In celebration of what would have been Tony Rice’s 75th birthday, Craft Recordings has announced the return, on 5th June 2026, to vinyl of his 1977 self-titled album, which has been out of print for more than 40 years.Newly remastered from the original tapes and back on vinyl for the first time in over 40 years, the album features an all-star line-up including David Grisman, J.D. Crowe, and Jerry Douglas.
The recording captured a shift in bluegrass toward a more expansive, ensemble-driven sound, blending bluegrass standards with contemporary compositions. The album returns to vinyl, cut from the original tapes with all-analogue (AAA) mastering by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, with packaging that replicates the original 1977 jacket design. The remastered album will also be available across digital platforms in standard and hi-res audio.
Rice is joined by an all-star line-up of collaborators: his brother, mandolinist Larry Rice; former bandmates J.D. Crowe (banjo, backup vocals) and Jerry Douglas (dobro); members of David Grisman’s quintet: fiddler Darol Anger, bassist Todd Phillips, with Grisman on mandolin, plus legendary fiddler Richard Greene. Together, they blend folk, blues, and bluegrass standards; Bill Monroe’s Big Mon, the Jimmy Martin/Paul Williams-penned Mr Engineer, and traditional material like Hills of Roane County and Banks of the Ohio, with progressive compositions from contemporaries, including Grisman’s Rattlesnake and David Nichtern’s Plastic Banana.
Tony Rice can be re-saved/ pre-ordered at this link. The first single, Rice’s take on the traditional folk ballad, Banks of the Ohio, has been released, and you can listen to it below.
