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Composed

BMI’s database credits Tony Rice with 48 published compositions, co-compositions and arrangements, including

  • “Backwaters”
  • “Bullet Man”
  • “California Autumn”
  • “Manzanita”
  • “Mar West”

Early Influences

  • Herbert Rice (father)
  • Flatt and Scruggs
  • Clarence White/Kentucky Colonels
  • Ry Cooder
  • Chris Hillman
  • Herb Pedersen

Came to Fame With

  • J.D. Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys (later New South), 1971-1975

Performed With

  • Bluegrass Alliance, 1970-1971
  • J.D. Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys (later New South), 1971-1975
  • David Grisman Quintet, 1975-1979
  • Bluegrass Album Band, 1980-1996
  • Tony Rice Unit, 1978-present

Led the Way

  • Major influence on modern bluegrass artists, especially lead guitarists.
  • An integral performer on the legendary album, J.D. Crowe and the New South.
  • Co-founded and produced the Bluegrass Album Band, an all-star recording group.
  • Pioneered the fusion of jazz and other acoustic styles to arrive at a new medium he called “spacegrass.”
  • Established himself as a band leader, performing in both bluegrass and jazz idioms.
  • Topped the list of the Frets Readers Poll Awards for Country Flatpicking Guitar, Jazz/Pop/Progressive Guitar, and Best Acoustic Album, and added to the magazine’s Gallery of the Greats, 1984.
  • Received numerous IBMA awards, including Guitar Player of the Year in 1990, 1991, 1994, 1996, 1997, and 2007.
  • The subject of an authorized biography, Still Inside: The Tony Rice Story, by Tim Stafford and Caroline Wright, 2010.
  • Bluegrass Hall of Fame, 2013.

By the Way

  • Born one day (plus seven years) after one of his guitar heroes, Clarence White, whose legendary Martin D-28 he purchased in 1975.
  • Appears with both the Bluegrass Alliance and J.D. Crowe’s Kentucky Mountain Boys in the movie Bluegrass: Country Soul, filmed the very weekend Rice changed bands, 1971.
  • Repairs and reconstructs Accutron watches.
  • A big fan of vinyl, long-play albums.
  • When his home in Florida was destroyed by a 1993 hurricane and his guitar was underwater for three hours, Tony dried it slowly and “it sounds better than ever.”
  • Still performs instrumentally, although his singing was curtailed in 1994 by muscle tension dysphonia.

Composed

BMI’s database credits Tony Rice with 48 published compositions, co-compositions and arrangements, including

  • “Backwaters”
  • “Bullet Man”
  • “California Autumn”
  • “Manzanita”
  • “Mar West”

Early Influences

  • Herbert Rice (father)
  • Flatt and Scruggs
  • Clarence White/Kentucky Colonels
  • Ry Cooder
  • Chris Hillman
  • Herb Pedersen

Came to Fame With

  • J.D. Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys (later New South), 1971-1975

Performed With

  • Bluegrass Alliance, 1970-1971
  • J.D. Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys (later New South), 1971-1975
  • David Grisman Quintet, 1975-1979
  • Bluegrass Album Band, 1980-1996
  • Tony Rice Unit, 1978-present

Led the Way

  • Major influence on modern bluegrass artists, especially lead guitarists.
  • An integral performer on the legendary album, J.D. Crowe and the New South.
  • Co-founded and produced the Bluegrass Album Band, an all-star recording group.
  • Pioneered the fusion of jazz and other acoustic styles to arrive at a new medium he called “spacegrass.”
  • Established himself as a band leader, performing in both bluegrass and jazz idioms.
  • Topped the list of the Frets Readers Poll Awards for Country Flatpicking Guitar, Jazz/Pop/Progressive Guitar, and Best Acoustic Album, and added to the magazine’s Gallery of the Greats, 1984.
  • Received numerous IBMA awards, including Guitar Player of the Year in 1990, 1991, 1994, 1996, 1997, and 2007.
  • The subject of an authorized biography, Still Inside: The Tony Rice Story, by Tim Stafford and Caroline Wright, 2010.
  • Bluegrass Hall of Fame, 2013.

By the Way

  • Born one day (plus seven years) after one of his guitar heroes, Clarence White, whose legendary Martin D-28 he purchased in 1975.
  • Appears with both the Bluegrass Alliance and J.D. Crowe’s Kentucky Mountain Boys in the movie Bluegrass: Country Soul, filmed the very weekend Rice changed bands, 1971.
  • Repairs and reconstructs Accutron watches.
  • A big fan of vinyl, long-play albums.
  • When his home in Florida was destroyed by a 1993 hurricane and his guitar was underwater for three hours, Tony dried it slowly and “it sounds better than ever.”
  • Still performs instrumentally, although his singing was curtailed in 1994 by muscle tension dysphonia.

From the Archives

Ralph Emery: “What is flatpicking?” Tony Rice: “Well this is a flat pick right here, so… the rest is self-explanatory.”
Dialogue between Ralph Emery and Tony Rice on a circa 1984 appearance of The Nashville Network’s Ralph Emery Show.
“I’ve always enjoyed playing guitar so much more than my voice anyway. I think back to the Grisman years when I rarely sang. I didn’t miss it then, and I can honestly say that I don’t miss it all that much now.”
Quoted by Carolyn Wright in “A Day in the Life of the World’s Best Guitarist,”Listener, July/August 2002.
“The first music that I ever heard – pure bluegrass that turned me on – was the old Flatt and Scruggs stuff. We had a 78 of ‘Foggy Mountain Special’ and the other side was ‘You’re Not a Drop in the Bucket.’ That was music that really got to me.”
Quoted by Jack Tottle in “Tony Rice: East Meets West,” Bluegrass Unlimited, October 1977.
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