Hot Rize
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the bluegrass band. For the self-rising flour, y'all go see Martha WhiteMartha WhiteMartha White is a U.S. brand of flour, cornmeal, cornbread mixes, cake mixes, muffin mixes and similar products.The Martha White brand was established as the premium brand of Nashville, Tennessee-based Royal Flour Mills in 1899...
.
Hot Rize is a 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...
band that rose to prominence in the early 1980s. Established in 1978, the founding members were Mike Scap (guitar), Tim O'Brien
Tim O'Brien (musician)
Tim O'Brien is an American country and bluegrass musician. In addition to singing, he plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki and mandocello...
on mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
and fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
, Pete Wernick
Pete Wernick
Pete Wernick, also known by many as "Dr. Banjo", is an American musician.He is a five-string banjo player who has been involved in the bluegrass music scene since the 1970s, writing several instruction books and videos on how to play the banjo. He's also known for his own musical style called...
on 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...
and Charles Sawtelle on bass.
Mike Scap was soon replaced by Nick Forster (electric bass), allowing Charles Sawtelle to switch to acoustic guitar.
The band played together and issued 6 studio albums until they disbanded in 1990. From 1991-98 the band played several reunion dates each year. Following the death in 1999 of Charles Sawtelle, Hot Rize re-grouped in 2002, adding Bryan Sutton
Bryan Sutton
Bryan Sutton is an American musician. Primarily known as a flatpicked acoustic guitar player, Sutton also plays many other instruments including mandolin, banjo, and electric guitar....
to play the guitar. When touring, Hot Rize often performs as a Western swing
Western swing
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...
band called Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers.
Early history
Hot Rize started performing in January, 1978. They soon established the main line-up consisting of Tim O'BrienTim O'Brien (musician)
Tim O'Brien is an American country and bluegrass musician. In addition to singing, he plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki and mandocello...
on mandolin, fiddle and lead vocals, Nick Forster on electric bass, harmony vocals, and emcee work, Charles Sawtelle, on guitar and occasional lead vocals, and Pete Wernick
Pete Wernick
Pete Wernick, also known by many as "Dr. Banjo", is an American musician.He is a five-string banjo player who has been involved in the bluegrass music scene since the 1970s, writing several instruction books and videos on how to play the banjo. He's also known for his own musical style called...
, "Dr. Banjo".
The first, self-titled album was recorded in 1979 with follow-up "Radio Boogie", released in 1981.
Hot Rize has appeared on national radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and TV shows, and has toured most of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, as well as Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Origin of the band name
The band takes its name from the leavening ingredient found in Martha White flour and cornmeal products. Hot Rize often performs the theme song to the now defunct Martha White Biscuit and Cornbread Time. Flatt and Scruggs performed the theme song when they appeared on WSM'sWSM (AM)
WSM is the callsign of a 50,000 watt AM radio station located in Nashville, Tennessee. Operating at 650 kHz, its clear channel signal can reach much of North America and various countries, especially late at night...
Martha White Biscuit and Cornbread Time radio show in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Discography
Studio albums:- Hot RizeHot Rize (album)Hot Rize is a debut album by the progressive bluegrass band Hot Rize.-Track listing:# Blue Night 2:23# Empty Pocket Blues 2:20# Nellie Kane 2:58# High On A Mountain Top 3:06# Ain't I Been Good To You 2:21...
(1979) - Radio BoogieRadio Boogie (album)Radio Boogie is a second album by the progressive bluegrass band Hot Rize..-Track listing:# Radio Boogie 2:44# Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow 2:24# Wild Bill Jones 2:12# Land of Enchantment 3:19...
(1981) - The French Way [as Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers](1984)
- Traditional TiesTraditional Ties (album)Traditional Ties is a third album by the progressive bluegrass band Hot Rize..-Track listing:# Hard Pressed 2.36# If I Should Wander Back Tonight 2:38# Walk the Way the Wind Blows 3:38...
(1986) - Untold StoriesUntold Stories (album)Untold Stories is a fourth album by the progressive bluegrass band Hot Rize.-Track listing:# Are You Tired of Me, My Darling? 2:05# Untold Stories 2:46# Just Like You 3:35# Country Blues 2:32...
(1987) - Take It HomeTake it Home (album)Take It Home is a fifth and so far final album by the progressive bluegrass band Hot Rize.-Track listing:# Colleen Malone 3:07# Rocky Road Blues 2:13# A Voice on the Wind Take It Home is a fifth and so far final album by the progressive bluegrass band Hot Rize.-Track listing:# Colleen Malone...
(1990)
Live albums:
- So Long of a Journey (2002, recorded 1996)
- Hot Rize/Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers Live — In Concert (1982)