Bowling Green native Mary Rachel Nalley-Norris, a member of the award-winning country and bluegrass group The Kody Norris Show, is no stranger to being recognized for her instrumental talent.

Nalley-Norris and The Kody Norris Show both walked away winners at the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America Awards held in Nashville in January.

She won Fiddle Player of the Year while the Kody Norris Show won Entertainer of the Year and Instrumental Group of the Year and her husband of four years, Kody Norris, won Guitar Performer of the Year.

She also won Fiddle Player of the Year in 2022.

“Last year, I couldn’t believe I was even nominated,” she said. “Everybody on that list was a hero of mine or I took lessons from. I learned a lot from these people.”

She said she remembered having a hard time getting out of her seat when they announced her name and was so shocked that she doesn’t recall what she said in her acceptance speech.

“Everybody always says they are honored when they win, and I really, truly mean it,” she said.

Winning this year was also a complete surprise to her.

At this year’s awards show, she said she was backstage with another female nominee who she believed would win.

“When they called my name, I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

She also has an award-winning album, “Headed Back to Bowling Green,” which won Traditional Fiddle Album of the Year from the National Traditional Country Music Association in 2018.

“ ‘Headed Back to Bowling Green’ is a song written by Kody from my perspective of leaving home,” she said.

The album had many featured artists, such as Buck Trent, Michael Cleveland, Joe and Stacy Isaacs, Jason Barie and the rest of the Kody Norris Show.

Nalley-Norris has also performed at The Grand Ole Opry and recalls a time when Mike Snider asked her to bring her fiddle on stage with him and his band, even though she wasn’t on the list to play that day.

“My friends got us tickets backstage and I brought my fiddle but didn’t take it inside,” she said. “Mike Snider was there and found out I played the fiddle. At first I wasn’t allowed to bring it in, but he talked them into it. I got to play backstage with him and his band, then they got me onstage with them.”

She said she has many she credits for getting her to this point in her life, including God, her parents, The Kody Norris Show, “anybody and everybody in Bowling Green who helped me out,” her fans and the people of Mountain City, Tennessee, where she currently resides with her husband.

Born and raised in Bowling Green, Nalley-Norris attended Three Springs Baptist Church and graduated from Bowling Green High School in 2014 before moving to Eastern Tennessee in 2015.

“I played sports all throughout middle school and high school, but found out that I wasn’t as good as I thought,” she said. “So I started to focus more on music.”

While she plays a variety of instruments, including the mandolin, fiddle, guitar, bass and most recently, the banjo, her instrumental career began when she played classical music on the violin with the strings program at T.C. Cherry Elementary School.

“I did that for a couple of years, then decided to switch to bluegrass and country, since that’s what I was raised around,” she said.

Her parents, Jimmy and Phyllis, encouraged her talent, and her dad hosted a weekly bluegrass jam in Bowling Green for over 10 years at the KOA Kampground.

“This was a huge stepping stone in my career as I met so many fellow musicians from Bowling Green in addition to many Nashville professionals,” she said.

For several years, she was the staff fiddler for the Grandest Ole Opry in Scottsville.

“Kevin Grissom, a Nashville steel guitar player, invited me to perform as his guest on the show when I was 11 or 12,” she said. “From there I became the staff fiddler. I’m currently still involved with the Grandest Ole Opry as much as I can.”

She began touring with the all-girl band, Hazel Holler, in 2011, then moved on to another band, Kings Highway.

During her senior year of high school, while she was touring with Larry Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers, she was also co-oping at the Warren County Clerk’s Office and working part-time for Dr. Wilkins Eye Care.

“I really thank both companies for working with my touring schedule,” she said. “I also thank all of my teachers over the years. And the high school was really good about letting me miss to go to shows.”

Nalley-Norris, who joined The Kody Norris Show at the end of 2014, said she became acquainted with the band at the Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Festival in Beaver Dam.

From there, she said Kody and her dad developed a relationship.

“My dad is a master carpenter, and Kody was needing some work done on the interior of his bus, so my dad ended up helping,” she said. “Kody had said that he needed a mandolin player for a show, and I had just finished my senior year with Larry Sparks, so I took over as the mandolin player. I did that for two years, then the fiddle player went his own way, so I went back to playing the fiddle.”

When she first joined The Kody Norris Show, a four-piece band with a banjo, bass, mandolin and fiddle, she said they were already very well established but didn’t really have a social media presence, so she stepped in to help with that and some other behind-the-scenes details, such as scheduling shows.

“Once we had that social media presence, we were able to take it to the next level,” she said.

She said the band is deeply rooted in bluegrass, but it plays several other types of music, like country, bluegrass, western and rockabilly.

“The cool thing is, everybody plays everything, so we are all multi-instrumentalists,” she said.

In 2018, Kody proposed to her on stage, and they were married at their home in Mountain City on Sept. 1, 2019.

Nalley-Norris said her career with The Kody Norris Show keeps her busy and has also allowed her the opportunity to travel.

“I have been fortunate enough to travel to most of the lower 48 states and Canada and Mexico,” she said. “We have two overseas tours lined up for this year in Ireland and Australia, along with over 60 other shows.”

While she said she has enjoyed her experience with the band, they did face some difficult times during the COVID-19 pandemic, which she called a learning experience.

“Kody lost his income and I lost my income, so we had to figure out what to do,” she said.

They started a painting business in Mountain City and used one of their rentals for an airbnb.

“We live in an outdoorsy, tourist area, so both of those things were 100% successful and we were truly blessed,” she said. “While we lost some opportunities along the way, at least we are healthy and busy and that is all that we are concerned about at the end of the day.”