Among bluegrass music's most innovative flatpickers stood Tony Rice, whose command of the idiom's conventions never prevented him from defining newer directions. Memberships in the Bluegrass Alliance, J.D. Crowe's New South, the David Grisman Quintet, and the Bluegrass Album Band formed the backbone of his career, yet his wide-ranging tastes also surfaced in solo work, joint recordings with flatpicking guitar ace Norman Blake, and family sessions alongside brothers Larry, Ron, and Wyatt as the Rice Brothers. In 1996 he joined Chris Hillman, Herb Pedersen, and Larry for the tradition-centered album Out of the Woodwork.
Southern California upbringing gave Rice both his start and his early models; his father performed with West Coast bluegrass outfits and drew heavily on such California-based ensembles as the Dillards and the Kentucky Colonels, whose influential guitar picker Clarence White left a lasting mark. A 1970 move to Kentucky placed Rice among the founding members of the Bluegrass Alliance, an early standard-bearer for contemporary bluegrass. The early-1970s association with J.D. Crowe's New South, which also featured Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas, further advanced a refreshed hill-country sound. A 1975 jam session with inventive mandolin player David Grisman prompted Rice's return to California and the creation of the David Grisman Quintet; the five years he spent in that ensemble helped establish the "newgrass" approach Grisman labeled "Dawg Music." Upon leaving, Rice assembled another bluegrass supergroup, the Bluegrass Album Band, with J.D. Crowe, Bobby Hicks, Doyle Lawson, and Todd Phillips, yielding five notable albums despite the project's part-time status.
Solo releases and those credited to the Tony Rice Unit spanned a wide spectrum, from the jazz-inflected Mar West—containing bluegrass-style renderings of material by Miles Davis and John Coltrane—to more singer/songwriter-focused efforts such as Cold on the Shoulder, Native American, and Me & My Guitar, where his virtuosic guitar work and soulful vocals illuminated songs by Ian Tyson, Phil Ochs, and Gordon Lightfoot. A full-length survey of Lightfoot material, Sings Gordon Lightfoot, appeared in 1996, the same year Rice revisited classic bluegrass numbers on Plays and Sings Bluegrass. In 1997 he formed Rice, Rice, Hillman & Pedersen with brother Larry Rice, Chris Hillman, and banjoist Herb Pedersen; the all-star quartet issued three albums through 2001. Although dysphonia had largely stilled Rice's singing voice since the early 1990s, his instrumental prowess remained undiminished, as heard on the Rounder collaborations with Peter Rowan: 2004's You Were There for Me and 2007's Quartet. The 2011 release Tony Rice Sings and Plays Bill Monroe offered further encouragement. Election to the International Bluegrass Hall of Fame followed in 2013, an event that became one of his last public appearances once severe lateral epicondylitis, commonly called Tennis Elbow, rendered guitar playing too painful. Rice died at his home in Reidsville, North Carolina, on December 26, 2020, at the age of 69.
