tony rice tour

Similar Artists On Tour

Tony rice merch.

concerts and tour dates

About tony rice.

• Moscow concerts Moscow concerts Moscow concerts See all Moscow concerts ( Change location ) Today · Next 7 days · Next 30 days
• Most popular artists worldwide
• Trending artists worldwide

• Tourbox for artists

Search for events or artists

• Sign up Log in

• Get the app
• Moscow concerts
• Change location
• Popular Artists
• Live streams
• Deutsch Português
• Popular artists
• On tour: no
• Upcoming 2024 concerts: none

12,582 fans get concert alerts for this artist.

Join Songkick to track Tony Rice and get concert alerts when they play near you.

Find your next concert

Join 12,582 fans getting concert alerts for this artist

Similar artists with upcoming concerts

Tours most with, past concerts.

Bloomin' BBQ & Bluegrass Festival

Shaftman Performance Hall, Jefferson Center

View all past concerts

Posters (3)

Find out more about Tony Rice tour dates & tickets 2024-2025

Want to see Tony Rice in concert? Find information on all of Tony Rice’s upcoming concerts, tour dates and ticket information for 2024-2025.

Unfortunately there are no concert dates for Tony Rice scheduled in 2024.

Songkick is the first to know of new tour announcements and concert information, so if your favorite artists are not currently on tour, join Songkick to track Tony Rice and get concert alerts when they play near you, like 12582 other Tony Rice fans.

Last concert:

Touring history

Most played:

• Knoxville (43)
• Denver (28)
• Charlotte (27)
• Baltimore (26)
• Tallahassee (25)

Appears most with:

• Peter Rowan (26)
• Vassar Clements (13)
• Tony Rice Unit (11)
• Mountain Heart (8)
• Donna the Buffalo (8)

Distance travelled:

Similar artists

• Most popular charts
• API information
• Brand guidelines
• Community guidelines
• Terms of use
• Privacy policy
• Cookies settings
• Cookies policy

Get your tour dates seen everywhere.

• But we really hope you love us.

Find anything you save across the site in your account

The Master Guitar Playing of Tony Rice

By Alec Wilkinson

I want to say something about Tony Rice, the master guitar player who died suddenly on Christmas morning, at sixty-nine, and who, by his friend, the musician Ricky Skaggs, was recalled as “the single most influential acoustic guitar player in the last fifty years.” When I was younger, Rice was a kind of hero to me. He was tall and handsome, with a terse and stoic Gary Cooper- or Sam Shepard-like manner, and I pretty much wanted to be just like him.

Rice was a specialist. He confined himself to the acoustic guitar, which he played with flat picks that he made from pieces of tortoiseshell he had bought when it was still a legal purchase. He played in duets and small ensembles, often within the context of bluegrass , the idiom that he grew up in, but he was a questing type, and, in his early twenties, he began studying harmony and playing more adventurously, and the effect was as if he had left a dialect for a language.

He had a towering technique and a severe and idiosyncratic ear. He played deftly and often very fast, sixteenth notes among high-speed tempos, and with impeccable clarity and tone. Because of his example, there are a number of acoustic-guitar players who can play fast and are deft and have interesting ideas, some of them more interesting than Rice’s—after all, they had the advantage of being able to study him closely—but almost no one, and maybe no one, has matched the ringing quality of his tone .

Another of the observations made after Rice’s death is that he did for the acoustic guitar what Jimi Hendrix did for the electric guitar, meaning that he made it express itself in ways that it hadn’t been known beforehand to be capable of. I might add that, when Rice began, the guitar in bluegrass was an unassuming member of the rhythm section. Like Charlie Christian in jazz, Rice brought the guitar to the front of the stage. Other bluegrass guitar players have to deal with him the way I have heard tenor-saxophone players say that they have to deal with Coltrane. You either sound like Tony Rice, or you’re trying to figure out how not to sound like him, but you aren’t able to avoid him.

