Bluegrass guitarist Tony Rice, who has been recognized as one of the greatest names in the genre of all time, has died. He was 69 and died 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, a melodic, complex and fast-paced style of playing guitar. Rice’s distinctive style, heavily influenced by jazz, was an influence on various artists in the bluegrass world and beyond, including artists like Jason Isbell and Steve Martin. His signature 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 had his chance to play five nights a week with JD Crowe and New South. Rice released her first album under her own name, Guitar, in 1973, and later released albums like the one in 1978 Acoustics and 1980 Mar West with the Tony Rice Unit. Rice co-founded and released several albums with the Bluegrass Album Band, in addition to performing regularly with guitarist Norman Blake and mandolin David Grisman. In 1993, he worked with Grisman and Jerry Garcia on The Pizza Tapes, a loose collection of folk songs launched in 2000.
Rice maintained a prosperous career in the 1970s and 80s, with albums like those from 1979 Manzanita and 1983 Church Street Blues lasting as reference works in bluegrass. In 1994, Rice began to suffer from dysphonia, which prevented him from singing for the rest of his life. In 2013, Rice was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame, an appearance that included his last public guitar performance. His last album was from 2011 Hartford Rice and Clements with banjista John Hartford and violinist Vassar Clements, a project recorded in 1988.