Tony Rice
Tony Rice ( born June 8, 1951 in Danville, Virginia) is an American bluegrass musician who is counted among the best guitarists of his genre since the 1970s.
- 2.1 albums
Life
Raised in California Tony Rice was musically influenced by his father, Herb Rice, a member of the bluegrass band The Golden State Boys was. Together with his older brother Larry learned to play guitar and Tony appeared in his father's band. First model outside the family home was the bluegrass legend Clarence White.
Career as a band musician
In 1970 he moved to Kentucky, where he joined the Bluegrass Alliance, which was formed in the late 1960s and soon became one of the leading bluegrass band. Here he learned from renowned guitarist Dan Crary, who was one of the founding members of the Bluegrass Alliance. A year later he moved to JD Crowe 's band, which is considered a pioneer of progressive bluegrass, and in the played his brother Larry mandolin. Peak in these years was the recording of commercially successful album JD Crowe & the New South, which also Ricky Skaggs participated. Rice excelled not only as a guitarist, but distinguished himself as a singer with an expressive voice.
In 1975 he returned to the West Coast and joined the based in San Francisco, David Grisman Quintet, which played a purely instrumental mix of jazz and bluegrass. During these years he made the biggest musical progress. For new mission statement was band member John Carlini.
Career as a soloist
In the late 1970s left Rice David Grisman and began to record a series of own albums - partly supported by his backing band, the Tony Rice Unit. In 1980 he founded together with J. D. Crowe, Bobby Hicks, Doyle Lawson and Todd Phillips, the supergroup Bluegrass Album Band, which met at longer intervals to make music together. By 1996, a total of six albums were produced, which were numbered from Bluegrass Album, Vol 1 to Bluegrass Album, Vol 6.
During these years he worked with many sizes of the scene, including Bela Fleck and Ricky Skaggs. With Peter Rowan and the veteran Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen several successful albums were produced. Even with his brothers Larry Wyatt and Ronnie he published as The Rice Brothers albums. Also recorded together with Norman Blake and Alison Krauss were known. Due to voice problems, he focused increasingly on the guitar.