Big Howdy Bluegrass featuring Dede Wyland

Big Howdy

"Big Howdy is an award-winning progressive bluegrass band known for its powerful lead singing, rich vocal harmonies and instrumental chops. With a repertoire that mixes bluegrass classics with emotionally compelling original songs, intriguingly novel instrumentals, and well-chosen contemporary material, Big Howdy presents bluegrass with modern polish while honoring the tradition and drive that lies at the heart of the music." Big Howdy’s members are Randy Barrett on vocals, banjo, and guitar, Ira Gitlin on vocals and bass, Tom McLaughlin on mandolin, and Dede Wyland on vocals and guitar.

Dede Wyland’s pure and compelling voice has enchanted bluegrass audiences around the world (and is often cited as bringing to mind Emmylou Harris’s voice). She’s been in bluegrass, first in regional bands around her native Milwaukee, and then in New York where she became a charter member of the internationally acclaimed bluegrass group Tony Trischka and Skyline.

Dede has graced the stage of some of America’s most prestigious bluegrass and acoustic music venues and festivals and has performed in over a dozen countries throughout Europe and Asia. Bluegrass fans have heard and seen Dede on the nationally broadcast shows A Prairie Home Companion and Mountain Stage, and on The Nashville Network’s Fire on the Mountain. 

In the 1990s, Dede moved to the greater Washington D.C. area. Her recordings and concert performances with the cream of Washington’s bluegrass players made her an eleven-time winner of the greater Washington, DC, area “Wammie” award for Bluegrass Singer of the Year.