The influential bluegrass mandolinist plays St. Cecilia Music Center in Grand Rapids on Thursday. He chats with Local Spins about his career and his love of performing live.
High Energy & A Good Variety of Music: Sam Bush and band at St. Cecilia Music Center. (Photo/Jeffrey Wilkinson
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Newgrass pioneer and mandolinist Sam Bush returns Thursday (March 26) to St. Cecilia Music Center with his band to bring improvisational jams and a unique blend of modern and traditional bluegrass elements to the stage.
“Expect a really positive experience of watching the interplay amongst the musicians. Because that’s what our band is about, we feed off each other,” Bush said of the upcoming show. “Glad to be back at the old St. Cecilia. I’ve done it a few times and it’s a great place.”
When Bush and his bandmates formed the progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival in 1971, they certainly found inspiration in traditional bluegrass legends such as Bill Monroe, but saw a future for the genre that involved elements of other genres too. Bush grew up watching The Beatles and The Rolling Stones perform their rock ’n’ roll hits on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” which served as a major inspiration for this new style of bluegrass that the band would begin to popularize.
“We believed you could take the traditional instruments and expand upon that theme by playing maybe longer jams or tunes that hadn’t been included in a bluegrass format, and that they weren’t just rural songs for rural people,” Bush said.
In 2026, the bluegrass/newgrass scene is bigger, more successful and more diverse than it has been in a long time and it’s safe to say Bush’s early efforts to breathe new life into the music he grew up with are still influencing up-and-coming artists today.
“I think one thing about newgrass style music that appeals to people is that basically it’s contemporary music played on traditional-style instruments. . . It isn’t based on trends or, you know, the current thing of the day. In fact, it’s based on the honesty of the music and what great musicianship it takes to play this style of music,” Bush said.
Sam Bush Band: Opening for Bela Fleck at Meijer Gardens in 2022. (Photo/Chelsea Whitaker)
Bush also cited the emergence of young female artists such as Molly Tuttle and Sierra Hull in the scene as a positive change he has witnessed over the years, transforming the genre from being somewhat of a “good old boys club” into something that is for everyone.
Bush has collaborated frequently with Michigan stars, performing on Greensky Bluegrass’ 25th anniversary album and joining Ionia County hero Billy Strings on stage. Suffice to say, both have been inspired by Bush and other bluegrass pioneers.
“If we’ve been influences on people like Greensky and Billy, it’s pretty gratifying because they’re excellent musicians. And now you’ve got Billy strings filling the same venue in Nashville where I saw the Rolling Stones, and Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder. So I believe Billy’s success and Greensky’s, it helps us all,” said Bush.
Bush, who spent time playing with Emmylou Harris and Béla Fleck before embarking on his own solo career, credits them with teaching him things that ended up characterizing his own music.
This cycle of inspiration proves that the progressive bluegrass scene has always and will always thrive on collaboration and learning from fellow musicians. The experience of seeing any bluegrass band live is built completely around watching musicians bounce variations and riffs off of one another in the moment, thus bringing new ideas to life on stage.
The energy at any given show can be completely different depending on the crowd and the feeling in the room that night, the mandolinist noted. In this way, the audience is invited to participate in those collaborative efforts as well.
“In a theater-style situation, as opposed to festivals, we can relax a little bit and do a few quieter kind of tunes, whereas on the festivals, we get out there and romp and stomp with energy. But there’ll be plenty of energy in this show, too. It’ll be a good variety,” said Bush, who’s currently in the studio with his band recording new songs that he hopes to release this year as part of a new record amid a busy touring schedule.
Tickets for Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. show at St. Cecilia are $65-80 and available online here: https://scmc.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/instances/a0FUL00000MbMq32AF/sectionGroups/a0bUL0000033o3NYAQ.
VIDEO: Sam Bush (Live in Maryland)
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