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The Grascals, one of the top bands in bluegrass music and frequent visitors to the Tri-State, return to the Mountaineer Opry House tonight with a change in personnel.

This is traditionally the time of year when bluegrass bands are created or dissolved and when musicians move from one band to another. The latter happened with the Grascals a couple of months ago when banjo player Aaron McDaris left the group to join Rhonda Vincent and the Rage. Enter the award-winning banjo player Kristin Scott Benson.

Benson has played with veteran bluegrass acts such as Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time and the Larry Stephenson Band. This past October, her hard work paid off when she won the International Bluegrass Music Association's (IBMA) Banjo Player of the Year award. It was the first time a woman has received the honor since Alison Brown won it in 1991.

It was a matter of weeks after the awards show that Benson got the call from the Grascals. A mutual friend of Benson and the band, IBMA Hall of Famer Sonny Osborne of the legendary Osborne Brothers, helped to bring the two together. This will be the eighth show featuring the band's new lineup. The group recently played for the troops at Fort Campbell in Kentucky and for President Bush in Washington, D.C.

Tonight's concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and $5 for kids 12 and under.

Benson, a native of Union, S.C., is not the first in her family to be a professional musician.

"My maternal grandfather, my Mom's dad, was a professional mandolin player and he was half of the duet called Whitey and Hogan (Roy "Whitey" Grant and Arval Hogan)," said Benson. "Hogan is my grandfather's name. They were part of a larger group called the Briarhoppers. They had a 50-year career as Whitey and Hogan and with the Briarhoppers, and their heyday was in the 1940s. They played on WBT Radio in Charlotte, North Carolina, which was a powerhouse radio station in the day, and they had a daily radio show. Then, my Dad, all of his life, he just played for fun."

Benson, who is the wife of IIIrd Tyme Out mandolin player Wayne Benson, has a new solo CD on Pinecastle Records called "Second Season." The album further showcases her talent on the banjo, an instrument she was inspired to play after a visit to a festival as a kid.

"I saw the band Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver at a bluegrass festival in Georgia, and the banjo player at the time, Scott Vestal, was a fabulous banjo player," said Benson. "I got excited about the instrument and bluegrass as a whole when I saw them. I started asking for a banjo when I was about 9. But, unfortunately, my parents bought me one and then within a month or two our house burned down, and it burned in the house. It wasn't a high priority to replace, so I was 13 before I got a banjo and could actually then play."

The Grascals are two-time IBMA Entertainers of the Year winners and have recorded with everyone from Dolly Parton to George Jones, and Benson is happy to be onboard.

"I am so blessed," she said. "These guys have worked very, very hard for the last five years to establish something that is doing very well. I've been in the business long enough to realize how hard it is for a bluegrass band to ever be as successful as the Grascals, and the reason they're successful is because they are extremely talented and they work extremely hard. So, to be invited in after so much of that hard work has been done before me is particularly humbling because I appreciate the opportunity that much more."

Courtesy of the Grascals

The Grascals, two-time International Bluegrass Music Association Entertainers of the Year, will perform at 7:30 p.m. today, Dec. 13, at the Mountaineer Opry House in Milton.

Courtesy of Kristin Benson

Award-winning banjo player Kristin Benson recently joined the Grascals. The two-time International Bluegrass Music Association Entertainers of the Year, will perform at 7:30 p.m. today, Dec. 13, at the Mountaineer Opry House in Milton.