Oswego Music Hall welcomed a bluegrass music legend to their venue on April 12, leaving concertgoers with a better appreciation for the genre. 

Tony Trischka, called the “father of modern bluegrass” by The New York Times, performed his greatest hits for the people of Oswego. 

Trischka gained his love of music by listening to a folk group in the early 1960s with a few songs featuring the banjo.

“ Hearing a group called the Kingston Trio, which is a big folk group back in the early sixties, had a song on their first album that featured some banjo playing and I heard that and was totally inspired,” Trischka said. “I said, I’ve gotta learn how to do this. When I heard that, I became a banjo player in my heart ever since.”

Other inspirations include Earl Scruggs, the man who really “invented banjo for bluegrass,” according to Trischka. 

At 14 years old, Trischka started performing with his banjo teacher for a gig at Syracuse University. From then on, he found his love of performing and playing the banjo.

“ I started playing in [a] band when I was in high school,” Trischka said. “And the guys who were older than me were in college, but I was the young hotshot banjo player, or so they thought. And I started gigging around Syracuse, kind of locally.”

His career took off and he started to play all over the country. He eventually made his way overseas to perform there, too.

“ It’s really fun to get on stage and interact with an audience and have a chance to play music,” Trischka said. 

He began writing music at about 12 years old, inspired by people like Bob Dylan and events like the Civil Rights Movement. Many of his songs reflected that time period as protest songs and then he started to write “banjo tunes” a few years later. 

Throughout his career, Trischka has had amazing opportunities. After living in Syracuse, Trischka moved to New York City and started a band. He says that the decision “really moved his career forward”. From then on, he played at bluegrass concerts all over the East Coast. 

A highlight of Trischka’s career was the opportunity to produce comedian Steve Martin’s second banjo album. Paul McCartney was also on the album, so Trischka had a producing session with him and Martin. 

Trischka was named the “father of modern bluegrass” by The New York Times in 2006. Humbly, he did not take full credit for being named, just one of the contributors.

“ I think there are various fathers of modern, modern bluegrass,” Trischka said. “I was just, you know, growing up, in the sixties, when boundaries were being broken down and so I sort of had that attitude with my own music.” 

Trischka was excited to perform for the Oswego Music Hall because it had been a long time since he had last visited to perform. Being from Syracuse, he always loved coming up to Oswego, he said. It was the first time he had been playing with the other accompanying players because he plays with different people every time. He always has a fiddle, bass and guitar player with him. 

“ It keeps it really fresh for me,” Trischka said in response to the excitement of the gig.

Photo by Maria Pawelczyk