Being a pioneer, Rice had to work out an improvising vocabulary on his own. The one he assembled, drawn largely from horn and keyboard players, was pragmatic and meticulous, and, once he had settled on it, he held to it. This made him more the deliberate kind of improviser than the ecstatic kind, but its simplicity contributed to its effect. The guitarist Chris Eldridge, who plays in Punch Brothers, told me that Rice, like B. B. King, worked expansively within a concise harmonic frame. The musicologist Alan Lomax called the genre “folk music in overdrive.” Even as quickly as the notes often went by in Rice’s playing, you had the uncanny feeling that they mattered to him; he never seemed to play anything indifferently. Whether you are a classical musician or an improviser, once you have learned to play the notes, you have to learn to deliver them as if they were thoughts that have arisen during the moment. The difference is similar to that between an amateur reading lines in a play and an accomplished actor speaking them. In addition, Rice often heard possibilities that other musicians didn’t tend to hear, and he was capable of lyrical and unexpected statements. “He had a remarkable way of being nuanced and surprising,” Eldridge said.

Rice’s abilities and reputation were such that he elevated the stature of any collection of musicians he was part of. His standing as a soloist meant that listeners sometimes were unaware of the force of his rhythm playing, but musicians weren’t. Eldridge said that Rice “could cause a bluegrass band to boil and churn the way Elvin Jones could elevate a jazz ensemble’s abilities with his ‘tempest of sound.’ ” Everyone played his or her best around Rice, Eldridge continued, “not just because of his mystique—although that was huge and something that he was aware of and could wield,” but because his rhythm playing was “free but also completely grounding. He was the ultimate rising tide.”

For the past decade, Rice had been a spectral presence in bluegrass, having withdrawn from performing. He lost his singing voice, and his hands hurt. He had been a powerful singer , with a split-tenor voice that a musician once described as having the clarity of a trumpet, but somewhere around twenty-five years ago he developed a condition called muscle tension dysphonia which affected his vocal cords. It left his speaking voice sounding strained and gravelly, and it ruined his singing voice. Bill Monroe, the founder of bluegrass, was a pure tenor, and his singing established what was called the high, lonesome sound. Rice said that he damaged his vocal cords by straining for years to sing above his range. After a certain amount of preparation and by concentrating hard, he could speak in his natural voice but only briefly. He did this dramatically in 2013 at his induction to the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. The occasion was also the last time he played guitar in public.

I first saw Rice sometime in the early seventies, at Lincoln Center, when he was in a bluegrass band called J. D. Crowe & the New South, which was a kind of finishing school for some of the best young bluegrass musicians of the era, including Ricky Skaggs. Skaggs and Rice made a record in 1980 that I listen to often. It is called “Skaggs & Rice,” and it has the two of them playing and singing mostly gospel-type duets in which their voices bind together so closely that it is like they were welded. In 1974, when I got out of college, with a degree in music, I thought I would move to Lexington, Kentucky, where J. D. Crowe & the New South were something like the house band at the Red Slipper Lounge in the Holiday Inn. I figured I would occupy a table by the stage with a cassette recorder and just more or less trace Rice.

My nerve failed me and, instead, I moved to Wellfleet, Massachusetts, at the end of Cape Cod. Someone told me about a fiddle player named Marie Rhines, who lived at the other end of the Cape, closer to Boston. Rhines was a classical musician who heard Irish and bluegrass fiddle music somewhere and had a conversion experience. She made a record called “The Reconciliation” and toured with a guitar player backing her and then asked someone who the best guitar player was and, as a result, tracked down Rice and hired him to play a brief tour with her.

I no longer remember how I figured out that Rice was staying at Rhines’s house to rehearse. I had decided by then, privately, since no one else would care, that I also wanted to be a writer, although I hadn’t written anything that had been published. I found Rhines’s phone number and called, and she answered, and I asked to speak to Rice, and she gave him the phone. I collected myself and said that I wanted to interview him for the magazine Guitar Player . This was true. I did want to interview him for Guitar Player . I figured that if he agreed, I would contact Guitar Player and tell them I had interviewed Tony Rice. He said, “I just did an interview with Guitar Player for their cover next month.” He was gracious and did not ask why I was wasting his time or what species of fraud I was. He gave the phone back to Rhines, and we talked long enough for me to say that I was also a guitar player. She said that we should play sometime, and I ended up driving down to her house a few weeks later and being hired for her next tour, since Rice by then had moved to California and was beginning a band with David Grisman, the virtuoso mandolin player. This was called the David Grisman Quintet. It had two mandolins, a guitar, a fiddle, and a bass player, and it was a sort of jazzy string band playing Grisman’s compositions, which were bluegrass inflected but gypsy tinged, too. It was novel-sounding music, depending heavily on high-wire improvisation, and Rice thrived playing it. Meanwhile, he continued to make bluegrass records, usually with an all-star band that included J. D. Crowe and was called the Bluegrass Album Band, or with his own band, the Tony Rice Unit, which played his own pieces.

