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Bush bringing bluegrass to Mountain Stage
Huntington Herald-Dispatch
February 18, 2010
By: Dave Lavender
Take a look at Sam Bush's tour schedule and you get snapshot of the diversity and depth of the Kentucky native mandolin player who bridged the gap from Bill Monroe to New Grass.
Often tabbed "The King of New Grass," Bush has lectured this winter at Harvard University, roared up California and Canada with his progressive acoustic trio featuring longtime friends, Jerry Douglas and Edgar Meyer, and this spring is looking at a full festival schedule that takes in everything from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival to the Four Corners Folk Festival.
A fiftysomething who was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award, by the Americana Music Association, Bush shares his love of chunking up bluegrass with jazz, funk, reggae, rock and blues come Sunday as The Sam Bush Band is on the bill at 7 p.m. as Mountain Stage with host Larry Groce tapes a live show at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $12.50 advance and $20 at the door.
Other bands on the bill include: St. Louis veteran alt-country rockers, Bottle Rockets, Memphis soul-soaked rockers, Lucero, the Sons of Bill, out of Virginia, and Huntington's own guitar hero, Bud Carroll and the Southern Souls.
The co-founder of the genre-bending New Grass Revival and an in-demand musician who has played with everyone from Emmylou Harris and Bela Fleck to Charlie Haden, Bush is happy to share the new music off of his critically acclaimed CD, "Circles Around Me," that was released in October.
Shortly after the release of the CD, Bush had foot surgery, which put him out of commission until recently.
"In a way I feel like we're just now getting to continue to be out promoting the latest record," Bush said by phone from Chico, Calif., where he was playing a show with Meyer and Douglas. "After the surgery I couldn't walk for a couple of weeks and was in a rehab situation for about four months so I am really happy to be out playing music again. Because I love to record and I love to play but I really love getting to play with the band and to get to perform in a live situation. That's the thing I love about Mountain Stage it doesn't feel like you're specifically taping a radio show it feels like you're playing a regular show and one with friends who make it so comfortable."
Bush, who has recorded six studio albums (five for Sugar Hill) as well as "Ice Caps: Live From Telluride -- a live concert DVD," said there is no place like Mountain Stage.
He would know, Bush has been playing Mountain Stage yearly since the early 1980s with New Grass Revival.
"The show is about music and by that I mean in this day and age, when you turn on a certain music awards show and the first hour is just a dance routine," Bush said. " ... and don't get me wrong, I've been involved with playing with ballets and I understand the appeal of dance. I'm just proud that Andy and Larry have been able to continue a music show in this day and age and it is gratifying to me that music has remained the focal point of the show. I think the show has thrived because they do allow you to get on and there is no guidelines. They let you come on and present yourself as you see fit. I am really proud of them for keeping the show going because you know it can't be easy."
Although he loves playing and stretching out with Meyer and Douglas, one of his best friends and Nashville neighbors, Bush said he was anxious to get on the road with his own band of super pickers that includes Scott Vestal (banjo), Stephen Mougin (guitar and vocals), Chris Brown (drums) and bassist Byron House, who first jammed with Bush when House was 11.
"The variety is fun but my favorite thing I get to do is to play with the Sam Bush Band -- they're great pickers and I'm so fortunate to play with people like Bryon House," Bush said. "We're both from Bowling Green (Ky.) and his dad and my mom used to work at Sears and Roebuck together, and although I am seven years older we've been playing since high school."
Armed with such players as House, who was nominated for a Grammy in 2005 and who has played with everyone from the Dixie Chicks to Nickel Creek, Bush said he's stoked to share some of the new songs from his CD that was produced by Bush and that includes appearances by Del McCoury, Edgar Meyer, Jerry Douglas and New Grass Revival co-founder Courtney Johnson (posthumously).
"That is the great thing about the band we can gear our set for different audiences and actually 'Circles Around Me' is in some ways more bluegrass than anything I've recorded under my own name," said Bush, one of the headliners at the first music fest at Churchill Downs in Louisville in July. "There was no definite plan other than these songs and they all seemed to fit together."
