Jeremy Garrett

Jeremy Garrett stands out as a master fiddler and singer who helped launch the Infamous Stringdusters while pursuing parallel paths as a songwriter, independent artist, skilled guitarist and mandolinist, and studio contributor. His first solo project, Garrett Grass Gospel, appeared in 2005. He joined the founding lineup of IS in 2006 and kept up his own recordings and session dates. Sugar Hill issued his follow-up album, I Am a Stranger, in 2009. Two collections titled The RV Sessions emerged in 2015 and 2017, both captured inside the living quarters of his motor-home residence; the opening volume featured sung material while its successor concentrated on instrumentals alone. Organic Records brought out the widely praised Circles just prior to the arrival of the 2020 pandemic. He subsequently returned to duties with IS and issued the solo sets Wanderer's Compass in 2021 and River Wild in 2022.

Garrett grew up in Idaho. Bluegrass guitarist Glenn Garrett is his father, and Honi Deaton, his mother, performs gospel, country, bluegrass, and folk material. At age three his parents placed him in Suzuki violin classes with the private goal of shaping him into a bluegrass fiddler. During his teenage years Garrett appeared in several family bands, among them the Grasshoppers. He first entered a studio in 1999, supplying backing vocals for Jeannette Williams' Cherry Blossoms in Springtime, on which Rob Ickes played dobro. The Grasshoppers released their self-titled album in 2000.

After finishing high school Garrett enrolled at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, then relocated to Nashville, where he performed alongside Bobby Osborne, Chris Jones and the Night Drivers, Ronnie Bowman, Jim Hurst, and Lee Ann Womack. He returned to solo work with the 2005 gospel release Garrett Grass Gospel, on which future IS member Andy Falco contributed guitar.

The Infamous Stringdusters assembled in 2006 and began touring without delay. Their explosive stage energy, wit, and rapport with crowds quickly built a devoted audience, leading to a contract with Sugar Hill Records. Their 2007 debut, Fork in the Road, earned Song of the Year honors for the title track plus Album of the Year at the International Bluegrass Awards. After extensive dates across the United States and Canada the band recorded its self-titled second album. Once that tour concluded Garrett entered the studio to make I Am a Stranger, whose strong notices brought additional session singing and playing opportunities. The Stringdusters completed Things That Fly, their third and last Sugar Hill album, in 2010. Following festival appearances that summer they moved to High Country for 2011's We'll Do It Live and 2012's Silver Sky. During these years fans bestowed the nicknames "G Grass" and "Freedom Cobra" on Garrett in recognition of his commanding presence onstage. In the ensuing seasons, whenever IS were off the road, Garrett contributed to projects by the Hill-Benders, Jones and the Night Drivers, Peter Rowan, Missy Werner, and Jon Weisberger.

Garrett and his wife spent 2013 and 2014 traveling in their 40-foot RV; they now reside off the grid in Colorado. With a backlog of new songs in hand, he installed recording equipment inside the vehicle's living space and tracked himself on vocals and all three of his instruments, releasing the results independently as The RV Sessions in 2015. After wrapping summer festival and solo dates he rejoined IS for Ladies & Gentlemen on Compass Records, which charted on both Americana and bluegrass lists. Later that year he followed with RV Sessions 2: The Instrumentals, again handling every part himself.

Before the Stringdusters reconvened for 2017's Laws of Gravity, Garrett completed further live and studio work with Jones and the Night Drivers. That album received the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album. During a break in the next year's touring schedule Garrett joined Roland White and Friends for A Tribute to the Kentucky Colonels and added tracks to Matt Cox's High Places. The Infamous Stringdusters issued the charting Rise Sun in 2019 and returned to the road.

Garrett signed with Arden, North Carolina-based Organic Records and delivered the autobiographical solo album Circles in January 2020. The straight-ahead Americana collection reflected on his experiences as a musician, husband, and father. Forty-five days after its appearance, plans for touring were halted by the worldwide onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. With time on his hands he kept writing and demoing fresh material. In 2021 he released the solo Wanderer's Compass, which opened with a cover of Jai Uttal's raga-like "Footprints" and featured Garrett layering and electronically processing his instruments; another standout was "Magic," an ambitious country-R&B experiment that offered a contemporary rethinking of the standard "Mule Skinner Blues."

The Infamous Stringdusters resumed touring late in 2021 and recorded and released Toward the Fray in 2022. Garrett issued River Wild, cut with IS bandmates Book and Hall, guitarist and banjoist Ryan Cavanaugh, and additional musicians. The set contained a dozen originals—four instrumentals and eight vocal numbers—all produced by Garrett, and reviews were uniformly enthusiastic. In 2023 the Infamous Stringdusters fulfilled a long-standing goal especially meaningful to Garrett when they recorded and released Tribute to Flatt & Scruggs.