The tour that Rhines hired me to play on had been advertised as Marie Rhines and Tony Rice, because he had pulled out too late for the clubs to be notified. I didn’t know this until the first date, when people were arriving, and I heard someone at the door say indignantly, “We paid to hear Tony Rice.” I was not unskilled. I did all right—I did a good Tony Rice impersonation—but I also knew that anyone who bought it didn’t know anything about bluegrass guitar playing. I had hoped one day to meet Rice and to be able to say, “I took your place on that tour you weren’t able to make with Marie Rhines,” but I never did meet him. The light he casts across bluegrass goes all the way to the border.

By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

By Amanda Petrusich

By Adam Iscoe

Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum

Hall of Fame Inductees

Recognizing the pioneers of bluegrass music.

Tony Rice was born in Danville, Virginia, on June 8, 1951. In his infancy, the family headed west to Los Angeles where Tony’s earliest musical memory is the guitar playing of his uncle, Hal Poindexter, who played in the Golden State Boys. The band, headed by Tony’s guitar and mandolin-playing father Herbert Rice, also included uncles Walter Poindexter on banjo and Leon Poindexter on bass.

Tony started out learning to play mandolin but soon switched to guitar. He made his performing debut at age nine when he sang “Under Your Spell Again” on the  Town Hall radio show. It was here that he met the Kentucky Colonels and their lead guitarist, Clarence White, who would have a profound impact on his playing. Shortly after, Tony played in a group with his brothers Larry on mandolin and Ronnie on bass, plus banjo player Andy Evans. The youngsters played a number of California venues including the Ash Grove and Troubadour nightclubs and Disneyland.

The pursuit of work created somewhat of a transient lifestyle for the Rice family and Tony’s teenage years found them living in Florida, Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina. In 1970 Tony attended Carlton Haney’s festival in Reidsville, North Carolina, where he met and joined the Bluegrass Alliance, taking the place of exiting guitar wizard, Dan Crary. Tony had previously performed as a rhythm player, while developing his lead guitar work in private. Through the Alliance, Tony came in contact with Sam Bush, another musician who shared his now widening eclectic tastes in music.

After a year with the Bluegrass Alliance, Tony left to begin a four-year stint with J.D. Crowe, whose group already included Tony’s older brother Larry. Tony credits Crowe for teaching him to play perfectly in time and with soul, to hit his notes clearly and cleanly, and how to use the guitar efficiently. Crowe’s group maintained a busy schedule, playing six nights a week with amplified instruments in hotel lounges in the Lexington, Kentucky, area. During the summer they hit the bluegrass festival circuit.

By 1975, with Ricky Skaggs a new member, the band was all-acoustic when the landmark album  J.D. Crowe and the New South  was released. Rounder 0044, as it has come to be known, set the tone for contemporary bluegrass for much of the next decade and beyond. Tony contributed some of the album’s most successful material, including “Old Home Place,” “You Are What I Am,” “Ten Degrees and Getting Colder,” and “Summer Wages.” He earned high marks for his vocals, which by now were as compelling as his instrumental work.

In 1975, Tony headed back to California to become a member of the David Grisman Quintet. The outfit was described as a combination of Miles Davis, Bill Monroe, Django Reinhart, and more. As a member of this group Tony was able to explore more deeply his interest in jazz. Tony’s playing by this time was a combination of flatpicking, crosspicking, and harmonic intervals. He released three solo recordings in the 1970s.  Guitar  and California Autumn  included members of the Crowe band. The self-titled  Tony Rice  featured members of the Grisman Quintet, fiddler Richard Greene, and others. At the end of the decade the albums  Manzanita  and  Acoustics  heralded the formation of the Tony Rice Unit.

