The acclaimed quartet is releasing a new single one week after winning five SPBGMA Awards.
The fourth time has been the charm for The Kody Norris Show, the irresistibly engaging and entertaining country/bluegrass group comprised of Norris on guitar; his fiddling “sweetie,” Mary Rachel Nalley-Norris; Josiah Tyree on banjo; and Cousin Charlie Lowman on the bass.
Last weekend, the band picked up its fourth Entertainers of the Year honor at the Bluegrass Music Awards bestowed by the prestigious Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America (SPBGMA) during its annual convention. Other awards received by the quartet during the January 25 event in Nashville: Guitar Performer of the Year (Kody Norris), Fiddle Performer of the Year (Mary Rachel Nalley-Norris), Male Vocalist of the Year (Kody Norris), and Vocal Group of the Year (The Kody Norris Show).
“We literally cannot believe it,” said Kody Norris, “but we are so humbled by the votes of our fans. SPBGMA is an amazing organization, and we are so happy to [have been] part of the ballot and lineup for [its] 50th anniversary.”
We recently spoke with Kody Norris shortly before this weekend’s release of “Blue Ain’t The Word,” the second single from their forthcoming, yet-untitled album. Here are some highlights from our conversation, edited for brevity and clarity.
Cowboys & Indians: First off, congratulations on your five wins last week at the Bluegrass Music Awards — including your fourth honor as Bluegrass Entertainers of the Year.
Kody Norris: Well, I sure appreciate that. Thank you very much. The band works so hard, and everybody behind the scenes just worked so diligently to keep us rolling up and down the road. And I’m so thankful for that.
C&I: So what is the process for choosing what will be released as a single from one of your albums. We know you have already released “The Auctioneer” from your latest album, which will be out this spring. And you’re releasing another single, “Blue Ain’t the Word,” this weekend. Do you simply go through the album periodically and go, “OK, well, it’s time to unleash that one on the world?”
Kody: Well, that’s pretty much how it comes about. Once we get everything recorded, we work with the president of the record label, going back and forth. And of course I have the team involved in that. I send everything out to everybody, have everybody listen to it, and if anything kind of piques their interest, then we kind of sit down and discuss that, and all the things that factor into what time of the year we might release it, and how the time of the year matches the lyrics, and all that type of thing. We’ve always got some grand ideas about what’s going to work the best. But sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.
“Blue Ain’t The Word” is a song that Mary Rachel, my wife wrote. And it’s actually the first song that she’s ever written. And so we’re very just over the moon, ecstatic about the fact that the first song that she wrote, and the first one that she would be singing on this album, was picked for the second single. We couldn’t be more tickled.
C&I: OK, I want to phrase this carefully, Kody. But if you listen to the lyrics — well, it’s a breakup song, isn’t it? A jaunty breakup song, perhaps, but a breakup song nonetheless. When you first heard it, did you think, “Honey, is there something you’re trying to tell me?”
Kody: [Laughs] Well, I hope not. But we were just riding down the road one night, and of course I still do a lot of the bus driving. That’s kind of my little time to sit up there and get my thoughts together. And she’s back there humming this song. And then the next thing you know, her and the guys are working up the harmony on it, that stack harmony. And then I hear that rumba beat that they put in there with the mandolin. And man, it just started coming together. I said, “I think y’all are on to something.”
And Mary Rachel, after she got it written, she sent it around to some different friends of hers in music. And thankfully we have a lot of brutally honest friends within the music business, and they’ll just shoot straight with you. And I don’t know how many times I’ve sent stuff to people and they’re like, “Eh, just another song.” But everybody has really liked this song. Now, granted, the whole breakup thing, I guess that’s obviously the story behind the song. But there’s so much more to this particular recording, as far the arrangement and the timing to it go, and I’m just pleased as I can be with it.

C&I: The Kody Norris Show made its Grand Ole Opry debut back in August 2013, and you’ve appeared there a few times since. Any chance you’ll return during the Opry’s current year-long centennial celebration?
Kody: Well, we’ve made four Opry appearances, and our last one was in September. So hopefully there’s another one right around the corner anytime. That would certainly be nice. And let me tell you as an aside: Before I was ever in the music business, I was a huge Grand Ole Opry fan, so it’s really a special place for me. And I remember during the 75th year for the Opry back in 2000, my parents actually bought me a commemorative 75th anniversary Grand Ole Opry Martin guitar.
C&I: Wow!
Kody: Which I still have. And I recently bought my wife one of those too. So we both have one now. And at some point I’d like for the two of us to get to play those guitars on the stage of the Opry. That’d be great.
Here is the latest single from The Kody Norris Show, “Blue Ain’t the Word.”