David Anthony Rice (June 8, 1951 – December 25, 2020), known professionally as Tony Rice, was an American guitarist and
bluegrass musician. He was an influential acoustic guitar player in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and acoustic jazz. He was inducted into the
International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame
Induction to the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, called the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor from its creation in 1991 through 2006, is managed by the International Bluegrass Music Association, and the Hall itself is mainta ...
in 2013.
Rice's music spans the range of acoustic from traditional bluegrass to jazz-influenced New Acoustic music to songwriter-oriented
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fol ...
. Over the course of his career, he played alongside
J. D. Crowe
James Dee Crowe (August 27, 1937December 24, 2021) was an American banjo player and bluegrass band leader. He first became known during his four-year stint with Jimmy Martin in the 1950s. Crowe led the bluegrass group New South from 1971 until ...
and
the New South
New South, New South Democracy or New South Creed is a slogan in the history of the American South first used after the American Civil War. Reformers used it to call for a modernization of society and attitudes, to integrate more fully with the ...
,
David Grisman
David Grisman (born March 23, 1945) is an American mandolinist. His music combines bluegrass, folk, and jazz in a genre he calls "Dawg music". He founded the record label Acoustic Disc, which issues his recordings and those of other acoustic mu ...
(during the formation of "Dawg Music") and
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...
, led his own Tony Rice Unit, collaborated with
Norman Blake, recorded with his brothers
Wyatt
Wyatt is a patronymic surname, derived from the Norman surname ''Guyot'', derived from "widu", Proto-Germanic for "wood".
Notable people with the surname "Wyatt" include
A
* Aaron Wyatt, Australian musician
* Addie L. Wyatt (1924–2012), Amer ...
, Ron, and
Larry
Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence (given name), Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names.
Larry may refer to the following:
People Arts and entertainment
*Larry D. Alexander, American arti ...
, and co-founded the
Bluegrass Album Band
Bluegrass Album Band was a bluegrass supergroup, founded by Tony Rice and J. D. Crowe in 1980. Originally, there was no intention to build a permanent group and the main reason for the collaboration was to record a solo album for Tony Rice
...
. He recorded with drums, piano, soprano sax, as well as with traditional bluegrass instrumentation.
Early years
Rice was born in
Danville, Virginia
Danville is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States, located in the Southside Virginia region and on the fall line of the Dan River. It was a center of tobacco production and was an area of Confederate activity ...
but grew up in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, where his father, Herb Rice, introduced him to bluegrass. Tony and his brothers learned the fundamentals of bluegrass and country music from L.A. musicians like the
Kentucky Colonels
The Kentucky Colonels were a member of the American Basketball Association for all of the league's nine years. The name is derived from the historic Kentucky colonels. The Colonels won the most games and had the highest winning percentage of ...
, led by Roland and
Clarence White
Clarence White (born Clarence Joseph LeBlanc; June 7, 1944 – July 15, 1973) was an American bluegrass and country guitarist and singer. He is best known as a member of the bluegrass ensemble the Kentucky Colonels and the rock band the Byrds, ...
. Clarence White in particular became a huge influence on Rice. Crossing paths with fellow enthusiasts like
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, an ...
,
Herb Pedersen
Herbert Joseph Pedersen (born April 27, 1944 in Berkeley, California) is an American musician, guitarist, banjo player, and singer-songwriter who has played a variety of musical styles over the past fifty years including Country music, country, ...
and
Chris Hillman
Christopher Hillman (born December 4, 1944) is an American musician. He was the original bassist of and one of the original members of the Byrds, which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby and Michael Clarke.
With frequent ...
reinforced the strength of the music he had learned from his father.
Groups
![Tony Rice RockyGrass](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Tony_Rice_RockyGrass.jpg)
In 1970, Rice had moved to
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
where he played with the Bluegrass Alliance, and shortly thereafter,
J.D. Crowe's New South.