As he continued to explore new avenues of playing, which eventually morphed into a style he called “spacegrass,” Tony also embarked on a project that paid homage to the roots of bluegrass. In 1981, along with J.D. Crowe, Doyle Lawson, Bobby Hicks, and Todd Phillips, he formed a recording supergroup, which came to be known as the Bluegrass Album Band. The  Bluegrass Album  featured stellar renderings of classics originally recorded some twenty-five to thirty years earlier by Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, and Jimmy Martin. Over a fifteen-year period, six volumes were issued. All met with critical acclaim and were among the bluegrass genre’s best sellers.

The decade of the 1980s was a good one for Tony. It began with a widely acclaimed duet album with fellow Crowe alumnus Ricky Skaggs, recreating classic bluegrass and old-time duets. Following were four Bluegrass Album Band projects, four Tony Rice Unit recordings ( Mar West ,  Still Inside ,  Backwaters , and a compilation disc called  Devlin ), a pairing with guitar legend Norman Blake, and a project titled  The Rice Brothers  that brought Tony back together with brothers Larry, Wyatt, and Ron.  Church Street Blues  featured just Tony and his guitar and vocals. With additional releases,  Cold on the Shoulder ,  Me and My Guitar , Native American , and  Tony Rice Plays and Sings Bluegrass , Tony became one of the most widely recorded artists in bluegrass.

In the ‘90s, the International Bluegrass Music Awards were initiated to recognize artists’ current popularity. The first program, in 1990, recognized Tony and the Bluegrass Album Band as Instrumental Group of the Year and Tony was honored with Guitar Player of the Year. He went on to win the Guitar Player award four more times in the 1990s. The Tony Rice Unit received the Instrumental Group of the Year Award in 1991 and 1995. Instrumental Recording of the Year awards went to  Blake & Rice 2  in 1991 and to  Bluegrass Album Band, Volume 6  in 1996.

Although the 1990s were marked by numerous awards and a multitude of CD releases, the era was noted for a forced change in the direction of Tony’s music. Early in the decade he was diagnosed with a muscle tension dysphonia, a condition that affected his vocal chords. Tony’s last performance as a singer took place in 1994. He continues to be highly regarded as an instrumentalist.

With the start of the new millennium, Tony began to relax the frenetic pace of his recorded output. The Tony Rice Unit released two projects,  Unit of Measure  and  Acoustic Swing . A recording that was produced in 1993 with David Grisman and Jerry Garcia finally saw the light of day in 2000 as  The Pizza Tapes . Tony and Larry Rice, Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen teamed for a second time, and a pair of releases showcased the talents of Tony with Peter Rowan. Despite his reduced public appearances, Tony picked up the 2007 IBMA award for Guitar Player of the Year.

In addition to the vast number of albums and CDs he has recorded over the years, Tony has appeared on several performance and instructional videos and DVDs. The authorized biography  Still Inside: The Tony Rice Story  by Tim Stafford and Caroline Wright was released in 2010. It offered an in-depth account of Tony’s award-winning life in bluegrass and beyond.

– Gary Reid is a bluegrass music historian, journalist, producer, and actor based in Roanoke, Virginia.

BMI’s database credits Tony Rice with 48 published compositions, co-compositions and arrangements, including

• “Backwaters”
• “Bullet Man”
• “California Autumn”
• “Manzanita”

Early Influences

• Herbert Rice (father)
• Flatt and Scruggs
• Clarence White/Kentucky Colonels
• Chris Hillman
• Herb Pedersen

Came to Fame With

• J.D. Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys (later New South), 1971-1975

Performed With

• Bluegrass Alliance, 1970-1971
• David Grisman Quintet, 1975-1979
• Bluegrass Album Band, 1980-1996
• Tony Rice Unit, 1978-present

