Russ Barenberg (born October 8, 1950) is an American bluegrass musician.

Biography

Barenberg began playing guitar at age 13, taking lessons from Alan Miller, whose brother, John Miller, Barenberg would later play with. His style was heavily influenced by the

flatpicking Flatpicking (or simply picking) is the technique of striking the strings of a guitar with a pick (also called a plectrum) held between the thumb and one or two fingers. It can be contrasted to fingerstyle guitar, which is playing with indi ...

technique of

Clarence White Clarence White (born Clarence Joseph LeBlanc; June 7, 1944 – July 15, 1973) was an American bluegrass and country guitarist and singer. He is best known as a member of the bluegrass ensemble the Kentucky Colonels and the rock band the Byrds ...

. He attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

and met Pete Wernick there in 1968. Together they joined to form Country Cooking, who released two albums of bluegrass before breaking up in 1975. In 1975 Barenberg briefly began playing

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

with a jazz rock group, Carried Away. Late in 1975 he quit playing music, but returned in 1977, moving to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to play in the group Heartlands. This group also played backup on Barenberg's debut solo effort, ''Cowboy Calypso'', in 1980. He then moved to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, teaching at the Music Emporium in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. Here he played in the groups Fiddle Fever and Laughing Hands. In 1986 Barenberg moved to

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, where he has played often with

Jerry Douglas Gerald Calvin Douglas (born May 28, 1956) is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer. He is widely regarded as "perhaps the finest Dobro player in contemporary acoustic music, and certainly the most celebrated and prol ...

Edgar Meyer Edgar Meyer (born November 24, 1960) is an American bassist and composer. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. He has won seven Grammy Awards and been nominated ten times. Meyer is a member of the Telluride Bluegrass ...

and

Maura O'Connell Maura O'Connell (born 16 September 1958) is an Irish singer. She is known for her contemporary interpretations of Irish folk songs, strongly influenced by American country music. Background O'Connell was born in Ennis, the main town in Count ...

, and done much work as a

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

with

Béla Fleck Béla Anton Leoš Fleck (born July 10, 1958) is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, playing music from bluegrass, jazz, classical, rock and various ...

Hazel Dickens Hazel Jane Dickens (June 1, 1925 – April 22, 2011) was an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, double bassist, guitarist and banjo player. Her music was characterized not only by her high, lonesome singing style, but also by her provoca ...

Mel Tillis Lonnie Melvin Tillis (August 8, 1932 – November 19, 2017) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Although he recorded songs since the late 1950s, his biggest success occurred in the 1970s as part of the outlaw country movement, ...

, and

Randy Travis Randy Bruce Traywick (born May 4, 1959), known professionally as Randy Travis, is an American country and gospel music singer and songwriter, as well as a film and television actor. Active since 1979, he has recorded over 20 studio albums and ...

, among others. He has released several instructional videos.

Russ Barenberg is one of the most melodic instrumentalists and composers in contemporary bluegrass and acoustic music. Best known for his own unique style of flatpicking, Barenberg often uses his other three fingers to enhance rhythm and melody and create a more textural sensitivity.

In 2007, his song "Little Monk" was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

for Best Country Instrumental Performance. Since 1995 he has been a member of the house band for the

Transatlantic Sessions Transatlantic Sessions is the collective title for a series of musical productions by Glasgow-based Pelicula Films Ltd, funded by- and produced for BBC Scotland, BBC Four and RTÉ of Ireland. The productions comprise collaborative live performan ...

television programs on the BBC.

Discography

Solo albums

*1980: ''Cowboy Calypso'' ( Rounder) * 1983: ''Behind the Melodies'' (Rounder) * 1988: ''Moving Pictures'' (Rounder) * 2007: ''When at Last'' (

Compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with No ...

)

Compilations

* 1987: ''Halloween Rehearsal'' (Rounder)

With Country Cooking

* 1971: ''14 Bluegrass Instrumentals'' (Rounder) * 1972: ''Frank Wakefield with Country Cooking'' (Rounder) * 1974: ''Barrel of Fun'' (Rounder) * 1974: ''Bluegrass Guitar'' (

Music Minus One Music Minus One (MMO) was an American educational music company founded in Westchester, New York. The company released play-along albums intended to accompany a melodic instrument (or voice type, vocalist) as an aid for practicing. Background Mus ...

)

With
Jerry Douglas Gerald Calvin Douglas (born May 28, 1956) is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer. He is widely regarded as "perhaps the finest Dobro player in contemporary acoustic music, and certainly the most celebrated and prol ...
and
Edgar Meyer Edgar Meyer (born November 24, 1960) is an American bassist and composer. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. He has won seven Grammy Awards and been nominated ten times. Meyer is a member of the Telluride Bluegrass ...

* 1993: ''Skip, Hop and Wobble'' ( Sugar Hill)

Also appears on

* 1973: Ray Repp - ''Give Us Peace'' (K&R / Agápe) * 1975: John Miller - ''Let's Go Riding: Country Blues and Old Time Music'' (Rounder) * 1977: John Miller - ''Safe Sweet Home'' (Rounder) * 1977: Peter Wernick - ''Dr. Banjo Steps Out'' (

Flying Fish The Exocoetidae are a family (biology), family of Saltwater fish, marine Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish in the order (biology), order Beloniformes, known colloquially as flying fish or flying cod. About 64 species are grouped in seven genus, ge ...

) * 1980:

- ''Hard Hitting Songs for Hard Hit People'' (Rounder) * 1980:

Andy Statman Andrew Edward Statman (born 1950) is a noted American klezmer clarinetist and bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist. Life and career Statman was born in New York City and grew up in the borough of Queens. Beginning at age 12, he learned to play banj ...

