Formed in Colorado during 1976, the band Hot Rize blends longstanding bluegrass traditions with forward-looking experimentation across jazz, rock, and progressive styles. Its name derives from the hidden component in Martha White Self-Rising Flour, the very item Flatt & Scruggs once advertised on radio broadcasts at the outset of their partnership. Founding members included Tim O'Brien handling lead and harmony vocals along with mandolin and fiddle, Pete Wernick on banjo and backing vocals, Mike Scap contributing guitar and harmony parts, and Charles Sawtelle covering bass guitar, additional guitar, harmonies, and lead singing. Mike Scap exited shortly after formation and was succeeded by Nick Forster, whose duties encompassed bass, guitar, vocals, and the role of onstage MC.
The ensemble made its formal introduction in 1978 and captured its self-titled debut album the following year, mixing classic and original numbers. Their next release, Radio Boogie, appeared in 1981. In 1982 the side project Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers, a playful send-up of intense 1950s country, issued its own recording under that name. Hot Rize followed with a 1984 live collection centered on established standards, then returned to the studio for Traditional Ties in 1986. Another Red Knuckles effort, Shades of the Past, surfaced in 1988. After Take It Home emerged in 1990 the group disbanded, allowing O'Brien and Wernick to pursue individual paths while Forster became executive producer of the syndicated program Etown.
Though separated, the musicians convened each year for reunion performances until Sawtelle succumbed to leukemia in March 1999 following a two-year illness. They reassembled in 2002, incorporating Bryan Sutton on guitar, and resumed touring, occasionally adopting the Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers identity. That same year they issued the live recording So Long of a Journey, drawn from 1996 performances. After more than a decade without new material—and nearly twenty-five years after their prior studio outing—Hot Rize delivered When I'm Free on Ten in Hands Records in 2014, marking their sixth album. Early member Mike Scap died in 2016 after battling cancer.
Marking four decades together, the band released the 26-track 40th Anniversary Bash in 2018, a concert captured in Boulder that also spotlighted guests Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and Stuart Duncan.
