The Dobro is a resonator guitar played flat on the lap. The player holds a steel bar in the left hand and picks with the right. Dobro began as a brand name, and bluegrass players now use it for the instrument itself. The IBMA calls its award Resophonic Guitar Player of the Year. This list collects the notable players: the pioneers who brought the Dobro into country music and bluegrass, the second generation who took it further, the IBMA winners, the Winfield champions, and the players holding the Dobro chair today.
Each name links to a full profile with the player’s story, what to listen to first, and one thing to learn from them. Award counts come from the IBMA award records and the Walnut Valley Festival winners archive. For the instrument itself, start with the guide to bluegrass Dobro. Other instruments have their own lists: guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and bass.
The pioneers
These players made the Dobro a sound on the Grand Ole Opry and then in bluegrass bands, from the 1930s into the 1960s.
Brother Oswald
Bashful Brother Oswald (1911 to 2002), born Beecher Ray Kirby, played Dobro with Roy Acuff’s Smoky Mountain Boys from the 1930s until Acuff’s death in 1992. Josh Graves studied him.
Josh Graves
Josh Graves (1927 to 2006) brought the Dobro into bluegrass when he joined Flatt and Scruggs in 1955. He built his picking style from Earl Scruggs’s banjo roll. Hall of Fame, 1997.
LeRoy Mack
LeRoy Mack (born 1940) played Dobro in the Kentucky Colonels with Clarence and Roland White from the late 1950s until 1964. Hall of Fame with the band, 2019.
Tut Taylor
Tut Taylor (1923 to 2015) played the Dobro with a flatpick. He recorded Dobro Country in 1964, played in John Hartford’s Aereo-Plain band, and co-produced The Great Dobro Sessions.
The second generation and newgrass
In the 1970s these players took the Dobro into the Seldom Scene, New Grass Revival, and the folk and swing scenes.
Mike Auldridge
Mike Auldridge (1938 to 2012) was a founding member of the Seldom Scene. He received a National Heritage Fellowship in 2012 and is in the Hall of Fame twice.
Jerry Douglas
Jerry Douglas (born 1956) has won 14 Grammys and won the IBMA Dobro award the first six years it was given. He played with J.D. Crowe and the New South and Alison Krauss and Union Station. Hall of Fame, 2024.
Curtis Burch
Curtis Burch (born 1945) played Dobro and guitar as a founding member of New Grass Revival from 1971 to 1981. Hall of Fame with the band, 2020.
Stacy Phillips
Stacy Phillips (1944 to 2018) was a Dobro player, fiddler, and teacher. He was a founding member of Breakfast Special and wrote The Dobro Book.
Sally Van Meter
Sally Van Meter played Dobro in the Good Ol’ Persons from 1977 to 1996. She has recorded with David Grisman, Jerry Garcia, and Tony Rice.
Gene Wooten
Gene Wooten (1953 to 2001) was a Nashville Dobro player and repairman. He played with Wilma Lee Cooper, the Osborne Brothers, and the Station Inn’s Sidemen.
Cindy Cashdollar
Cindy Cashdollar (born 1956) of Woodstock, New York, plays Dobro and steel guitar. She won five Grammys with Asleep at the Wheel.
The Great Dobro Sessions
In 1994 Jerry Douglas and Tut Taylor produced The Great Dobro Sessions, an album with ten resonator guitar players. It won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album at the 1995 ceremony. All ten featured players have pages here: Mike Auldridge, Curtis Burch, Jerry Douglas, Josh Graves, Rob Ickes, Brother Oswald, Stacy Phillips, Tut Taylor, Sally Van Meter, and Gene Wooten.
IBMA Resophonic Guitar Player of the Year winners
The International Bluegrass Music Association has given this award since 1990. Jerry Douglas won the first six. These are the other winners.
Rob Ickes
Rob Ickes has won the award 15 times, more than anyone. He played in Blue Highway from 1994 to 2015 and now tours with Trey Hensley.
