Audie Blaylock, a veteran bluegrass mandolin and guitar player, was born in El Paso, Texas, on 18 August 1962. Raised in a musically inclined family, he taught himself guitar by ear from the age of eight before going on to become a respected sideman and, eventually, a bandleader in his own right within the bluegrass scene.

At 19, Blaylock joined Jimmy Martin's Sunny Mountain Boys as mandolin player, remaining with the band for nine years. He subsequently played with Red Allen, Lynn Morris, Harley Allen, Rhonda Vincent's band the Rage, and Michael Cleveland's Flamekeeper, before forming his own group, Redline, in 2004. Redline released six albums between 2009 and 2019, when their final record, Originalist, was issued.