Category: Tony Rice

Truly, many of Tony Rice’s latter projects cannot be classified within a set genre but instead exist within the universal realm of ‘Guitar Music.’  On Unit of Measure, the picker continues to bare this distinction despite a more deliberate leaning-in toward tradition. After venturing to nearly every corner of the traditional music scene (and beyond), the peripheral experiences converge as a creative catalyst to Rice’s untimely and final reinvention of Bluegrass music.

Fresh off the recording of Backwaters, Tony Rice’s improv driven unit settled in on the stage at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. The band in tow reproduced Rice’s recent studio line-ups with John Reischman on mandolin, Fred Carpenter on violin, Todd Phillips on Bass, and Rice holding down rhythm and lead guitar. Not a banjo in sight. The Reischman-penned “That Waltz” starts off the set. With the band seeming to dance upon clouds, it is immediately apparent that the next hour of music – defying classification at the time – had no plan to be grouped in with any standard progressive bluegrass of the era.