The incomparable Tony Rice was born 73 years ago today in Danville, Virginia, though he grew up in Los Angeles. It was his father Herb Rice that introduced him to Bluegrass music. Tony, along with his brothers, would educate themselves on the foundations of Country and Bluegrass, initially from the band The Kentucky Colonels, lead by the tremendous Clarence White. White was a huge influence on Bluegrass, making the acoustic guitar a lead instrument in the genre. At 19, Rice relocated to Louisville, Kentucky, joining the Bluegrass Alliance before joining banjo master J.D. Crowe’s band The New South.

The New South was a progressive Bluegrass band, adding electric instruments and drums, which Rice didn’t much care for. But in 1974, Ricky Skaggs joined, and the group recorded a self-titled acoustic album for Rounder Records, which was the label’s biggest selling album up to that point. The great Jerry Douglas was in the band by then as well. Tony met David Grisman around this time, and decided to leave The New South and move back to California to join the David Grisman Quintet, an instrumental group adding in elements of Jazz and Classical. Rice began studying chord and music theory and expanding his traditionalist playing style. Audience recordings of the group are readily available. You should check them out and play them LOUD. From the band’s debut album:

Tony Rice would go on to genre-defining solo projects under his own name, The Tony Rice Unit, The Bluegrass Album Band, and in various collaborations with Ricky Skaggs, John Carlini, Jerry Garcia, Bela Fleck, Norman Blake, and Peter Rowan. He was also part of a fantastic lineup, Rice, Rice, Pedersen and Hillman, featuring his brother Larry, Herb Pedersen and Chris Hillman.

We lost Tony towards the end of 2020, though he’d withdrawn several years earlier due to health issues. In the early 90’s he was diagnosed muscle tension dysphonia which robbed him of his beautiful tenor voice, though he continued to perform instrumentally. By 2013, he had tennis elbow which made playing painful. His final live appearance was that year at his induction in to The International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. In a 2015 interview with the Greensboro News and Record, he said “I am not going to go back out into the public eye until I can be the musician that I was, where I left off or better. I have been blessed with a very devout audience all these years, and I am certainly not going to let anybody down. I am not going to risk going out there and performing in front of people again until I can entertain them in a way that takes away from them the rigors and the dust, the bumps in the road of everyday life.” He earned his rainbow on Christmas Day 2020, in his kitchen, making coffee.

A couple of clips before we get to Today’s Playlist. The Bluegrass All Stars at Rounder Records 20th Anniversary show, with Alison Krauss, David Grisman, J.D. Crowe, and Mark Schatz:

From a 2011 appearance at Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch, performing John Coltrane’s take on “My Favorite Things”:

Today’s Playlist is a SomethingIsHappening compendium celebrating Tony Rice on the 73rd anniversary of his birth:

#TonyRice #PeterRowan #Bluegrass #Kentucky #DavidGrisman #Dawg #JerryGarcia #ThePizzaTapes #NormanBlake #RickySkaggs #Guitar #Mandolin #BillMonroe #AlisonKrauss #JormaKaukonen #FurPeaceRanch #JohnColtrane #BelaFleck