As a teenager, Sam Bush played mandolin for Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass, and got a deadpan verdict: stick to the fiddle. He kept playing mandolin anyway, and the Kentucky State Legislature eventually named him the father of newgrass by a unanimous 37 to 0 vote. This deep dive traces his upbringing in Bowling Green, Kentucky, learning from his father’s record collection and the Flatt and Scruggs television show, buying his first mandolin at 11, attending the 1965 Roanoke Bluegrass Festival, and winning the junior division of the National Old Time Fiddlers Contest in Weiser, Idaho, three times.

We follow the 1969 album Poor Richard’s Almanac, the 1970 Union Grove revelation of seeing the New Deal String Band, his move to Louisville and the Bluegrass Alliance, and the 1971 founding of New Grass Revival, where he was the sole constant member through 1989 alongside John Cowan, Pat Flynn and Bela Fleck. The episode covers touring with Leon Russell, the Nash Ramblers years with Emmylou Harris, the 1989 Telluride supergroup Strength in Numbers, the Sam Bush Band albums including Glamour and Grits and Laps in Seven, three Grammy awards, four IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year honors, the King of Telluride title, and two International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame inductions in 2020 and 2023.

• How mastering the rules of traditional fiddle prepared him to break them
• The mandolin chop weaponized to mimic a rock drummer without an amplifier
• Why flawless technique forced traditionalists to respect a rebel
• Learning as a sideman for Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett and Garth Brooks
• Strength in Numbers and applying jazz conversation to acoustic strings