The New South
New South, New South Democracy or New South Creed is a slogan in the history of the American South first used after the American Civil War. Reformers used it to call for a modernization of society and attitudes, to integrate more fully with the ...
was known as one of the best and most progressive bluegrass groups—eventually adding drums and electric instruments (to Rice's displeasure). When
Ricky Skaggs
Rickie Lee Skaggs (born July 18, 1954), known professionally as Ricky Skaggs, is an American neotraditional country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, ma ...
joined them in 1974, however, the band recorded ''
J. D. Crowe & the New South'', an acoustic album that became Rounder Records' top-seller up to that time. At this point, the group consisted of Rice on guitar and lead vocals, Crowe on banjo and vocals,
Jerry Douglas
Gerald Calvin "Jerry" Douglas (born May 28, 1956) is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer.
Career
In addition to his fourteen solo recordings, Douglas has played on more than 1,600 albums. As a sideman, he has ...
on
Dobro
Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar.
The Dobro was originally ...
, Skaggs on fiddle, mandolin, and tenor vocals, and Bobby Slone on bass and fiddle.
Around this time, Rice met mandolinist
David Grisman
David Grisman (born March 23, 1945) is an American mandolinist. His music combines bluegrass, folk, and jazz in a genre he calls "Dawg music". He founded the record label Acoustic Disc, which issues his recordings and those of other acoustic mu ...
, who played with
Red Allen
Henry James "Red" Allen, Jr. (January 7, 1908 – April 17, 1967) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist whose playing has been claimed by Joachim-Ernst Berendt and others as the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstr ...
during the 1960s and was now working on 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
The David Grisman Quintet is a self-styled alternative bluegrass/acoustic jazz band founded by David Grisman in 1975 in San Francisco, California, US. The quintet draws from genres including Bill Monroe's bluegrass legacy and Django Reinhard's 1 ...
, in order to broaden his expertise and make himself more marketable, Rice began studying chord theory, learned to read charts, and began to expand his playing beyond bluegrass. Renowned guitarist
John Carlini
John Carlini is an American jazz guitarist and arranger who performs bluegrass and jazz. He has performed with David Grisman, mandolin player Don Stiernberg, singer Bill Robinson, Bucky Pizzarelli, Rio Clemente, flatpicking guitarist Tony R ...
came in to teach Rice music theory, and Carlini helped him learn the intricacies of jazz playing and musical improvisation, in general. The David Grisman Quintet's 1977 debut recording is considered a landmark of acoustic string band music.
In 1980, Rice, Crowe,
Bobby Hicks
Bobby Hicks (born July 21, 1933) is a Grammy Awardbr>winningAmerican bluegrass fiddler and a professional musician with more than fifty years of experience.
Career
Hicks was born in Newton, North Carolina and learned to play the fiddle before ...
,
Doyle Lawson
Doyle Lawson (born April 20, 1944) is an American traditional bluegrass and Southern gospel musician. He is best known as a mandolin player, vocalist, producer, and leader of the 6-man group Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. Lawson was inducted into ...
and
Todd Phillips
Todd Phillips (né Bunzl, born December 20, 1970) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He began his career in 1993 and directed films in the 2000s such as ''Road Trip (film), Road Trip'', ''Old School (film), Old School'', ...
formed the
Bluegrass Album Band
Bluegrass Album Band was a bluegrass supergroup, founded by Tony Rice and J. D. Crowe in 1980. Originally, there was no intention to build a permanent group and the main reason for the collaboration was to record a solo album for Tony Rice
...
and recorded from 1980 to 1996.
With the Tony Rice Unit, he pursued experimental "spacegrass" music on ''Mar West'', ''Still Inside'', and ''Backwaters''. Members of the Unit included
Jimmy Gaudreau
Jimmy Gaudreau is a singer and mandolinist playing traditional and progressive bluegrass music. He is best known for his solo albums, and his work with The Country Gentlemen, Tony Rice, and J. D. Crowe.
Biography Early life
In high school in the ...
