Tony Rice Fans

Add a Comment

10 Comments

Comment by Wesman Todd Shaw on August 2, 2009 at 6:53pm

Kerry Krishna, Thank you for sharing that story!

Comment by Kerry Krishna on May 5, 2009 at 9:32pm

I'm sorry I put that post up were I did. I did'nt look close enough before I hit enter. I was going to start a thread with it > Did anyone else notice that it seems impossible to delete a post? I can't figure out how to edit either... Sorry.

Comment by Kerry Krishna on May 4, 2009 at 10:18pm

This story was first posted over at the Collings Forum site.............
Posted January 01, 2009 04:28 AM Hide Post
Back in '98, I recieved the wierdest phone call of my life. It was Robin Merrit from the West End Cultural Center in Winnipeg phoning.(I was living in'Peg at that time). She said" Hi Kerry. Tony Rice asked me to phone you". I started laughing pretty hard and asked her what she wanted. She said Tony Rice HAD asked her to phone me. He was coming up to play at a 4 day Guitar Festival and was bringing a mandolin player with him, but the mando player was not able to bring his mandolin.Now I have a Monteleone Grand Artist that I bought new in '89 from John. Anyway someone told Tony about my axe and he needed it for the night. So who am I to say no to Tony? I of course agreed and put on a new set of D'Addarios and waited for the night. I showed up at the rehersal a half hour early and got to meet Tony. The two of them (I can't remember the mando player) had a terrific show. Afterwords I went downstairs to the green room. Tony shook my hand and told me that my Grand Artist was the best one he had heard yet(he was trying to charm me I think... It worked too!) and thanks. The Clarence White was sitting right there on the couch and so I asked "Is it OK if I hit a big wide strum on that guitar?" He said "That's what it's there for son. You go right ahead and play me something." So I picked up that beauty and played my hottest flatpicking original that I do.I watched to see if any thing I did caught his ear, and he did look at me and smile a bit and watched. I only played it for a minute or so and put it down. He asked me what I use for picks and I told him the Delrin Blue. He asked if I had tried any tortise shell picks. I told him yes, but they were'nt the proper kind and self destructed in about three months. Tony nodded his head and looked away. Then I saw some kinda light bulb turn on in his head. He opened up his guitar case, and rooted around for a bit and brought out a thick triangle tortise shell pick and gave it to me. "Thanks for letting us use that fancy mandolin of yours Kerry" He said "You try this old pick. People give them to me all the time. This one's from the '40s and never been used." I have written on this site before about how that pick changed the way I play. It took about a good 1000 hours playing before I wore out just one of the three corners. So after 3000 hours the pick was worn right out. I retired it and it has a place of honor and a little note on the wall of my shop. To this day, I have no idea of a guitar's 'potential' sound is if I can't use a TS pick....Kerry K

Comment by Woody Pope on March 21, 2009 at 9:07am

Tony's guitar playing and singing hooked me into bluegrass. His arrangements never cease to amaze me.

Comment by Andrea Tarquini on March 21, 2009 at 4:27am

Hello Everybody, In MIlan / ITALY, we're making a sort of Dawg music band, we love the first cds the DGQ released and we also love the jazzy Tony's cds ...this project involves a deep study of Tony's style.....I think it's not so useful to replay note by note someone else's soloing, but in the meantime it's also important to know and understand why something was played in a certain way, so sooner or later I will replace the copy I play of Tony's stuff with something more personal, btw believe me, it's very challenging....I feel all the flatpickers should re-listen to Tony's old jazzy cds....first of all Backwaters, Acoustic and Mar West......three masterpieces!

Comment by Yiannis Gougourelas on January 26, 2009 at 1:09pm

He's the reason on why i've started playing bluegrass music.Back in 1993,i didn't know what bluegrass flatpicking guitar was,in Greece no one knows what bluegrass music means about,so someone handed me two tapes,"Manzanita" and "Cold On the Shoulder".
Still are a musical revelation to me!

Comment by Michael Gurzi on January 4, 2009 at 9:30am

Hi all,

Not sure if everyone is aware of two new projects of Tony's. His release of the CD Night Flyer. I recently purchased it from iTunes. It is great hearing all of his hits and a few previously unreleased songs.

Secondly, I just purchased Alison Krauss's new DVD "A Hundred Miles or More." Tony is featured on two cuts plus a brief interview. The DVD is really great because you can see some of the best musicians in the world playing in a studio setting. Not to mention how they setup the Nashville Tracking Room for the shoot. A must see....

Mike

Comment by Marty Henrickson on December 25, 2008 at 8:53pm

My wife gave me the Tony Rice Unit "Acoustics" CD for Christmas....."Gasology" is playing right now......awesome!

Comment by VUE Laurent on December 25, 2008 at 12:38pm

I have just discovered a concert of Tony Rice in MP3 when he made Jazz with John Reichman, Fred Carpenter and Todd Philips. Exceptional concert, the guitar of Tony is extraordinary.

Comment by VUE Laurent on November 18, 2008 at 7:50am

One of the best modern flatpicking guitarist after Clarence White. The first time that I saw him with Tont Rice Unit, it was in 1987 Angers France during a bluegrass festival, I was 21. I remember Tony was going in France in 1977 with David Grisman and Bill Keith. I hope Tony going to play for a long time again...