MAINSTAY - Tony Trischka - A Tribute to Earl Scruggs
Tony Trischka is known as “the father of modern bluegrass" - New York Times
Tony was born in Syracuse, N.Y. and raised in a home filled with music. The first things he learned to play on the banjo were the Ninth Symphony and works by Aaron Copland. But the folk music his father held dear brought the work of Woody Guthrie, the Kingston Trio, Pete Seeger, and Leadbelly into center stage.
Tony positioned himself in the New York City-centered folk revival in the early ’70s and settled in among a peer group of extraordinary musicians who saw American roots music as a thriving, living language. His landmark solo debut, Bluegrass Light was a synthesis of the 20th century’s most interesting sounds: bluegrass, Van Dyke Parks’ orchestral psychedelic pop, Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Chick Corea, and Weather Report. Many other milestone albums followed which found him refining his eclectic bluegrass style and featured such new grass royalty as violinist Darol Anger, guitarist Tony Rice and mandolinist David Grisman. Béla Fleck began studying with Trischka as a teenaged bluegrass wunderkind.
Tony and his band’s appearance at the Mainstay will pay tribute to Earl Scruggs, one of bluegrass’s most beloved pioneers.