Tony Rice - Freeborn Man...Roanoke, Va, 1983

Details
Title | Tony Rice - Freeborn Man...Roanoke, Va, 1983 |
Author | Jan Johansson Acoustic Music |
Duration | 3:37 |
File Format | MP3 / MP4 |
Original URL | https://youtube.com/watch?v=g2TrN3jnEaQ |
Description
During a few days - 22 to the 24 of September 1980 - five prominent musicians got together for a recording session that was to become one of the seminal moments in what is commonly known as ‘traditional bluegrass’’. The studio was located at 1750 Arch Studios in Berkley, Ca. The idea behind the session was to record a Tony Rice solo album with traditional bluegrass - the music that had been on fire in his soul since childhood. Tony had picked out the best players and singers for this very important album and in that studio was gathered a stellar group of seasoned bluegrass musicians - each one a leading stylist on their respective instrument with three of the artists also leaders of their own successful bands. Present in the studio besides Tony Rice - a 29 year old veteran guitar player and lead vocalist originally from Danville, Virginia but raised in Southern California was his former employer – banjo legend, mentor and friend J D Crowe a native of Lexington, Kentucky– an alumnus of Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys. The tenor singer and mandolin player selected for this project was one of the greatest sidemen of all times having played with Jimmy Martin, Red Allen, J D Crowe and The Country Gentlemen and for the last year or so now piloting his own red hot bluegrass band - Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. The fiddle player on this recording session is a Newton, NC native who spent most of his youth in nearby Greensboro. His regular job is that of a multi-instrumentalist in America’s most popular Country band – Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder and the man’s name is Bobby Hicks – one of the greatest talents we have ever had in our music. He is a living institution in the world of bluegrass, country and western swing and referred to only as “Hicks.” From The Tony Rice Unit , the bassist, Todd Phillips a former mandolin student of David Grisman and a remarkable bassist. In an era long before CD:s and digital sound restoration techniques These five musicians brought back to life some of the classic bluegrass songs that had been recorded 30-40 years earlier by Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs. To be able to listen to the old numbers recorded with the best sound technology of the day in 1980 plus Billy Wolf’s engineering magic was an almost supernatural experience. I remember how I responded when I first heard the finished product. We were gathered at Ken and Debbie Rattenbury’s home near Roanoke, Va when somebody – I think it might have been Chet Rhodes - put the brand new LP on the record player…Crowe’s Kick–off on Blue Ridge Cabin Home, Rice’s break, Hicks’ back up ,particularly his third position double stops on the chorus……the trio…Lawson’ s chop - It was almost too much… To claim that these five outstanding musicians redefined bluegrass music or – following the hyperbolic style of the sports commentator - beat the founding fathers of bluegrass at their own game would not only be pointless but it would potentially build a wall between older and younger fans and musicians alike. But the the experience was powerful. In the summer of 1982 I got a letter to my home in Sweden. The letter was from a very excited Henry Heckler who in great detail described having seen this band – The Bluegrass Album Band – at a place called Denton, NC…
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