Sharon Gilchrist

[Billy Packard]

I'm probably 'late to the game' with this news....

I first met Sharon Gilchrist at a gig we had separate billing on where she played mandolin. (The San Francisco Festival of the Mandolins.) I was not familiar with her otherwise and figured that mandolin was her main deal.

THEN...a month ago I attended the "5th Annual Banjo Bonanza" here in Grass Valley, (Thanks Mikail Graham!) that had her on upright base. She is an amazing base player and the way she handled the instrument and WHAT she played was absolutely wonderful! She looked like she'd been playing base since she was a baby.

Real Base Players are a force of nature and a mystery to me--how do they do it? Not just the root and the five but all the rest of it that carries the whole band all the way. Why put a major third THERE?? but it sure sounds right. I love base players!!

BTW John Reischman played mandolin at that gig. He and Sharon did a very tasty mandolin duet also.

Billy

billypackardmandolin.com

[JEStanek]

She is an amazing musician. Talented and clever.

Jamie

[Bill Foss]

The first time I heard her she was shredding on the mandolin with Tony Rice and Peter Rowan's band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm2fKs4Hm9M

Her recent release with John Reischman and Scott Nygaard is a must. They are all
masters of getting incredible tone out of their instruments.

[Mandobar]

Sharon was also one of the original Dixie Chicks.

[CarlM]

I first saw her playing bass to back up Peter Rowans at Merlefest in 2007. She is a fine, fine bass player. I missed hearing the quartet as a group because there only performance all together that year was scheduled at the same time as Doc and Jack Lawrence. I knew Doc would not be around a lot longer so made a difficult choice.

Saw Tony and Doc a couple times after but have never gotten to see the quartet. Hopefully Tony will get his hand rehabilitated and they can play again sometime.

[Rich Benson]

She also played Bass for awhile with Uncle Earl.

[JAK]

It appears she has a relatively new CD out with John Reischman and Scott Nygaard, "Harmonic Tone Revealers." It got a good review in the November 2016 Bluegrass Unlimited magazine.

[Steve Ostrander]

I loved Sharon's mandolin work on "Quartet" with Peter and Tony. Bryn Bright played bass on that recording and she is awesome. I did not know that Sharon played bass as well.

[Phil Vinyard]

She taught mandolin at my first year of Kaufman Kamp in 2010 and did a terrific job. But then she wound up playing bass in backup groups for the other instructors during the evening concerts and BLEW ME AWAY! She is a stunningly good bass player! I'd love to see her back at Kamp sometime again.

[UsuallyPickin]

Ms. Gilchrist is indeed an excellent musician and teacher. A return for her to Kaufman Kamp would indeed be something I'd like to see. I also saw Rowan, Rice, Gilchrist and Bright and thoroughly enjoyed the music that evening. That level of performance doesn't drop into my neighborhood often enough. R/

[goose 2]

I met a couple of times while touring with Bill Hearne in Texas and New Mexico. I have always enjoyed her playing. She is also very kind and enjoyable to visit with. I have not seen her live in years. She is very good for the roots music community and its good to see her continued success.

[stevedenver]

Sharon was also one of the original Dixie Chicks.

??????
not quite, as I understand things she played with Martie I believe, and Troy Gilchrist, pre DC.