In the world of acoustic music, few artists have enjoyed a career as diverse—or successful—as that of Sam Bush. A musician’s musician, Bush is a multi-instrumentalist with an impressive session resume, recording with the likes of Acoustic Alchemy, Lyle Lovett, and Doc Watson. He’s equally comfortable with fiddle or mandolin, and occasionally steps out from time to time to play guitar. At age 54, Bush is an icon of acoustic music who has inspired a generation of players, yet he remains laid back, warm, and modest.
Beginning his musical journey as a youngster in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Bush was a three-time National Junior Fiddle champion. He made his Grand Ole Opry debut at 17. In 1970, he joined the Bluegrass Alliance, which evolved into the New Grass Revival shortly thereafter. A favorite with younger bluegrass fans, the group stirred things up on the festival circuit with high-energy performances, extended jams, and a diverse repertoire that included bluegrass standards, original material, and rock ’n’ roll classics retrofitted to bluegrass instrumentation.
The late 1970s saw the group stretching their wings and by the 1980s, New Grass Revival landed a major label deal with Capitol Records, with whom they scored a Top 40 hit, “Leavin’ Baton Rouge.” After New Grass disbanded in 1990, Bush carried on doing session work, fronted Emmylou Harris’s critically acclaimed Nash Ramblers, and managed to get a few solo projects recorded along the way.
These days Bush is heading up his own outfit and has a new album in stores June 13, Laps in Seven. He recently took time to talk with Gibson about the CD, his newest mandolin, and the state of acoustic music.
Your new record is called Laps in Seven. Is it true that your dog Ozzie was the inspiration for the title track?
Yeah. That’s how the song “Laps in Seven” was written. Ozzie was drinking his water one day and I realized there was a cadence to what he was doing on rhythm. He was drinking in 7/4 time. I made up this little lick on the mandolin to go with this rhythm. Byron House and Scott Vestel came over and we were working on this tune. I laid my tape recorder down by his water bowl and we figured out a way to tack it on to the end of “Laps in Seven.” I swear we did not electronically alter his tempo. That’s him at the end of the song.
You have some impressive folks on this record.
The idea for recording with Jean Luc Ponty came about last year at Telluride. Bela [Fleck], Jean Luc, and Stanley Clark played. We’d been working on this tune “New Country.” I knew I wanted to record it, but I didn’t want to record it if Jean Luc couldn’t play on the record. For me that would make it something special if he could be on it. In this world of technology, we cut the tracks here in Nashville—the band and myself—and then Fed Ex’d Jean Luc digital information. He literally e-mailed his part back—it’s amazing. Tears of joy rolled down my face when I heard Jean Luc’s part on there. He’s so amazing. It goes without saying how much I love his playing.
This album is very diverse. There are shades of everything—John Anderson, John Fogerty, the Band, Bill Monroe—little bits of a lot styles are in there, yet it all sounds so cohesive. Did you have a problem sequencing the album?
That was the biggest challenge, sequencing. Playing was the fun part. I just wanted to try some different things. Part of that was Keith [Sewell] leaving the band to go back with the Dixie Chicks on guitar. I realized I might as well play guitar on some of this stuff myself. I knew how I wanted it to sound. I didn’t want to hire my hot-shot friends and ask them not to be themselves. That’s why I ended up playing guitar as much as I did—much of it on my Gibson Advanced Jumbo (laughs).
On the tune “I Want to Do Right,” the woman on that is Shaun Murphy, who sings with Little Feat. I’ve gotten to play with Little Feat a few times over the last few years, and we not only got her to sing a duet on the song but we got her to arrange the backup vocals in a way that a person as well versed in R&B as she is could do. I wanted a different kind of influence—the way she would do it. She whipped Byron and me into shape. We did the vocal trio behind it. Jeff Black and I wrote that one—Jeff is an amazing writer. We wanted to have good thoughts for people in New Orleans so that they can get back to their regular old job and hope they have a house to go back to. There’s all kind of thoughts on this record, for sure.
You mentioned working with Little Feat. Is there any group or individual you would like to work with but have not had the opportunity?
There are still many, many people I want to play or collaborate with. I got to have a few really good ones on this record—Emmylou Harris, Jean Luc, Buddy Miller. In years past I’ve been a little resistant to do that, because I’m so turned on with the way the band plays—Byron and Chris [Brown], and now Scott on banjo.
