Stoughton Opera Presents Iconic Flat-Picker

A maverick of the flat-picked acoustic guitar, Tony Rice was the first instrumentalist to seize upon the innovations of guitarists like Clarence White and Doc Watson and propel them into new flights of rhythmic, harmonic, and textural virtuosity.

By doing so in the context of a bluegrass band, he redefined that instrument’s role in bluegrass, and raised the bar for a new generation of acoustic six-stringers.

Thanks to a stint with the David Grisman Quintet, Rice has also been influenced by jazz. The Quintet offered a fusion of the rhythmic and harmonic complexity of jazz and the free-wheeling abandon of bluegrass.

This eventually led to Rice being recognized as a visionary of the new acoustic music that he calls “spacegrass.” Tony Rice is still growing. To miss the Tony Rice Unit is to miss one of music’s most daring innovators. -- www.cityofstoughton.com