Led the Way

• Major influence on modern bluegrass artists, especially lead guitarists.
• An integral performer on the legendary album,  J.D. Crowe and the New South .
• Co-founded and produced the Bluegrass Album Band, an all-star recording group.
• Pioneered the fusion of jazz and other acoustic styles to arrive at a new medium he called “spacegrass.”
• Established himself as a band leader, performing in both bluegrass and jazz idioms.
• Topped the list of the  Frets  Readers Poll Awards for Country Flatpicking Guitar, Jazz/Pop/Progressive Guitar, and Best Acoustic Album, and added to the magazine’s Gallery of the Greats, 1984.
• Received numerous IBMA awards, including Guitar Player of the Year in 1990, 1991, 1994, 1996, 1997, and 2007.
• The subject of an authorized biography,  Still Inside: The Tony Rice Story,  by Tim Stafford and Caroline Wright, 2010.
• Bluegrass Hall of Fame, 2013.
• Born one day (plus seven years) after one of his guitar heroes, Clarence White, whose legendary Martin D-28 he purchased in 1975.
• Appears with both the Bluegrass Alliance and J.D. Crowe’s Kentucky Mountain Boys in the movie  Bluegrass: Country Soul , filmed the very weekend Rice changed bands, 1971.
• Repairs and reconstructs Accutron watches.
• A big fan of vinyl, long-play albums.
• When his home in Florida was destroyed by a 1993 hurricane and his guitar was underwater for three hours, Tony dried it slowly and “it sounds better than ever.”
• Still performs instrumentally, although his singing was curtailed in 1994 by muscle tension dysphonia.

From the Archives

Stay up-to-date with the Hall of Fame!

• Name First Last
• Get Tickets
• Live Music & Events
• Venue Rental

© 2024 Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum. All Rights Reserved. Facebook Twitter Instagram

Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum 311 West 2nd St. Owensboro, KY 42301

• Visitor’s Guide
• Group Tours & Private Events
• Directions & Parking
• The Birthplace of Bluegrass
• Area Dining & Attractions
• Hotels & Lodging
• Woodward Theatre
• Outdoor Stage
• Great American Bluegrass Jam
• Instrument Lessons
• Open Bluegrass Jams
• Clogging Classes

• Subscribe to Relix
• Radio Charts
• Livestream Guide

Current Issue Details

Buy Current Issue

Published: 2021/10/11

Barry Waldrep Honors Tony Rice With All-Star Tribute Album with Warren Haynes, Oteil Burbridge, Vince Gill, Darrell Scott and More

When it comes to bluegrass guitar players there is a rare agreed-upon best among music lovers and musicians–and that person is Tony Rice. The late grate Rice was undoubtedly the most influential, beloved and inventive musician in all of bluegrass and Americana music.

Rice passed away in late 2020 , but far before his death is was apparent that his musical stylings would live on in droves long after he died in the artists he inspired.

This year on Dec. 24, the evening before the year anniversary of Rice’s death, bluegrass instrumentalist and producer Barry Waldrep will be releasing a 21-track tribute to Rice laden with special guests titled Barry Waldrep and Friends Celebrate Tony Rice .

“Music knows no boundaries and Tony created so many great examples of that. When you cross the line of other genres, that’s when you expand the audience and turn people on to other styles that they would not normally be interested in,” said Waldrep in a press release. “The intent of this album and the artists involved is to show what a powerhouse master Tony Rice was at bringing musicians and fans together from different genres.”

When one looks at the lineup it becomes abundantly apparent of the reach Rice had–even beyond bluegrass. The tribute album features jam-band royalty Warren Haynes and Oteil Burbridge, Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Spooner Oldham and Patrick Simmons, Americana Greats Jim Lauderdale and Rodney Crowell, and country stars Emmylou Harris and Vince Gill; still, that lineup is just a fraction of the guests featured on the album.

Waldrep continued to say, “All of these artists knew the music of Tony Rice very well—artists from Classic & Southern Rock Royalty to Heavy Metal, Americana, Country & Roots Gospel. Also included are some of the greatest musicians and harmony singers in the business that were influenced by Tony as well.”

Preorder Barry Waldrep and Friends Celebrate Tony Rice here .

Barry Waldrep and Friends Celebrate Tony Rice Tracklist:

