There is only one consensus pick of peers and predecessors, of the traditionalists, the rebels, and the next gen devotees, for bluegrass music’s ultimate inside outsider (or is it outside insider?). There is only one Sam Bush. The mandolin/fiddle/guitar-playing icon has taken the genre to new heights over a 50+ year career having worked with such legends as Leon Russell, Emmylou Harris, Béla Fleck & The Flecktones, and Lyle Lovett. In 2009, the Americana Music Association awarded Bush the Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist. Punch Brothers, Steep Canyon Rangers, and Greensky Bluegrass are just a few present-day bluegrass vanguards among so many musicians he’s influenced. His performances are annual highlights of the festival circuit, with Bush’s joyous perennial appearances at the town’s famed bluegrass fest earning him the title, “King of Telluride.” “With this band I have now I am free to try anything. Looking back at the last 50 years of playing newgrass, with the elements of jazz improvisation and rock-&-roll, jamming, playing with New Grass Revival, Leon, and Emmylou; it’s a culmination of all of that,” says Bush. “I can unapologetically stand onstage and feel I’m representing those songs well.” Experience the legendary instrumentalist in live performance with his band in Worcester, MA on Friday, June 9, 2023.
