Ricky Mier Wins FreshGrass Banjo Competition!!

I was pretty intimidated going into the FreshGrass Banjo Competition. I knew three out of the four other competitors as good friends and world class banjoists. I figured they were going to showcase all styles of modern and traditional banjo playing so I'd do the same. I've been working on a lot of Irish music recently as well as single string technique so I thought I'd throw that stuff in my arrangement. I prepared a fiddle tune by the name of The Temperance Reel with arranged solos, Irish ornaments, and melodic shapes that I've always heard but never took the time to workout. I spent about a week working on how to play that stuff and I really felt the focus of honing my inner sound push my playing to another level. Whats funny is that although my single string and ornaments got better, I got a little worse at Scruggs Style banjo playing. Funny isn't it? It's like life is a garden and your precious time is like your water. You only have so much water and where you put your water things grow. Where there is a lack of water, thing don't tend to grow. Focus is a two edged sword I suppose. Anyway, I also spent a few rehearsals with Kathleen Parks arranging her backup to Temperance Reel as well as my tune Logan's Farewell which is a staple in our band Cat And The Moon. We got her halftime fiddle chopping in the right place and tried not to over play the tunes the days before. We went in there, were first up, and gave it our best shot. 

I'm proud, honored, and deeply humbled to announce that I won the $1,000 cash first prize, a $1,000 recording session at Compass Records’ studio in Nashville, a spot onstage at FreshGrass 2015, and hand-crafted state-of-the-art banjo.

Here is to perseverance and hard work. A gift that my father and mother showed me how to use.