In celebration of what would have been Tony Rice’s 75th birthday, Acoustics, the genre-defying 1978 debut from the Tony Rice Unit, returns to vinyl for the first time in nearly 50 years. Arriving December 4 via Craft Recordings, the instrumental album brings together an all-star cast including David Grisman, Sam Bush, Richard Greene, Mike Marshall and more.
The new vinyl edition features all-analog (AAA) mastering by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, while the remastered album will also be available in standard and hi-res digital formats. Offering a preview of the release, the single, “Blues for Paradise” is available to stream today.
BEYOND BLUEGRASS
By the time Tony Rice formed the Tony Rice Unit, he had already established himself as a formidable bluegrass guitarist. After serving as lead vocalist and guitarist in J.D. Crowe’s legendary New South, Rice returned to California in the mid-’70s to join the David Grisman Quintet.
Playing alongside Grisman opened up new territory. Rice began digging further into jazz and classical music while expanding his approach to the guitar, setting the stage for an ensemble built specifically to follow those ideas wherever they led.
The Tony Rice Unit would eventually describe its boundary-pushing style as “Spacegrass.” Extended improvisation met jazz, classical and even prog-rock influences, all played on acoustic instruments. Acoustics was where that approach first took shape on record.
AN ALL-STAR UNIT
Unlike Rice’s earlier vocal-driven work, Acoustics is entirely instrumental, leaving plenty of room for the musicians to trade ideas in real time.
Rice is joined by mandolinist and violinist Sam Bush, violinist Richard Greene, mandolinist Mike Marshall and bassist Todd Phillips, with David Grisman making a guest appearance on “Blues for Paradise.”
Across eight tracks, the group moves from the high-energy “Gasology” and sweeping “New Waltz” to “Swing ’51,” a nod to Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. They even take on Wes Montgomery’s jazz standard “Four on Six,” recasting it through an entirely acoustic lineup.
A NEW ACOUSTIC ROAD
Released in November 1978, Acoustics helped lay the groundwork for the “new acoustic” genre that would develop over the following decade.
The Tony Rice Unit continued pushing its sound on Mar West in 1980 and Backwaters in 1982, while Rice’s solo work could move in another direction entirely, including the more traditional folk and bluegrass of 1983’s Church Street Blues.
That ability to move between traditions without being boxed in by them would become a defining part of Rice’s four-decade career.
LISTENING NOTES
“Gasology”
Start here if you want to hear the Tony Rice Unit come out of the gate flying. The opener immediately makes it clear that “acoustic” doesn’t mean restrained.
“Blues for Paradise”
David Grisman drops in for this one, making it a particularly fitting snapshot of the musical circle that helped Rice stretch bluegrass in new directions.
“Four on Six”
Wes Montgomery without the electric guitar. The Unit takes the jazz standard and shows just how naturally this music could move onto acoustic strings.
“Swing ’51”
A tip of the hat to Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli that lets Rice and company explore another branch of the jazz family tree without leaving their acoustic setup behind.
“New Waltz”
Slow things down here. Its more graceful feel gives the record some breathing room and shows that the Unit’s adventurousness wasn’t dependent on speed.
STILL PUSHING FORWARD
Over the decades that followed, Rice recorded more than a dozen albums under his own name and dozens of collaborative projects, including work with the Rice Brothers, Norman Blake and the Bluegrass Album Band. His guitar also appeared on recordings by artists including Béla Fleck, Emmylou Harris and Mary Chapin Carpenter.
But Acoustics captures a particularly interesting turning point: Rice assembling a group expressly to see how far acoustic music could stretch.
Nearly five decades later, the album’s return to vinyl puts that experiment back in focus, capturing a group of remarkable players finding new possibilities in the instruments they already knew inside out.
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