Sam Bush (born 1952) is the mandolin player who invented newgrass, and he got there through the fiddle. He won the junior division at the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest in Weiser, Idaho, three years in a row as a teenager. He co-founded New Grass Revival in 1971 and led it for 18 years. He has three Grammy Awards, four IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year trophies, and two Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame inductions, one with New Grass Revival in 2020 and one on his own in 2023. His mandolin career has its own page.
Why Bush matters
Bush proved that a contest fiddler’s chops could power a whole new kind of band. His fiddle work at Weiser came from the Texas contest tradition. His mandolin work turned that same drive into rock and reggae rhythms on a bluegrass stage. When you see a mandolin player chop with a rock backbeat, or a fiddler tear through Sally Goodin over a band that swings, you are hearing what Bush started.
Life and career
Bush was born on April 13, 1952, in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He grew up on a cattle farm as the only son among four sisters. He got his first mandolin, a Gibson A-50, at age 11 in 1964, and took up the fiddle soon after. In 1965 he placed fifth in the junior division at Weiser. He then won that division three straight years, in 1967, 1968, and 1969. The contest’s official roll lists him as “Sammy Bush” of Kentucky. As a high school senior he recorded the instrumental album Poor Richard’s Almanac with banjo player Alan Munde.
In 1970 Bush joined the Bluegrass Alliance in Louisville. He came in on guitar, then moved to mandolin when Tony Rice joined the band. In 1971 Bush, Courtney Johnson, Curtis Burch, and Ebo Walker left to form New Grass Revival. Their debut album came out on Starday in 1972. John Cowan joined on bass in 1974. The band opened for and backed Leon Russell starting in 1979. In 1981 Béla Fleck and Pat Flynn replaced Johnson and Burch. The band cut records for Flying Fish, Sugar Hill, and Capitol, and played its last show on December 31, 1989.
Bush spent 1990 to 1995 in Emmylou Harris’s Nash Ramblers. Their album At the Ryman won a Grammy in 1993. In 1989 he joined Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Mark O’Connor, and Edgar Meyer in Strength in Numbers. He formed the Sam Bush Band in the mid 1990s and has led it since. His solo records include Late as Usual (1984), Glamour & Grits (1996), Howlin’ at the Moon (1998), and Circles Around Me (2009). In 2022 he released Radio John: Songs of John Hartford on Smithsonian Folkways, playing almost every instrument himself, including fiddle. He lives in Nashville.
Playing style
Bush plays fiddle the way a contest kid from the 1960s would: long bow strokes, clean double stops, and a steady shuffle that never rushes. On stage with his own band he often trades the mandolin for the fiddle on a Bill Monroe tune like Uncle Pen. His fiddle tone leans bright and forward, built to cut through drums and electric bass.
His mandolin style grew out of that fiddle background. He drives the band with a hard chop on beats two and four, then breaks into single-note runs that phrase like a fiddle bow. He uses the whole neck, slides into notes, and bends the rhythm toward rock and reggae without losing the bluegrass pulse. David Grisman called him “the world’s greatest all-purpose mandolinist,” and the fiddle is the reason. Bush thinks in bow strokes even when he holds a pick.
Influences and legacy
Bush learned from his father Charlie’s record collection and from Flatt and Scruggs on television. He names Bill Monroe, the Osborne Brothers, the Dillards, Doc Watson, and Bob Marley and the Wailers as influences. John Hartford was a mentor, and Bush played with him on stage and in the studio in the 1970s. In the Bluegrass Alliance he stood beside Tony Rice, and the two later played together on Rice’s Manzanita. He has recorded with Alison Krauss, Stuart Duncan, and Mark O’Connor, and he played on the Grammy-winning O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack.
Béla Fleck, John Cowan, and Pat Flynn all came up through his band. The Kentucky legislature named him the “Father of Newgrass” in 2010. Telluride Bluegrass Festival, where he first played in 1975, calls him the “King of Telluride.”
Signature tunes and songs
Uncle Pen Callin’ Baton Rouge Big Foot Seven by Seven Sally Goodin Sawing on the Strings.
Essential recordings
The Arrival of the New Grass Revival (Starday, 1972) Late as Usual (Rounder, 1984) Glamour & Grits (Sugar Hill, 1996) Radio John: Songs of John Hartford (Smithsonian Folkways, 2022)
Awards and honors
National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, junior division champion (1967, 1968, 1969) IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year (1990, 1991, 1992, 2007) Grammy Award, Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, At the Ryman with Emmylou Harris and the Nash Ramblers (1993) Grammy Award, Best Pop Instrumental Performance, The Sinister Minister with Béla Fleck (1997) IBMA Album of the Year, True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe (1997) IBMA Collaborative Recording of the Year (1997, 2000, 2003, 2013, 2020) IBMA Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year, Bluegrass Mandolin Extravaganza (2000) Grammy Award, Album of the Year, O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack (2002) Kentucky Music Hall of Fame (2006) Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist (2009) Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, as a member of New Grass Revival (2020) IBMA Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year, Vertigo (2022) Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame (2023) IBMA Liner Notes of the Year, Radio John (2023)
Watch and listen
Bush picks up the fiddle for Bill Monroe’s Uncle Pen with his band at FloydFest in 2012. Listen for the shuffle bowing under the vocal and the long bow on the breaks.
Bush plays twin fiddle with Alison Krauss on Sawing on the Strings, with Tony Rice on guitar. Watch how the two fiddles lock their bow strokes together.
What to learn from Bush
Learn Uncle Pen from his live fiddle version. It is a standard in every bluegrass jam, and Bush plays it straight with a hard shuffle, so you can hear the bowing pattern without any tricks. The technique to steal is his rhythm. Whether he holds a fiddle or a mandolin, Bush pushes beats two and four with a sharp, dry chop and keeps the pulse locked. Play chop rhythm along with Glamour & Grits. If your chop lands with the snare drum every time, you have learned the thing that made newgrass work.
Sources
Sam Bush, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum New Grass Revival, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Sam Bush, IBMA award recipients New Grass Revival, IBMA award recipients National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest champions, University of Idaho Library Sam Bush, Grammy Awards and nominations, Recording Academy Bio, Sam Bush official site Radio John: Songs of John Hartford, Smithsonian Folkways Sam Bush, Wikipedia New Grass Revival, Wikipedia
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more players. Bush won at Weiser in the same era as Byron Berline, and he has recorded with Alison Krauss, Stuart Duncan, and Mark O’Connor. His Bluegrass Alliance bandmate Tony Rice has a page on the guitar side of the site. His mandolin side is on his mandolin page.