Jordan Tice is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter based in Nashville. He co-founded the instrumental string band Hawktail with Brittany Haas and Paul Kowert and has released seven solo records since 2006. His 2020 album Motivational Speakeasy put his voice and his solo guitar at the center. He plays flatpicking, fingerstyle, and old-time guitar in one personal style.
Why Tice matters
Most bluegrass guitarists pick one lane. Tice plays the fast flatpicking of the festival stage and the slow fingerstyle of the folk club, and he sings his own songs over both. His work in Hawktail shows what a guitar can do in a band with no vocals. His solo records show what it can do under a plain, relaxed voice. For a picker who wants to write songs as well as play breaks, he is a working model.
Life and career
Tice was born on April 9, 1987, in Annapolis, Maryland. Both of his parents played bluegrass, so he grew up around festivals and jams. He started guitar at 12, first on rock, then took jazz and classical lessons. He earned a degree in music and composition from Towson University.
He released his first record, No Place Better, in 2006 while still a teenager. Long Story followed in 2008 and The Secret History in 2011. His early playing leaned on the Tony Rice school of flatpicking. The 2011 record moved toward composed instrumental music. He played on Steve Martin’s score for a 2012 Shakespeare in the Park production. In 2014 he released You Got This, then Horse County in 2016 with the band of the same name.
Tice moved to Nashville in 2015. There he formed the trio Haas Kowert Tice with fiddler Brittany Haas and bassist Paul Kowert. With mandolinist Dominick Leslie the group became Hawktail and released Unless (2018) and Formations (2020). A 2024 record paired the band with the Swedish group Väsen. Tice also played on Nashville Obsolete by the Dave Rawlings Machine (2015) and on Carrie Newcomer’s The Beautiful Not Yet (2016).
Around 2015 and 2016 he started writing songs with words. Motivational Speakeasy (Padiddle Records, 2020), produced by Kenneth Pattengale of the Milk Carton Kids, is a solo acoustic record of guitar and voice. Place of Growth came out in 2022. He also recorded Wild Rose of Morning with Andrew Marlin and Christian Sedelmyer and the EP Badlettsville. He played on The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Vol. 1 (2020), which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album.
Playing style
Tice uses both a flatpick and his fingers. His flatpicking has the drive and clean attack of the Rice tradition. His fingerstyle work draws on blues and folk players, with a steady thumb, percussive hits on the strings, and chord voicings that move up the neck. In Hawktail his guitar acts as both rhythm section and lead voice, since there is no banjo and no singer. He keeps the pulse under the fiddle and mandolin, then steps out for a melody line without dropping the time.
His singing is casual by design. He sings close to speaking pitch and lets the guitar carry the mood. He has said he chases the live feel of a performance rather than a perfect take, and that shows in the records. Pattengale pushed him toward the stripped-down solo sound of Leo Kottke, Bert Jansch, and John Fahey for Motivational Speakeasy.
He plays a 2014 Collings D1A mahogany dreadnought, a 2016 Preston Thompson Brazilian rosewood guitar, and a Yamaha FG model he helped develop.
Influences and legacy
Tice names Norman Blake and Doc Watson as his models for blending folk styles into one voice. Tony Rice shaped his early flatpicking. As a songwriter he points to Randy Newman and Bob Dylan. He first heard music through the Allman Brothers and Jimi Hendrix.
He plays beside Brittany Haas in Hawktail and recorded with Christian Sedelmyer. He has worked with Tony Trischka, Andrew Marlin, Adam Hurt, and Yola, and he has opened for Watchhouse, I’m With Her, and David Rawlings.
Signature tunes and songs
Matter of Time Stratford Waltz Tell Me Mama Mean Old World Badlettsville.
Essential recordings
The Secret History (2011) Unless, with Hawktail (2018) Formations, with Hawktail (2020) Motivational Speakeasy (Padiddle Records, 2020) Place of Growth (2022)
Awards and honors
Grammy nomination, Best Bluegrass Album, The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Vol. 1, with various artists (2021)
Watch and listen
Tice plays and sings Matter of Time for a Bluegrass Situation session. Watch how his right hand keeps the bass moving under the vocal.
Tice plays Stratford Waltz solo at Carter Vintage Guitars. Listen to the melody and the bass line come from one guitar.
What to learn from Tice
Learn Matter of Time. It is a guitar-and-voice song, so it teaches you to keep a bass line going while you sing. The technique to steal is his thumb. Play a simple bluegrass song fingerstyle with the thumb on the bass strings and the fingers on the chord, then sing over it. Once the thumb runs on its own, the same feel carries over to flatpicked rhythm in a jam.
Sources
About, Jordan Tice official site For guitarist Jordan Tice, perfect recordings are never the goal, The Bluegrass Situation Jordan Tice: an acoustic guitar, a ramblin’ mind, and a new solo sound, WMOT Jordan Tice, Wikipedia
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more flatpickers. Tice learned from Norman Blake, Doc Watson, and Tony Rice. Chris Eldridge and Courtney Hartman work the same ground between bluegrass and songwriting.