North Carolina bluegrass band Balsam Range took home the Entertainer of the Year award at the International Bluegrass Music Awards in Raleigh last night. The Haywood County ensemble's lead singer, Buddy Melton, was named Male Vocalist of the Year. The awards have special meaning for Melton who suffered major injuries from a farming accident in 2012.
"I was loading cattle and the cow kicked the gate I was closing," he told The State of Things host Frank Stasio in an interview last year.
The head trauma Melton suffered required a 12-hour surgery on his eye socket, nose and brain. The group continued to record, not knowing if Melton would survive or be able to sing again.
"The day I got out of the hospital, I went over there because I needed to know if I could sing or not," Melton recalled. "And this is the first song we recorded together."
