Tony Rice Plays Shenandoah……

This video gives you a bird’s eye view of Tony’s fantastic technique. Check his fluid picking, clever and economic left hand technique, and, of course the exquisite tone that he is famous for. He is one of the few that can use a Martin flat top style guitar in a jazz format and make it work (Scott Nygaard is another that does it). Of course, this song is not a jazz piece… I’ve presented it mostly for its close camera work of Tony’s facility with the guitar…… I took this series of photos of the Tony Rice Unit in 1985, about the time they had released the album entitled “Still Inside” which I think is one of the all time best “jazz grass” records.

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I love Tony’s his jazz-infused, experimental “spacegrass” with the Tony Rice Unit on the albums “Mar West”, “Still Inside”, and “Backwaters”. These albums with John Rieschman on mandolin, Fred Carpenter on Violin, and Tod Phillips on bass are breakthrough albums which feature Tony and his bandmates playing at a high level that has rarely been matched.

Backwaters has a superb version of “My Favorite Things”… I highly recommend a listen to this exciting and original interpretation of a jazz classic.

More about Tony…… Two highly regarded albums with traditional instrumentalist and songwriter Norman Blake garnered a great deal of acclaim, as well as two Rice Brothers albums that featured him teamed with his late elder brother, Larry and younger brothers, Wyatt and Ronnie. 2007 saw Tony team up with Alison Krauss and Union Station for a string of spring concerts, drawing material from Rice’s 35 year career. Krauss always has cited Rice as being her prime musical influence.

Rice’s most recent recording for Rounder is “Quartet”, the second collaboration with bluegrass and newgrass legend Peter Rowan. Despite recent problems with his voice related to dysphonia, Tony Rice remains one of new acoustic music’s top instrumentalists, bringing originality and vitality to everything he plays.

Photos and Text by Ron Clegg

These photographs were taken at Highland Park in Ben Lomand, Ca around 1985!

RON CLEGG AND EMIKO HAYASHI PLAY ANGEL EYES

click to hear song—05-angel-eyes

This an informal living room recording with me on guitar and Emiko Hayashi on piano. I really like the sparse sound of duet .. and the harmonic movement within the piece keeps me hoppin’. Emiko is based in New York City… she occasionally plays at Birdland and stays busy gigging, writing, and studying. She is a marvelous woman…and a real joy to play music with!

The Matt Flinner Trio Review…….2/28/08

Matt Flinner (mandolin) showed up in Felton, Ca. at Don Quixote’s Music Hall on Thursday night with his excellent stablemates Scott Nygaard (guitar) and Sam Bevan (bass). The place was packed with acoustic jazz, bluegrass, spacegrass, ,psychograss, and just plain …..grass music fans. It’s rare to hear the kind of music that Matt Flinner plays.. Now and again we are graced with talents like Tony Rice, John Reischman, David Grisman, Joe Craven, David Greer, Todd Phillips, and Mark O’Conner here in the Santa Cruz area. Fans of these great players were in abundance Thursday night because they know just how good Matt Flinner really is. Having Scott Nygaard and Sam Bevan as his conversational partners made for the kind of interaction that truly defines jazz.

Right out of the gate we were treated to the sonic excellence Matt is known for. These boys know how to converse, and how to keep their sound and instruments in a perfect balance… and it helps that they are playing some of the finest acoustic instruments ever made. Matt plays a Steve Gilchrist mandolin that is about as close to a Gibson Loar as you will ever hear… maybe better. Scott was playing a fine Collings Dreadnaught guitar with tremendous tone. Scott’s musical vocabulary is extensive, covering everything from jazz, to bluegrass, to traditional, and beyond. The ideas never stop flowing… he is one smart and articulate guitarist and a joy to behold. Blazing fast runs that make sense musically, with an ever present richness of tone that you just can’t get enough of. Sam played outstanding acoustic bass. His highly percussive style really drove the trio and his solos were interesting, lively, and powerful. His scat singing was another fun twist. He is an extremely talented and fun bass player… no wonder he plays with

Joe Craven….!

They covered a lot of ground rolling out a hot rendition of Caravan…. extended solos, trading 4’s, harmony riffing, all in an exciting and stirring style. Another standout was a Bill Monroe tune called “Bluegrass Special”… just reminding us that they can play straight bluegrass as well as anyone alive.. They closed the show out with Matt’s masterpiece called “Paint It Shut”. It’s a fantastic piece of songwriting written to allow a high degree of instrumental conversation and interaction. It’s one of the best songs I’ve ever heard in this genre. The boys deserved and got several standing ovations and they came back for two encores. They delivered the goods, that’s for sure. Just one criticism though, hey Matt, tuck your shirt in would ya? (just kidding). Thanks for a marvelous show…!

Written by Ron Clegg

Photographs by Ron Clegg—– copyright 2008