The group's members first played together in 1984 as a backing band for Vernon Oxford and Minnie Pearl; each of the members was an established musician from the Nashville bluegrass community.
Incorporating elements of black gospel and spirituals, then a rarity in bluegrass, they became critical and popular successes both in America and abroad.
The group toured in some 20 countries and were the first bluegrass band to ever play in China.
[2] The group continued to record for Rounder and Sugar Hill into the 1990s; two of the albums, 1993's Waitin' for the Hard Times to Go and 1995's Unleashed, won Grammy Awards for Best Bluegrass Album.
[2] After the departure of bassist Gene Libbea and mandolinist Roland White in 1998, the group went on a brief hiatus, but after vocalist Pat Enright sang as one of the Soggy Bottom Boys from O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the group's career had a revival.