Interviewing Sam Bush

I just interviewed Sam Bush for a story in Marquee Mag. It's always fun to talk with someone who remembers your name, and says it periodically during the interview--makes you think, "hey, this guy knows me!"

Sam is a guru on the mandolin, part of the Newgrass Revival from the 70's and 80's that led into a lot of the modern bluegrass sounds like Nickel Creek and Bela Fleck. He's played with all the kings and likes to mix in some electric on top of the acoustic whenever he can. He plays an old mandolin that he calls, "Hoss"--a 1937 Gibson F5. He really loves Hoss, but the instrument is becoming too fragile to take around to all the dry and hostile climates (like that of Colorado), so he mostly plays some mandolins that Gibson built for him, called the Sam Bush model, and really copied after Hoss.

Sam was in Florida today and for the holidays. At the end of the month he and his band will fly to Anchorage, Alaska for a NYE bash with the David Grisman Quartet. And Hoss won't be going along. It was a fun interview.