Tony Rice News

Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I decided to select a great album which you and your honey can enjoy while heading to your reservations at Waffle House.

As the first instrumental album of fiddle tunes in which the guitar was the featured instrument in a bluegrass band, Dan Crary's 1970 album Bluegrass Guitar was a landmark in roots-oriented guitar music.

While you might be fooled into thinking otherwise by their traditional instrumentation and blinding picking chops, a quick listen will prove they are a highly evolved mutation of Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys.

Tony Rice is now just over 60 years old and almost 40 albums into his career. While his voice was silenced during the early 1990s due to dysphonia, he remains one of the best bluegrass instrumentalists practicing today.

According to the band's bio and other reviews, "Mountain Heart's musical virtuosity, unmatched energy and keen sense of entertainment dynamics have helped them to forge a highly unique sound, and stage show, which appeals to an incredibly wide variety of people.

About 300 pages of his autobiography have gone to the publisher, and, according to Skaggs, he has about three more chapters to go.