Why You Been Gone So Long – Featuring Jimmy Hall

Song For The Life – Featuring Rodney Crowell

10 Degrees and Getting Colder – Featuring Darrell Scott

Blue Railroad Train – Featuring Marty Raybon

Walk On Boy – Featuring Mike Farris

Early Morning Rain – Featuring Kim Richey

Wayfaring Stranger – Featuring Warren Haynes

I’ll Stay Around – Featuring Vince Gill

Song For A Winter Night – Featuring Radney Foster

EMD – Featuring Barry Waldrep, Tammy Rogers, John Jorgenson and John Cowan

You Were There For Me – Featuring Teresa Williams and Larry Cambell

Church Street Blues – Featuring Jim Lauderdale

This Old House – Featuring John Berry

9 Pound Hammer – Featuring Pat Simmons

Four Strong Winds – Featuring John Paul White

More Pretty Girls Than One – Featuring Jacob Bunton

Summer Wages – Featuring Barry Waldrep, Tammy Rogers, Spooner Oldham

It’s Cold On The Shoulder – Featuring John Jorgenson

Bury Me Beneath The Willow – Featuring Rory Feek

Where The Soul Never Dies – Featuring Donna Hall and Kelli Johnson

Me And My Guitar – Featuring John Cowan

Show 1 Comment

1 Comment comments associated with this post

Barry Waldrep Honors Tony Rice With All-Star Tribute Album with Warren Haynes, Oteil Burbridge, Vince Gill, Darrell Scott and More - Musicians Territory

[…] post Barry Waldrep Honors Tony Rice With All-Star Tribute Album with Warren Haynes, Oteil Burbridge, Vinc… appeared first on […]

Note: It may take a moment for your post to appear

• Woodsist Festival Unveils 2024 Artist Lineup: Yo La Tengo, Real Estate, Jessica Pratt, Woods and More
• Dogfish Head Brewery Details Record Fair at New York’s Brooklyn Bowl
• David Gilmour Outlines ‘Luck and Strange,’ First Full-Length Drop in Nearly a Decade, Shares Video Preview
• Listen: John Oates Covers John Prine’s “Long Monday” with Sierra Hull for Upcoming Album ‘Reunion’
• Latest Installment of Jerry Garcia Live Series, ‘February 13th, 1976 Keystone Berkeley’ Receives Release Date
• Borderland Festival Plots 2024 Return with The Black Crowes, CAAMP, Marcus King, Dark Star Orchestra and More
• Dr. Dog Preview First New LP in Six Years with Feel-Good Single “Talk Is Cheap” and Official Music Video
• The Head And The Heart Plot 2024 Summer Tour

Most Popular

• Most Commented
• Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band Announce Fall 2024 Tour Dates
• Warren Haynes, Bill Kreutzmann, Devon Allman and More Share Tributes to Dickey Betts
• Lettuce Expand 2024 Tour Schedule: John Scofield, Ziggy Marley, BISCOLAND and More
• Phish Dive Deep for Night Two at Las Vegas’ Sphere
• Phil Lesh & Friends to Perform at San Francisco’s The Warfield in May
• Phish Change Forms for Final Sphere Performance
• Duane Betts Responds to Outpouring of Support Following Father Dickey Betts’ Passing, Shares Tour Update
• Joe Russo’s Almost Dead Drop New Northeast Tour Dates for August
• Report: Dead & Company Cancel West Palm Beach and Tampa Shows
• Willie Nelson, Bob Weir and More to Participate in ‘Biden For President’ Livestream Fundraiser
• SiriusXM Announces Launch of Phish Radio, Jam On Moves to App and Online
• Eric Clapton Releases Politically-Charged “This Has Gotta Stop”
• Thousands of Music Fans Sign Petition to Bring Jam On Back to SiriusXM
• “You Should Fuckin’ Pay Attention”: Chris Robinson Gets Frustrated at Philadelphia Crowd During “Brothers of a Feather” Gig
• Nike Confirms Grateful Dead Sneaker Collaboration, Sets Release Date
• Zach Deputy Responds to His Attendance at DC Trump Rally
• Monthly Contributors

Tony Rice Tickets

Tony Rice Concert Tickets

Grab a few friends and get ready for a night of fun with Tony Rice tickets from TicketSmarter. Tony Rice – born David Anthony Rice on June 8, 1951 in Danville, Virginia – was an acclaimed and influential bluegrass guitarist. He was able to successfully embrace and explore different variations of the genre including traditional bluegrass, newgrass and progressive bluegrass. Rice was also a master at acoustic jazz and is known for his work with David Grisman, Jerry Garcia, and others. His interest in bluegrass began when his family moved to Los Angeles, California when he was young.

He and his brothers learned the basics of bluegrass and country music from L.A.-based musicians such as Clarence White and the Kentucky Colonels. He relocated to Louisville, Kentucky and joined J.D. Crowe’s New South, one of the area’s most popular bands. In 1973, Rice recorded his self-titled debut album and participated in recording the album Bluegrass Evolution with New South.

