Hot Rize, a bluegrass group that started in 1978, rose to prominence in the ’80s and reached critical acclaim in 1990 when they received the “Entertainer of the Year” award by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA).

The group is a collection of individual greats; Pete Wernick (Dr. banjo), Tim O’Brien (Mandolin, Fiddle & guitar), Nick Forster (bass), and Bryan Sutton (guitar). They continue to tour, playing a select number of festivals and theatre dates every year to the delight of a very loyal and enthusiastic fan base.

During their recent 2011 tour, the group could be seen gathering around the SCX25A “Lollypop” microphone for group vocals. Front of House engineer Larry Cumings, who has been a long time fan of the SCX25A, tells us of his experience with this gem of a mic:

“It was around 2002,” Larry states, “when I discovered the original SCX25. I was looking around for a new group vocal microphone for bluegrass and soon after found this microphone to be very useful for all kinds of applications. I’ve used the SCX25A during David Grisman’s productions on acoustic bass, guitar, dobro, flute, and piano. It sounds great on everything. When I took it out on the Hot Rize tour this year, it was met with all smiles. The SCX25A has no proximity effect and the voices on the sides of the mic maintain a rich, warm sound as well as the voices in front of it. There is lots of gain without having to notch out frequencies. The unique size and shape of the mic is an added plus for singers – it’s not big and cumbersome like the mics typically used for this application. I always get lots of comments about how cool it looks and how great it sounds!

For more information about Hot Rize please go to http://www.hotrize.com/