Tony Rice Unit "Backwaters" (1986)

Tony Rice Unit "Manzanita" (1979)

Tony Rice "Guitar" (1973)

Tony Rice

Tony Rice spans the range of acoustic music, from straight-ahead bluegrass to jazz-influenced new acoustic music, to songwriter-oriented folk. He is perhaps the greatest innovator in acoustic flatpicked guitar since Clarence White. Over the course of his career, he has played alongside J.D. Crowe and the New South, David Grisman (during the formation of “Dawg Music”), led his own groups, collaborated with fellow picker Norman Blake and recorded with his brothers. He has recorded with drums, piano, soprano sax, and with straight-ahead bluegrass instrumentation.

Rice was born in Danville, Virginia but grew up in California, where he was introduced to bluegrass by his father. He and his brothers learned a lot from hot L.A. pickers like the Kentucky Colonels, led by Roland and Clarence White. Crossing paths with fellow enthusiasts like Ry Cooder, Herb Pederson and Chris Hillman reinforced the strength of the music he had learned from his father.

In 1970, Rice had moved back to Kentucky where he played with the Bluegrass Alliance, and shortly thereafter, J.D. Crowe’s New South. The New South was known as one of the best and most progressive bluegrass groups - even adding drums and electric instruments. But when Ricky Skaggs joined up in 1974, the band recorded J.D. Crowe & the New South, an acoustic album that became Rounder’s top-seller up to that time. With Rice on guitar and vocals, Crowe on banjo and vocals, Jerry Douglas on Dobro, Skaggs on fiddle and mandolin and Bobby Slone on bass, the band’s energy, as well as their instrumental and vocal drive have rarely been matched. 

Around this time Rice met mandolinist David Grisman, who played with Red Allen during the ‘60’s and was now working on some original material that blended jazz, bluegrass and classical styles. Rice left the New South and moved to California to join Grisman’s all instrumental group. As part of the David Grisman Quintet, Rice expanded his horizons beyond three chord bluegrass, studying chord theory, learning to read charts and expanding the range of his playing.  

In 1979, he left the group to pursue his own music. He recorded Acoustics, a guitar-oriented record, and then Manzanita which collected some favorite folk and bluegrass vocals. In 1980, Rice, Crowe, Bobby Hicks, Doyle Lawson and Todd Phillips formed a highly successful coalition, attacking bluegrass standards under the name the Bluegrass Album Band. This group has recorded six volumes of music.

Tony’s solo career hit its stride with Cold on the Shoulder, a collection of bluegrass vocals. With this album, Native American and Me & My Guitar, Rice arrived at a formula that incorporated his disparate influences, combining bluegrass, the songwriting of folk artists like Ian Tyson, Joni Mitchell, Phil Ochs and especially Gordon Lightfoot, with nimble, jazz-inflected guitar work. Simultaneously, he pursued his jazz and experimental “spacegrass” with the Tony Rice Unit on Mar West, Still Inside and Backwaters. 

Two highly regarded albums with traditional guitar virtuoso Norman Blake gained a great deal of acclaim, as well as two Rice Brother albums that reunited him with his younger brother, Wyatt. Tony Rice remains one of bluegrass’ top instrumentalists and singers, bringing originality and vitality to everything he plays.

Source: Tony Rice.com.

Strenght In Numbers "Telluride sessions" (1989)

Strenght In Numbers

Strength In Numbers was a bluegrass supergroup formed in the late 1980s. The group featured Béla Fleck (banjo), Mark O'Connor (fiddle, guitar), Sam Bush (mandolin), Jerry Douglas (dobro) and Edgar Meyer (bass). They released their only album, Telluride Sessions, in 1989. The group, minus Fleck, played on "Nothing but a Child" from Steve Earle's 1988 album, Copperhead Road under the name "Telluride".
The catalyst for their progressive approach to bluegrass was Sam Bush's group, New Grass Revival, in 1971. In 1975 this group made their first appearance at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival at the ski resort town of the same name in the Colorodo Rockies. Strength in Numbers met at subsequent festivals at Telluride in the late 1970s and 1980s.
The music of Strength in Numbers is influenced by the bluegrass virtuoso music of earlier artists Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass boys, and Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. Often the music of Strength in Numbers is referred to as "Newgrass" or progressive bluegrass. This music uses core bluegrass instrumentation with rhythmic features and solo playing styles of jazz.

