Bluegrass star Rhonda Vincent is all The Rage

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Rhonda Vincent never left her patch of Missouri.

She did, however, finally leave Greentop (pop. 412) for the county seat, Kirksville (pop. 17,304).

You might bump into her at Walmart. Might run into her in the chip aisle at the Hy-Vee.

That’s fine and all if you want to stick around and plan stuff like class reunions, but is Kirksville, Mo., really any place for a monarch?

“You’re 100 miles from a mall,” her royal highness revealed this week. “You go back in time when you go there.”

And that is why, for the anointed queen of bluegrass, Kirksville is to Vincent what Buckingham Palace is to Elizabeth II.

It’s good to be queen — but Vincent, the bluegrass star who plays Kuss Auditorium on Saturday, Jan. 16, with her band, The Rage, isn’t about to get all highfalutin about it.

“To me, it’s a way of life that’s evolved into a career,” she said. “I would be doing this no matter what.”

The truth is, she’s good.

She’s more than that, actually.

A decade ago, the Wall Street Journal deemed her the “new queen of bluegrass,” and mountain music entered into a new, Vincentonian era.

The Kraussian era was at an end.

Oh, sure, Alison Krauss is still the one bluegrass musician most people can kind of name, but Vincent has taken the genre by storm, collecting female vocalist of the year honors from the International Bluegrass Music Association in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003.

And let’s not forget 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Her most recent album for Rounder Records, “Destination Life,” is up for best bluegrass album at the Grammys later this month. (Nominated in that category three times before, a win on Jan. 31 would be her first.)

“It’s really neat to have affirmation,” Vincent said. “We love what we do. To be recognized for a job well done is just the icing on the cake.”

But here’s the thing — the new queen isn’t actually new. In fact, at this point, she might just qualify as a roots music cougar.

“A lot of people look at me like a new artist,” Vincent, 47, said, “but I’ve been performing with my family since I was 3.”

The woman who would-be-queen made her recording debut back in 1967, on an album by her family’s group, the Sally Mountain Singers.

Around that time, the family also hosted its own TV show in Ottumwa, Iowa, and had a radio show in Kirksville.

There aren’t actually any mountains in that part of the country, but bluegrass is only partly defined by geography — the rest is about family and hewing to tradition.

“Our society is such a fast-changing society,” said Vincent, who briefly went country in the early ’90s. “Bluegrass is a slow burn. There’s a tradition in bluegrass. You kick back. You go to a festival and get under a shade tree.”

Living in Greentop, Mo., might’ve sucked for a teenager, but like all small-town kids, Vincent learned to appreciate the way she was brought up.

You can hear it in the music.

“It comes from my father,” she said. “My grandfather would come in and sing a Bill Monroe song. My aunt would come in and sing a Kitty Wells song. That’s carried with us. There’s something for everyone.”

While Vincent has a house and studio in slick-talking Nashville, Kirksville is home.

Always will be.

“There’s nothing to do,” she said. “We like it like that.”

And with her as queen, her family is quickly becoming the first family of bluegrass.

Her brother, Darrin Vincent, is one half of the duo Dailey and Vincent — winner of the IBMA’s entertainer of the year award the past two years.

For a type of music where the performers harmonize around one microphone, there’s no need for sibling rivalry.

“You just knew you were going to get your turn,” she said.

Next up could be her daughters, Sally and Tensel Sandker, about to make their debut as the bluegrass group Next Best Thing.

And speaking of family, Vincent’s is about to get bigger. Her fiddler in The Rage, Hunter Berry, is engaged to Sally.

Growing up, the girls were more interested in playing basketball and softball, Vincent said, than picking mandolin.

“I’m stunned to see my daughters now,” she said. “Where did this come from?”

It turns out, she said, they had an epiphany while away at college in Tennessee.

Bluegrass, they told her, is in their blood.

“I guess they’re late bloomers,” Vincent said.

When it came time for her daughters to hire a guitar player, Mom came through with some advice.

Remember, it’s not just a job.

This bluegrass thing is a lifestyle.

“You want to find someone who would play,” she said, “whether you would pay them or not.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.