“I’m still the guy who wants to play in a five-piece band,” says the legendary Mandolin player Sam Bush. The three-time Grammy Award-winning artist has made a career doing things his way. Inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame twice (New Grass Revival in 2020 and solo artist in 2023), he prefers to spend his time performing live rather than recording. The Bowling, Green native, now 72 and with the energy of someone half his age, shows no signs of slowing down.
“I still want to do it while the hands and the voice still work because I find that I’ve never enjoyed playing more than I do now,” shares the musical legend who survived a bout with cancer back in 1982.
Recently tearing it up for his 50th consecutive year at Colorado’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Sam says a sense of gratitude struck him.
“I gotta say, it was a lot to take in mentally. I have had some health slips through the years.” When asked if he thought he would still be performing fifty years after his first Telluride performance, he said, “I’m just happy to be alive fifty years later.”
Remembering his first performance at the festival with New Grass Revival, “The first time we played on stage, it was just a different atmosphere. Of course playing on stage and seeing those mountains and seeing Bridal Veil Falls in the distance is overwhelming.”
Sam recalls the welcome they received. “It’s like God, is this our audience? As I said before, it’s as if the wide open spaces encouraged the wide open thinking.”
He attributes his “wide-open thinking” to his childhood.
“Growing up in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in close proximity to Nashville, Tennessee’s television stations, I got to see it all. I got to see the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and the Stones, Jefferson Airplane, Mason Williams playing ‘Classical Gas.’”
He said, “I had the greatest of WSM radio with The Ralph Emery Show, Flat and Scruggs -- I was a musical sponge!”
As Sam develops his style, he remembers some advice that the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe, gave young musicians.
“Just from being around Bill Monroe here and there, even though he loved it when people played his brand of bluegrass, he also expected you to have your own voice. I heard him say that to others over the years. I always took that to heart.”
Bush formed the New Grass Revival in 1971.
“When we came up with New Grass Revival, we were trying to point out that we were carrying on what we have learned from the Osborn Brothers, The Dillards, Country Gentlemen and Jim and Jesse.”
“We weren’t claiming that we started any movement; we were one of a bunch of bands that were varying the program. I was already influenced by the people who had already departed from traditional bluegrass.”
Among the many musicians who shaped his sound is the renowned pianist and singer-songwriter Leon Russell.
“I like to play octaves on the mandolin. There are certain octave- riffs that I know are Leon Russell phrases,” adding that New Grass Revival listened to Russell’s music while on the road.
Sam recalls working with the Lawton Oklahoma icon. “We were opening for Leon Russell, the biggest rock show for two and a half months, and it was an incredible experience. I love Leon’s music.”
The Mandolin picker also shares his love for the late Jamaican singer and guitarist Bob Marley.
“The first album by Bob Marley I heard was Natty Dread. What attracted me to reggae first was the rhythm guitar playing. Making the off-beat chunk,” Sam remembers, describing the sound. “I said, ‘Wow, it sounds like bluegrass!’”
He says Bob’s drummer, Carlton Barrett, was also a huge inspiration. “Playing a marching drum in high school, I was always interested in drum patterns. The way the reggae drums works crept into my mandolin playing.”
Returning the conversation to Newgrass, Sam says great things about younger bluegrass artists like Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle.
“I’m so proud of Molly and Billy. They are both doing a major thing for the music,” he says, adding that they constantly strive to improve and introduce new audiences to traditional bluegrass.
Sam’s advice to young musicians is, “Keep the love of music alive. If you go into the area where you’re going to start making a living, that’s not always fun. Try to return to the thought of why you wanted to play and what you love about music. That’s why you go play shows. You love music!”
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