TONY RICE & LARRY KEEL @ THE BAMA THEATER on Januray 21st, 2010

EYE DAWG PRODUCTIONS
PRESS RELEASE

LARRY KEEL & NATURAL BRIDGE
Featuring the Legendary
TONY RICE

with special guests
GRAYSON CAPPS & GUTHRIE TRAPP

Date: Thursday, January 21, 2010
Venue: The Bama Theatre, Tuscaloosa, AL
Doors @ 7PM, Showtime 8PM

TICKETS:

Advance tickets ($21 adv/$26 door) available online through Brown Paper Tickets at the below link. Get our Holiday Stocking Stuffer Special Price of $16 through New Year’s Eve.
(promotional code eyedawg)
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/92138

A SHOWDOWN IN T'TOWN:


EYE DAWG Productions is proud to bring one of the most exciting combinations in the world of bluegrass and acoustic music to The Bama Theater. It will be a stringed-showdown of epic proportions, combining energies of flat-pick guitar masters TONY RICE & LARRY KEEL.

The night will begin with a band set by rising southern song writer and roots artist Grayson Capps with the Master of all things stringed, Guthrie Trapp. Both will be featured guests in the encore jam ensemble, to include all the players that we have on hand. There will also be a late night party hosted by local favorites Shaglo. at The Mellow Mushroom that will start shortly after the music ends at The Bama (around midnight). You can get latest on all EYE DAWG events at http://www.eyedawg.com/.

EYE DAWG continues its pledge to serve the Tuscaloosa community with information and participation on our Tuscaloosa FRESH & LOCAL event program. Our sponsors and FRESH & LOCAL partners will have a major presence at this event and we continue to focus on ways to produce events that work together with emphasis on community. Tuscaloosa FRESH & LOCAL aims to bring local music, arts and foods together with local businesses to shed light and celebrate green and healthy living.

THE PLAYERS:

Tony Rice ~ (http://www.tonyrice.com/)

Rice is widely regarded as the greatest flat-pick guitarist on the planet. His career spans the range of acoustic music, from straight-ahead bluegrass to jazz-influenced new acoustic music, to songwriter-oriented folk. He is perhaps the greatest innovator in acoustic flat picked guitar since Clarence White.

Over the course of his career, he has played alongside J.D. Crowe and the New South (which included Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas), Jerry Garcia & David Grisman (during the formation of “Dawg Music”, which also included Peter Rowan & the late, great Vassar Clements), led his own groups, collaborated with fellow picker Norman Blake and recorded with his brothers.

Rice has been playing several shows a year the last few years with the incredible Larry Keel and his mighty band Natural Bridge, which has transformed into an incredible display of skill, speed, and harmonies provided by the tight band members in Natural Bridge. Rice has performed over the years at the country’s finest musical gatherings, and we at Eye Dawg Productions have been privileged to work with him many times over the last decade.

Larry Keel & Natural Bridge ~ (http://www.larrykeel.com/)

Connecting traditional songs of yesterday with their own original and inventive sounds of today, Larry Keel & Natural Bridge create astonishingly powerful acoustic music rich in heritage, heart and hot licks! With a style that evokes both atomic rock energy and dynamic tonal purity, Keel and his ensemble are intent upon taking their instruments and their voices to their fullest potential for emotion and amazement.

While paying respect to the legacy left by the forefathers of bluegrass, Keel bridges the gap between traditional and contemporary American Mountain Music. Larry Keel & Natural Bridge includes flatpicking guitar master Larry Keel (guitar, vocals), Jenny Keel (bass fiddle, vocals), Mark Schimick (mandolin, vocals), and, Jason Flournoy (banjo, vocals).

Keel grew up on the music, playing with his brothers (which he still does) on their front porch in the mountains of Virginia. He has played alongside and with many of the greatest players, including Tony Rice, Vassar Clements, Norman Blake, David Grier, Curtis Burch, Jim Lauderdale, Leftover Salmon, Yonder Mountain String Band, and many others. Both Del McCoury and Acoustic Syndicate have recorded Larry’s material. The Del McCoury Band recorded Larry’s ‘Mountain Song’ on their 2005 Grammy award winning release, The Company We Keep. Acoustic Syndicate recorded ‘Long Way Round’ as their title track for their 2004 release. He also has crossed over a bit to the jam scene, recording an album with old friend Keller Williams, and he even appeared on stage with the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir and his band Rat Dog.

Grayson Capps ~ (http://www.graysoncapps.com/)

Grayson Capps first discovered music in Alabama where he was born and raised. His father and friends would sit around the house getting drunk, telling stories and strumming acoustic guitars. They’d run down songs by Hank Williams, Tom T. Hall, Glenn Campbell and Woodie Guthrie to name but a few. The idealism of those “Cannery Row” experiences would come to define his outlook on the world.

He also had the fortune of writing four songs for the film, A Love Song for Bobby Long, starring John Travolta & Scarlett Johansson, that was based upon the unpublished novel Off Magazine Street, written by his father. That film launched a solo career where he has achieved much critical acclaim and built his audience with marathon live shows that married his keen sense of storytelling to the glory of Southern rock. He made it to Europe for a string of shows. To this day his audience continues to swell on the other side of the Atlantic.

Guthrie Trapp ~ (http://www.guthrietrapp.com/)

Born and raised on the Florida/Alabama gulf coast, Guthrie Trapp credits his family and their great love for the music that they exposed him to at young age that inspired him in a career of music. Known as a master of all things stringed, he started playing blues harmonica at age 7 with his uncle and at 10 moved on to guitar with mandolin following soon after. At 13 he joined a local bluegrass group playing lead guitar and mandolin. They played local and regional festivals and clubs up and down the gulf coast.

In 1997, Guthrie did his first master session in Nashville on Gove's "Shine on" album for No Age records. Young Guthrie was in good company on this record with John Prine, Nanci Griffith, Lari White and Ray Flacke..

At age 22 Guthrie moved to Nashville. He soon began playing with the Don Kelley band at Roberts on Broadway. During this time he got picked up by country artist Patty Loveless. Playing with her for two years landed him in the studio on two of her latest records (the latest one was nominated for a Grammy this year).

Guthrie joined the Jerry Douglas band in 2006. Touring with Jerry for three years has put him in the studio on two records, one of which, "Glide", was nominated for a Grammy this year also. The JDB supported Paul Simon for a three month tour as well as touring extensively through out the US, Canada and the UK, doing such venues as the Blue Note in NYC, the Montreal Jazz Fest and Radio City Music Hall in NYC.

Guthrie continues to live in Nashville where he is in demand as a performing and session musician on acoustic/electric guitars and mandolin. He has recently spent time playing with Dread Clampitt and Grayson Capps which has very much kept him a local favorite in his native area along the Alabama/Florida Gulf Coast.

Playing many styles with incredible authenticity and taste have landed him on stage or in the studio with a who’s who of artists and musicians such as; Garth Brooks, Alison Krauss, John Oates, Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Travis Tritt, George Jones, Bobby Bare, Jerry Douglas, Roseanne Cash, Vassar Clements, John Cowan, Sam Bush, Tony Rice, Earl Skruggs, Albert Lee, "Cowboy" Jack Clement, Taylor Hicks, Larry Keel, Gary Nicholson, Carl Jackson, Emory Gordy Jr., Barry Beckett, Bob Babbit, Willie Weeks, Danny Flowers, Greg Brown, Tom Paxton, Shanna Morrison, and The Sweet Hearts.

= http://www.eyedawg.com/ =