Bluegrass guitarist Tony Rice, who was recognized as one of the greatest of all time in the genre, has died. He was 69 years old and passed away suddenly on December 25, noted his former label Rounder Records.
As a solo performer, collaborator and leader of the Tony Rice Unit, Rice was known for his inimitable ability as a flatpicker, an intricate and hectic melodic style of playing the guitar. Rice’s characteristic style, heavily influenced by jazz, influenced dozens of artists in the world of bluegrass and beyond, including Jason Isbell i Steve Martin. His lead guitar, a Martin D-28, had belonged to Clarence White of the Byrds.
After growing up in California with a father who played guitar, Rice moved to Kentucky as an adult, where he got his break playing five nights a week with JD Crowe and the New South. Rice released his first album of his own name, Guitar, in 1973, and later released albums such as 1978 Acoustics and the 1980s Mar West with the Tony Rice Unit. Rice co-founded and released several albums with the Bluegrass Album Band, as well as performing regularly with guitarist Norman Blake and mandolin player David Grisman. In 1993 he worked with Grisman and Jerry Garcia Pizza ribbons, a loose collection of folk songs released in 2000.
Rice maintained a flourishing career in the 1970s and 1980s, with albums such as 1979 Manzanita and the 1983s Church Street Blues lasting as a reference in bluegrass. In 1994, Rice began to suffer from dysphonia, which prevented him from singing for most of the rest of his life. In 2013, Rice was inducted into the Bluegrass International Music Association Hall of Fame, an appearance that included his latest public guitar performance. His last album was in 2011 Hartford Rice and Clements with banjo player John Hartford and violinist Vassar Clements, a project recorded in 1988.