Entertainment

When bluegrass queen Rhonda Vincent makes music, it's like she's getting married: She's got something old, something new and something borrowed.

For her current album, Good Thing Going, the Kirksville, Mo., native interpreted a few genre classics and a few originals, used modern studio production to record vintage instruments, and packaged it all in fresh, stylish wrapping.

"I feel like we honor the tradition," she says by phone from her home in Kirksville.

"There is so much equipment in the studio now, so much technology, and we use that. That's wonderful. But it's still all about authenticity. That is one of the attractions to the music. Bluegrass is one of the few musical genres today that retains that aspect of authenticity."

So Good Thing Going, her seventh disc for Massachusetts-based Americana label Rounder Records, includes the fiery, finger-picking number "Hit Parade of Love," a standard co-written by the late Jimmy Martin, alongside the melodic, sentimental ballad "I Will See You Again."

Albert Sanchez

Bluegrass artist Rhonda Vincent

"Rounder has given me the luxury of taking that really traditional music and then doing the more radio, more contemporary music," says the 45-year-old Ms. Vincent. "If I were at another label, I would probably not be able to mix the two. I have my own studio so I can create the music. They allow me to do that."

But perhaps just as important in this age of beautiful celebrities and the image-seeking masses who crown them pop culture icons, Ms. Vincent embraces the power of makeup, high fashion and photo sessions. She wears a sexy, sequined halter dress on many of the Good Thing Going pictures. It's got a slit up to there exposing her toned legs. Even with the mandolin in tow, the blond singer-songwriter strikes a supermodel stance.

That's very much by design.

"Anytime you see something that represents bluegrass, the image is usually either Deliverance or O Brother," she says. "So we started doing videos and photo shoots, and they would hire stylists and go out and shop for me. It was representing what I wanted it to look like. It's not the stereotypical image of a man in overalls, bare feet and teeth missing. People are making a judgment about whether they are going to come to my show based on what they see in the paper. I want to have a picture that they would be intrigued by."

Those Good Thing Going shots were taken by Hollywood's Albert Sanchez, who has also photographed Nicole Kidman, Kate Winslet, Drew Barrymore, Paris Hilton and the late Anna Nicole Smith.

"I can't believe he agreed to shoot a bluegrass artist," Ms. Vincent exclaims. "I was amazed and thrilled. I told him this was not a Paris Hilton photo shoot. Not the same."

Ms. Vincent is no fool. She knows the looks further complement the talent. It has all helped her reign as the queen of bluegrass. She has seven International Bluegrass Music Association female vocalist-of-the-year awards to prove it. Plus, Ms. Vincent's aware that she walked through the door opened by Alison Krauss, the onetime bluegrass prodigy who morphed into the famed Americana music sweetheart.

"She created her own sound and moved away from bluegrass," says Ms. Vincent. "People have an expectation for you to make that detour, to move to somewhere else. I'm right where I want to be. I think we have a good thing going, like the title says. This is what I love to do. It's the authenticity of this music that colors what we do."

But she wouldn't balk at a mainstream breakthrough.

"Just like Bill Monroe, who is the father of bluegrass, I would be flattered to be seen in that way, the representation of bluegrass in this generation. We have a very wide demographic, and that amazes me. I officially realized that a year ago. We were getting ready to perform, and I walked onto the stage and there was a gentleman there. He said, 'I can't wait for you to perform. And I brought my granddaughter, and she can't wait to see what you're going to wear.' He really made me aware of that, there are kids coming to the show."