Two new Hot Rize tracks – From The Vault
Hot Rize, circa 1986 – photo © Rick Gardner Photo Hot Rize is back, in a manner of speaking. Two old recordings from this wildly popular group from the 1970s and ’80s, one from the vintage group with Charles Sawtelle on guitar, and another more recent with Bryan Sutton, are set to be released in […]
Colorado Music Hall of Fame honors bluegrass legends
The Colorado Music Hall of Fame in Morrison, CO, has announced their 2021 class of inductees, honoring the huge contributions the state has made to bluegrass and jamgrass music. Selected for induction this year are The String Cheese Incident, Leftover Salmon, Yonder Mountain String Band, and Hot Rize, plus The Fox Theatre in Boulder. All [...] Charles Sawtelle Memorial Bench rededication – July 27, 2021
Last month, Dave Berry shared a lovely story about the Memorial Bench in Boulder, CO erected to honor the life and music of original Hot Rize guitarist, Charles Sawtelle, who passed away after a bout with cancer in 1999. The bench had originally been dedicated in 2012, and has suffered from the weather this past [...] Charles Sawtelle Memorial Bench gets a much needed tidying up
A local San Francisco Bay Area pickin' buddy friend, Scott Dailey, from the Stoney Mountain Ramblers, reached out to me about a project he initiated to spruce up the Charles Sawtelle Memorial Bench in Boulder, Colorado. The original bench was a collaboration between Charles' parents, the late Dan and Polly Sawtelle, and the Colorado Chautauqua [...] Looking back to the first Hot Rize visit to France in 1980
This look back to the first time Hot Rize visited France in 1980 comes in three parts. First we have the recollections of Charley Sifaqui, a French journalist, banjo picker, and bluegrass lover who had the honor of accompanying the band on the tour. Next, Pete Wernick shares his memories of that experience, and lastly [...] Nick Forster talks 40 years of Hot Rize
Photo of Nick Forster by Ted Lehmann “It wasn’t that we had this great design where it was like “oh man, we’re going to put together a band and it will last 40 years. We were young and it was an opportunity.” That’s Nick Forster’s description of how Hot Rize did — or in this [...] Nick Forster of Hot Rize injured in a bicycle accident
Hot Rize fans were surprised this weekend at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival to see the band perform without bass player and vocalist Nick Forster in tow. According to our people at the festival, Nick was injured earlier this week while riding his bicycle. A raccoon jumped out into the road in front of him, [...] Hot Rize to host 2018 IBMA Awards
The International Bluegrass Music Association has announced today that Hot Rize will host the 2018 International Bluegrass Music Awards show on September 27. The gala program will be held at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh, NC, just a short walk from the Raleigh Convention Center. The quartet is a previous [...] Hot Rize reaches 40 years of age
January 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of Hot Rize's first gigs, in Boulder, Colorado back in 1978. Often called America's Bluegrass Band, Hot Rize has always balanced innovation with tradition to create their own style of bluegrass music. Perhaps the most consistently entertaining aspect of their live shows has been their alter egos, Red Knuckles [...] More from Gettysburg, August 2016
Here's Frank Baker's second gallery of images from the August 2016 Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival. More to come! 