New Grass Revival was a progressive bluegrass band from 1971 to 1989.
The founding members were Sam Bush ( mandolin, fiddle, guitar), Courtney Johnson ( banjo, guitar), Ebo Walker (Harry L Shelor Jr) ( upright bass) and Curtis Burch (guitar, Dobro), all from Louisville, Kentucky and nearby areas of western Kentucky. They met as members of the Bluegrass Alliance, and when Lonnie Peerce left the group with ownership of the name, they reformed as the New Grass Revival (Bush has credited Walker with coining the term, "new grass"). After the release of their first album, released untitled, and as "New Grass Revival", "The Arrival of the New Grass Revival" and "Today's Bluegrass", Walker left the band. Butch Robins briefly joined the band, but being a talented banjoist he balked at playing bass, and was replaced by John Cowan, a bass player with a background in soul music, who also shared lead vocals with Bush.
Around 1981, the group disbanded, however Bush and Cowan decided to continue performing. New Yorkers Béla Fleck, a Julliard-educated banjo prodigy, and Pat Flynn, a session guitarist, joined the group, and this lineup was stable for the remainder of the band's existence. Their last concert was December 31, 1989, opening for the Grateful Dead at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, California. The breakup has been attributed to Fleck's desire for a solo jazz career. Bush, Fleck and Cowan have all had successful solo careers since that time.
After Courtney Johnson died of lung cancer, Bush, Fleck, Cowan, and Burch reunited for one concert (September 24, 1996) at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee to benefit his widow.
The band members were notable as multi-instrumentalists. The band featured several songs in which one or more members changed instruments while the others played (Lonesome Fiddle Blues, for example). They were also notable among bluegrass bands for their instrumentation, which included drums, piano, electric guitar, electric bass, electric mandolin, electric fiddle, slide mandolin, violectra, steel guitar, 10-string Dobro, 5-string Dobro, conga, and more.