Tony Rice (1951 to 2020) was the most copied bluegrass guitarist of the last fifty years. He played lead and rhythm with J.D. Crowe and the New South, the David Grisman Quintet, the Bluegrass Album Band, and his own Tony Rice Unit. He won IBMA Guitar Player of the Year six times and a Grammy in 1983. The IBMA put him in its hall of fame in 2013.
Why Rice matters
Before Rice, most bluegrass guitarists kept time and took a short break now and then. Rice made the guitar a full lead voice. His solos had the drive of a banjo and the note choice of a jazz horn player. His rhythm playing gave a band a pulse that every picker since has tried to copy. If you play a flatpicked break in a jam today, some of it came from him.
Life and career
Rice was born on June 8, 1951, in Danville, Virginia. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was an infant. His father, Herb Rice, played guitar and mandolin and led a band called the Golden State Boys. Tony played in public from age nine. That same year Clarence White let him try a 1935 Martin D-28 with an enlarged soundhole. Rice bought that guitar in 1975 and played it for the rest of his career.
In 1970 Rice joined the Bluegrass Alliance, where he played beside Sam Bush. In 1971 he moved to J.D. Crowe’s band, which became the New South. The 1975 Rounder album J.D. Crowe and the New South, known by its catalog number 0044, put Rice beside Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas. The Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry in 2024.
Rice left Crowe in 1975 and moved to San Francisco to join the David Grisman Quintet. There he studied chord theory and improvisation with John Carlini. This work led to the sound fans call spacegrass. He formed the Tony Rice Unit in 1978 and recorded Manzanita for Rounder in 1979 with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and Todd Phillips. From 1980 to 1996 he also co-led the Bluegrass Album Band with Crowe. In 1983 Rice and the New South won a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance for Fireball.
Muscle tension dysphonia took Rice’s singing voice in the 1990s. His last vocal performance came in 1994. Arthritis and tennis elbow later ended his public guitar playing. His last live guitar performance came at his hall of fame induction in 2013. He died at home in Reidsville, North Carolina, on December 25, 2020, at age 69.
Playing style
Rice set his action low, so low that the strings came close to buzzing. That setup let him play fast runs across the whole neck, and he used the high register more than most bluegrass players of his time. He also used crosspicking and harmonic intervals in his breaks.
His timing came from J.D. Crowe. Crowe drilled him on precision, and you can hear it in his rhythm work. His solos mixed percussive blues lines with jazz chord tones and long improvised passages. With the Tony Rice Unit he wrote chamber-like arrangements that left room for those long solos. That mix gave his playing a sound you can name in three seconds.
The 1935 Martin D-28 is part of that sound. It was Clarence White’s guitar first. Santa Cruz Guitar Company later built a signature model based on it.
Influences and legacy
Rice’s first influence was his uncle Hal Poindexter, then Flatt and Scruggs, then Clarence White and the Kentucky Colonels. He also listened to John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery, and Gordon Lightfoot, and he cut a full record of Lightfoot songs. J.D. Crowe shaped his sense of time. John Carlini taught him harmony.
He recorded duo albums with Norman Blake, Ricky Skaggs, and David Grisman. His brother Wyatt Rice played rhythm guitar in his band and later taught at East Tennessee State University. Most modern flatpickers name Rice as a source, and Bryan Sutton counts him as a key influence. Tim Stafford co-wrote his authorized biography, Still Inside: The Tony Rice Story, published in 2010.
Signature tunes and songs
Church Street Blues Nine Pound Hammer Blackberry Blossom Old Home Place Manzanita Jerusalem Ridge Cattle in the Cane.
Essential recordings
J.D. Crowe and the New South (Rounder, 1975) Manzanita (Rounder, 1979) Church Street Blues (Sugar Hill, 1983) Skaggs & Rice (1980) Tone Poems, with David Grisman (1994)
Awards and honors
Grammy Award, Best Country Instrumental Performance, with the New South for Fireball (1983) IBMA Guitar Player of the Year (1990, 1991, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2007) IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year, Tony Rice Unit (1991, 1995) IBMA Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year, Blake and Rice 2 (1991) IBMA Collaborative Recording of the Year, Will the Circle Be Unbroken Vol. III (2003) IBMA Album of the Year, Celebration of Life: Musicians Against Childhood Cancer (2006) IBMA Liner Notes of the Year, Tony Rice: The Bill Monroe Collection (2012) International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame (2013) J.D. Crowe and the New South added to the National Recording Registry (2024)
Watch and listen
Rice plays the title track from Manzanita. Watch his right hand stay loose through the fast runs.
Rice and the Manzanita Band play at the IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards. Listen to how his rhythm guitar drives the band.
What to learn from Rice
Learn Church Street Blues from the 1983 record. It is a solo guitar and voice piece, so every note is exposed. The intro teaches crosspicking, bass runs, and how to fill space in a song without a band. The technique to steal is his rhythm playing. Sit with the Manzanita record and play along with only chords. Copy the strong downbeat bass note, the light upstroke, and the way he holds back instead of pushing the beat. A jam with one Rice-style rhythm player sounds better than a jam with three fast soloists.
Sources
Tony Rice, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Tony Rice, IBMA award recipients Tony Rice, A Giant of the Acoustic Guitar, Dead at 69, NPR Tony Rice, virtuoso bluegrass guitarist, dies at 69, The Washington Post Tony Rice, Wikipedia J.D. Crowe and the New South (ROU 0044) selected by the Library of Congress, Bluegrass Today The Tony Rice Unit, Manzanita, Discogs Tony Rice, Church Street Blues, Discogs Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice, Skaggs & Rice, Discogs
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more flatpickers. Rice learned from Clarence White and recorded with Norman Blake. Bryan Sutton and David Grier carry his approach forward. His brother Wyatt Rice played rhythm in his band.