(mandolin),
Wyatt Rice
Wyatt Rice is an American guitarist and bluegrass musician. He is best known for his solo albums and his work in his brother's group the Tony Rice Unit.
Biography
Rice was born in Long Beach, California but grew up in Florida and other locat ...
(guitar), Ronnie Simpkins (bass), John Reischman (mandolin), and
Rickie Simpkins
Rickie Simpkins is an American fiddler and mandolinist in the bluegrass tradition. He is best known for his solo albums and his work with the Lonesome River Band and the Seldom Scene.
Biography
Early years
Simpkins was raised in Christians ...
(fiddle). In the late 1980s
Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer and musician. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of 8 and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with ...
played regularly with the group in concert for about a year but never appeared on the albums.
Alison Brown
Alison Brown (born August 7, 1962) is an American banjo player, guitarist, composer, and producer. She has won and has been nominated for several Grammy awards and is often compared to another banjo prodigy, Béla Fleck, for her unique style of ...
also guested with the group during that period.
Collaborations
In 1980, he recorded an album of bluegrass duets with Ricky Skaggs, called ''
Skaggs & Rice''. Two albums with traditional instrumentalist and songwriter
Norman Blake garnered acclaim, as well as two
Rice Brothers
John Rice (December 3, 1951 – November 5, 2005) and Greg Rice (born December 3, 1951), sometimes known as the Rice Brothers or Rice Twins, were identical twin dwarfs, known throughout the United States for their appearances in various commer ...
albums (1992 and 1994) that featured him teamed with his late elder brother, Larry, and younger brothers, Wyatt and Ronnie.
Beginning in 1984, Rice collaborated on four albums by
Béla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck (born July 10, 1958) is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, bringing the instrument from its bluegrass roots to jazz, classi ...
– ''
Double Time (Béla Fleck album)'' (1984), ''
Drive (Béla Fleck album)
''Drive'' is an album by American banjoist Béla Fleck. The album was produced toward the end of Fleck's New Grass Revival career and before the Flecktones were formed and included an all-star list of bluegrass performers.
Track listing
Al ...
'' (1988), ''
Tales from the Acoustic Planet'' (1995), and ''
The Bluegrass Sessions: Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 2'' (1999).
He joined David Grisman and Jerry Garcia in 1993 to record ''
The Pizza Tapes
''The Pizza Tapes'' is an album by Jerry Garcia ( acoustic guitar, vocals), David Grisman ( mandolin), and Tony Rice (acoustic guitar). It was recorded at Grisman's studio on two evenings in 1993, and features unrehearsed performances of folk an ...
''. In 1994 Rice and Grisman recorded ''
Tone Poems'', an original collection of material, where they used historical vintage mandolins and guitars, different for each track.
In 1994, Rice joined
Mark Johnson to record "Clawgrass Mark Johnson with the Rice Brothers and Friends" which featured Tony as well as his late brother
Larry Rice
Larry Rice (24 March 1946 – 20 May 2009) was an American racing driver in the USAC and CART Championship Car series. He was the 1973 USAC National midget driver's champion and won the USAC Silver Crown series in 1977 and 1981. He was inducted i ...
and his other brothers Wyatt and Ronnie.
In 1995, Rice recorded a duo album with John Carlini, who also played with the
David Grisman Quintet
The David Grisman Quintet is a self-styled alternative bluegrass/acoustic jazz band founded by David Grisman in 1975 in San Francisco, California, US. The quintet draws from genres including Bill Monroe's bluegrass legacy and Django Reinhard's 1 ...
.
In 1997, Rice, his brother Larry,
Chris Hillman
Christopher Hillman (born December 4, 1944) is an American musician. He was the original bassist of and one of the original members of the Byrds, which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby and Michael Clarke.
With frequent ...
(formerly of the
Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers are an American country rock band, best known for their influential 1969 debut album, ''The Gilded Palace of Sin''. Although the group is perhaps best known for its connection to band founders Gram Parsons and Chris ...
and
the Byrds
The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole cons ...
