Born and raised near Paducah, Vickie Vaughn grew up singing and playing bass at churches, community events and a local country revue show in western Kentucky. After graduating from Belmont University, she formed the Vickie Vaughn Band, releasing a six-song EP of contemporary bluegrass, Buy All the Roads, in 2015. Yet more traditional music beckoned, as she helped to start the acclaimed High Fidelity around the same time, appearing on four acclaimed albums before leaving the group in 2024. Vaughn also served as a vocalist and/or bassist for a broad array of artists, including Patty Loveless, Jesse McReynolds, Kelsey Wal-don, Luke Bulla, Billy Gilman and more. In 2020, she joined Della Mae, with whom she con-tinues to perform and record. Vickie Vaughn was awarded the IBMA’s Bass Player of the Year trophy in 2023 and 2024—and, she underlines, was named a Kentucky Colonel in 2023.