Bryan Sutton

[Jonathan]

Bluegrass, courtesy Bryan Sutton. I'm sure a lot of people will find this too busy, but I love it. The thing I get after watching this...after all those notes, every one of them still means something, and you can tell he knows each one by heart.

 

[Marc Roy]

Wow. Now that's impressive. Yeah, it's fast but there's just something to it...

Bryan Sutton is an incredible musician. You don't play with Ricky Skaggs and those guys unless you can really bring it, and he does.

 

[Digits_Only]

Also toured with Hot Rize and Red Knuckles and the Trialblazers! That is some serious barnyard cred.

 

[dlguitar64]

Here is another master of solo flatpick guitar

 

[Jason UP]

check out his stuff with Bluegrass Sessions (Bush, Fleck, Witcher, Douglas, etc.)....sick.

 

[Crowder]

There are a few videos online with just him and Chris Thile. Sound quality not good, but the improv and conversational playing are just over the top, in a good way.

Yes, that is an absolutely ridiculous performance.

Be sure to ask David about it if you ever meet him. He's bitter that it's out there all over the place and he hasn't earned any money from it.

 

[Crowder]

Don't follow. David who, and which performance?

The performance he and Thile put on that you posted about.

 

[Crowder]

Sorry, misunderstanding. By *him* I meant Bryan Sutton. My mistake.

But now I'm curious about the one you're talking about.

D'oh!

There's a bootleg out there of David Grier and Chris Thile that has spread widely over the years. They're in a very casual environment and play through probably 35 or more fiddle tunes with a lot of improvisation and inspired playing. It is really magical. Thile must have been in his late teens since he's barely 30 now (I think).

Grier is generally sour on the business side of the music business in the first place. The fact that so many copies of that bootleg have been spread without any royalties seems to really rankle him.

 

[beanbass]

This:

Exactly. This blew my mind a a few times over the years.

 

[beanbass]

D'oh!

There's a bootleg out there of David Grier and Chris Thile that has spread widely over the years. They're in a very casual environment and play through probably 35 or more fiddle tunes with a lot of improvisation and inspired playing. It is really magical. Thile must have been in his late teens since he's barely 30 now (I think).

Grier is generally sour on the business side of the music business in the first place. The fact that so many copies of that bootleg have been spread without any royalties seems to really rankle him.

At the Galt House for IBMA. Grier was pissed because he wanted to release it, but it already got around everywhere before he could do that.

 

[Crowder]

Exactly. This blew my mind a a few times over the years.

Those guys played on Mark O'Connor's 30-Year Retrospective release, which was recorded live in Nashville over two nights. Both provide really inspired performances, as you'd expect.

 

[Crowder]

I've posted this story before, so forgive me if you've read it in another thread.

Grier has come through here often doing his solo guitar performance, and it's always great. One particular time, either he offered or the venue asked if he would do some hour-long instruction sessions with local students. I was way into bluegrass guitar at the time so I signed up.

IIRC it was $60 or $65 for the hour. David was there, sure enough, but he didn't feel much like teaching. We played through a tune together so he could assess where I was at, and I was hoping for some feedback or ideas. He said "let's pick another one...what else do you know?" So we played another one. I had a couple of questions I wanted to pick his brain over and wasn't getting very far. Or so I thought.

He kept saying "let's just play." So we did, a few more tunes, but I was really not getting what I wanted from the interaction. I assume a lot of people would pay $65 just to play with a guitar hero. I was expecting more of a give and take. I wasn't real happy. I pulled the plug early. Maybe 40 minutes into the hour I was ready to bail.

So then as I'm paying the guy he has the gall to try to sell me some of his INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS. Er, what? No thanks.

With the benefit of age and maturity, I have come to realize that some of the pithy answers David gave me that day were actually pretty Zen and useful.

Me: "I've always struggled with building speed. Can you help me with that?"
Him: "Well, okay. The key to building speed is...building...speed. You start off real slow. Slower than you think you can play. Crawling. Then you play the same thing a teeny bit faster. And then a teeny bit faster than that. Go real slow. Build up to it. You do some of that every day and pretty soon you'll realize you can do things a lot faster than you used to could."

Me: "I find myself repeating the same stock licks instead of really improvising. How can I break that habit?"
Him: "Pretty easy. Just don't do it. Refuse. Quit. You're gonna embarrass yourself a few times when you can't think of nothin' but that's probably good for ya. It beats playing the same thing every time it's your turn. That'd be boring."

Hmm....maybe the best lesson I've ever had after all.

 

[Crowder]

I had that recording. Stunning. And Mark O'Connor ... One of the most talented guys on fiddle, mandolin and guitar there is.

And if you don't believe how good Mark O'Connor is, just ask Mark O'Connor.

 

[dlguitar64]

Those guys played on Mark O'Connor's 30-Year Retrospective release, which was recorded live in Nashville over two nights. Both provide really inspired performances, as you'd expect.

The first concert I ever attended featured Mark at 19 or 20 playing guitar (and a little fiddle) with the David Grisman Quintet
with Darryl Anger, Mike Marshall, and Rob Wasserman on a double bill with Stephane Grappelli
featuring Martin Taylor. Nothing else since has quite matched that.

 

[Crowder]

Lemme write that down. M a r k O ... How do you spell that again?

Ha!

I imported the 30-Year Retrospective CD's into iTunes. The genre was set to "Unclassifiable." At first I thought it was "Unclassified," but no.

Have you ever checked him out on YouTube? The commentary he puts below some of the old videos is a little much. Here's one example:

 

[Crowder]

Hehe.

Always fun to watch David Grisman, though. Just amazing that his head hasn't come off after years of heavy bobbing!

And O'Connor - are my eyes tricking me, or does he have huge hands?

Uuuuuge. There's no problem there, I guarantee.