David Grier (born 1961) is a flatpicking guitarist based in Nashville, Tennessee. He won IBMA Guitar Player of the Year three times, in 1992, 1993, and 1995. His father, Lamar Grier, played banjo with Bill Monroe, and David grew up backstage at the Grand Ole Opry. He has recorded more than 15 albums under his own name since his 1988 debut Freewheeling.
Why Grier matters
Grier took the fiddle tune apart and put it back together. Most flatpickers learn a tune and play it the same way each time. Grier improvises on it, with banjo-style rolls, slides, and rhythms that push against the beat. He made crosspicking a full solo language rather than a trick for one part of a break. If you hear a guitarist play Salt Creek with notes that ring into each other instead of ticking like a clock, that idea passed through Grier.
Life and career
Grier was born in 1961 in Washington, D.C. His family moved to Nashville when he was three. His father, Lamar Grier, played banjo in Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys from 1965 to 1967. David started guitar at age six on a cheap nylon-string, then earned his way onto his father’s instruments. He grew up on Monroe, Clarence White, Tony Rice, and Doc Watson.
He placed second at the National Flat Pick Guitar Championship in Winfield, Kansas, in 1980. At 20 he joined a Virginia band called Full Time. In 1985 he moved back to Nashville and toured with Country Gazette and Doug Dillard. He also formed the Big Dogs with Andrea Zonn and Tony Trischka.
In 1988 Rounder released Freewheeling, his first solo album. Climbing the Walls (1991), Lone Soldier (1995), and Panorama (1997) followed on Rounder. In 1996 he co-founded Psychograss with Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, and Todd Phillips. He played on True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe, which won IBMA Album of the Year and Recorded Event of the Year in 1997. In 1998 he started his own label, Dreadnought Recordings.
His later albums include Hootenanny (1998) with Dirk Powell and Tim O’Brien, I’ve Got the House to Myself (2002), Live at the Linda (2007), Evocative (2009), and Fly on the Wall (2014). In 2015 he formed the Helen Highwater String Band with Mike Compton, Shad Cobb, and Missy Raines. That band got him singing in public, and Ways of the World (2019) became the first album to feature his voice. It includes new takes on Salt Creek and Billy in the Lowground.
Playing style
Grier plays like a banjo player who picked up a guitar. He says it himself: “there are a lot of rolls in my playing, like banjo rolls in my cross-picking.” He credits that to growing up with his father’s banjo in the house. His crosspicking spreads a melody across three strings so the notes ring into each other.
He does not want a solo to sound like a typewriter. He uses slides to get the pick out of the way and let a string keep ringing. His phrasing pushes and pulls against the beat, and he treats a fiddle tune as a starting point for improvisation rather than a script. On Crossing Salt Creek from Ways of the World he tracked two guitars with different capo positions so each part has its own voice.
His main recording guitar is a 1947 Martin D-28. He also plays a 1955 Martin D-18 that belonged to his father, a 1989 Santa Cruz, and a Mark Whitebook guitar that Clarence White gave him.
Influences and legacy
Grier grew up on Bill Monroe through his father, and his crosspicking rolls come from the banjo he heard at home. His guitar models were Clarence White, Tony Rice, and Doc Watson. White gave him a Mark Whitebook guitar, and White’s crosspicking is the seed of Grier’s approach.
He has played beside Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, Todd Phillips, Tim O’Brien, Dirk Powell, Mike Compton, and Missy Raines. Acoustic Guitar magazine named him one of the ten most influential artists of the 1990s. He teaches at workshops and camps, and his solos circulate as tab books and video lessons.
Signature tunes and songs
Salt Creek Billy in the Lowground Lone Soldier Cascade Sometime Next Summer.
Essential recordings
Freewheeling (Rounder, 1988) Lone Soldier (Rounder, 1995) Panorama (Rounder, 1997) I’ve Got the House to Myself (Dreadnought, 2002) Ways of the World (Dreadnought, 2019)
Awards and honors
National Flat Pick Guitar Championship, Winfield, second place (1980) IBMA Guitar Player of the Year (1992) IBMA Guitar Player of the Year (1993) IBMA Guitar Player of the Year (1995) IBMA Album of the Year, True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe (1997) IBMA Recorded Event of the Year, True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe (1997)
Watch and listen
Grier plays his tune Cascade solo. Watch his right hand roll across the strings.
Grier plays Sometime Next Summer for Acoustic Guitar magazine. Listen for the slides and the notes that ring past the beat.
What to learn from Grier
Learn Salt Creek the plain way first, then listen to Crossing Salt Creek on Ways of the World and steal one idea from it. Do not try to copy the whole break. The technique to steal is crosspicking with a roll pattern. Take a G chord, pick a three-string roll the way a banjo player would, and move the melody note around inside it. Then add a slide into the melody note so the pick gets out of the way. That is the sound of a note ringing instead of ticking, and it is the fastest way to make a fiddle tune sound like yours.
Sources
About, David Grier David Grier, IBMA award recipients David Grier, Wikipedia David Grier discography, Wikipedia Guitar Talk: Nashville Picker Extraordinaire David Grier Is Happy to Play Anything, Acoustic Guitar Bluegrass Guitar Innovator David Grier Brings a New Voice on Ways of the World, WMOT Walnut Valley Festival winners archive, alphabetical (PDF)
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more flatpickers. Grier built on Clarence White and Tony Rice. Bryan Sutton works the same Nashville ground. Molly Tuttle and Grant Gordy also treat fiddle tunes as material for improvisation.