The Rick Dollar Show Podcast-Jaelee Roberts

“I started singing before I could talk,” says Roberts. “Singing was just something I always did.” As a child of Music City, Jaelee Roberts was raised on bluegrass. She spent her formative years alternating between watching her dad make music on stage and watching her mom make music happen behind-the-scenes.

By her teenage years, Roberts was pursuing her goals with single-minded focus. She switched to homeschooling to give herself the time and flexibility to play music professionally, joining Rebekah Long’s touring band at just 16 years old as a mandolinist and supporting vocalist. A year later, she released her debut single “All My Tears,” to critical acclaim, earning effusive praise from 2023 Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Patty Loveless, who said of Roberts, “She brings a vocal performance [...] that touches the core of what fires me up about music.”

Jaelee Roberts couldn’t be stopped. She signed a recording contract with Mountain Home Records, beginning work on her debut full-length album. Not long after, she was invited to audition for reigning IBMA “Entertainer of the Year” and recent GRAMMY Award-nominated band, Sister Sadie. Her first show just so happened to be the Opry’s “75 Years of Bluegrass” concert, commemorating the famous December 8, 1945 show where the “Big Bang” lineup of Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys introduced the world to the unique and compelling sound that would come to be called “bluegrass.” It was a dream come true. She was invited to join the band full-time and has been playing guitar and singing lead vocals for them for nearly three years. This role has earned her international recognition. In 2021, she was awarded Vocalist of the Year at the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Momentum Awards, a presentation dedicated specifically to recognizing and rewarding the talents of emerging artists and up-and-coming industry professionals Although the global COVID-19 pandemic slowed some things.

By 2022, she had released her debut full-length album Something You Didn’t Count On which became an immediate commercial and critical success. The album debuted in the Top Ten on the Billboard Bluegrass Album chart and peaked at #2 on the Bluegrass Unlimited album chart. Multiple singles from the album—including “Think Again”, “You Can't Stop Me From Staying”, “Sad Songs”, and “The Best of Me”—appeared on the Bluegrass Unlimited singles chart, and “Still Waters” and “I Owe Him Everything” have made appearances on multiple gospel music charts. The album and the musicianship behind it earned Roberts a nomination for IBMA New Artist of the Year in 2022. Not even six months later, she was awarded Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2023 Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America (SPBGMA) awards show, and Something You Didn’t Count On took home the title of Album of the Year. And she’s only just getting started. “It’s been a lifelong dream and I’ll never stop chasing it,” says Roberts. “I’ll keep chasing it until I can’t chase it anymore.”

Jaelee Roberts is an internationally recognized vocal performer, multi-instrumentalist, recording artist, and songwriter. She has performed with Ashley McBryde and alongside Ricky Skaggs on the Grand Ole Opry with bluegrass supergroup, Sister Sadie, as well as recording with Vince Gill. She has played such historic and hallowed halls as the Station Inn, The Bluebird Cafe, and the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse. She has received numerous awards and nominations, including a 2023 nomination for IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year. She has also been recognized as a member of bluegrass’ preeminent all-female band, Sister Sadie, with a 2021 win for IBMA Vocal Group of the Year and 2023 IBMA nominations for Vocal Group of the Year and Song of the Year (“Diane”).