Last year, on Christmas Day 2020, we lost the great Tony Rice. He was an influential acoustic guitar player not just for the bluegrass community but for the folk and acoustic jazz worlds as well. He was undoubtedly one of the best acoustic players at his peak, and likely since. His credits are too numerous to mention here, but some career highlights include playing in the Bluegrass Alliance, the New South and collaborations with Ricky Skaggs, David Grisman Bela Fleck and Jerry Garcia to name a few. 

Guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, Barry Waldrep a student of Rice’s playing and one of the Bluegrass community’s current veterans has been working on a tribute to Tony Rice with other musicians over the course of the past year, and will release Barry Waldrep and Friends Celebrate Tony Rice on December 24th a record he plays on, produced and has poured tons of love into. The album is full of a who’s who of the bluegrass, folk and Americana communities, and includes collaborations with Jim Lauderdale, Larry Campbell, Vince Gill, Warren Haynes amongst others.It was my great pleasure to catch up with Barry to talk about Tony, the forthcoming compilation and much more.

First song: Blue Railroad Train

Second song: I'll Stay Around

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