One of my main #music interests is #bluegrass, especially the newgrass/progressive bluegrass movement that started in the 1970s. My favorite bluegrass artist is the late Tony Rice, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest acoustic guitarists of all time and was also a wonderful singer and bandleader. My love for Tony was cemented when I witnessed this allstar performance at the 1992 Merlefest. More Tony Rice/bluegrass content to follow in the thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyCPwqRujd4

Bela Fleck--Freeborn Man--Tony Rice--All- Star Jam

YouTube

Tony was one of the central figures in the newgrass/progressive bluegrass scene, which blended modern repertoire and outside techniques including jazz with the trad form of the music. The other musicians in these Merlefest vids - Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Mark O'Connor, Jerry Douglas and Mark Schatz are also huge newgrass figures. This video captures them blazing through Bela's signature tune Whitewater at the height of their collective power, making virtuosity fun again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc34ThH7srk

Tony Rice with Bela Fleck - Whitewater

YouTube

In 1975 Tony burst onto the scene as part of JD Crowe and the New South, along with Jerry Douglas and Ricky Skaggs (a fantastic bluegrass mandolinist long before he became a lame maga country clown). Their self-titled album on Rounder is one of the centerpieces of any bluegrass collection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py9ZPX-8CUE

JD Crowe & The New South 1975 - JD Crowe,Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas, Bobby Slone

YouTube

As soon as the New South got huge, Tony left the band to join the first lineup of the David Grisman Quintet. Once again, their self titled debut is a definitive, must-own album for acoustic music fans. Dawg music was born - a hybrid of #jazz, swing and bluegrass that broke into entirely fresh territory and was played at the highest possible level of musicianship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x05z27blg80

David Grisman Quartet - E.M.D.

YouTube

After a few years with Dawg, Tony went out on his own. The early years and albums of the Tony Rice Unit were largely in the "spacegrass" jazz hybrid style, Tony's personal evolution from the Dawg music concept. Here is his sublime take on the John #Coltrane arrangement of My Favorite Things. There's never been another acoustic player like this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9499oUc54w

Tony Rice - My Favorite Things

YouTube
Through the 1980s up to the mid 90s, the Tony Rice Unit was THE dominant newgrass act. He put out a number of wonderful albums (start with Manzanita and Cold On the Shoulder) and toured relentlessly. A very humble, kind and private man, he was beloved by fans and deeply respected by other musicians in the scene. Here is a TRU show from the heart of his golden era:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMm38GGxZmk
Tony Rice Strawberry '86

YouTube

Sadly, in the mid 90s he started having health problems which robbed him of his voice. His latter era work, through the early 2000s, is largely in duet and sideman settings with his vocalist friends and peers. In the late 90s his harmonic vocabulary expanded even further, with results like this jazzy, abstract masterpiece take on Shenandoah. This audio-only recording has truly remarkable sonic quality; it is perhaps the finest capture of his legendary tone we have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj69Zmb02OM

Tony Rice - Shenandoah (Live @ WOW Hall, Eugene OR 2.25.99)

YouTube

I decided to do this long historical Tony Rice #bluegrass thread (most of which you have to click to see, btw, as it will not appear in your feed) as a way of resetting my own posting style to fit with the more thoughtful mode in evidence here & invite discussion. I will close with a link to my Tony Rice live show #FLAC archive on Google Drive, which contains dozens of legal high quality soundboard recordings. There is an About text file included, with recommendations.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GxOds0DpFDKtiQWFSqteioB1Co8z1-jm?usp=share_link

Tony Rice live shows – Google Drive

@MrCompletely nice thread, and love that you’ve gotten more Tony Rice out to the people! I was at that ‘99 Wow Hall show too.
@bluesun a lovely night. The last time I saw Tony.
@MrCompletely last one I saw was at The Shedd with Peter Rowan, incredible band with them.
@MrCompletely I recently read his “autobiography” which is a collection stories covering his career. Interesting guy. I also made a playlist now on both Spotify and Apple Music which puts every album I could find from his discography into one giant list. What an influence on virtually every modern bluegrass guitarist, although he would tell you to find your on voice and don’t copy him.
Checking out those live recordings!
@creckling @MrCompletely I need to add this to my stack of want to read autobiographies, thanks for mentioning it 👋

@creckling @MrCompletely Also on my list is John Fahey’s book How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life.

https://www.johnfahey.com/hbmdml.htm

How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life

@bluesun @MrCompletely oooh, I didn’t know about that one. TR book is called “Still Inside”. I bought it directly from Tim Stafford’s site. Technically not an autobiography but interspersed w direct Tony interviews/quotes.
@creckling @MrCompletely I just found the website, thanks 😊. Now I should probably put together a bluegrass focused reading list. Surprised I haven’t already.
@creckling the other thing I highly recommend for fans that want to dig deeper is the series of Toy Heart podcast episodes put out by Tom Power of the CBC right after Tony passed. He interviews Bela, Sam, Jerry and others who were close to him at length and with impressive depth of thought and emotion. A beautifully done and informative tribute. The universal reverence and warmth these peers express for him is wonderful to hear.
@MrCompletely yes! I listened to those when they came out. Amazing stuff.
@MrCompletely I was listening to my copy of that record the other day and had forgotten that it had this illustration of the recording set-up on the sleeve. Nice little detail.
@MrCompletely this thread is a treasure trove, thank you so much