David Grier is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 acoustic guitarist. He is considered to be one of the premier flatpicking

Flatpicking

Flatpicking is a technique for playing a guitar using a guitar pick held between two or three fingers to strike the strings...

 guitarists in the world. His unique phrasing and his ability to create multiple variations on a theme are hallmarks of his playing style. He was named "Guitar Player of the Year" by the International Bluegrass Music Association

International Bluegrass Music Association

The International Bluegrass Music Association, or IBMA, is a trade association to promote bluegrass music.Formed in 1985, IBMA established its first headquarters in Owensboro, Kentucky. In 1988 they announced plans to create the International Bluegrass Music Museum as a joint venture with...

 three times (1992, 1993 and 1995).

Grier performs solo and as a member of the group Psychograss

Psychograss

Psychograss is an American bluegrass band, consisting of fiddler Darol Anger, mandolinist Mike Marshall, banjoist Tony Trischka, bassist Todd Phillips, and guitarist David Grier. They have released three studio albums entitled Psychograss , Like Minds , and Now Hear This ....

, founded by Darol Anger

Darol Anger

-Career:Darol Anger entered popular music at the age of 21 as a founding member of The David Grisman Quintet. Anger played fiddle to David Grisman's mandolin in The David Grisman Quintet's 1977 debut. He co-founded the Turtle Island String Quartet with David Balakrishnan in 1985 and performed,...

 and Mike Marshall

Mike Marshall (bluegrass musician)

Mike Marshall is an American mandolin player and multi-instrumentalist who grew up in central Florida and now lives in Oakland, California. Marshall has been a part of New Acoustic Music since the early 1980s. He has performed and recorded with many musicians in a variety of styles, including...

.

Grier grew up in a very musical household. Grier's father, Lamar, was a banjo

Banjo

In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

 player in Bluegrass

Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

 legend Bill Monroe

Bill Monroe

William Smith Monroe was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader...

's band for a number of years. Roland White

Roland White

Roland White is an American bluegrass music artist, performing principally on the mandolin.-Biography:At an early age, White formed himself, his two brothers and his sister into a bluegrass band which performed locally...

 was a major musical influence on the young Grier, and helped him learn to play. Grier's guitar playing is also heavily influenced by that of the legendary Clarence White

Clarence White

Clarence White was a guitar player for Nashville West, The Byrds, Muleskinner, and the Kentucky Colonels. His parents were Acadians from New Brunswick, Canada...

, Roland's brother.

Grier owns his father's 1955 Martin D-18. The D-18 was his main guitar for a number of years but is now "retired." He also played a Nashville Guitar Company dreadnought, built by renowned luthier

Luthier

A luthier is someone who makes or repairs lutes and other string instruments. In the United States, the term is used interchangeably with a term for the specialty of each maker, such as violinmaker, guitar maker, lute maker, etc...

 Marty Lanham in Nashville, TN

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

, the guitar was sold in 2009 with the music store Elderly Instruments

Elderly Instruments

Elderly Instruments is a musical instrument retailer in Lansing, Michigan, United States, with a reputation as a "megastore", a repair shop and a locus for folk music including bluegrass and "twang". Specializing in fretted instruments, including acoustic and electric guitars, banjos, mandolins,...

. His current principal guitar is a Martin D-28 built in 1946.

Selected discography

• Freewheeling
• Climbing the Walls (with Mike Compton)
• The Grass is Greener (with Richard Greene
  Richard Greene
  Richard Marius Joseph Greene was a noted English film and television actor. A matinee idol who appeared in more than 40 films, he was perhaps best known for the lead role in the long-running British TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood, which ran for 143 episodes from 1955 to 1960.It has been...
  
   and the Grass is Greener)
• Lone Soldier
• Panorama
• Psychograss (with Psychograss)
• Hootenanny
• Phillips, Grier, and Flinner (with Todd Phillips
  Todd Phillips
  Todd Phillips is an American screenwriter and film director. He is best known for directing the comedy films Road Trip, Old School, The Hangover, and Due Date.-Early life:...
  
  and Matt Flinner)
• I've Got the House to Myself
• Now Hear This (with Psychograss)

External links

• Official Website