Phil Leadbetter
Phil Leadbetter (1962 to 2021) of Knoxville played with J.D. Crowe and the New South and helped start Wildfire and Grasstowne. He won in 2005, 2014, and 2019.
Josh Swift
Josh Swift of Sparta, Tennessee, played Dobro with Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver for 12 years. He won in 2017.
Justin Moses
Justin Moses has won seven times since 2018. He has played with Ricky Skaggs, Blue Highway, and the Gibson Brothers.
Gaven Largent
Gaven Largent (born 1996) of Winchester, Virginia, took Rob Ickes’s place in Blue Highway at 19. He won in 2024.
IBMA Resophonic Guitar Player of the Year, every winner
1990 to 1995: Jerry Douglas 1996 to 2000: Rob Ickes 2001 to 2002: Jerry Douglas 2003 to 2004: Rob Ickes 2005: Phil Leadbetter 2006 to 2013: Rob Ickes 2014: Phil Leadbetter 2015 to 2016: Jerry Douglas 2017: Josh Swift 2018: Justin Moses 2019: Phil Leadbetter 2020 to 2023: Justin Moses 2024: Gaven Largent 2025 to 2026: Justin Moses.
Rob Ickes holds the record with 15 wins. Jerry Douglas has 10, Justin Moses 7, Phil Leadbetter 3, and Josh Swift and Gaven Largent 1 each. Older press often calls this award Dobro Player of the Year.
Band players and today’s players
These players hold the Dobro chair in working bands or keep busy in Nashville studios.
Fred Travers
Fred Travers took Mike Auldridge’s place in the Seldom Scene in 1995 and has played Dobro with the band ever since. He studied with Auldridge.
Andy Hall
Andy Hall is a founding member of the Infamous Stringdusters, who won the 2018 Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album with Laws of Gravity.
Randy Kohrs
Randy Kohrs of Iowa has played Dobro with Tom T. Hall, the John Cowan Band, and Dolly Parton. He runs Slack Key studios in Nashville.
Dobro players who also play other instruments
These players are strong on Dobro and also on a second instrument. Where a second page exists, it is linked.
Norman Blake
Blake is best known as a flatpicker, but he played Dobro on Will the Circle Be Unbroken. See his guitar page too.
Justin Moses
Moses played banjo in Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder from 2010 to 2014. See his banjo page too.
Gaven Largent
Largent played both banjo and Dobro with Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper and with Dailey and Vincent. See his banjo page too.
Weston Stewart
Weston Stewart is a banjo champion who won the Tennessee State Dobro Championship in 2013, the same year he won the state banjo title.
Curtis Burch
Burch played both Dobro and guitar in New Grass Revival.
Stacy Phillips
Phillips played fiddle as well as Dobro and wrote teaching books for both.
Tim Surrett
Surrett plays bass and resonator guitar in Balsam Range. His page is in the bass players list.
Winfield National Tut Taylor Dobro Championship winners
The Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, held a National Tut Taylor Dobro Championship in 1976. Its archive lists these placings for that year.
1976, first place: Dan Huckabee of Fort Worth, Texas 1976, second place: Rudy Q. Jones of Oklahoma 1976, third place: Bob Tripp of Kansas City, Missouri.
A note on this list
No list of Dobro players is ever finished. This one leans toward bluegrass, since that is what this site is about, with a few country and swing players who shaped how bluegrass players think about the instrument. Award counts and contest placings come from the organizations linked above. If you spot an error or a missing name who belongs here, get in touch.
Sources
Award and contest records drawn from the IBMA awards by category, the IBMA recipients by year, Bluegrass Today’s list of 2026 IBMA winners, and the Walnut Valley Festival winners archive (PDF). The Great Dobro Sessions details come from The Great Dobro Sessions on Wikipedia. Details on each player are sourced on that player’s page.