Vickie Vaughn is a bass player and singer from western Kentucky who won IBMA Bass Player of the Year three years in a row, from 2023 to 2025. She helped found the bluegrass band High Fidelity, has played and sung with Della Mae since 2020, and signed with Mountain Home Music Company as a solo artist. She has backed Patty Loveless, Jesse McReynolds, and others on bass and vocals.
Why Vaughn matters
Vaughn won the IBMA bass award three years in a row, and she came to the bass by picking up the house bass at a local jam. Her path from jam bassist to award winner to solo artist shows how far the bass chair can take a singer.
Life and career
Vaughn grew up in Symsonia, Kentucky, near Paducah, singing and playing bass at churches, community events, and a local country revue. As a teen she went with her parents to the bluegrass jam at the Kentucky Opry, where there was always a house bass to pick up. Scottie Henson, a banjo player who toured with the Grand Ole Opry band, taught her the upright bass.
She studied voice at Belmont University in Nashville and played bass in the school’s bluegrass ensemble. After graduating she formed the Vickie Vaughn Band, which released the six-song EP Buy All the Roads in 2015. Around the same time she helped start High Fidelity and played on four of its albums before leaving in 2024. She joined Della Mae in 2020.
She won IBMA Bass Player of the Year in 2023, 2024, and 2025. Kentucky named her a Kentucky Colonel in 2023. Mountain Home Music Company signed her as a solo artist, and her full-length debut, Travel On, was produced by fiddler Deanie Richardson.
Playing style
Vaughn trained as a singer and plays bass while she sings lead. She says she listens for where other bass players place the note in the beat. She names Missy Raines, Todd Phillips, and Alan Bartram as players she studies.
Influences and legacy
Vaughn learned bass from Scottie Henson and first heard the bass played the way she wanted to play it from Missy Raines. She has played with Jesse McReynolds, Patty Loveless, and Luke Bulla. Deanie Richardson produced her debut album.
Essential recordings
Buy All the Roads, Vickie Vaughn Band (2015) Travel On, produced by Deanie Richardson
Awards and honors
IBMA Bass Player of the Year (2023, 2024, 2025) Kentucky Colonel (2023)
What to learn from Vaughn
Go to a local jam and play the house bass, as Vaughn did at 13. Stick to roots and fifths and watch the guitar player’s hands for chord changes. Then sing a song you know while you play. Vaughn’s lesson is that the bass chair is an easy way into a jam, and singing from it opens the door to band work.
Sources
Vaughn, Vickie, BluegrassBios.com Vickie Vaughn, Mountain Home Music Company Vickie Vaughn, Bluegrass Unlimited Awards by Category, IBMA
Related players
See the bass players hub and the bass guide. Missy Raines was her first model on the bass. Mike Bub won the IBMA bass award after her three-year run, in 2026.