Playing from the Inside Out: The Music of Missy Raines

When Missy Raines is playing on stage, she doesn’t just want people to hear her songs; she wants them to feel them. Each song she plays has special meaning, from the songs she has written or the ones she has carefully chosen. Love and Trouble, her most recent album, with her band, Allegheny, is described on her website as “views from the highest peaks of her native West Virginia and from the deepest hollers of heartbreak. The ten songs come to life with people, places, and stories that have caught her heart during her five-decade journey with bluegrass and beyond.”

Growing up in Short Gap, West Virginia, Missy Raines’ parents were avid bluegrass fans and supporters. “They listened to early country music and bluegrass before I was born,’ she says. My dad bought a bass for himself – he wanted to learn to play.”

He wasn’t the only one. Missy played other instruments, but she learned to play the bass when she was ten years old. She learned to play from neighbors and friends, and she participated in jam sessions at bluegrass festivals. “I have always been attracted to the bass,” she says. “When I played guitar, I didn’t feel like I was a contributor,” Missy still plays her daddy’s bass.

By the time she was 12 or 13, Missy began playing with bands in the area. “I played in bars where I wasn’t old enough to go to on my own, but we always had folks looking out for us.” She continued to play throughout junior high and high school. “I played just about any gig that opened up,” she laughs. “Sometimes I was thrown into a situation where I had to learn on the fly, and that helped me craft my ear for music.” She also had some strong mentors along the way.

When she graduated from high school, Missy knew without a doubt that music was what she wanted to do. “I naively thought it would be more of the same as what I had been doing throughout high school.”

She left West Virginia and moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, where she spent ten years. She played for four years with Bill Evans’ band, Cloud Valley. “I learned so much while I was there, and I gained so much experience.”

Wanting to further her music career, Missy made the move to Nashville on May 12, 1990.

She recorded her first album, My Place in the Sun, in 1998, the same year she first won the Bass Player of the Year award from IBMA. Since then, Missy has received the award nine more times – the most awarded bass player in the industry- and she has recorded five more albums under her own name, and many more for other artists, including duo albums with Jim Hurst. She is a GRAMMY nominee for her 2018 album, Royal Traveller.

“I started writing more seriously around 2011 or 2012. On my album, Inside Out, I wrote the title track and also another instrumental for my dad called ‘Ides of March.’”

I wrote the song 'Inside Out,' an instrumental for my dad. Words took longer for me, but now I try to write all the time.”

Missy says she is inspired by anything and everything. “It can be something I see, so I’ll make a note. Or it may be a phrase, a sentence, or even a word. I love to listen to people talk. I think that’s what’s resonating with me most at this time. Often, I write about what is on my heart and mind that I’d like to pursue.”

Missy is inspired by people who creatively tell their stories. “I enjoy Tim O’Brien and Sierra Hull – both are doing great writing. I’m also listening to an artist from Kentucky, S.G. Goodman. She is not a bluegrass artist, but she has strong Appalachian roots.” Goodman received the 2023 Emerging Artist of the Year award from the Americana Music Association. “I’m so inspired by her writing. It resonates strongly about what she believes in, and it’s a very real look at life.”

Teaching others her craft has been important to Missy. “I taught for the first time around 1998, and I love it. I have taught at various camps and workshops for years. In 2010, I was asked to start an online bass school for ArtistWorks.” Missy created the curriculum and likes the fact that those classes have a much larger reach. “I have students all over the world, and I love to help them and see them so happy.”

She is currently an artist-in-residence at East Tennessee State University. It’s a 250-mile drive from her home to the campus in Johnson City. “I’ll be doing that for the next year,” she says. It’s been a wonderful opportunity for me to stretch myself, which is always a good thing.”

Seeing musicians she taught as a child grow into artists who keep growing and learning is rewarding for Missy. “It always surprises me.”

Currently, Missy is getting ready to “try to be creative for what’s next.” She is actively touring and teaching. “I’m also writing, sometimes at home, but I always like to go to other places to write.”

A member of the first class of IBMA’s Leadership Bluegrass, Missy says that experience gave her the ability to understand what other people at her level are doing. “I think it creates a mindset of excellence. It’s something I highly recommend.”