Tony Rice and 58957

I've written before about how much I love the music of Tony Rice, and when I saw the library bought copies of this, his latest, I was pretty jazzed. Turns out it's not really new; the subtitle is "The Bluegrass Guitar Collection", an instrumental best-of focusing on Tony's strictly (more on that later) bluegrass stuff -- and it came out in 2003?!?

A quick look at the official Tony Rice website reveals a 2012 release of Bill Monroe tunes -- again, a compilation of older tracks. There's a news item about a recent family tragedy, and there've been stories about Tony having carpal tunnel issues, and it's reported that he no longer sings in concert due to voice problems. But his calendar still shows Spring concert dates on the East Coast, so...?

But enough of the bad news -- how's this collection hold up? Well you have to understand this is maybe an indication of 25% of Tony's work. There's his singer/songwriter stuff interpretations, the 'jazzgrass' albums, and his outside-the-canon collaborations with Jerry Garcia, etc. That being said, it's a great introduction to Tony's guitar work, with informative liner notes (mostly by Tony himself, and he's not shy about suggesting that Bill Monroe may have attached his name to many a song he never actually wrote) and a rich overview of a stellar career. Again, it's not indicative of Tony's albums, so it's focused on the high-speed picking rather than a mix of styles. Featuring performers Norman Blake, Doc Watson, Bela Fleck, David Grisman (and many more)-- this is like a bluegrass all-star team.

Earlier I mentioned Tony's "strictly bluegrass" picking -- check out Track 18 "Cherokee" for an illustration of what I love, absolutely LOVE about Tony's playing. He throws into a bluegrass setting whatever strikes his fancy, his magpie instincts sprinkling jazz licks, whatever, into his solos, in this case, Middle Eastern licks in a bluegrass tune. Genius!

Finally, the title "58957" refers to the number of the Clarence White guitar that Tony now plays, Clarence White being the 'father of bluegrass guitar'. Tony has done Clarence proud, and this album is a great, though limited, resume.