Ruth McLain Smith
Ruth McLain Smith is a bluegrass bassist, singer, and songwriter. She grew up in Hindman, Kentucky. Her father, Berea College ethnomusicologist Raymond K. McLain, started the band in 1968 at the urging of her mother, Betty. Ruth, then 10, played bass, with her older siblings Raymond W. on banjo and Alice on mandolin. The band began a weekly television show on WKYH-TV in Hazard that year. The band went on to perform in all 50 states and abroad, including tours as musical ambassadors for the U.S. State Department, and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. Bassist Missy Raines has named her as a role model on the instrument. Songs she wrote have been recorded by Rhonda Vincent and the Lewis Family. The McLain Family Band received the IBMA's Distinguished Achievement Award and was inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2024. She has taught at Morehead State University's Kentucky Center for Traditional Music and served nine years on the IBMA Foundation's board of directors.