Tony Rice has always been one of my favorite guitarists. He inspired me to start flatpicking. I loved the flatted 3rds and 7ths that he uses so often. Tony got the inspiration for his style from Clarence White. Unfortunately, there aren't many good recordings of Clarence playing acoustic guitar. The one's that exist are of poor quality.

Another HUGE influence on Tony was John Carlini. Tony hired John to teach him jazz fundamentals after Tony was hired to replace Mark O'Connor in the David Grisman band. Tony then blended that style of playing with his own. That's what you hear in all of Tony's playing after he left Grisman.

Mark O'Connor was an amazing guitarist before he stopped playing guitar. I was fortunate enough to get to meet him while he was still playing and he played a 15-20 min. private set for me using my custom Martin. I was blown away by what he could do. Chet Atkins once stated that Mark was the "most talented musician that ever set foot in Nashville". Unfortunately for us, Mark had to quit the guitar because it was too hard on his hands. It was affecting his fiddle playing.

I play both acoustic and electric, but I'm way more impressed by someone who can play the complicated stuff on acoustic, because it's so much more physically demanding. There's really no comparison. They are almost like two different instruments. I've seen a lot of acoustic guitarist who can tear it up on electric, but I haven't seen many electric guitarist who can tear up an acoustic.

They do exist, but they're rare.

Bob
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http://soundcloud.com/bobcflatpicke/music-in-the-mountains