As part on our ongoing goal of highlighting young bluegrass artists of note, and as a further appreciation of the late Preston Thompson, here is video of Grace Constable doing her tribute to the great Tony Rice. She is playing her Thompson guitar, with Spencer Hatcher providing the vocal.
Grace is currently studying in the bluegrass program at East Tennessee State University, and taking lessons there from Wyatt Rice, Tony’s younger brother. She is following in the footsteps of her older sister, Chelsea, also a highly accomplished performer on both acoustic and electric guitar.
Here Constable demonstrates her crosspicking skills on Tony Rice’s iconic arrangement of Church Street Blues. His version of the Norman Blake classic is widely pointed out as an example of the many variations to traditional guitar technique that Rice popularized in bluegrass, particularly playing multiple downstrokes with the pick at a higher speed.
Well done, Grace – and Spencer, a fellow ETSU student now playing banjo with Nick Chandler & Delivered.
