"It's a great little group of people," says Buddy Woodward of the Dixie Bee Liners. "Probably the best band I've ever been in." When one considers how many bands Woodward has been part of that have enjoyed fervent cult followings, that's saying something. However, after toiling away in various roots music aggregations for the better part of two decades, the eclectic singer-songwriter/voice actor is finally part of a band that has a shot at connecting with a larger audience. Stuffed with hybrid influences and cross-cultural sounds, the tuneful bluegrass combo featuring versatile Brandi Hart's soulful lead voice, just released their second album, "Ripe," and first for Pinecastle.

Although the Bee Liners exhibit a high degree of roots music skills, the band draws fire from some hard line traditionalists. "If you talk to people that are full on into straight, traditional, old time bluegrass music, they don't know what the hell we are," Woodward explains from his Virginia home. "It's not necessarily your daddy's bluegrass."

The band's leader points out that the group features great pickers that proudly echo the sounds of Ralph Stanley, Earl Scruggs and Bill Keith. They also often incorporate a cornucopia of sounds distilled from pop, blues, folks and rock and roll. The puckish blend imbues their sound with a zingy pop culture relevance, which has finally resulted in steady bookings and a national recording contract, but truthfully, it is an approach Woodward has been refining his whole career.

"I grew up with AM radio during the 60s and early 70s," the California-born Woodward recalls. "So, I heard whatever was a hit, whether it was Sgt. Barry Sadler, Buck Owens, Flatt & Scruggs, The Beatles or whatever." Besides furnishing the young singer-songwriter with sonic inspiration that fertile era in American pop and country also strongly influenced his idea of what constituted good songwriting. "Of course you've got all these great songwriters like Jagger/Richards, Lennon/McCartney, Holland-Dozier-Holland, and they're all writing really fantastic songs and each song has a different mood."

Nowadays, Woodward is a much respected multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, mandolin, bass, banjo and a smattering of keyboards, autoharp and drums. However, the former rodeo rider initially set his sites on an acting career, which he claims to have abandoned around 1982. That said, he enjoys some fame as a voice-over artist for American versions of such animated Japanese fare as "Blood Shadow," "His and Her Circumstances," "Shootfighter Tekken" and yes even "Pokemon." The latter still garners a big response among a certain aged crowd. "One of the kids in 'Pan' (a theater production Woodward recently appeared in for a Virginia production) saw my bio squib in the program and asked me if I was ever in 'Pokemon,'" he chuckles. "In fact, yes I did an episode called 'The Cristal Onix,' which he'd seen. His eyes got all wide when I told him. That's me. Hero to geeky preteen shut-ins and fat guys with glasses who collect Anime."

Yet until now, Woodward's was known as lead singer for the Ghost Rockets. Formed in 1992, the New York-based alt.-country combo did zany bluegrass remakes of "Oh Canada," The Monkees' "What Am I Doin' Hangin' Round" and the Beach Boys' "In My Room." The band enjoyed a certain cache in twang and neo-country circles, but were never able to translate good reviews into sales and lucrative gigs. They quietly disbanded later in early 2000.

Woodward rebounded with the formation of Buddy Woodward and Nitro Express. "Basically it was the same format - an electric country-rock sort of thing with a little honky tonk. The problem was, we sort of ran out of places to play. New York City is not exactly the capitol of country music, and there was only one place left where we could play and actually get paid for it, and they hired a new booking agent who started clearing out what he called 'the old dead wood.' That would have included anybody who had played at that club over the last 10 years."

"So, I was looking to diversify. I'd always played bluegrass, of course. I'd gotten a job producing a CD by a band called the Chelsea Mountain Boys. One of the things that they did was a regular tribute show (The Chelsea Mountain Jamboree), where they'd have a house band and a whole bunch of guest singers. They hired me to be the band leader. So, we did a tribute to Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. At the Loretta Lynn tribute show, during the rehearsals, we needed a girl to come in and sing during the rehearsals because it just wasn't feasible to have all the guest singers come in to every rehearsal. So, the steel player brought Brandi (Hart) in, whom I'd never met before. I liked her voice and suggested that we get together off clock and sing."

