Ryan Shupe, a fifth-generation fiddler, started performing with his siblings at age 10. Shupe later formed the RubberBand, and the band took the long-running Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado by storm, winning the live band contest in 1997. This launched them into the national music scene and, after signing with Capitol Records, they hit #13 on Billboard's US Country Album Chart with their signature album, Dream Big. Their title track from that album has garnered over 2.1 million streams on Spotify.No Depression raves, “Shupe is a mandolin player sans pareil... he sings with extraordinary bravura. This man loves what he does and he takes his band along and they’re quite adept.”Bluegrass Unlimited calls Ryan Shupe & The RubberBand a “Fresh hybrid of new music influenced by bluegrass but featuring the percussive fervor of rock, rap and other styles...They bring imaginative arrangements and daring musicianship to their quintet sound.”
