Nancy Cardwell Webster
Ensuring A Bright Future For Bluegrass
Photo By Angela Norton
Nancy Cardwell Webster is no stranger to readers of Bluegrass Unlimited. The award-winning Missouri native has written dozens of articles for BU through the years, including this edition’s cover story featuring resophonic guitar master, Jerry Douglas.
A prolific wordsmith, Nancy wrote her first story for BU while a student at Northwest Missouri State University, where she earned a B.S. with Honors in Education with a major in English and a minor in Spanish. Since then, she has contributed articles to International Bluegrass, Bluegrass Now, Banjo Newsletter, Dulcimer Player News, Branson’s Country Review, and other publications covering a wide scope of musical interests.
In 2006, Nancy received the Charlie Lamb Excellence in Country Music Journalism Award, conferred by the International Academic Conference on Country Music at Nashville’s Belmont University. In 2011, she authored The Words and Music of Dolly Parton with photos by the late Grand Ole Opry photographer Les Leverett, a journalistic tour de force that former Billboard editor Ed Morris declared “an achievement both useful and delightful.”
Award-winning journalism is but one of the gifts Nancy brings to her embrace of bluegrass. She is also a highly regarded musician, editor, and administrator who has devoted her life to promoting and sharing her love for the music of Bill Monroe.
In 2021, IBMA honored Nancy Cardwell Webster with a Distinguished Achievement Award for lifetime contributions to bluegrass music. The prestigious award recognizes Cardwell Webster’s devotion to the music she lives and loves. “Nancy is probably the most beloved person in the bluegrass world,” says Fred Bartenstein, former editor of Muleskinner News and president of the IBMA Foundation. “She certainly has more contacts and has touched more bluegrass lives than anyone I can think of. Nobody has ever devoted more to an organization, and she deserves nothing but praise.”
From August 2012 until April 2015, Cardwell served as Executive Director of IBMA from March 2012 until April 2015, including the first five months as interim director after the departure of Dan Hays. She currently holds the position of Executive Director of the IBMA Foundation. The IBMA Foundation, created by IBMA in 2007, is the philanthropic organization that supports programs fostering the growth of bluegrass music through charitable donations and planned giving. “Thanks to the generosity of hundreds of donors,” Cardwell Webster says, “The Foundation is able to support bluegrass-related educational, literary, artistic, and historic preservation activities so that the future of bluegrass shines as brightly as its storied past.”
Among its many projects, the IBMA Foundation hosts a bluegrass college band showcase during World of Bluegrass in Raleigh. In 2020, the group established the Arnold Shultz Fund, named for the African-American guitarist/fiddler who hired a young Bill Monroe to accompany him at dances near their home in Rosine, Kentucky. “The fund,” Nancy explains, “is meant to encourage people of color to become more involved in bluegrass music. We also have a Bluegrass in the Schools program with a Discover Bluegrass DVD, along with chapters on our website with lesson plans for teachers.”
The Foundation’s scholarship program provides support for a variety of instrumental, songwriting, and technical skills. They include the Sally Ann Forrester Scholarship for women, the J.D. Crowe Banjo Scholarship, Rick Lang Music Songwriting Scholarship, Katy Daly Broadcast Media/Sound Engineering, and IBMA Bluegrass College Scholarship. In addition, the Neil Rosenberg Bluegrass Scholar Award recognizes academic work in the bluegrass field, and a new scholarship in memory of pioneer side musician and band leader Gloria Belle is in the works.
As sole employee of the IBMA Foundation, Nancy is a Renaissance woman attending to most chores from her home office in Burlington, North Carolina. “I have a very engaged, active, and smart board of directors,” she says. “And I have several committees to work with so I’m not doing it alone, by any means. I love working with these folks, and all the friends of the Foundation, to help make the future of bluegrass music brighter.”
Helping to create the Bluegrass in the Schools (BGIS) program, Nancy drew upon her education degree and seven years’ experience teaching English and Spanish to middle school and high school students. Nancy is also a lifetime Girl Scout and served the organization as a membership executive/liaison to the Spanish-speaking community in middle Tennessee, attending parent meetings as a translator and writing for the council magazine.
“Speaking Spanish to me is like playing an instrument,” she says. “It’s the channel my brain flips to. There are certain things that just don’t translate well from language to language. To enjoy music and literature from another country, it helps to experience them in the language in which they were written. I was also the faith-based person on the membership team. I would go to churches, synagogues, and mosques, and talk to them about starting Girl Scout troops.”
