About

Buddy Woodward, is an American musician, songwriter, producer, actor, and voice actor. He plays guitar (acoustic and electric), mandolin, five-string banjo, electric bass, autoharp, mountain dulcimer, harmonica, and drums. He is best known as co-founder of the Americana/bluegrass group The Dixie Bee-Liners and as a past member of The Kingston Trio.

Early life

Woodward’s parents met in 1959 when his father auditioned for his mother’s folk group, The Mark III Trio, and proposed to her onstage. His mother taught him baritone ukulele at age five, and guitar shortly after. He grew up listening to his parents’ Kingston Trio records, a connection he has said shaped his musical identity from early childhood.

He attended Chabot College in Hayward, California.

Career

Early bands

Woodward was a founding member of The Ghost Rockets, a 1990s alt-country group, and led the New York City honky-tonk outfit Buddy Woodward & The Nitro Express, which Barry Mazor of The Village Voice described as “as explosive — and polished — a hard honky-tonk outfit as you’ll find around New York.” He was also a featured performer in the long-running Alphabet City Opry.

The Dixie Bee-Liners (2002–2012)

In 2001, Woodward and singer Brandi Hart met in New York City at a Loretta Lynn tribute show, where he served as musical director and she sang in the house band. Woodward has said he knew after hearing her sing one song that they had to form a band. In 2002, the two co-founded The Dixie Bee-Liners in New York City.

The group relocated to Southwest Virginia and signed with Pinecastle Records, releasing their first full-length album, RIPE, in April 2008. Produced by Grammy-winning engineer Bil VornDick, RIPE reached number one on the Roots Music Report bluegrass chart for nine weeks and won the Roots Music Association’s Bluegrass Artist of the Year award in 2008. Their third album, Susanville (2009), was a 19-song bluegrass concept album co-produced by VornDick and Woodward. The Dixie Bee-Liners appeared on NPR and BBC Radio Scotland and toured nationally. The band dissolved at the end of 2012.

Woodward wrote most of the band’s material and handled arrangements and production. The group’s sound was described by No Depression as “steeped in tradition, but with tones and rhythms that are very 21st century.”

Session and collaborative work

Woodward has performed or recorded with Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Laura Cantrell, Jim Lauderdale, Eric Brace and Peter Cooper, John Starling (Seldom Scene), The Coal Porters, Pete Mancini, Rosie Flores, John Jorgenson, Bill Keith, and Beat Rodeo. He has also worked as music director for James Reams & the Barnstormers. He operates a home recording studio in Arizona (which he calls “Spatula Ranch”), offering remote session overdubs across Americana, bluegrass, power pop, mod, folk, rock, country, and singer-songwriter styles.

The Kingston Trio (2022–2026)

In early 2022, Woodward joined the Kingston Trio, replacing a previous member, alongside Mike Marvin and Tim Gorelangton. Each member had ties to the original group before joining: Marvin is the adopted son of founding member Nick Reynolds, who was also his musical mentor; Gorelangton, a childhood friend of Reynolds, is one of the few musicians outside the original Trio to have recorded with him; Woodward had performed at the group’s World Folk Music Association 45th Anniversary Tribute at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia in 2002, and had previously worked with longtime Kingston Trio member George Grove. Before his death in 2020, last surviving original member Bob Shane asked the current lineup to carry on the group.

In the Trio, Woodward played tenor guitar, banjo, and congas. He described the group’s repertoire as spanning folk, country and western, show tunes, and music from multiple countries, and called the Kingston Trio “the missing link between the Weavers, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Dan Fogelberg, [and] America.” Woodward left the group in January 2026 and was replaced by veteran folk performer Paul Robinson.

Acting and voice acting

Woodward is a member of Actors’ Equity Association. As a stage actor, he has appeared in multiple productions at the Barter State Theatre of Virginia, including roles in Man of Constant Sorrow: The Story of The Stanley Brothers (as George Shuffler, Pee-Wee Lambert, Radio Station Manager, and Preacher), The Road Where It Curves Away, Peter Pan (as Mr. Smee), Keep On The Sunny Side, Jimmie Rodgers: America’s Blue Yodeler, and WJKS. He appeared in several episodes of the television series Nashville. He also narrated a nature documentary for Cablevision’s VOOM HDTV service.

As a voice actor, Woodward worked primarily with Central Park Media and TAJ Productions on English-language dubs of Japanese animation. He voiced the lead character Hiromi Izawa in Ping-Pong Club (2002), Ensign Kojiro Sakai in The Irresponsible Captain Tylor (TV and OAV), Izubuchi in Assemble Insert, Kazuma Ikeda in His and Her Circumstances, and Yoshiki Tabata in Boogiepop Phantom, among many other roles. He also guest-starred as Mateo in Pokémon (episode 87, season 2), a role that went uncredited in the original broadcast. His website notes a mocumentary on the People’s Temple cult in which he portrayed over twelve distinct characters.

Buddy uses and endorses the following: D’Addario Strings and Planet Waves, Fishman Transducers, Recording King guitars and banjos, Ratliff Mandolins, Gold Tone Instruments, The Loar mandolins, Johnston Custom Guitars, JangleBox, VHT Amplification, Alclair In-Ear Monitors, Blue Chip picks, Frantone Effects, Tech 21 Effects, and Kel Audio microphones.