Wayne Rice

Merry Christmas

You Just Can’t Have Too Much Banjo

Three banjos! Steve Martin, Tony Trishka and Bela Fleck. Enjoy!

Jack’s First Fish

We had a nice visit from all three of our grandkids over the weekend and I took them out fishing in Mission Bay on Saturday afternoon. Our youngest (age 3) grandson Jack hooked up his first fish, a 6 inch mackerel and it scared him half to death. But I think it was just the [...]

Steve Martin’s Backup Band

I am so envious of these guys. The Rangers On Playing With Steve Martin from SteepCanyonRangers on Vimeo.

Singing with Johnny Cash

Here’s a fun sing-a-long that my old band Brush Arbor did with Johnny Cash and his family (Mother Maybelle Carter, June Carter Cash, Anita Carter and his daughters Rosie and Rosanne)  on an NBC-TV special in December, 1973.  We’re on the back row wearing our “Nudie Suits.”  The clip opens with a quick shot of [...]

Alison Brown at Anthology

Marci and I went to see Alison Brown last night at a local San Diego supper club called Anthology. Yesterday’s San Diego Reader carried an interview with Alison which included a nice mention for my radio show: “And I tuned in every Sunday night to Wayne Rice’s Bluegrass Special on KSON. He’s still on the air and [...]

The Rice Kryspies: 40 Years Ago

I began my youth ministry career as a club director for Ventura County (California) Youth for Christ in 1963.  Folk music was getting real popular about that time (Joan Baez, the Kingston Trio,  Bob Dylan, the New Christy Ministrels) so we formed our own folk groups as a way to be “relevant” with teenagers.  The [...]

Demon Banjos

An interesting post from the Dallas Morning News religion blog: “My grandfather had this conversion experience and went to West Virginia Wesleyan. He was kicked out of a church in 1919 for playing the banjo with the youth group. Obviously everybody knew the banjo was an instrument of Satan! … Beware the demon banjo.” Funny, same thing [...]

Teens on Bluegrass

OK, I know bluegrass isn’t going to replace hip hop anytime soon as the music of choice for teenagers, but I’m no longer surprised by groups like the The Doerfels who suddenly appear out of nowhere.  I don’t know too much about this family band except they are from Florida and just released a new [...]

Got bad news? Just add banjo.

A funny commercial from Alaska airlines, probably based on the old Steve Martin routine.  Not a bad idea, actually. Alaska Airlines - Banjo