Sam Bush is a true architect of progressive bluegrass, a Grammy award winning mandolinist and fiddler whose career has spanned over five decades of musical revolution. Growing up on a Kentucky cattle farm, he was a three time national junior fiddle champion before co founding the pioneering group New Grass Revival in 1971. By infusing traditional mountain music with the improvisational spirit of rock and roll and the rhythmic pulse of reggae, he earned his reputation as the “King of Telluride” and a lifelong rebel against genre constraints. His masterful technique and high energy stage presence have made him a consensus favorite among traditionalists and jam band fans alike, leading to four International Bluegrass Music Association Mandolin Player of the Year awards and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association.

Beyond his groundbreaking work with New Grass Revival, Bush has been a premier collaborator for some of the most iconic names in American music, including five years with Emmylou Harris’s Nash Ramblers and stints with Lyle Lovett and Béla Fleck. Since launching his solo career in the mid 1990s, he has released a series of acclaimed albums that showcase his ability to seamlessly blend jazz, blues, and folk. Today, he continues to lead his own virtuoso band, serving as both a torchbearer for the legends who inspired him and a mentor to the next generation of “newgrass” vanguards. Whether he is performing at a major international festival or an intimate theater, Sam Bush remains an “inside outsider” whose joyous approach to the mandolin has forever changed the landscape of acoustic music.

 

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