James Nash (musician)

James Nash (born June 14, 1973) is an American guitarist and singer best known for his work with the band the Waybacks.

Nash has performed with self-described "acoustic mayhem" quartet the Waybacks since 1999, performing at venues such as the Kennedy Center, Ryman Auditorium, Old Town School of Music, the Warfield, the Fillmore, and the Bumbershoot and Wakarusa festivals.

He has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center, with the Chattanooga Symphony, and with artists such as Bob Weir, Joan Osborne, Sam Bush, Rodney Crowell, and Jens Kruger.

In 2008, Nash began producing and directing the "Hillside Album Hour" at Merlefest in North Carolina.

Featured performers have included Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Susan Tedeschi, and Joan Osborne.

In 2010, Nash was musical curator for TEDxAlcatraz in San Francisco, including productions with the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir and cellist Peter Gregson.

In 2011, he released an instructional DVD Making the Acoustic Guitar Rock! on Homespun.

His TEDx talk “Russell County Gorge” was featured in the 2011 TEDx Global Music Project.

In 2012, Nash co-founded the music streaming app Spacebar, which was featured at the 2013 TechCrunch Disrupt in New York.

Nash and Spacebar hold multiple US Patents for asynchronous audio and video streaming.

Nash is a regular gear review contributor to Guitar Player magazine.

Nash is a frequent Little League Baseball and basketball coach.

In 2015 he received a Willie Mac Award from the San Francisco Giants for leadership in youth coaching.

Nash and his partner Miranda have two sons.

In 2017, Nash was named one of the 50 best acoustic guitarists of all time by Guitar Player.

He is an Artist Ambassador for the Santa Cruz Guitar Company.

Nash blends bluegrass, swing, country, jazz, and experimental rock influences, and is known for adapting solid body electric guitar techniques to the traditional steel-string acoustic guitar.

In 2017, Nash was chosen alongside Chet Atkins, Django Reinhardt, and Michael Hedges as "50 transcendent superheroes of wood, steel, and nylon" by Guitar Player magazine.

In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine dubbed the event "one of the most anticipated performances of the festival," and described the band's adaptation of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" as "an inventive tribute studded with sounds that spanned the psychedelic era".

As of 2019, the event has taken place for 12 consecutive years.

Nash’s recording credits include acoustic and electric guitar, bottleneck guitar, mandolin, bass, vocals, songwriter, arranger, engineer, and producer.

Nash has a degree in computer science from Stanford University.