Bluegrass Legend Tony Trischka at The Down Home

Tony Trischka is considered the consummate banjo artist and one of the most influential banjo players in the roots music world. For more than 50 years, his stylings have inspired a whole generation of bluegrass and acoustic musicians – everyone from Béla Fleck to Steve Martin – with the many voices he has brought to the instrument.

Trischka was recently given extremely rare recordings of jam sessions featuring Earl Scruggs and John Hartford. He’s transcribed many of Scrugg’s solos from these jams note-for-note, most of which Earl never recorded. Together with his ace band, Tony uses his concerts – titled EarlJam – to trace Earl’s story from his childhood to his final years. The show debuted at Joe’s Pub in New York City, and Tony recently performed some of the works on the Grand Ole Opry. A full record of these works will come out later this year, so the only way to currently experience it is at one of his live performances. Check out Tony’s recent performance of “Brown’s Ferry Blues” from the album alongside Billy Strings here.