Tony Trischka

Tony Trischka - born in Syracuse, New York on January 16, 1949 - is a five-string banjo player who specializes in bluegrass music but has also dabbled in country, jazz, and avant-garde. He is acknowledged as one of the innovators of the ‘chromatic’ style of banjo playing. Inspired to play the banjo in 1963 after hearing “Charlie and the MTA” by the Kingston Trio, he joined the Down City Ramblers in 1965. However, he didn’t make his recorded debut until 1971 when he left the Down City Ramblers, joined the group Country Cooking and released the album 15 Bluegrass Instrumentals. After recording three more albums with Country Cooking, He then joined the group Breakfast Special in 1973 and began releasing solo albums including Bluegrass Light (1974), Melodic Banjo (1975), and Heartlands (1975). In 1977, he released his next solo album – Banjoland – alongside the self-titled debut album by his group Breakfast Special. In the 1980s, Tony Trischka kept busy with his solo career – including the albums Fiddle Tunes for Banjo with Bill Keith and Béla Fleck (1981), A Robot Plane Flies Over Arkansas (1983), and Hill Country (1985) – and formed the group Skyline, releasing four albums with them between 1981 and 1989. Throughout this period, he also branched out into film and theater, providing music for Broadway and off-Broadway productions. More acclaimed solo albums came in the 1990s and beyond – including World Turning (1995), Great Big World (2014), Shall We Hope (2021), and Earl Jam (2024) – and Tony Trischka collaborated with many artists including Steve Martin, Earl Scruggs, Tony Rice, and others. He’s won many awards over the course of his career and has written over 15 instructional books.

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