Phillips, Grier and Flinner
Todd Phillips is the bassist of choice for many of the most innovative,as well as traditional, acoustic instrumental and bluegrass recordings made since the mid-1970s. A two-time Grammy Award winner and founding member of the original David Grisman Quintet, Phillips has made a career of consistently performing and recording with acoustic music’s finest and most creative artists.
His tone, timing, and subtly intricate bass lines make him one of the few real stylists on acoustic bass, and he is among the very best practitioners of the instrument on the scene.
David Grier is considered to be one of the premier flatpicking guitarists in the world. His crosspicking, unique phrasing, and his ability to create multiple variations on a theme are hallmarks of his playing style. David Grier’s journey started at a young age at the feet of Bluegrass legend, Bill Monroe.
David Grier’s father Lamar Grier, was a member of “Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys” in the mid-1960s. Throughout his childhood, David spent hours listening to Monroe as well as many other prominent pioneers of Bluegrass music. Among the most influential to him were flatpick guitarists Clarence White, Tony Rice and Doc Watson. David Grier quickly found a strong passion for guitar and began to develop what is now his own world-renowned distinctive style. He continues to captivate listeners with exciting new material while keeping traditional virtuosic flatpick guitar at the heart of his sound.
Multi-instrumentalist Matt Flinner has made a career out of playing acoustic music in new ways. Starting out as a banjo prodigy who was playing bluegrass festivals before he entered his teens, Flinner later took up the mandolin, won the National Banjo Contest at Winfield Kansas in 1990, and took the mandolin award there the following year. Since then, he has become recognized as one of the premiere mandolinists as well as one of the finest new acoustic/roots music composers today. He has toured and recorded with a wide variety of bluegrass, new acoustic, classical and jazz artists, including Tim O’Brien, Frank Vignola, Steve Martin, Darrell Scott, the Modern Mandolin Quartet, Dave Douglas, Leftover Salmon, Alison Brown, The Ying Quartet, Tony Trischka, Darol Anger, and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra. He has also recorded two Compass Records CDs and toured as part of Phillips, Grier and Flinner with bassist Todd Phillips and guitarist David Grier.
