With her lyrically driven songs, Rachel McIntyre Smith’s comfort twang music reminds listeners of the classics while also adding a relevant and fresh perspective. Holler magazine calls her “Loretta Lynn for the TikTok Generation.”

Raised in the small East Tennessee town of Oliver Springs, Rachel began piano lessons at 9 years old. She won the Tennessee State Piano Competition twice and earned the Paderewski Medal for Guild for 10 years of superior ratings in a row. This strong background of music theory allowed Rachel to excel in other areas of music. She taught herself ukulele and guitar and also served as clarinet section leader in her school band. She made her debut singing “Please Mister Postman” in the high school theater arts production.

Upon graduating from college, she compiled 13 demos of her original music and began sending them to venues. Due to the quirky subject matter of her original “The Kitten Song,” she became a regular performer at cat cafes. In early 2020, she launched a concert tour of those feline-friendly venues.​

In 2022, Rachel independently released her debut EP “Glory Daze”, which went on to be featured on BBC Radio, Spotify’s Best of Fresh Finds Country 2022, and Grady Smith’s Youtube Channel where he named the title track one of the best country songs of 2022.​

Now in 2024, Rachel is gearing up to release her second EP, “Honeysuckle Friend”, which features her most poignant lyrics set to banjo, mandolin, and three-part harmonies.

Her brightly colored style, smooth vocals, and small-town charm leave a lasting impact on audiences. Americana Highways states she is “a vocal descendant of Alison Krauss.” Rachel’s had the privilege to share the stage with some impressive names in country music, including Gabe Lee, Lee Roy Parnell, Larry Fleet, Paul Thorn, Boy Named Banjo and Caleb Lee Hutchinson.

Rebecca Frazier’s lifelong journey between mountains and coastal waters is the backdrop for her flagship album releasing Sept. 13 on Compass Records, BOARDING WINDOWS IN PARADISE, a tour de force of bluegrass and acoustic roots music which celebrates the here and now. Frazier’s compelling original songs range from hard driving to thoughtful emotive folk, and her bluegrass interpretations of diverse classics from Madonna to Uncle Dave Macon fill out the album in a fine-tuned way that only experienced musicians can deliver. A bevy of acoustic A-listers such as Béla Fleck (banjo), Sam Bush (mandolin), and Stuart Duncan (fiddle) flavor her music with the wisdom and grace she was striving to present as she captured life’s juxtapositions with her new music.

Frazier’s bond with GRAMMY-winning producer Bill Wolf, known for working with Tony Rice and Grateful Dead, was the catalyst for the significant caliber of musicianship on the album. Her guitar instrumentals such as “Cantie Reel” give a tip of the hat to guitar legends Tony Rice and the late jazz guitarist Emily Remler, about whom Frazier wrote her Honors Senior Thesis at the University of Michigan.

A bluegrass luminary herself, Frazier gained notoriety as the first woman to grace the cover of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine. In 2018, the Virginia native also became the first woman to earn a Guitar Performer of the Year nomination from the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America (SPBGMA), an honor she received again in 2019. Frazier is widely known for her work with Colorado-based outfit Hit & Run, the only band to score the bluegrass-world trifecta of winning Rockygrass, Telluride and SPBGMA festival band competitions. A single mom of two teens, Frazier continues to divide her time between Nashville and Virginia. Like generations of her ancestors who have lived along Virginia’s coast, she, too, has weathered life’s hurricanes and battering winds — and witnessed its luminous beauty — and she wanted to capture that juxtaposition with her new music.

GRAMMY-winning banjoist and producer Alison Brown notes, “Rebecca Frazier is an important voice among the group of women whose musical talents and creative visions are recasting bluegrass. A triple threat, she sings, plays, and writes with fire and grace, and her new record is not to be missed.”