The Kentucky-born Hart had come to New York with the intention of becoming a dancer, but when that dream didn't pan out, she drifted into music. Oddly, "she's been singing in Baptist church choirs since she was two years old," says Woodward, who reports that versatile singer-songwriter was involved with one-off side projects a la the all-girl bluegrass band Miss Brandy Hart & Her Cherry Tarts.

"I was playing bluegrass gigs about every two weeks with a revolving lineup of musicians, alternately called Buddy Woodward & the Grassy Knoll Boys or The String Club For Men. I started bringing Brandi up for a couple songs. Next time, a couple more. We kind of threw her in the deep end. She basically learned her craft on the job, but she handled it like a pro."

By 2003, they were writing songs together and planning their self-titled CD debut, which was recorded in Woodward's home studio, affectionately dubbed Spatula Ranch. Despite the addition of new equipment, recording in a New York City apartment had its drawbacks. "We lived on the third floor, right above a bus stop," he recalls. "That meant that about every 11 minutes we had to stop recording, otherwise whatever we were doing would be completely ruined cause we'd hear the bus's brakes."

Although finding a steady line-up of top-shelf bluegrass pickers proved difficult, Woodward didn't consider moving down South until 2005, when the Barter State Theatre of Virginia offered him a role in their production of "Man of Constant Sorrow." After two successful runs with the play and a national tour, he and Hart decided to move to Abingdon, Va. to be closer to the theatre and better pickers.

"When we got down here to Virginia, we had a week to put a new group together and play this headlining gig over in Abingdon. So, we made some phone calls and pretty much wound up with the band that we have now, with a couple of exceptions."

The current line-up includes British-born banjoist Sam Morrow, fiddler Rachel Rene Johnson, bassist Jeremy Darrow and guitarist Jonanthan Maness, who Woodward found on MySpace.

Both Woodward and Hart wanted a band experience where all the musicians could feel free to contribute arrangements, pitch song ideas and share in the proceeds equally. "That's why we're called the Dixie Bee Liners not so and so and the Dixie Bee Liners." He continues: "If somebody has an idea for one of the songs we're working on, we'll add their name to the songwriter credits. We'll encourage them to write songs with us, we'll encourage them to bring their own stuff in there, and we'll lobby for that to get on the record just as much as we would our own material."

With a solid creative situation in place, the Dixie Bee Liners began to shop for a label Wayne Bledsoe - a Knoxville writer and disc-jockey - suggested Pinecastle, who needed convincing. Woodward recalls how the deal was sealed. "In October 2006, when I was on tour with the Stanley Brothers play, we had a one day layover in Columbus, N.C. where (Pinecastle's) offices are. So, we were at the launderette, and I'm just about to put my skivvies in the washing machine and one of the guys says, 'Hey Buddy, look across the street.' I look, and it says Pinecastle Records. So, the star of the play did my laundry for me while I went across the street and gave them the hard sell. Not too long after that, we signed a deal."

Working on "Ripe" with veteran producer Bill VornDick proved an invigorating experience "Having an outside producer took a lot of the pressure off of my shoulders," says Woodward. Further, their willingness to collaborate and research yielded results. The band had trouble licking the frisky "Bugs in the Basement" until banjoist Morrow rearranged the piece before they went in the studio.

Blue Highway's Tim Stafford was brought in to help flesh out the ode to Civil War General "Grumble Jones." A Kentucky Explorer article provoked Woodward to challenge Hart to write what eventually became the poignant "Dixie Grey to Black." And, lest you figure that Woodward and crew have gone completely traditional, the opening to one of "Ripe's" highlights, a gospel drenched rendition of their own "Lord, Lay Down My Ball & Chain," was inspired by Sonny & Cher's "The Beat Goes On."

Woodward currently pays the bills with another acting gig - this time he plays a musician in the Carter Family Show - while his band mates clear their calendars for a national tour. Asked about his long-term goals for the Dixie Bee Liners, the singer-actor waxed whimsically, "Well, I'd like to tell everybody, that we've always had this dream that we would have a house on the beach and all live together like The Monkees. We'd have dune buggies. We'd have like a little breakfast nook where we'd have our instruments set up and we could practice. We could have butt races up and down the sand dunes, run around and do crazy things. And, if everybody buys one or more copies of 'Ripe,' we can make that dream a reality. (Sings. 'Here we come. Walkin' down the street...'"