This one-hour, multimedia presentation takes you through Tony Rice’s life – from his birth to his untimely passing in 2020.
You’ll see intimate photos, hear recently discovered music and rare videos as we trace his journey in over 80 slides.
We’ll see him growing up in a musical family, the impact of his father Herb, and the life-altering car crash that changed everything when he was eight. We’ll see photos of his first family bands.
We’ll hear Tony’s earliest recording, 1968 Session, with his uncle Frank Poindexter. We’ll watch video of his performances with the Bluegrass Alliance, and hear him sing Gordon Lightfoot’s “Ten Degrees and Getting Colder.”
Here are rare photos and clips, including of his first wife Kate Freeman, a recording by the founding DGQ, and his iconic solo on “EMD” from the original DGQ album. We’ll experience some hot live recordings from a 1977 European tour with Bill Keith. We’ll hear cuts from the first three “Tony Rice Unit” recordings.
We’ll learn of his marriage to Leela, “the great love of his life,” in 1980. We’ll see what divorce, in 1985, did to him.
We’ll hear Tony sing “Molly and Tenbrooks” from the first “The Bluegrass Album” recordings, the title song from Church Street Blues, a recording so influential the Punch Brothers recorded their take on its entirety as Hell on Church Street.
We’ll learn of Herb Rice’s passing and what it meant to Tony. And we’ll discuss Tony’s album Native American, with it’s tribute in cover photo and song to Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth.
Tony’s last marriage was to Pamela Hodges in 1989. His last time singing out was at the 1994 Gettysburg Festival. The last song he sang was “Your Love Is Like a Flower.” We’ll listen to a rare live recording of it.
We’ll hear of Tony, at the 2005 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, walking off stage after one set, and calling the “Rowan & Rice” agent to cancel the rest of the tour. His right hand ached so from osteoarthritis, he couldn’t hardly hang on to the pick.
We’ll hear Tony’s last recorded singing, on Tom Waits’ sad goodbye song, “Pony.”
We’ll hear Tony’s acceptance speech, some of it in his “natural voice,” at IBMA in 2013. That’s also when he played guitar for the last time in public, on “True Life Blues.” We’ll watch a live recording of it.
In his final years, unable to play guitar or sing, Tony became a master of Accutron watch repair. He became reclusive. His health went down hill.
He was found at his home in Reidsville on December 25, 2020, Christmas night.
We all love and miss Tony.
This tour of the people and music in his life is my tribute to him. – BA