) and banjoist
Herb Pedersen
Herbert Joseph Pedersen (born April 27, 1944 in Berkeley, California) is an American musician, guitarist, banjo player, and singer-songwriter who has played a variety of musical styles over the past fifty years including Country music, country, ...
founded the so-called "anti-supergroup"
Rice, Rice, Hillman & Pedersen
''Rice, Rice, Hillman & Pedersen'' is a collaboration album by American guitarist Tony Rice, his brother, mandolinist Larry Rice, guitar and banjo player Herb Pedersen and guitar/bass player Chris Hillman, founding member of famous folk-rock ba ...
and produced three volumes of music between 1997 and 2001.
In the 2000s and 2010s, he performed as a quartet with guitarist/singer-songwriter
Peter Rowan
Peter Rowan (born July 4, 1942) is an American bluegrass musician and composer. Rowan plays guitar and mandolin, yodels and sings.
Biography
Rowan was born in Wayland, Massachusetts to a musical family. From an early age, he had an interes ...
, bassist
Bryn Bright (later known as
Bryn Davies), and mandolinist
Billy Bright (replaced by
Sharon Gilchrist
Sharon Gilchrist is an American musician, singer, composer, mandolin instructor and the sister of Troy Gilchrist, also a bluegrass musician.
Biography
Youth
Raised in Southlake, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, Sharon Gilchrist started playing the m ...
).
Solo career
In 1979, Rice left Grisman's group to record ''Acoustics'', a jazz-inspired album, and then ''
Manzanita
Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus ''Arctostaphylos''. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from Southern British Columbia and Washington to Or ...
'', a bluegrass and folk album. A similar combination was evident on ''Cold on the Shoulder'', ''Native American'', and ''Me & My Guitar'', albums which combined bluegrass, jazzy guitar work, and the songwriting of
Ian Tyson
Ian Dawson Tyson (September 25, 1933 – December 29, 2022) was a Canadian singer-songwriter who wrote several folk songs, including "Four Strong Winds" and " Someday Soon", and performed with partner Sylvia Tyson as the duo Ian & Sylvia.
Ear ...
,
Joni Mitchell
Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...
,
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs (; December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American songwriter and protest singer (or, as he preferred, a topical singer). Ochs was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, political activism, often alliterative lyrics, and ...
,
Tom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton (born October 31, 1937) is an American folk singer-songwriter who has had a music career spanning more than fifty years. In 2009, Paxton received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. ,
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
, and
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960 ...
.
Rice's singing voice was a distinctive baritone. In 1994 he was diagnosed with a disorder known as
muscle tension dysphonia Muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) was originally coined in 1983 by Morrison and describes a dysphonia caused by increased muscle tension of the muscles surrounding the voice box: the laryngeal and paralaryngeal muscles. MTD is a unifying diagnosis for ...
and as a result was forced to stop singing in live performance. A 2014 diagnosis of
lateral epicondylitis
Tennis elbow, also known as lateral epicondylitis or enthesopathy of the extensor carpi radialis origin, is a condition in which the outer part of the elbow becomes painful and tender. The pain may also extend into the back of the forearm. Onset ...
("tennis elbow") made guitar playing painful and Rice's last performance playing guitar live was his induction into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2015, Rice was quoted as saying "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."
The authorized biography of Tony Rice, titled ''Still Inside: The Tony Rice Story'', written by
Tim Stafford
Blue Highway is an American contemporary bluegrass band formed in 1994 and based in Tennessee. The band's albums include ''Wondrous Love'' (2003), ''Marbletown'' (2005), and '' Original Traditional'' (2016).
Background
After helping found t ...
and Hawaii-based journalist Caroline Wright, was published by Word of Mouth Press in
Kingsport, Tennessee
Kingsport is a city in Sullivan and Hawkins counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, its population was 55,442. Lying along the Holston River, Kingsport is commonly included in what is known as the Mountain Empire, w ...