Source: Wikipedia.

Sam Bush "Ice caps peaks of telluride" (2000)

Sam Bush "Howlin' at the Moon" (1998)

Sam Bush

Sam Bush extended the musical capabilities of the mandolin and the fiddle to incorporate a seamless blend of bluegrass, rock, jazz, and reggae. As the founder and leader of the New Grass Revival, Bush pioneered and guided the evolution of modern hill country music. Together with the bluegrass supergroup Strength in Numbers, he pushed the traditions even further. During a five-year stint with the Nash Ramblers, he provided a diverse range of textures for the songs of Emmylou Harris. On his own, Bush has continued to explore an eclectic musical spectrum. Bush was exposed to country music and bluegrass at an early age through his father's record collection and, later, by Flatt & Scruggs' television show. Buying his first mandolin at the age of 11, his musical interest was further piqued when he attended the Roanoke Bluegrass Festival in 1965. A child prodigy on the fiddle, he placed first at the national fiddle contest in Weister, ID, three times in a row. Together with childhood friends Wayne Stewart and Alan Munde, later of Country Gazette, he formed a band and recorded his first album, Poor Richard's Almanac, in 1969. The same year, he made his debut appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.
Attending the Fiddlers Convention at Union Grove, NC, in 1970, Bush overheard the pioneering progressive bluegrass band the New Deal String Band. Inspired by their rock-flavored approach to bluegrass, he formed the New Grass Revival in 1972. Over the next 17 years, Bush and the New Grass Revival revolutionized the music of the hill country, incorporating everything from gospel and reggae to rock and modern jazz into their tradition-rooted sound. The New Grass Revival went through numerous personnel changes, with Bush remaining as the sole original member. Bassist and vocalist John Cowan joined in 1973, with banjo ace Béla Fleck and acoustic guitarist Pat Flynn being enlisted in the early '80s. In 1980, the group toured with Leon Russell, opening the shows and backing Russell during his headlining set. A live performance at the Perkins Palace in Pasadena, CA, was released as Leon Russell & the New Grass Revival: The Live Album in 1981.
Beginning in 1980, Bush and Cowan periodically jammed with the Nashville-based Dockbusters Blues Band. Bush recorded his debut solo album, Late as Usual, four years later. In 1989, Bush and Fleck joined Mark O'Connor, Jerry Douglas, and Edgar Meyer in an all-star bluegrass band, Strength in Numbers, at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado. When Fleck and Cowan elected to leave the New Grass Revival in 1989, Bush disbanded the group and joined Emmylou Harris' Nash Ramblers. He toured and recorded with Harris and the band for the next five years. In 1995, Bush worked as a sideman with Lyle Lovett and Bela Fleck's Flecktones. He formed his own band, featuring Cowan and ex-Nash Ramblers Jon Randall and Larry Atamanuick, shortly before recording his second solo album, Glamour & Grits, in 1996. He released his next album, Howlin' at the Moon, in 1998, with many of the same players and special guests, including Harris, Fleck, and J.D. Crowe. In the winter of 1997, Bush and the New Grass Revival reunited for an appearance on The Conan O'Brien Show as the backup band for Garth Brooks. On March 28, 1998, Bush's hometown of Bowling Green, KY, honored him with a special "Sam Bush Day" celebration.
Bush continued to be a much in-demand session player as the 21st century dawned, and continued to release solo projects. Ice Caps: Peaks of Telluride appeared in 2000 from Sugar Hill, followed by a collaboration with David Grisman, Hold on, We're Strummin', from Acoustic Disc in 2003. Two more solo efforts appeared from Sugar Hill, King of My World in 2004 and Laps in Seven in 2006. A year later his first live DVD, On the Road, was released and was followed in 2009 by the new studio album Circles Around Me.

Source: All Music.com.