Hot Rize Presents Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers

This CD contains two complete albums: Hot Rize Presents Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers (Flying Fish 279), recorded live in Niwot, Colorado in 1982, and Hot Rize in Concert (Flying Fish 315), recorded in 1984. This Colorado-based band is comprised of first-rate musicians steeped in the tradition -- letter-perfect pickin' and strong, pile-driving bluegrass harmonies -- but with a few contemporary notions of their own! Hot Rize features the lead vocals, mandolin and fiddle of Tim O'Brien; Pete Wernick, banjo, electric guitar and harmony vocals; Charles Sawtelle, guitar and tenor vocals, and Nick Forster, bass and harmony vocals. Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers consists of Red on lead vocals and flat-top guitar; Wendell Mercantile, electric guitar; Waldo Otto on steel guitar, and Slade on bass.