Banjo
player Dixon Smith began his bluegrass career in Connecticut in 1964,
moved to Minnesota in 1968, and began making his living playing
bluegrass in 1977. He bought his Gibson Mastertone banjo new from
Gibson in 1964 and has played the same instrument for forty-seven
years. The banjo players who have influenced him the most are Bill
Emerson and Allen Shelton, whose drive and bounce he has always
admired. Dixon recorded the soundtrack for a feature motion picture, Wilderness
Calling, in 1970. Full-time
work came with The String Drifters (1977), who performed for Garrison
Keillor on A Prairie Home
Companion, broadcast live every
Saturday on American Public Radio; their bassist, Tim O'Brien, joined
Hot Rize the following year. Dixon worked as a studio musician in
Minneapolis recording studios from 1969 through the 1980s. He moved to
England in 1994 and joined The New Essex Bluegrass Band, with whom he
travelled as far afield as Holland. He moved to Fresno, California, in
November 2007. Master of the five-string, Dixon channels the bluegrass
tradition.
Gary
Vessel grew up steeped in the sounds of bluegrass and classic country
music, but he paid his dues with the classical traditions as well
beginning at age ten when he started playing violin. Seven years later,
Gary enrolled in the Violin Making School of America in Salt Lake City,
graduating in 1988. After apprenticing for two years in Germany and
another two in Seattle, he opened his first shop in 1991 in Salt Lake
City. While in SLC, Gary built award-winning violins, violas, and
cellos, judged by The Violin Society of America. Then in 2001 he
returned to his musical roots, picking up the mandolin for
fun—and of course, building one as well. What started out as
a hobby turned into an auspicious beginning when David Grisman bought
Gary's first mandolin. And it turned out to bode well for Red Dog Ash,
too, where his fine luthier work is matched by tasteful, distinguished
playing. Gary now divides his time between mandolin building, running
his violin shop in Modesto, and conversations with John Duffey.
"And
it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there
appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both
asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." Hailing from
the City of Angels, Elijah Arrigotti grew up steeped in a melting pot
of cultures and musical styles. After years of searching for just the
right instrument of musical expression, Elijah settled on the upright
bass and soon found his place in the world of bluegrass and acoustic
music. Providence brought him together with the members of Red Dog Ash
where this journey began. Just as the ancient prophet of his namesake
was carried to heaven by a chariot of fire, so does Elijah have a
calling to bring that same fire of redemption, passion, and soul to
this world through the four strings of his doghouse bass never missing
a beat—unless he means to.
Jason
Winfree grew up in West Virginia and eventually moved to Nashville, TN,
where he cultivated a love for bluegrass music. Evenings at the Station
Inn (where he regularly saw Gillian Welch, Dave Rawlings, Roland White,
Tim O'Brien, Darrell Scott, and the McCoury brothers) and the Ryman
Auditorium were hard habits to break when he left Nashville for Berlin,
Germany in 1999. Much to his surprise, one cool October night he heard
the ancient tones emanating from Monadis Kneipe, a bar on
Leibnizstraße that has since become a swinger's club. Fortune
smiled on him that night as he was befriended by the Sieker Band, who
invited him to pick some tunes and encouraged him to cultivate his own
singing and playing. In 2004 Jason co-founded Bluegrass Conspiracy in
Turlock, CA, which morphed into Red Dog Ash in 2010. Jason plays rhythm
and lead guitar and sings a high, lonesome lead vocal.