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The role of the guitar in bluegrass music could probably be looked at simply in two ways: Before Tony Rice and After Tony Rice. Prior to Rice’s emergence in the bluegrass scene, the guitar was almost strictly a rhythm instrument played by the lead singer of the band (most notably Lester Flatt and Jimmy Martin). While growing up in California during the mid-’60s, Rice was determined to give the instrument its due. Taking cues from folk guitarist extraordinaire Doc Watson as well as tips from a fellow bluegrass guitarist Clarence White (who would be tragically killed in 1973 before achieving widespread fame), Rice developed a style on the six-string that demanded recognition in the genre, and has progressed to become the person to whom all other bluegrass guitarists are compared. Since the early ‘70s, he has tenured with bluegrass legend J.D. Crowe, mandolin maestro David Grisman, and has recorded a number of critically acclaimed albums as a solo artist, as well as with The Tony Rice Unit (their 1978 album Manzanita has been cited by Alison Krauss as highly influential to her career), with siblings in The Rice Brothers, and in partnership with other acoustic guitar masters like Norman Blake and Ricky Skaggs. And at 52, he still feels that he is learning new things on the guitar. “My first love has always been the guitar,” he says. “The way I tell people is that if I had to lose one facet of my talent or the other, the ability to sing or the ability to play guitar, I’m just glad it was the voice. If I’d had lost the ability to play guitar, I don’t think that I’d be in the music business.” What Rice is referring to is his recent diagnosis of dysphonia, a complication of the throat that prevents singing and loud conversation. While his voice slowly showed signs during the ‘80s, it was at a performance in 1992 that it shut down completely, and he told his bandmates that he could not go on singing. While listening to his graveled voice today, it is hard to imagine that it is the same voice that had a trademark crooning style in the bluegrass scene a decade earlier. Yet this dilemma only forced him to positively concentrate more on his flatpicking skills. This work comes across masterfully in the recently released documentary Bluegrass Journey, in which Rice is shown backing Peter Rowan as well as performing a beautiful solo medley of the folk classics “Danny Boy” and “Shenandoah.” As with most of his work, he continues to challenge the bluegrass structure by bringing pop and jazz influences into the realm. He has spent recent time looking at jazz artists such as George Benson and Oscar Peterson, performers who voluntarily put their vocal skills on the backburner in order to concentrate on their instruments. “I don’t mind straying away from my bluegrass roots from time to time, but they’re always there,” he says. This attitude has been a Tony Rice trademark for over three decades. He has constantly challenged the mindset of stalwart bluegrass fans to show that the accepted sound of banjo and fiddle trickery was not necessary for the music to sound traditional. He has stood at a pivotal point of bringing bluegrass to the pop world and vice versa. “There’s no conscious approach to doing either,” he says. “The result is whatever happens. I’m from the old school that says, ‘take the damn thing out and play.’” Looking at Rice’s history with bluegrass, as well as listening to his back catalogue, there’s no doubt that modern prog-grass bands such as Nickel Creek would not be as successful today if it were not for the paths that he cut. “There’s a big David Grisman influence on it as well,” he says. “That ‘dawg’ song is there. I’m flattered that they have liked it enough to take it and gone with it. Some of the music that I, Grisman, Bela Fleck and Sam Bush have created, all of us are still doing that. I’m glad it is so. Any music form has got to have a process of evolution. Imagine if it was always the same. You got enough traditionalists out there that that’s all they want to hear. I can’t figure that out to save my life. I want to hear the whole gamut of it.” Yet for Rice, it is the music that is still what matters. Having been in the music business long enough to see the importance of videos and massive visual stage shows to get to the audience, he reflects: “The only thing I’ve got to bank on is that no matter how modern and sophisticated the technology gets, there will always be this cult following who are fascinated by the spectacle of being able to go somewhere and have that one-on-one live contact with an artist playing acoustic music. I have got to believe that will always exist. It’s the very essence of what I do. I create a sound that I consider pleasant and share it with others to allow them to escape from the dust of everyday life. So far it’s been working. I hope it remains for a long time.” A2P Tony
Rice performs with The Lonesome River Band on Friday, April 23 at
The Ark. For more information, visit a2ark.org.
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