There was a time when the disciples of Bill Monroe believed in authenticity presented with the seriousness of a Kentucky preacher's Sunday sermon. But it was in the hippie hollers of San Francisco that rock, blues, jazz and folk met and mingled with bluegrass in a crazy, tie-dyed, roadside revival of styles. Guitarist Peter Rowan is one of the few to have strong ties to both scenes. After catching his first major break as a member of Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, Rowan joined Jerry Garcia's short-lived newgrass side project, Old & In the Way. Meanwhile Tony Rice found himself on the more progressive side of the tracks from the beginning, getting his start with Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas as members of J.D. Crowe's New South before joining forces with master mandolinist David Grisman. It was inevitable that Rowan's and Rice's paths would eventually cross, allowing the two to spread their testament of pickin' and grinnin' together as the modern-day Peter and Paul of newgrass.
