Jon Stickley is a flatpicker from North Carolina who leads the Jon Stickley Trio, an instrumental band of guitar, fiddle, and drums based in Asheville. The trio has released four albums since 2015. Before that he played guitar in Broke Mountain Bluegrass Band, which won the RockyGrass band contest in 2003 with future members of the Infamous Stringdusters, Greensky Bluegrass, and Leftover Salmon.
Why Stickley matters
Stickley took the flatpicking he learned from Tony Rice records and put it in front of a drum kit and a pedalboard. His trio plays odd time signatures, punk energy, and surf guitar lines on an old Martin dreadnought. He proved that a bluegrass guitarist can write a whole set of instrumentals without a singer and hold a festival crowd. For a jammer, he is the case for learning the tradition first and then bending it.
Life and career
Stickley grew up in Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. His father gave him his first guitar lessons at age 12. He played in rock bands as a teenager, and the Chapel Hill indie bands Superchunk and Archers of Loaf shaped his taste. In his senior year of high school a banjo player asked him to join a band, and that pulled him toward acoustic music. A trip to MerleFest and lessons with local teacher Hawksi Pope turned him into a flatpicker. He went to college planning to become a park ranger, and bluegrass jams changed the plan.
In 2003 he joined Broke Mountain Bluegrass Band in Colorado with Travis Book, Anders Beck, Andy Thorn, and Robin Davis. The band won the RockyGrass band contest in Lyons, Colorado, that summer and played through 2004. Its members went on to the Infamous Stringdusters, Greensky Bluegrass, and Leftover Salmon. The band reunited at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in June 2019.
Stickley moved to Asheville in 2006. He played mandolin and bass in other people’s bands before starting his own project. The Jon Stickley Trio began with a mix of sung covers and original instrumentals. In 2015 drummer Dave King of the Bad Plus produced the band and pushed them to drop the vocals. Stickley resisted at first, then agreed it was the most original version of what the band did.
The trio has released Lost at Last (2015), Maybe Believe (2017), Scripting the Flip (2020), and Meantime’s Up (2023). Fiddler Lyndsay Pruett plays in the band. Patrick Armitage was the first drummer, and Hunter Deacon holds the drum chair now. The trio has played Suwannee Springfest, Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion, and other roots festivals.
Playing style
Stickley picks hard. His right hand hits the strings with force, and his left hand mutes to keep the attack clean. He leans on natural harmonics at the fifth, seventh, and twelfth frets. He plays a worn 1956 Martin D-18 with D’Addario EJ17 strings and Blue Chip picks.
His pedalboard sets him apart from most flatpickers. He runs an Electro-Harmonix MicroPOG for an octave drop, a Boss DD-3 delay, a Holy Grail Nano reverb, and a TC Electronic Ditto looper for the soundscapes between tunes. Under the effects, the lines are bluegrass: long runs and melody-first phrasing. The trio writes in odd meters and builds arrangements around the guitar as a lead voice and a rhythm engine at once.
Influences and legacy
Stickley names Tony Rice on the David Grisman Quintet records as the source of his approach. He calls David Grisman his main influence for the way Grisman built Dawg music on top of Bill Monroe. The trio also draws on the Bad Plus and Weather Report. His father and Hawksi Pope taught him.
His Broke Mountain bandmates included Andy Thorn, Travis Book, and Anders Beck, who went on to Leftover Salmon, the Infamous Stringdusters, and Greensky Bluegrass. The trio has been covered by the New York Times and NPR’s World Cafe.
Signature tunes and songs
Future Ghost Animate Object Death by Rainbow In and About In the Pines, with Broke Mountain.
Essential recordings
Lost at Last, Jon Stickley Trio (2015) Maybe Believe, Jon Stickley Trio (2017) Scripting the Flip, Jon Stickley Trio (2020) Meantime’s Up, Jon Stickley Trio (2023)
Awards and honors
RockyGrass Band Contest winner, with Broke Mountain Bluegrass Band (2003)
Watch and listen
The official video for Animate Object by the Jon Stickley Trio, from Organic Records. Watch how the guitar carries both the rhythm and the melody over the drums.
What to learn from Stickley
Learn In the Pines, the song Broke Mountain played to win RockyGrass. It is a slow song, and a slow song exposes your tone. The technique to steal is his natural harmonics. Touch the string over the twelfth fret without pressing, pick hard, and lift. Then try the seventh and fifth frets. Stickley uses those bell notes as a hook and as a way to mark the end of a phrase. Add one harmonic to the end of your next break and see how much space it opens up.
Sources
Jon Stickley, flatpicking into the future, Premier Guitar Jon Stickley’s bluegrass band ditched vocals and found its voice, Blue Ridge Public Radio BGS 5+5: Jon Stickley, The Bluegrass Situation Broke Mountain Bluegrass Band reunion at Telluride, Bluegrass Today Media, Jon Stickley Trio official site Jon Stickley Trio, Organic Records Jon Stickley, Preston Thompson Guitars Jon Stickley Trio, Lost at Last, Discogs Jon Stickley Trio, Wikipedia
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more flatpickers. Stickley built his approach on Tony Rice with the David Grisman Quintet. Grant Gordy later held the guitar chair in that band. Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle are two more players who take bluegrass guitar past its usual borders.