A young Ricky Skaggs joined New South in 1974 and they recorded the album J.D. Crowe & The New South, which became Rounder Records biggest seller up to that time. Rice left the band and pursued a long and prolific career, recording a dozen solo albums including California Autumn (1975), Me & My Guitar (1986), and Nightflyer: The Singer Songwriter Collection (2008).

He also formed his own band, The Tony Rice Unit, releasing seven albums between 1978 and 2000. He joined fellow bluegrass legend David Grisman in the David Grisman Quartet, recording four albums with them. He reunited with Crowe in The Bluegrass Album Band, releasing a half-dozen albums between 1981 and 1996. Other collaborations included two albums with Norman Blake, two with Peter Rowan, and a pair of albums with his brothers Ron, Larry, and Wyatt (released as The Rice Brothers).

Tony Rice and his brother Larry teamed up with legendary banjo player Herb Pedersen and former Byrds member Chris Hillman in a group, releasing three albums as Rice, Rice, Hillman & Pedersen between 1997 and 2001. Rice also collaborated on albums with Jerry Garcia and David Grisman (The Pizza Tapes) and Ricky Skaggs (Skaggs & Rice) and played on albums by Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Béla Fleck, and many others.

In 2013, he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Hall of Fame. Rice suffered from lateral epicondylitis (aka tennis elbow) in his later years and was unable to play guitar. Tony Rice died on December 25, 2020 at the age of 69. 

Tony Rice Ticket Prices

There is a noticeable difference in Tony Rice tour tickets between each of the shows. These prices go up and down depending on the size of the venue and where each seat is located. Prices are sure to be higher for VIP upgrades than a standard general admission ticket.

How much are Tony Rice tickets?

Tony Rice tickets to live shows in major cities like New York are typically the most expensive option and can cost over $200 per ticket. Concerts in smaller cities like Minneapolis are generally more affordable. Review Tony Rice's tour schedule to compare ticket prices for an upcoming show near you.

Tony Rice Tour Dates & Concert Schedule

Tony Rice tours across the country with stops all over the United States. Right now, the Tony Rice 2024 concert schedule doesn't have any upcoming shows lined up.

Country artists like Tony Rice perform at venues across the country and fans can catch exciting festivals too like the Stagecoach Festival, in Indio, Calif., Country Thunder in Iowa, Florida, and Wisconsin or Country USA at Ford Festival Park in Oshkosh, Wisc. TicketSmarter makes it easy with our event calendar located at the top of each performer page. This helpful tool showcases all the upcoming tour dates.

Whether performing at a venue on the Country Megaticket or the Grand Ole Opry, our website makes sure you'll be the first to know. The Tony Rice concert schedule links directly to our seating chart, making it easy to buy tour tickets and find great prices.

When do Tony Rice tickets go on sale?

TicketSmarter should be your first spot to find Tony Rice concert tickets. We list seats for all upcoming tour dates right after concert schedules are released. And, you will never need a presale code on our website. Our sellers will list their inventory before the public on sale from the ticket office in most cases.

Tony Rice Seating Chart

The Tony Rice seating chart will vary depending on the venue. Larger venues such as Bridgestone Arena in Nashville have a capacity of 20,000. If you are attending Country Thunder, attendance is typically over 35,000 per day. Country USA typically welcomes over 130,000 fans each year. And Stagecoach Festival sets records every year with an attendance of over 75,000. Right now there aren't any tickets to see Tony Rice perform live.

Just a few of the potential seating options include a VIP section, box seats or suites. These often come with their own amenities such as private bathrooms, expanded menus for refreshments and even private merchandise booths. Many music festivals also offer fans these premium VIP options. Secure your Tony Rice tickets online today.

Safe and Secure Tony Rice Ticket Purchasing

TicketSmarter's worry-free ticket-buying experience ensures that you'll be kept safe as you shop for Tony Rice concert tickets and more. We value your time and business, so we've worked hard to earn your trust. You can trust our industry-leading customer service, 100% ticket guarantee, and low price guarantee to leave you safe and satisfied with each purchase.

100% Tony Rice Ticket Guarantee

All TicketSmarter country concert tickets are 100% guaranteed. Verified customers rate TicketSmarter 4.6/5.0 stars, so you can order with confidence knowing that we stand behind you throughout your Tony Rice ticket buying experience.

