Justin Moses is a Dobro player from Madisonville, Tennessee, who lives in Nashville. He has won the IBMA’s Resophonic Guitar Player of the Year award seven times, starting in 2018. He also plays banjo, fiddle, mandolin, and guitar, and he has held a different chair in almost every band he has joined. This page covers his Dobro work. His banjo work has its own page.
Why Moses matters
Moses has owned the IBMA Dobro award since 2018. He won it in 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025, and 2026. Only Rob Ickes and Jerry Douglas have won it more often. Before his Dobro run, he was the banjo player in Ricky Skaggs’s band.
Life and career
Moses grew up in Madisonville, Tennessee. He started on mandolin at about age six. His first band outside his family was Kentucky Wind. He later recorded with Blue Moon Rising.
He played in the Dan Tyminski Band and then joined Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder on banjo, taking the place of Jim Mills. He left Skaggs in 2014. In 2017 he married mandolin player Sierra Hull.
In 2018 he joined Blue Highway on resonator guitar, after Gaven Largent left. That year he won his first IBMA Dobro award. In early 2019 he began touring with the Gibson Brothers. His album Fall Like Rain came out on Mountain Fever Records in 2021. Guests included Sierra Hull, Del McCoury, Dan Tyminski, and Shawn Lane.
Playing style
Moses plays every instrument in a bluegrass band, and his bands have used him in different ways. He played fiddle with Dan Tyminski, banjo with Ricky Skaggs, and resonator guitar with Blue Highway.
Influences and legacy
Moses took over the Blue Highway Dobro chair that Rob Ickes once held. On Fall Like Rain he recorded with his former bandleader Dan Tyminski and with Del McCoury.
Signature tunes and songs
Taxland, an instrumental he recorded with Sierra Hull on Fall Like Rain.
Essential recordings
Fall Like Rain (Mountain Fever, 2021)
Awards and honors
IBMA Resophonic Guitar Player of the Year (2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025, 2026)
What to learn from Moses
Moses learned the instrument each band needed. Pick a second instrument and learn one tune on it, such as Salt Creek. Then play the same tune on the Dobro. Each instrument will show you a new way to hear the melody.
Sources
Moses, Justin, BluegrassBios.com One man band Justin Moses debuts as a bluegrass leader on Fall Like Rain, WMOT Justin Moses, Bluegrass Unlimited Kentucky Thunder, Wikipedia Blue Highway, Wikipedia Awards by Category, IBMA 2026 IBMA Bluegrass Music Award winners, Bluegrass Today
Related players
See the Dobro players hub and the Dobro guide. Moses also has a page among the banjo players. Gaven Largent came before him in Blue Highway, and Sierra Hull is his wife and duo partner.