, United States in 2010. The book's official release took place at
Merlefest in
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
.
Death
Tony Rice died at his home in
Reidsville,
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
, on December 25, 2020. He died while making his coffee, according to a statement from longtime friend and collaborator
Ricky Skaggs
Rickie Lee Skaggs (born July 18, 1954), known professionally as Ricky Skaggs, is an American neotraditional country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, ma ...
.
Rice’s 2013 induction into the
International Bluegrass Hall of Fame reportedly was the last time he played guitar in public due to the lateral epicondylitis that affected his ability to play in his last years.
Influence
Tony Rice is said to have “redefined bluegrass guitar playing and left a lasting imprint on the genre."
David Grisman
David Grisman (born March 23, 1945) is an American mandolinist. His music combines bluegrass, folk, and jazz in a genre he calls "Dawg music". He founded the record label Acoustic Disc, which issues his recordings and those of other acoustic mu ...
called Rice “a complete musician of the highest caliber",
and Ricky Skaggs said he was “the single most influential acoustic guitar player in the last 50 years."
In a guitar lesson exploring Rice's style,
Molly Tuttle
Molly Rose Tuttle (born January 14, 1993) is an American vocalist, songwriter, banjo player and guitarist, recording artist and teacher in the bluegrass tradition, noted for her flatpicking, clawhammer, and crosspicking guitar prowess. She has ...
noted "the beauty of Tony’s playing is that there’s something for everyone to learn from. I’ve been playing guitar for a long time, and I still go back to this and just want to listen to him strum the guitar." Rice was a big influence on the bluegrass band
Punch Brothers
Punch Brothers is an American band consisting of Chris Thile (mandolin), Gabe Witcher (fiddle/violin), Noam Pikelny (banjo), Chris Eldridge (guitar), and Paul Kowert (bass). Their style has been described as "bluegrass instrumentation and spontane ...
who devoted their album ''Hell On Church Street'' as a tribute to Rice and to Rice's 1983 album ''
Church Street Blues''.
[Margaret Quamme, February 10, 2022, The Columbus Dispatch]
Punch Brothers' setlist at the Southern to include 'thank you' to late bluegrass legend
Retrieved February 14, 2022, "... latest album by the Punch Brothers ... a tribute to one of the most famous bluegrass albums of all time...." Members of the Punch Brothers band said that Rice's earlier album had a huge impact on their music.
In addition, guitarist
Chris Eldridge
Chris Eldridge is an American guitarist and singer. He is a member of Punch Brothers and frequently performs in a duo with fellow guitarist Julian Lage. He is also the guitarist in the house band on Live From Here. He was a founding member of the ...
was a student of Rice's.
The group had intended that their album be a surprise gift to Rice, but Rice died before they could finish it.
Discography
Awards
Grammy
* Best Country Instrumental Performance – The New South, Fireball – 1983
IBMA
* Hall of Fame Inductee, 2013
[
* Instrumental Performer of the Year – Guitar – 1990, 1991, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2007][
* Instrumental Group of the Year – The Tony Rice Unit – 1991, 1995]
* Instrumental Group of the Year – Bluegrass Album Band – 1990[
* Instrumental Album of the Year – ''Bluegrass Instrumentals, Volume 6'' (Rounder); Bluegrass Album Band – 1997][
]
References
External links
Classicweb.com
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Tony
1951 births
2020 deaths
People from Danville, Virginia
Singers from Virginia
American acoustic guitarists
American male guitarists
American bluegrass guitarists
American jazz guitarists
Grammy Award winners
American male singers
Rebel Records artists
Rounder Records artists
Country musicians from Virginia
Songwriters from Virginia
Songwriters from California
Guitarists from Los Angeles
Guitarists from Virginia
20th-century American guitarists
Jazz musicians from Virginia
Jazz musicians from California
Country musicians from California
20th-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians
David Grisman Quintet members
Bluegrass Album Band members
New South (band) members
Bluegrass musicians from North Carolina
American male songwriters