cello at 12 and moved to Nashville, where she performed on the instrument with the Nashville Youth Symphony. In 1972,
Nancy and her band,
Natchez Trace, opened a show for virtuosic acoustic picker
Norman Blake, who had performed with such luminaries as
Bob Dylan and
Johnny Cash. The performance led to a partnership, which in turn led to marriage. Eventually,
Nancy moved on from cello to instruments such as the fiddle, acoustic guitar, bass, and accordion. In 1986,
Nancy's first solo recording, Grand Junction, was released on the Rounder imprint.
Nancy went on to accompany
Norman on many Grammy-nominated releases throughout the 1990s, such as
Just Gimme Somethin' I'm Used To (1993) and
Hobo's Last Ride (1996). In 2001, she performed with her husband at the landmark O Brother Where Art Thou concert at New York's Carnegie Hall. ~ Johnny Loftus