Growing up in the musically-rich “Show Me” state, Nancy does not remember a time when music was not in her life. Born into a musical family, she grew up listening to her father play at home and later with his band, Marvin Cardwell and the Country Boys. “When I was 7, my sister, brother and I would get on stage and sing ‘Froggy Went A-Courting,’ and ‘This Land is Your Land,’” she recalls. “My dad also had a live radio show that we would guest on. When I was in high school, Dad and Mom (Wanda Cardwell) started the family band. We never recorded anything but we played a lot regionally and especially enjoyed performing for campers at Ozark National Scenic Riverways parks.
“My dad collected instruments and he played everything, so music was all around the house. We lived close to Branson, Missouri, which is a huge entertainment center. We played there quite a bit. Dad taught himself; he listened to the Grand Ole Opry and played along. His dad was a musician and so were his aunts. His grandmother Cardwell played ‘Redwing’ on the fiddle every time we visited. It was a part of how we grew up.” Nancy’s brother, Ray Cardwell, plays bass with former Traffic guitarist and songwriter, Dave Mason. Their sister Susan enjoyed a promising career at Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, along with involvement in community theater and bands, before cancer claimed her at age 29.
With family roots as her foundation, Nancy is a highly accomplished musician in her own right. She plays upright bass, rhythm guitar, hammered dulcimer, mountain dulcimer, and sings lead and harmony vocals. She’s performed on stage with Nashville-based bands and songwriters, including the Roland White Band and Louisa Branscomb. She also played bass with long-time friend, Billy Smith, who says, “When I think of Nancy, I think of Missouri, where she’s from. She reminds me of the Dillards and the [music] that came from that area. That style of bluegrass is in her. She carries a heavy mantle for bluegrass music. She has a great love for it, and always promotes it. She’s not a person to brag. She’s a giver.”
Her extensive resume of performance credits includes the all-woman bluegrass quintet, Wildwood Girls, who performed regularly at Dollywood; Dulcimer Dance, a hammer dulcimer/flute duo with her daughter, Erin Faith Erdos; and the Dixie Trio, a vocal group/guitar trio performing songs written by Miss Dixie Hall. Nancy and her husband Bob play music at their home church, and she is one-half an Americana duo with her fitness instructor, Becky King.
In 2017, Nancy followed her brother Ray on acoustic bass with Bluegrass Hall of Fame mandolinist, Jesse McReynolds and the Virginia Boys. “Jim and Jesse were one of the few national touring bands and bluegrass stars that would come through southwest Missouri when I was a teenager” Nancy recalls. “They played a horse barn in Marshville several times. The horses would get excited about the music and start kicking their stall doors! They always had a tight, professional show with beautiful singing and picking, with amazing mandolin playing. Jesse was a good friend, and he is probably the most creative musician I’ve ever known. It was an honor to stand behind him with my bass on the Grand Ole Opry stage and play with the Virginia Boys.”
Nancy’s friends value her integrity and her ability to draw people to her. They are grateful for what she has done for bluegrass and for the way she relates to others. Valerie Smith of bluegrass band Liberty Pike recalls the first time she and Nancy met. It was Smith’s first IBMA conference in Owensboro, around 1998. “Nancy was so welcoming and kind to me, being a new person at IBMA. She immediately made me feel I was part of the family. There are very few people that have the kind of personality that can make you feel you’ve known them forever, that you’re welcome and are excited that you’re there.”
In 2015, Smith hired Nancy as booking agent with BuckleDown Productions, where she represented Valerie Smith and Liberty Pike, Jesse McReynolds and the Virginia Boys, and her brother Ray Cardwell and Tennessee Moon. “When you meet Nancy, you feel like she’s your new best friend,” Valerie Smith says. “She doesn’t forget anybody, either. There are not many people in the world who are thoughtful and conscious of everyone around them. But she is. She’s also a very accomplished musician. She’s never been the first to show people that. It’s always been an incredible sacrifice to put others in front. I don’t know anyone else like that.” Former Wild Rose and New Coon Creek Girls member Pam Gadd met Nancy at the IBMA conference in 2009. Wild Rose had disbanded in the early 1990s. Gadd was writing songs but was no longer touring and felt out of step with the bluegrass industry. Gadd echoes Smith’s sentiments: “Nancy walked me around at IBMA and introduced me to the deejays. I had been out of touch with them. That meant the world to me. She’s been a true friend in that way. As a woman, I think she’s so strong. She’s confident, but not arrogant. She’s really kind, and knowledgeable. You kind of relish every word she says because she thinks before she speaks. She’s a comforting person to talk with.”
Dan Hays served as IBMA’s Executive Director from 1990 until 2012. Nancy joined his staff as Special Projects Director in 1994. Her responsibilities included writing the organization’s newsletter, organizing and conducting seminars at the annual conference, and serving as liaison to a couple dozen committees. She also contributed to creating the Leadership Bluegrass program, of which both Nancy and her husband Bob are graduates.
