Vince Combs was born in the Wiley Fork section of Ball in Knott County on April 29, 1934, to Jay and Alpha Grigsby Combs. He was one of seven children that grew up there playing and enjoying childhood among the steep hills that surrounded their home place. It was also on Wiley Fork that Vince attended a one room school that would give him the foundation he would need to seek his place in the world.

          During his high school years (1950) the family moved from Wiley Fork to a home his father built at Larkslane. In 1953, he graduated from the Hindman Settlement School and moved on to further his education at Caney Junior College (Alice Lloyd). After Caney he was off to Dayton, Ohio, and moved into the work force as an employee of General Motors.

          Before leaving for Ohio, Vince married Jackie Hambrick, from Garrett – her family lived just “down the road” from Larkslane. Over the next few years there would be born to this union two children: Donna Sue and Douglas Venice.

          Starting at an early age, Vince developed a genuine love for bluegrass music, as he glued himself to the radio listening to the likes of Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, and Earl Scruggs. At the age of 16 he obtained his first musical instrument, a mandolin purchased for him by his father from Montgomery Wards. That simple purchased launched a music career that has spanned almost 60 years and has stretched from coast to coast.

          Vince’s music career started during his high school years as he and his brother, Woodie, played wherever they could: square dances, box & pie suppers, and the like. However, college and later his move to Ohio separated the brothers but the seeds of his career were already and place and growing. Several years later he had the good fortune of meeting and working for a while with the legendary Hylo Brown in Nashville. After leaving the company of Hylo, Vince formed his own band and this group took the name, Vince Combs and the Shadetree Bluegrass Boys.

          Over the course of almost 25 years this five piece band has been blessed with the likes of the great fiddle player, Art Stamper, and many others that have made the band a well known name in the bluegrass field.

          At present Vince and the band are still on the road doing what they do best, entertaining bluegrass fans with their own unique style of traditional bluegrass music. Vince still host his annual bluegrass festival in Xenia, Ohio, and just last year kicked off a new annual bluegrass festival in his home Knott County.

His life of music and many hours on the old tour bus have insured a place in the annals of bluegrass music for Vince Combs as he continues to be a true ambassador for his music and Knott County.