• Frequently Asked Questions
• 100% Guarantee
• Corporate Partners
• Charitable Partners
• TicketSmarter vs. Competitors
• Hotel & Travel Deals
• Exclusive Discounts
• Students & Graduates
• In the News
• Privacy Policy
• Don't Sell My Information
• Accessibility
• COVID-19 Update & FAQ

Ticket Smarter ® creates no claim or credit for images featured on our site unless otherwise noted. All trademarks belong to their respective owners and all visual content is copyrighted to its respective owners.

• Consequence

Upcoming Tony Rice Festivals Appearances

Upcoming tony rice concerts near me.

• Album Streams
• Upcoming Releases
• Film Trailers
• TV Trailers
• Pop Culture
• Album Reviews
• Concert Reviews
• Festival Coverage
• Film Reviews
• Cover Stories
• Hometowns of Consequence
• Song of the Week
• Album of the Month
• Behind the Boards
• Dustin ‘Em Off
• Track by Track
• Top 100 Songs Ever
• Crate Digging
• Best Albums of 2023
• Best Songs of 2023
• Best Films of 2023
• Best TV Shows of 2023
• Top Albums of All Time
• Festival News
• Festival Outlook
• How to Get Tickets
• Photo Galleries
• Consequence Daily
• The Story Behind the Song
• Kyle Meredith
• Stanning BTS
• In Defense of Ska
• Long Time No See
• Good for a Weekend
• Consequence UNCUT
• The Spark Parade
• Beyond the Boys Club
• Going There with Dr. Mike
• The What Podcast
• Consequence Uncut
• Behind the Boys Club
• Two for the Road
• 90 Seconds or Less
• Battle of the Badmate
• Video Essays
• News Roundup
• First Time I Heard
• Mining Metal

Theme Weeks

• Industrial Week
• Marvel Week
• Disney Week
• Foo Fighters Week
• TV Theme Song Week
• Sex in Cinema Week

Follow Consequence

In the News

• Bluegrass At Large
• Opinion / Humor

On the Charts

• Bluegrass Weekly
• Bluegrass Monthly
• Grassicana Weekly
• Gospel Weekly

In the Community

My Profile Logout

Tony Rice Memorial Day Music Fest coming to Camp Springs

Cody Johnson, SPBGMA’s newly-named Promoter of the Year, is adding a new festival to honor the legendary Tony Rice, at Camp Springs Blue Grass Park in North Carolina on Memorial Day weekend. 

Johnson said, “We are excited to announce that we will be adding a new festival in 2023. The Tony Rice Memorial Day Music Fest will be May 26-27.”

The lineup for the two-day event includes Blue Highway, Seldom Scene, Darin & Brooke Aldridge, Southern Legacy (Josh Williams, Don Rigsby, Scott Vestal, Aubrey Haynie, and Mike Anglin), The Kody Norris Show, The Church Sisters, Back Porch Orchestra, Caroline Owens, Franklin Station, and The Megan Doss Band. 

Pamela Rice, Tony’s widow, shared, “I am so deeply grateful to Cody and Donna Johnson, for joining India and me to establish a firm foundation to honor Tony and his musical legacy the way I always dreamed of. Best of all, to gather at the already historically hallowed ground at Camp Springs in Caswell County where it all originated.”

Johnson says, “We are excited to announce a new festival this year to honor Tony Rice. It has been a joy to work with Pam and India (Tony’s daughter) on this, also. Thanks for the continued support from everyone, and see you in May!”

Visit the Camp Springs web site for tickets and schedule information.

Other Related Articles in Bluegrass Today

MerleFest Band Competition finalists psyched to compete this year

JamVember in July coming up in Massachusetts

More Lonesome River Band photos from Big Lick

Authentic Unlimited to play in John Meador’s hometown

© Bluegrass Today 2024 powered by AhSo

ELECTROSTAL HISTORY AND ART MUSEUM: All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)

• (0.19 mi) Elektrostal Hotel
• (1.21 mi) Yakor Hotel
• (1.27 mi) Mini Hotel Banifatsiy
• (1.18 mi) Elemash
• (1.36 mi) Hotel Djaz
• (0.07 mi) Prima Bolshogo
• (0.13 mi) Makecoffee
• (0.25 mi) Amsterdam Moments
• (0.25 mi) Pechka
• (0.26 mi) Mazhor