Ian Ly is a flatpicker from Santa Cruz, California. He won the National Flatpicking Championship at Winfield, Kansas, in 2023, after five years of entering the contest. He plays guitar in Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, a young California group signed to Engelhardt Music Group in Nashville. He took up the guitar in 2016.
Why Ly matters
Ly won Winfield seven years after he started guitar. He did it with a plan that goes against contest habit: no fixed arrangement, and a mandolin instead of a guitar for backup, because he wanted a timekeeper and nothing more. For a jammer, that is the lesson. Confidence in the melody and in your own improvising beats a memorized arrangement that can fall apart under pressure.
Life and career
Ly grew up in Santa Cruz. He started with piano lessons in fourth grade. In 2016, in high school, he got interested in bluegrass and picked up the guitar. He studied with Steve Palazzo in Santa Cruz for four to five years, and Palazzo gave him a grounding in the history of bluegrass and American traditional music. He also studied with Jake Workman. He learned tunes from the Norman Blake and Tony Rice duet album.
He entered the Winfield flatpick contest for five years running. In 2022, listed from Aptos, California, he placed third behind Holten Doucette. In 2023 he won. The prize was a Collings Winfield Model guitar. He played the finals with Scott Schmidt on mandolin for backup.
Ly joined Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band in 2023. The band, with Teo Quale on mandolin, Miles Quale on fiddle, and Andrew Osborn on bass, signed with Engelhardt Music Group in September 2024. Their first single for the label was Roland, an instrumental built around the guitar. Their album I Still Remember June came out in 2025, recorded at Sony Music Studios in Nashville, with Jim Lauderdale as a guest. Ly also plays in The High Water Line, a bluegrass band in San Francisco, and studies visual communications design at San Francisco State University.
Playing style
Ly plays melody-first flatpicking with a clean, relaxed right hand. In his own words, he did not over-practice before the 2023 contest. He trusts improvisation and does not tie himself to an arrangement. That shows in his contest video, where the variations grow out of the tune instead of being bolted on.
He plays a Bourgeois with Crying Uncle. At home and on local gigs he plays a 1980 Santa Cruz Tony Rice model. He also has the Collings he won at Winfield.
Influences and legacy
Ly’s teachers were Steve Palazzo and Jake Workman. His listening runs through Norman Blake and Tony Rice. He came up in the Santa Cruz jam scene, where he is a regular at the Crepe Place jam. In Crying Uncle he plays beside the Quale brothers, who came up through California’s Kids on Bluegrass program.
Essential recordings
Roland, Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, single (Engelhardt Music Group, 2024) I Still Remember June, Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band (Engelhardt Music Group, 2025)
Awards and honors
National Flatpicking Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, first place (2023) National Flatpicking Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, third place (2022)
Watch and listen
This is Ly’s winning set at the 2023 National Flatpicking Championship. Listen for the mandolin backup and for how loose the arrangement is.
What to learn from Ly
Learn one tune from the Norman Blake and Tony Rice duet record, the way Ly did. The technique to steal is his contest mindset. Play a tune you know with only a mandolin or a metronome behind you. No chords to lean on means you have to state the melody and keep the time yourself. That is the skill a jam needs from a guitar player when the banjo drops out.
Sources
Winners archive, alphabetical, Walnut Valley Festival California Report: Guitarist Ian Ly of Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, Bluegrass Today 2023 Walnut Valley instrumental contest winners from Winfield, Bluegrass Today Contest winners at the 50th annual Walnut Valley Festival, Bluegrass Today Crying Uncle signs with Engelhardt Music Group, Bluegrass Today I Still Remember June, Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, Bluegrass Today
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more flatpickers. Ly studied with Jake Workman and learned from records by Norman Blake and Tony Rice. Holten Doucette won the year Ly placed third, and Eric Hardin won the year after Ly.