Bowling Green native Sam Bush, a pioneer of the progressive bluegrass movement known as “newgrass” and member of the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, is about to release his first album in six years.
The album, “Radio John: Songs of John Hartford,” will be out Nov. 11.
A tribute to Bush’s longtime friend and collaborator John Hartford, the album includes some of Bush’s favorite songs from Hartford’s catalog and one original song, “Radio John,” that Bush wrote with John Pennell.
Bush plays acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo, electric bass and fiddle on every song except for “Radio John,” the full band finale on the album.
Bush said the new album is what he calls “my love letter to John Hartford’s music.”
Bush recalls first hearing about Hartford in 1967 when he was growing up in Bowling Green.
“I remember my dad would climb up on top of the house and adjust the antenna so that we could watch the Grand Ole Opry,” he said. “There were five or six syndicated shows from the Grand Ole Opry, and one of them was called ‘The Wilburn Brothers Show.’ ”
That’s where Bush first saw Hartford play the three-finger banjo.
“I really wanted to explore this person and see who he was,” he said.
To satisfy his curiosity, Bush and his dad traveled to the Ernest Tubbs Record Shop in Nashville to purchase one of Hartford’s albums.
Bush said he also recalls seeing Hartford on a banjo segment on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” “which was pretty interesting to me as a young bluegrass fan.”
Then, two years after Bush saw Hartford on “The Wilburn Brothers Show,” he had the chance to see Hartford in concert at Diddle Arena.
“I was a senior in high school playing in the Warren Central marching band,” he said. “I really wanted to see that concert, but it was the same night I was playing in the band during a rainy halftime show. So, after we played, here I was – this young kid in a muddy band uniform – heading straight from the football field to Diddle Arena.”
Bush first met Hartford in the 1970s when he and his band, Bluegrass Alliance, played at Bill Monroe’s Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival and they ended up in a jam session with Hartford and his band.
“It was great,” he said. “I was getting to meet my musical hero and jam along with him.”
That meeting led to a long friendship and many years of playing music together.
Bush said the idea of a new album dedicated to Hartford happened during a pre-pandemic trip to Destin, Fla., with his wife, Lynn.
“We love to go to Destin,” he said. “I like to take my instruments and recording devices, and I began thinking about songs of his that I have loved since I was a kid.”
When Bush began having trouble with one of his devices, he called on a friend, Donnie Sundal, co-owner of Neptone Recording Studio in Destin, for help.
Sundal brought along an entire professional rig, and they began laying down tracks for the new album.
The album includes nine songs written by Hartford and the original song, “Radio John,” which has already been released.
“Radio John” is about Hartford as a young DJ in the 1960s at KSTL in St. Louis and is a song that “tells about his amazing talents.”
“I called my good friend John Pannell,” said Bush. “John also loves Hartford’s music, so we started writing it in 2020 over the phone because we were in lockdown.”
Another single off of the album, “In Tall Buildings,” was released a few weeks ago.
“John wrote that song in the ’60s, and re-released it in the ’70s, when I played harmony with him,” he said.
Bush said his decision to make a new album after six years “just kind of happened.”
“Basically, the album was done because I truly love John’s music,” he said. “Twenty years ago, when he passed, I never planned on doing a John Hartford tribute. I found myself growing closer to these songs during the pandemic. They really mean a lot to me. The bottom line is that these songs are comforting and make me feel something.”
