Sam Bush

Life at 70 Means Honoring a Mentor and Friend From the Past Photo by Shelly Swanger When you reach your 70th birthday, as Sam Bush did in April of 2022, many of your best memories happened ‘half a century ago.’ About 50 years ago, Sam Bush was experiencing those heady times of the early 1970s, with the Bluegrass Alliance morphing into the even more innovative New Grass Revival, who did what they wanted to do, played what they wanted to play and did so reflecting one of the most diverse and fertile eras in the history of American music.  During that period, Bush met the late and great John Hartford, and that rendezvous led to a long-time friendship and musical collaborations. Now, 21 years after Hartford’s death, Bush is paying tribute to the IBMA Hall of Famer with a new album called Radio John- Songs of John Hartford.   Back in the day, a half century ago, the emerging New Grass Revival band caught all kinds of guff from the so-called bluegrass purists who wer