“We needed someone who could help on a critical part of IBMA’s mission to enhance professionalism in the industry,” says Hays. “This was at a time when we had a lot of smart and accomplished people in the industry, but there were no mechanisms or structure that allowed people to learn from one another on the business practices and how to go about doing what we do as professionals.
“Nancy was the point person for making that happen, whether seminars at the conference or networking sessions, or a means for people to get acquainted with one another and build relationships where they could learn. Eventually, we thought we needed something a little more detailed to provide professional exposure but also build a new kind of network. We created Leadership Bluegrass. That’s proven to be a critical program that Nancy’s fingerprints are all over.” Bartenstein praises Nancy as “completely responsible. If something needs to be done, Nancy will see that it gets done. And she manages to do it with a positive, upbeat spirit. We could never have found anyone better to take the Foundation through this growth stage. We have grown probably three or four times in assets and activity. The organization’s future success will entirely rest on the contribution she has made. When Nancy came in with her people skills and relationship building . . . we were able to stimulate substantial new gifts, and to initiate programs.
“The standout initiative has been the Arnold Shultz Fund which grew dramatically over night, receiving a $25K gift from banjo player, actor, and comedian Steve Martin. Its purpose is to increase the participation in bluegrass of people of color. That is the most important front the bluegrass industry faces in this era.”
Knowledge, commitment, and leadership are qualities indispensable for any organization to succeed and grow. IBMA found them all in Nancy Cardwell Webster. “Nancy has always impressed me as a person very much focused on others,” Hays says. “She’s a listener, a person who wants to understand how she can be of help to other people, taking an interest in whatever they’re up to. That’s been a hallmark I’ve observed in her for many years. In our time at IBMA, she became like a sister to me. I’m always impressed with how she goes about being with people. She has almost no ego when it comes to whatever she’s applying herself to. It’s about the task at hand and the people she’s trying to help.”
With characteristic humility, Nancy has always welcomed the international bluegrass community to join together in forging a unified bluegrass culture. “I’ve been around a long time,” she explains. “I’m 64 years old and I’ve been playing since I was 7. In that time, bluegrass has scattered around the world, but it’s still a connected community. I’ve always thought differences make people interesting. Diversity makes us stronger. We can be different in every possible way—different cultures, different languages, religions and politics—but we have the music in common.
“And I’ve always enjoyed getting to know older people because they have great stories and songs. There are some great fiddle players in Missouri and family bands. I started very young, so I like to encourage young people. Young people just want to be listened to and treated with the respect and interest you would show an adult. You never know where the next great idea is going to come from, and you might miss it if you’re not listening.”
Nancy married banjo player/luthier Frank Erdos in 1982, and they played together in the popular Springfield, Missouri-based bluegrass band, Homegrown. She gave birth in 1986 to a daughter, Erin Faith Erdos, with whom she performs in a hammered dulcimer/flute duo. When Nancy was 30 years old, her husband succumbed to cancer. Following a brief marriage ten years later to the late mandolin player Erik Hoogstadt from the Netherlands, Nancy remained unmarried until 2018, when she and retired U.S. Navy Captain Bob Webster were wed at Sapling Ridge United Methodist Church in Silk Hope, North Carolina. Capt. Webster worked as a deejay at WAMU in Washington, D.C., hosting Saturday morning’s “Stained Glass Bluegrass” radio show for ten years, and later the “Bluegrass for Lunch” show on Rockingham County radio in North Carolina. The couple lives today in Webster’s hometown of Burlington, NC.
Nancy and Bob are committed Christians, and they perform together at their home church. It’s her faith that guides Nancy’s behavior toward her work and informs her embrace of those she serves. Bartenstein agrees. “I think Nancy lives the Christian life, and ‘love your neighbor’ is in her essence. You don’t find Nancy in a bad mood or dismissive or combative, which is wonderful and it’s rare.”
Faith, for Nancy, is the moral compass that guides her professionally and in her interactions with those she serves. For her, bluegrass is an artform that can build bridges internationally and bring disparate people unity in times of social and political strife.
“Christianity is about serving God and loving people, and loving your neighbor as yourself,” she says. “And treating people with respect. The bluegrass community is as important as the music. You make friends for life. Complete strangers can jam together at a festival and have a great time. There are so many negative things in the world that separate us. I think bluegrass is something that can bring us together. Plus, it’s just fun.”
For information about the IBMA Foundation, its programs, and how you can invest in the future of bluegrass through charitable donations, go to
bluegrassfoundation.org.
