“Tony Rice is the closest guy to a shredder that I was fixed on – but he could only influence me so far because I didn’t really understand his vocabulary”: Robbie Fulks on the “miracle” of bluegrass and the ecstasies of improv solos

Robbie Fulks plays an acoustic guitar at Wesley Stace's Cabinet of Wonders Variety Show at City Winery on September 7, 2025. .

When Robbie Fulks was growing up in southeastern Pennsylvania in the ’70s, his notion of guitar virtuosity had little to do with the fretboard-cooking arena rock gods of the day. The players who really blew his mind were from the bluegrass school.

“Doc Watson was a shredder, I guess, but there was so much melody in his playing and a lot of composition, as well,” says Fulks, now 62. “Tony Rice is probably the closest guy to a shredder that I was really fixed on, but he could only influence me so far because I didn’t really understand his vocabulary. What he was doing seemed miraculous to me.”