Flatt Lonesome’s Kelsi Robertson Harrigill On Hard Work, Success & Ricky Skaggs

A few years ago, the group Flatt Lonesome was asked to perform a couple of songs during the annual International Bluegrass Music Association Award nominations announcement in Nashville, Tenn. Lo and behold, the group received their first-ever IBMA nomination that night, and they became emotional onstage when thanking the organization for that IBMA Award nod.

As it turns out, it was just the beginning of the success of this mostly family band from Florida, whose name is a play on the name of the late bluegrass legend Lester Flatt. By 2014, Flatt Lonesome had won the IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year Award while beginning a run of appearances on the Grand Ole Opry. By 2017, the group had won two IBMA Vocal Group of the Year Awards as well as the IBMA Song of the Year Award.

Still a young, hard-working band, Flatt Lonesome now tours the country as an established act. We spoke with Kelsi Robertson Harrigill of Flatt Lonesome right before the group performed at the Red Hat Amphitheater during this week’s IBMA Wide Open Bluegrass Street Fest in Raleigh, N.C.

I remember when you played at the IBMA Award Nominations announcement event. It was the first time you were nominated for emerging artist and I remember how emotional you got. What do you think about it looking back now after everything you guys accomplished?

I think that we have definitely been fortunate to come a pretty long way in a short amount of time and we're still just as excited with any nomination, as we were that night. But I think just with that being our very first nomination, it was such a huge deal to us, that it meant a lot to us. To go from that to where we are now, I'm actually standing backstage getting ready to play the Red Hat Amphitheater here at IBMA. It's been a really fun time, we're very thankful for it.

Your band has always seemed ready to do the hard work needed to make it. How do you describe your work ethic?

We have the same manager [Andrea Roberts] that we started out with in the beginning, and we just all came to an agreement that if it was something she felt would be beneficial to the band, that we would all make it a priority. We agreed on that from day one and it seems like it's paid off. It's definitely not been easy for the most part, but it has been profitable and the hard work definitely pays off.

Where you at now, musically? Do you have the next album in mind?

We're signed up on Rounder [Records] and we're just taking things a step at a time. We just put out a single that Rounder has put out to all the DJs, actually just this week at IBMAs. We're just going with that right now and taking our time. We're not really in a huge rush just yet to put out anything else. We want it to be on par, so we're not rushing it.

What's the name of the new single?

"You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive." Old Patty Loveless song. It was written by Darrell Scott.

I love that song. I'm a grandson of coal miners in West Virginia, so that kind of song hits home. Why'd you guys choose that one?

Because it is probably our most requested song as a band. We just started doing that as a fun song to do on stage. It was obviously nothing that we had ever considered recording just because it was such a huge hit for Patty. Every single time we did it, we had question after question, "Did we have this song recorded? Can we get it on an album?" That kind of thing, so we just decided that we needed to give the fans what they wanted, so we decided to do that.

As a woman, alongside Sierra Hull, Molly Tuttle, Becky Buller, how does it feel to be breaking the ground as far as winning awards in your respective categories.

I think whether you're a woman or not, you should only win an award if you're the best. I wish the best for those ladies and I think they're great at what they do.

What's it like to, not only meet your heroes here at IBMA week, but to stand next to them and be on the same stage with them and just be part of the same kind of things?

It's pretty surreal. It's definitely something that we've talked about growing up. That it would be awesome if we could play the same festival as people like Doyle Lawson. To be able to not only play those festivals with them, but to be nominated in the same categories as them, with the awards and all that kind of stuff, it's such a huge honor and a blessing for us and we're definitely extremely grateful for it.

Do you have any personal blue grass heroes?

I would say my top two would be Alison Krauss and Ricky Skaggs.

Oh, really! So you were hanging out with Ricky on the night when he goes in the [Bluegrass Music] Hall Of Fame – that's pretty special.

It was awesome. It was really fun seeing him last night and we've gotten to know them pretty well just from playing the Opry with them and all that kind of stuff. It was great to be able to talk to them last night and be a part of that night with them.

Lastly, does Flatt Lonesome plan to keep rocking, making music as your living?

We're gonna do it as long as we can. We've been at it full-time for about two-and-a-half years now. It's been really great for us. We're starting families now and getting married, that kind of stuff, but we're going to keep trucking along as long as we can.

Photo Gallery: Inside World Of Bluegrass, IBMA Awards & Festival in Raleigh

Flatt Lonesome’s Kelsi Robertson Harrigill On Hard Work, Success & Ricky Skaggs

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