Tony Rice is arguably the most innovative and influential acoustic flatpicking guitarist in the world today. His interest in the genre began with his father introducing he and his brothers to bluegrass music in the late 1960’s. During his youth in Los Angeles, he learned from fellow pickers and influential musicians, The Kentucky Colonels, headed by the legendary Clarence White.

Rice moved to the Midwest in the 1970’s, playing with the Bluegrass Alliance for a short period and then to what is considered by most fans and critics to be the most influential bluegrass groups of the past three decades, J.D. Crowe’s New South. The New South added what was before unknown in the bluegrass world: drums and electric instruments. Their breakthrough album, J.D. Crowe and the New South, was an acoustic set recorded with new member Ricky Skaggs. Critics hailed the album saying that Rice’s vocal drive had rarely been matched and his guitar playing was near virtuoso. To this day the album is a perennial best-seller.

The success of The New South only drove Rice to expand his horizons. He began working with legendary artists David Grisman, Miles Davis, Bill Monroe and Django Reinhart, all members of the David Grisman Quintet. Rice, wanting to move beyond the three chord bluegrass he had grown up with, began studying musical theory under the influence of Grisman and Davis and began developing what he would later call “spacegrass”.

In 1979, Rice left the Quintet to pursue a solo career. He released Acoustics, a demonstration of his new “spacegrass” style which established him as a true visionary of new acoustic music. He later went on to release Manzanita, a more traditional bluegrass inspired album. His music began to draw the songwriting talents of folk artists including Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Gordon Lightfoot and they collaborated on many works combining their songwriting talents with Rice’s nimble fretwork and jazz-inflected “spacegrass” style producing albums such as Mar West, Still Inside, and Backwaters.

Rice’s incredible acoustic solos continue today with a blending of bluegrass and newgrass on the album You Were There For Me, a collaboration with Peter Rowan. His work is an inspiration to many young guitar players today.

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