Although Missy Raines grew up listening to early country and bluegrass on the stereo in her parent’s West Virginia home, the Nashville-based musician has taken the traditional art form on a wild ride ever since.

“I am bluegrass, I grew up playing real solid, traditional bluegrass, Bill Monroe is one of my greatest influences,” claimed Raines in a recent interview. “But, I’ve also been touched by many other kinds of music. The idea of bringing those together is all I’ve wanted to do.”

After cutting her teeth playing the piano and the guitar, her father brought home an upright bass and the young girl’s life was changed forever.

“My father brought home the bass that I have now, for him to play,” she explained. “Once the bass was in the house, I already knew a little bit of music, I just started playing it.”

At the time women were generally not in musical groups unless they were the “mom” or the “sister,” so Raines was somewhat of a pioneer, not only playing the upright bass, but bringing it to the forefront of the musical genre.

This weekend, Sioux Town has a chance to catch the seven-time, IBMA bass player of the year and her band the New Hip, when the Sioux City Live Music Club presents an evening of eclectic music with one of America’s most innovative bluegrass performers. Local jazz and soul sensations, Charles Sanders and Allison Nash will open the show.

Bluegrass music has been part of the American tapestry since the 1940s, woven by the people and music that make up the melting pot that is America.

“To say that it’s American,” explained Raines, “implies to me, that it’s a fusion of all the things that make up America which involves people from every place else.”

Raines’ brand of music fuses traditional bluegrass instrumentation with a jazz influence she credits to some of the bluegrass innovators of the 1970s.

“The folks that influenced me greatly like Tony Rice, David Grisman and Sam Bush,” she said. “All those guys really changed the face of bluegrass at the time.”

Raines has been a fixture in the bluegrass community since the early ‘80s as a bass player for several first-generation, bluegrass acts including a 12 year stint with the Claire Lynch Band. In 2008, she officially gave up her post with Lynch to form the New Hip Band. “I’m really loving it, they’re just amazing musicians,” Raines said. “They bring so much to it!”

The new band has allowed Raines to follow her lifelong dream, which becomes most evident when they take the stage.

“Listeners will hear jazz-influenced instrumentals, they’re going to hear evocative lyrics with really meaningful songs, and then they’re going to hear twin mandolins playing Roanoke or some other great Bill Monroe tune,” claimed Raines. “We might play an old Bonnie Raitt tune with electric guitar, so it’s definitely an eclectic mix.”

One thing is certain, while Raines and her band mates hold firmly to their bluegrass roots; they give the classic, American music genre a fresh and exciting kick in the butt.