Wyoming’s Shelby Means Wins Grammy Award For Best Bluegrass Album

Growing up, Shelby Means' dad would wake her up by playing the banjo. But these days, the Laramie woman is waking up the world with her bass fiddle.

Means is part of Molly Tuttle’s Golden Highway Band, which just brought home a Grammy for their bluegrass album “City of Gold.”

Means wrote a little song on that album called “Next Rodeo,” which definitely channels her Wyoming roots for a worldwide stage.

“I was sitting in the room with Molly, and we were just coming up with a couple of ideas for like two different songs,” Means told Cowboy State Daily. “And we came up with a cool melody that we really liked.

“And it’s funny because my friend’s name is Melody, and she had the idea of second rodeo as a song, like a love song, with the title ‘Second Rodeo.’”

The song went through the usual write and rewrite process that Nashville is well-known for, where multiple songwriters work together to refine and hone a song’s lyrics, but Means’ Wyoming roots and her rodeo experience still shine through in the finished work.

“I can’t say for sure what inspired all those lyrics,” Means said. “But I really do like it, and I love the cowboy imagery, singing about the rodeo.”

Means particularly likes the line in the song that talks about “200 towns of one-night stands, and tearing up the road with a five-piece band.”

“Obviously, there’s high points and low points in everyone’s lives,” Means said, “But sometimes, for touring musicians, the highs feel super high, and the lows feel super low. There’s not much balance in between. So just nothing that can kind of lean into a song.”

Inspired

Means is humble about her skills. When asked for her favorite song, she picked another one on the album, “When My Race is Run.”

“I don’t know, it feels weird to say that a song I wrote is my favorite,” she said. “I definitely thought about it. But there’s just so many good songs on that album, it’s really hard to pick a favorite.”

Means picked up the bass when she was 14 after first giving the fiddle, at age 5, and then viola a try.

“There was an old-time music contest in Douglas,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “And my dad would take us there, me and my brother, who also plays music, and we’d head up to Douglas and enter the contest. I usually did the singing.”

One of the times at the contest, she saw a woman named Erin Youngberg playing the bass.

“She still plays down in Colorado, and she really inspired me, because I’d never seen a woman playing that giant instrument before,” Means said. “And kind of just seeing that like planted a little seed in my head. Like, ‘Oh, I could do that, too.’”

Youngberg told Mead later she had actually noticed Mead staring at her while she was playing.

“I was, like, watching her hand so much, she was like it was a little bit unnerving,” Means said. “This little kid just staring at my hands, but then, you know, she realized that I just wanted to play the bass.”

Youngberg showed Means how to place her right hand on the strings to pluck the string, and equally important, how to position the left hand to stop the sound at just the right moment.

“That’s kind of an important thing in bluegrass bass playing,” Means said. “It’s not only where you pluck the note with your right hand, but also the rhythm that you would cut the note off with your left hand.”

All About That Bass

Means’ parents, though, were not excited about this new interest at first. Their daughter had already changed her mind twice, and a bass could wind up becoming a mighty expensive dust collector.

So, Means borrowed a bass from a local band to try it out first, but she never looked back after that. She just loved everything about the bass. It was the exact right instrument for her, and it’s what she wants to be remembered for.

“I hope that I’ll be able to have my bass playing and my rhythm be something that people remember me for,” she said. “And just harmony. I love harmony, singing, I’d love to keep doing that, and then to be able to work my solo career up a little bit, to where I might be able to bring a band on tour.”

Means already has a solo album coming up that will be released soon.

Today, Means owns three bass instruments.

The first one, which still is in Wyoming and is what she plays whenever she’s visiting home, is named Buddha.

Her traveling bass is called Woody Ganesh.

“The neck reminded me of an elephant trunk because it would like move down and fold inside of the bass,” she said.

Her current bass is still getting broken in and doesn’t have its name, at least not yet.

“It sounds really good, and it’s been a really good work bass to take out on the road,” Means said. “But I’ve only had it for about a year.”

Marilyn Monroe And A Red Carpet Moment

Means flew out to Los Angeles for the Grammy awards so she could be with the whole band for the ceremony.

“We got dressed up and we had just the most exciting day,” Means said. “And Molly was so surprised when we won, because she didn’t think that we were actually going to win.”

The competition was so stiff that the band as a whole had agreed that just being nominated, and just being there, was huge.

“If you think about all the music that gets created every year, to even be nominated with, like, five of your peers is pretty epic,” Means said.

That Laramie Look

Means, however, particularly enjoyed the red-carpet event not just because of the musical awards, but because she is secretly a big fashion bug.

“The band has sort of been my little pet project,” Means said. “For our live shows, we like to dress in a coordinated kind of way, whether it’s colors or vibe or whatever.”

Means was in touch with her friend and Nashville stylist Samantha Row ahead of the event to help coordinate the band’s look.

“There were two options,” Means said. “One was a pink, ethereal — it had feathers and gold — and then the other was emerald, and (Molly) was wearing like a turban, sparkling head wrap.”

Means texted the information to the rest of the band, and the shopping and the coordinating began.

“For the red-carpet look, we went with the pink and gold and champagne option,” Means said. “So, I just wore a gown that was super cute with light pink little flowers all over it.”

Means also found an adorable shirt with red roses on it for one of the band members to wear while she was back home in Laramie, shopping.

“A lot of my own wardrobe is from Laramie,” Means said, laughing. “And I do love to mix and match.”

The band stayed, meanwhile, at a hotel that was a favorite of another famously fashionable lady, Marilyn Monroe.

“After the Grammys, we were all, the band was back at the hotel, and we were celebrating,” Means said. “And the staff was telling us that there’s a special mirror hanging on the wall, and that sometimes you can see Marilyn in it, like her ghost.”

That had everyone in the band looking in the mirror from time to time, to see if they could catch a glimpse of Marilyn in the mirror.

Means likes to think perhaps she was there, even if they could not see her, raising a toast to the Golden Highway Band for winning Best Bluegrass Album.

Wyoming Grit Still Important

Means was in good company for the Grammy award that she and the other band members won in the 66th annual event, and her parents, watching from home in Wyoming, couldn’t be prouder than Means herself.

“The category for Best Bluegrass Album was pretty stacked this year,” Means said. “Willie Nelson made a bluegrass album, so he was nominated. You probably heard of him.”

There was also Mighty Popular, Billy Strings, Sam Bush and Michael Cleveland, other well-known artists who are at the top of the bluegrass scene.

“It was pretty much an honor to even be nominated with a lot of those musicians,” Means said. “Sam Bush has been around and is, like, one of the elders of bluegrass. He’s just highly respected. So, to be nominated in the category with him is just awesome.”

Growing up, Means never had any idea that her music-playing obsession would one day take her around the world, or bring her to the red carpet in Los Angeles with other famous artists and musicians.

But no matter how far she roams, she still loves her Wyoming roots, and they still inspire her work.

“Wyoming is just so beautiful, and the wide-open spaces,” she said. “I live in South Carolina now, and so I’m pretty spoiled right now because I don’t have the harsh winter bites, but it definitely, I think, contributed to my character and grit.”

Whenever she’s pulling that huge bass fiddle around, and other people are suggesting she might wish she played the flute, that Wyoming grit kicks in. She just gives them a smile and keeps on pulling.

“I can do this,” Means said. “Because I went to school in Wyoming. And we didn’t have television or cable when I was growing up, so my parents would invite their friends over to cook some chili and have a jam session.

“That was a unique way to grow up, and I probably wouldn’t have gotten that if I’d lived in Kentucky still, where I was born.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.