Russ Barenberg | |
|---|---|
 Barenberg in 2008 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | October 8, 1950 U.S. |
| Genres | Bluegrass, traditional bluegrass |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer |
| Instrument(s) | Acoustic guitar, mandolin |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Labels | Rounder, Compass |
| Website | russbarenberg |
Russ Barenberg (born October 8, 1950) is an American bluegrass musician.
Barenberg began playing guitar at age 13, taking lessons from Alan Miller, whose brother, John Miller, Barenberg would later play with. His style was heavily influenced by the flatpicking technique of Clarence White. He attended Cornell University and met Pete Wernick there in 1968. Together they joined to form Country Cooking, who released two albums of bluegrass before breaking up in 1975. [1]
In 1975 Barenberg briefly began playing electric guitar with a jazz rock group, Carried Away. Late in 1975 he quit playing music, but returned in 1977, moving to New York City to play in the group Heartlands. This group also played backup on Barenberg's debut solo effort, Cowboy Calypso, in 1980. He then moved to Boston, teaching at the Music Emporium in Cambridge. Here he played in the groups Fiddle Fever and Laughing Hands.
In 1986 Barenberg moved to Nashville, where he has played often with Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer and Maura O'Connell, and done much work as a session musician with Béla Fleck, Hazel Dickens, Mel Tillis, and Randy Travis, among others. He has released several instructional videos. [2]
"Russ Barenberg is one of the most melodic instrumentalists and composers in contemporary bluegrass and acoustic music. Best known for his own unique style of flatpicking, Barenberg often uses his other three fingers to enhance rhythm and melody and create a more textural sensitivity." [3]
In 2007, his song "Little Monk" was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Country Instrumental Performance. [4] Since 1995 he has been a member of the house band for the Transatlantic Sessions television programs on the BBC.
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, playing music from bluegrass, jazz, classical, rock and various world music genres. He is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Fleck has won 15 Grammy Awards and been nominated 33 times.
Charles Samuel Bush is an American mandolinist who is considered an originator of progressive bluegrass music. In 2020, he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame as a member of New Grass Revival. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame a second time in 2023 as a solo artist.
Pete Wernick, also known as "Dr. Banjo", is an American musician.
Anthony Cattell Trischka is an American five-string banjo player. Sandra Brennan wrote of him in 2021: "One of the most influential modern banjoists, both in several forms of bluegrass music and occasionally in jazz and avant-garde, Tony Trischka has inspired a whole generation of progressive bluegrass musicians."
Maura O'Connell is an Irish singer. She is known for her contemporary interpretations of Irish folk songs, strongly influenced by American country music.
Gerald Calvin "Jerry" Douglas is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer. He is widely regarded as "perhaps the finest Dobro player in contemporary acoustic music, and certainly the most celebrated and prolific." A fourteen-time Grammy winner, he has been called “dobro’s matchless contemporary master,” by The New York Times, and is among the most innovative recording artists in music, both as a solo artist and member of numerous bands, such as Alison Krauss and Union Station and The Earls of Leicester. He has been a co-director of the Transatlantic Sessions since 1998.
James Bryan Sutton is an American musician. Primarily known as a flatpicking acoustic guitar player, Sutton also plays mandolin, banjo, ukulele, and electric guitar. He also sings and writes songs.
Andrew Edward Statman is a noted American klezmer clarinetist and bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist.
William Bradford "Bill" Keith was a five-string banjoist who made a significant contribution to the stylistic development of the instrument. In the 1960s he introduced a variation on the popular "Scruggs style" of banjo playing which would soon become known as melodic style, or "Keith style".
The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo is a 2009 album by Steve Martin, featuring Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Earl Scruggs, Tim O'Brien, Tony Trischka and Mary Black. It contains 15 songs and is the first album focusing on Martin as a musician. Martin's 1977 comedy recording Let's Get Small, however, did feature him briefly playing the banjo during some of the comedy bits, and The Steve Martin Brothers devotes one side to banjo playing, including earlier renditions of some of the music presented here. It was first released on January 27, 2009, as an Amazon.com exclusive and then released to retail stores everywhere on May 19, 2009. On January 31, 2010, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album at the 52nd Grammy Awards.
Under the Wire is the third solo album by dobro player Jerry Douglas, released in 1986. It was his first release on the MCA label. Under the Wire was reissued on CD by Sugar Hill in 1995.
Restless on the Farm is the seventh solo album by dobro player Jerry Douglas, released in 1998.
Best of the Sugar Hill Years is a compilation album by dobro player Jerry Douglas, released in 2007. It contains music recorded while Douglas was on the Sugar Hill label.
Daybreak is a compilation album by American banjoist Béla Fleck. His next compilation, Places which was released in 1988, Fleck continued to merge his bluegrass roots with forays into other genres, which turned into his Flecktones project in the 90's.
Crossing the Tracks is the first album by the American banjoist Béla Fleck, released in 1979.
David Grisman has issued albums with his groups the David Grisman Quintet and Old & In the Way, performed in duos with Jerry Garcia, Andy Statman, Martin Taylor, Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, John Sebastian, Tony Rice, and played in the psychedelic band Earth Opera with Peter Rowan. He has produced solo albums and collaborated with musicians in many genres.
Transatlantic Sessions is the collective title for a series of musical productions by Glasgow-based Pelicula Films Ltd, funded by- and produced for BBC Scotland, BBC Four and RTÉ of Ireland. The productions comprise collaborative live performances by various leading folk, bluegrass and country musicians from both sides of the North Atlantic, playing music from Scotland, Ireland, England and North America, who congregate under the musical direction of Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas to record and film a set of half-hour TV episodes. The Television director is Mike Alexander and the producer is Douglas Eadie.
Tim O'Brien is an American country and bluegrass musician. In addition to his 22 solo albums and his recordings with Hot Rize, he has been featured as a performer on many albums by other artists.
Dudley Dale Connell is an American singer in the bluegrass tradition. He is best known for his work with the Johnson Mountain Boys, Longview, and The Seldom Scene.
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