Rushad Eggleston

Rushad Robert Eggleston (born September 30, 1979) is an American cellist, composer, jazz vocalist, & performer, who has toured extensively in 49 states and 15+ countries. Eggleston is known for inventing words, and for his imaginative world called The Land of Sneth.[1]

Rushad Eggleston
Background information
BornSeptember 30, 1979
GenresRock, jazz, Americana, bluegrass
Occupation(s)Musician & Composer
Instrumentscello, kazoo, guitar, viola
Associated actsTornado Rider, Crooked Still, The Wild Band of Snee, The Butt Wizards, Fiddlers 4, Darol Anger's Republic of Strings, Beppe Gambetta
Websitewww.rushad.net

Early years

Eggleston was born to a Parsi mother from Mumbai and a father who renamed himself Raboon.[2] He graduated from Carmel High School in Carmel, California and, played the cello as a member of the Youth Music Monterey orchestra in Monterey Bay.[3] Later he attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, on a full scholarship; the first ever awarded to a string player. There Eggleston studied cello with Associate Professor Eugene Friesen and graduated in May 2003.

Career

After releasing a small-press album called Nico and Rushad in 1999 (with fellow musician Nico Georis), Eggleston made his large-scale recording debut with his self-titled Compass Records release with Fiddlers 4, which was nominated for a 2002 Grammy, as well as with Darol Anger's Republic of Strings, bringing him to national prominence. Eggleston has toured extensively with Darol Anger's Republic of Strings, Fiddler's 4, and the alternative folk/bluegrass group he helped found, Crooked Still.[4] Crooked Still released two CDs with Eggleston, Hop High in 2004 and Shaken by a Low Sound in 2006. Eggleston also released a more experimental album named Playhouse of the Universe on July 10, 2006 with The Wild Band of Snee, as well as the album, Rushad Eggleston & The Butt Wizards. Eggleston left Crooked Still in November 2007 to pursue other styles of music. He was replaced by Brittany Haas on fiddle & Tristan Clarridge on cello.

Eggleston has been an instructor at Mark O'Connor's fiddle camps from 2001 to 2007, as well as at Mike Block's String Camp in 2012 and 2013.[5] He has also taught Cello at Maine Fiddle Camp at camp NEOFA, at Valley of the Moon (2015), Big Sur Fiddle Camp, and Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp (2013, 2014). Eggleston has also guest lectured at colleges & universities including Berkelee, Cornish (Seattle), Bates College (Maine), and Oberlin (Ohio). Eggleston gave a TEDx talk in 2013 at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto.

Eggleston formed the power trio Tornado Rider consisting of Scott Manke (drums) and Graham Terry (bass) in 2008, and their debut album Do You Have Time (2009) was followed up by Jark Matter (2011). The high energy performances have included Eggleston crowd surfing repeatedly and climbing stage scaffolding. Tornado Rider has been equated with frogs playing metal, and many of the songs are simple yet catchy anthems about animals. Tornado Rider fans are strongest in Florida and the southeast, and the band will occasionally reunite to play festivals. (Walkarussa 2013, SpringFest 2014, Bear Mtn Music Fest 2015, SpringReunion 2017).

Eggleston released his first full-length solo album, The Rushad Eggleston Show in 2013. This was followed by twin albums Very Advanced Song Machine and Growl & Glide, his first solo cello recording, in 2015. He has been touring as a solo act since 2013, often referring to himself as Rushadicus or simply as the Cello Goblin. Eggleston has brought the Land of Sneth to people in places like Australia, Bali, Lithuania, and Sicily, building a snethwork of global fans.[6]

In 2015, Eggleston did a brief tour featuring duet concerts with guitarist Beppe Gambetta, after playing in Beppe's hometown of Genoa, Italy for the Acoustic Nights festival.[7]

On the 30th of September 2020 at 8am local time, he started a livestreaming marathon on facebook, celebrating his flappy blixxday and finishes a series of livestreaming events with total length of 30 hours, finishing at 2pm local time on the 1st of October.

Personal life

Eggleston proposed to Lauren Alia Collins, a model and artist from Seattle, in a hot air balloon on May 15, 2013. Nicknaming her Mouse Princess, she created Eggleston a website, press kit, international + domestic tours, and merchandise for the five years they were together. She filmed both Bush Charge & I Love Tofu, Eggleston’s viral videos. They married on September 27, 2015 under a full moon eclipse in Big Sur, CA. Wedding performers included Elephant Revival, Darol Anger, Phoebe Hunt, Ben Hunter and many others. Mouse Princess and Eggleston divorced in 2018.

Selected discography
  • Nico and Rushad (1999)
  • Fiddlers 4 (2002)
  • Hop High (2004)
  • Shaken by a Low Sound (2006)
  • Playhouse of the Universe (2006)
  • Rushad Eggleston & The Butt Wizards (2006)
  • Do You Have Time (2009)
  • Jark Matter (2011)
  • The Rushad Eggleston Show (2013)
  • Very Advanced Song Machine (2015)
  • Growl & Glide (2015)

References
  1. Alden, Grant; Blackstock, Peter (October 1, 2008). No Depression No. 76: Surveying the Past, Present, and Future of American Music. University of Texas Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-292-71928-6. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
  2. Joseph, Adam. "Rushad Eggleston's ability to rally a crowd makes him Monterey County's first supernatural rock star". Monterey County Weekly. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  3. Folsom, Kate (March 6, 2003). "Carmel High grad Rushad Eggleston chats about his cello and his Grammy nomination". Monterey County Weekly. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
  4. Goodwin, Jeremy D. (September 13, 2013). "Cellist Rushad Eggleston pioneers his own world". Boston Globe. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
  5. "Mike Block String Camp (Vero Beach, FL) Faculty".
  6. "Very Advanced Song Machine". rushad.net. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
  7. Zaretsky, Mark (March 12, 2015). "Beppe Gambetta-Rushad Eggleston light up Branford Folk Music show". New Haven Register. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
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