Fishman Artist // Becky Buller
Born to Southern Minnesotan bluegrass picking dry cleaners Emory and Linda Buller, Becky came into the world singing. (Luckily for her mother, Becky had as yet to take up the fiddle or clawhammer banjo at that point.) She and her brother Michael were fortunate to grow up in a home overflowing with music. From the Stanley Brothers to Simon and Garfunkel, Beethoven to ‘70s Jesus People Rocker Larry Norman, there was never a quiet–nor dull–moment in the Buller household.Emory and Linda, along with Gordy and Roxy Schultz, were longtime members of local bluegrass group Prairie Grass which performed bluegrass and gospel throughout Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa. During the summer, the family would take off almost every weekend in their renovated 1970 Ford school bus to bluegrass festivals and pre-1850 rendezvous reenactments. Becky and Michael would often get up on stage to sing “Slewfoot” with the band, standing on tiptoe to reach Linda’s guitar mic.
Becky began trying her hand at songwriting while still in high school, completing her first compositions while bagging clothes at her parents’ shop. In 1996, she won first place in the Hank Williams Songwriting Contest held in Avoca, Iowa. Becky was thrilled to be a part of the International Bluegrass Music Association's (IBMA) Songwriter Showcase during their 1998 World of Bluegrass Week in Louisville, Ky. In 2001, she was awarded the first-place prize in the bluegrass category of the prestigious Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at MerleFest in Wilksboro, N.C.
January of 2003 found Becky nominated for the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America’s (SPBGMA) “Songwriter of the Year” award. Her songs have been covered by IIIrd Tyme Out; Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike; Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver; Rhonda Vincent & the Rage; David Parmley & Continental Divide; the Mark Newton Band; and Fragment, among others.
Becky newest album, Little Bird BBR-015, is a collaborative effort of Becky and multi-Grammy winning producer/engineer Rich Adler of the renowned SoundWave Studios in Nashville, Tenn., “Little Bird” pairs Becky with some of Nashville’s finest, including Ron Block, Adam Steffey, Rob Ickes, Andrea Zonn, Carl Jackson and Wayne Benson. Ten of the thirteen tracks are written by Buller as well as a co-write each with Grammy winning producer Carl Jackson and known bluegrass artist Valerie Smith.