Mention Tony Rice and you’ll hear a lot of responses – he’s known for being a little eccentric, some say dark, but all say talented. Recently, his was the closing performance in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.’s first ever StringTime in the Smokies, a two-day festival that also headlined Del McCoury. Rice’s flatpick guitar work lived up to his legend for talent – and for eccentricity, at least musically.
Blue Ridge Country caught up with him a couple weeks later from the studios of WVTF public radio in Roanoke, Va. whose jazz programming Rice listens to whenever he’s home in North Carolina. We spoke the day after fiddle legend Vassar Clements died, and the day before Rice was to leave for Nashville, where he would serve as a pallbearer at Clements’ funeral. Rice talked about bluegrass and about jazz, and how the two have blended together in his playing over the years.