- ''Flatbush Waltz'' (Rounder) * 1981:

Tony Trischka Anthony Cattell Trischka (born January 16, 1949) is an American five-string banjo player. Sandra Brennan wrote of him in 2020: "One of the most influential modern banjoists, both in several forms of bluegrass music and occasionally in jazz and ...

, Bill Keith, and

- ''Fiddle Tunes for Banjo'' (Rounder) * 1982: Jerry Douglas - '' Fluxedo'' (Rounder) * 1983: Tony Trischka: ''A Robot Plane Flies over Arkansas'' (Rounder) * 1984: Bill Keith - ''Banjoistics'' (Rounder) * 1985: Rodney Miller - ''Airplang'' (Rounder) * 1986: Jerry Douglas - '' Under the Wire'' (MCA) * 1986: Andy Statman - ''Nashville Mornings New York Nights'' (Rounder) * 1987: Hazel Dickens - ''It's Hard To Tell The Singer From The Song'' (Rounder) * 1987: Jerry Douglas - '' Changing Channels'' ( MCA) * 1987:

Alison Krauss Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer, fiddler and music producer. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of eight and recording for the first time at ...

- '' Too Late to Cry'' (Rounder) * 1987: Hugh Moffatt - ''Loving You'' (Rounder) * 1987:

- '' Always & Forever'' (

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

) * 1988:

Roy Book Binder Roy Book Binder (born October 5, 1941 as Paul Roy Bookbinder) is an American blues guitarist, singer-songwriter and storyteller. A student and friend of the Rev. Gary Davis, he is equally at home with blues and ragtime. He is known to shift fro ...

- ''"Bookeroo!"'' (Rounder) * 1988:

Mark O'Connor Mark O'Connor (born August 5, 1961) is an American fiddle player, composer, guitarist, and mandolinist whose music combines bluegrass, country, jazz and classical. A three-time Grammy Award winner, he has won six Country Music Association Mu ...

- ''Elysian Forest'' (Warner Bros.) * 1988:

Jesse Winchester James Ridout "Jesse" Winchester Jr. (May 17, 1944 – April 11, 2014) was an American-Canadian musician and songwriter. He was born and raised in the southern United States. Opposed to the Vietnam War, he moved to Canada in 1967 to avoid ...

- ''Humour Me'' (Sugar Hill) * 1989:

Laurie Lewis Laurie Alexis Lewis (born September 28, 1950) is an American bluegrass singer, musician, and songwriter. History Laurie Lewis was born in Long Beach, California on September 28, 1950. Her family moved regularly from place to place until she w ...

- ''Love Chooses You'' (Flying Fish) * 1992:

- ''Helpless Heart'' (Warner Bros.) * 1990: various artists - ''The Civil War: Original Soundtrack Recording'' ( Elektra Nonesuch) * 1991: Randy Travis - '' High Lonesome'' (Warner Bros.) * 1992:

- ''

Slide Rule A slide rule is a hand-operated mechanical calculator consisting of slidable rulers for conducting mathematical operations such as multiplication, division, exponents, roots, logarithms, and trigonometry. It is one of the simplest analog ...

'' (Sugar Hill) * 1991:

Rhonda Vincent Rhonda Lea Vincent (born July 13, 1962) is an American Bluegrass music, bluegrass singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Vincent's music career began when she was a child in her family's band The Sally Mountain Show, and it has spanne ...

- ''New Dreams and Sunshine'' (

Rebel A rebel is a participant in a rebellion. Rebel or rebels may also refer to: People * Rebel (given name) * Rebel (surname) * Patriot (American Revolution), during the American Revolution * American Southerners, as a form of self-identification; ...

) * 1992: Maura O'Connell - ''Blue Is the Colour of Hope'' (Warner Bros.) * 1993: Pete Wernick - ''On a Roll'' (Sugar Hill) * 1994: Kate Mackenzie - ''Let Them Talk'' ( Red House) * 1997:

Darol Anger Darol Robert Anger is an American violinist and founding member of The David Grisman Quintet. 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' ...

- ''Heritage'' ( Six Degrees) * 1997:

Chris Thile Christopher Scott Thile (; born February 20, 1981) is an American mandolinist, singer, songwriter, composer, and radio personality, best known for his work in the progressive acoustic trio Nickel Creek and the acoustic folk and progressive blue ...

- '' Stealing Second'' (Sugar Hill) * 1998: Jerry Douglas - '' Restless on the Farm'' (Sugar Hill) * 2002: Rhonda Vincent - ''My Blue Tears'' (Rebel) * 2004: Maura O'Connell - ''Don't I Know'' (Sugar Hill) * 2005: Béla Fleck - '' Crossing the Tracks'' (Rounder) * 2006: Bryan Sutton - ''Not Too Far from the Tree'' (Sugar Hill) * 2008:

Charlie Haden Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than fifty years. Haden helped to revolutionize the harmonic concept of bass playin ...

Family and Friends - '' Rambling Boy'' (

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, record label * Decca Gold, classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, musical theater record label * Decca Studios, recording facility in West ...

) * 2009:

Steve Martin Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and musician. Known for Steve Martin filmography, his work in comedy films, television, and #Discography, recording, he has received List of awards a ...

- '' The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo'' (Rounder) * 2009: Bryan Sutton - ''Almost Live'' (Sugar Hill) * 2009: Jesse Winchester - ''Love Filling Station'' ( Appleseed) * 2013: Craig Duncan - ''Blue Suede Bluegrass'' (Green Hill) * 2014: Tony Trischka - ''Great Big World'' (Rounder)

References

External links

Official site
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barenberg, Russ 1950 births Living people 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American guitarists 21st-century American male musicians American acoustic guitarists American bluegrass guitarists American male guitarists American session musicians Cornell University alumni