Russ Carson grew up in a home full of old-time and bluegrass music. Surrounded by banjo and fiddle music from a very early age Russ developed a passion for the banjo and acoustic music. His father Glenn, who has been building banjos since 1975, is an old-time fiddle & banjo player.
At age 10 Russ heard Earl Scruggs play on a recording. This kindled a strong desire to start taking banjo lessons. His supportive parents contacted local banjo teacher Nev Jackson and got Russ signed up as a student. After 6 years with Nev he was able to take occasional lessons from musicians such as Alan Munde, Bill Keith, Jens Kruger, Tony Trishka, Mike Munford, Chris Warner, Tom Adams and Jeremy Stephens. This provided Russ with a solid foundation to start building his own style. Having grown up with old time music and his father's friendships with players like Bob Buckingham, Reed Martin and Jimmy McCown, he also developed an interest in playing old time clawhammer banjo.
His first opportunity to use everything he learned came into play when he was given a chance to perform with Virginia based bluegrass band, Gold Heart. The two years spent with them really helped Russ get a taste for the music industry and provided him the opportunity to play in an established touring band. During this time period Russ finished his first solo project "Last Chance" on Tom Mindte's Patuxent Records Label. This project includes the picking talents of Michael Cleveland, Patrick McAvinue (fiddle), Marshall Willborn (bass), Jake Stargel (guitar), and Dominick Leslie (mandolin) and vocals from Marshall, Jeff Parker, Brandon Rickman and the Gold sisters.
After Gold Heart Russ was given the chance to play with Audie Blaylock in his powerhouse bluegrass band Redline for over three years. This time spent with Audie and Redline really helped hone his ability to listen, play solid time, interact with the other musicians and learn the banjo's role in making the band sound as part of the whole. Audie would often say, "a great band is a team effort, not just the acts of one person carrying the whole unit". Throughout the past six years while playing with Gold Heart and Audie and Redline, he also had a great opportunity to work with and learn from some other bluegrass legends including Del and Ronnie McCoury, Bobby Osborne, Glen Duncan, Carl Jackson, Lou Reid, Jason Carter, Jason Moore, Jimmy Van Cleve, Scott Vestal, Kenny & Amanda Smith, Aaron Ramsey & many more. Russ currently performs with Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder.
This is Russ' Mel Bay Artist Interview with Erica Lee. He also teaches a Mel Bay Pro lick.
www.melbay.com
www.russcarson.com
Produced by Rob Haines
www.robhainesstudio.com