Jeremy Garrett

Virtuoso fiddler and vocalist Jeremy Garrett is an original member of the Infamous Stringdusters, as well as a songwriter, solo recording artist, accomplished guitarist and mandolinist, and studio musician. He released his solo debut Garrett Grass Gospel in 2005. He co-founded IS in 2006 and has continued solo and session work. His sophomore album I Am a Stranger was released by Sugar Hill in 2009. In 2015 and 2017, respectively, he released two volumes of The RV Sessions, recorded in the living room of his home -- a recreational vehicle. The first album contained vocal songs, the second instrumentals. Just before the pandemic's onset in 2020, he delivered the acclaimed Circles on Organic Records. He then resumed activities with IS and released the solo albums Wanderer's Compass in 2021 and River Wild in 2022. Garrett was born and raised in Idaho. His father, Glenn Garrett, is a bluegrass guitarist. His mom, Honi Deaton, is a singer of gospel, country, bluegrass, and folk songs. His parents enrolled him in Suzuki violin lessons at age three -- their not-so-secret ambition: encouraging him to be a bluegrass fiddler. As a teen, Garrett, played in several bands with his parents including the Grasshoppers. He made his recording debut in 1999 as a backing vocalist on Jeannette Williams' Cherry Blossoms in Springtime (Rob Ickes was the dobro player). In 2000, the Grasshoppers issued an eponymous album. After graduating from high school, he attended South Plains College in Levelland, Texas. Subsequently, he moved to Nashville where he performed with Bobby Osborne, Chris Jones and the Night Drivers, Ronnie Bowman, Jim Hurst, and Lee Ann Womack. In 2005, he released a gospel album titled Garrett Grass Gospel (future IS member Andy Falco played guitar on it). In 2006, the Infamous Stringdusters formed and began playing dates almost immediately. Given their incendiary live energy, humor, and audience engagement, they won a faithful following and signed to Sugar Hill Records. Fork in the Road, their 2007 debut, won Song of the Year for its title track and Album of the Year at the International Bluegrass Awards. Following U.S. and Canadian tours, the band cut their eponymous sophomore date. Following its support tour, Garrett entered the studio and cut I Am a Stranger. The laudatory reviews it received earned him more work as a session singer and player. Infamous Stringdusters issued Things That Fly, their third and final Sugar Hill album, in 2010. They played festivals that summer and signed with High Country for 2011's We'll Do It Live and 2012's Silver Sky. It was during this period that Garrett earned the nicknames "G Grass" and "Freedom Cobra" from fans for his dynamic stage presence. Over the next couple of years, when IS weren't touring, Garrett was working in the studio with others. He played on recordings by the Hill-Benders, Jones and the Night Drivers, Peter Rowan, Missy Werner, and Jon Weisberger. Garrett and his wife had been touring and traveling in 2013 and 2014, living in their 40-foot RV. (They currently live off the grid in Colorado.) The musician, well aware he had a host of new songs, set up a recording apparatus in the living room of the RV and recorded himself singing and accompanying himself on his three instruments. He issued the set independently as The RV Sessions in 2015. He finished the summer touring and playing solo shows before rejoining IS for 2016's Ladies & Gentlemen on Compass Records, which made the Americana and Bluegrass charts. That year, Garrett followed with RV Sessions 2: The Instrumentals, again playing all the instruments himself. Garrett managed to do more session and live work with Jones and the Night Drivers before IS re-entered the studio for 2017's Laws of Gravity. The album took home the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album. The following year, during a tour break, Garrett joined Roland White and Friends on A Tribute to the Kentucky Colonels and played studio sessions for Matt Cox's High Places. In 2019, the Infamous Stringdusters released the charting Rise Sun and hit the road. In 2019, Garrett signed with Arden, North Carolina-based Organic Records and released the autobiographical solo album Circles in January 2020. A straight-up Americana offering, its songs reflected on Garrett's life as a musician, husband, and father. 45 days after its release, while preparing to tour, Garrett was sidelined with the rest of the world by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. With little to do, he continued to write and demo new songs. In 2021 he released the solo Wanderer's Compass. Opening with a cover of Jai Uttal's raga-like "Footprints," the set found Garrett layering his instruments and treating them electronically. Another highlight was "Magic," an iconic attempt at country R&B, and a 21st century revisioning of the standard "Mule Skinner Blues." The Infamous Stringdusters reunited for a tour in late 2021 and in 2022 recorded and released Toward the Fray. Garrett issued River Wild, recorded with some of his IS bandmates (Book and Hall), guitarist and banjoist Ryan Cavanaugh, and others. It included a dozen originals, four instrumentals, and eight vocal tunes -- all produced by Garrett. Reviews were universally positive. In 2023, the Infamous Stringdusters realized a long-held ambition that was near and dear to Garrett's heart when they recorded and released Tribute to Flatt & Scruggs.
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