All too frequently the terms “legendary” and “influential” are misapplied to en vogue musicians or mediocre acts who’ve managed to stick around long enough that they’ve been called everything else already. However, misnomers are entirely absent when speaking of legendary and influential mandolin ninja Sam Bush, who plays Spirit Square on Saturday, Oct. 7.
When Sam Bush and his band (Byron House on bass, Scott Vestal on banjo, Stephen Mougin on guitar, and Chris Brown working the drumstake) take the stage in the intimate McGlohon Theater, be prepared for the electricity they bring. Theirs is a brand of acoustic alchemy that Bush has peen perfecting since his beginnings in the group New Grass Revival.
Certainly, this is where the “legendary” moniker applies easily to Sam Bush: his and his bandmates’ vision of bucking the traditions of bluegrass in the early 1970s and integration of the sensibilities and songs of rock and jazz into their repertoire are an integral piece of the landscape that would become the jamband community. Bush is, in some circles, considered the Godfather of jamband music.
Well, he’s one of them anyway. The psychedelic rockers of San Francisco were a few years ahead of them, and jazz players had known the transcendence of group improvisation for a while. Others may have been making acoustic music in the early 1970s that merged the traditions of country music with sonic spelunking, but no one quite did it like New Grass Revival.
After several changes in lineup, New Grass Revival played its final show as an opener for the Grateful Dead on New Year’s Eve 1989. Bush certainly hasn’t suffered any. He’s gone on to play on more albums than could possibly be named with an equally infinite number of brilliant musicians. His own chops are still in full force on his most recent record, Laps in Seven (Sugar Hill), which offers a fine primer to up-and-comers (Yonder Mountain String Band, String Cheese Incident) of a master perfecting his craft.
This article appears in Oct 4-10, 2006.
