Trace Bundy

Trace Bundy was born on January 20, 1977 in Austin, Minnesota, and moved as a child to the small mountain town of Buena Vista, Colorado, where his musical journey began humbly. He was born in Austin, MN and moved to the small town of Buena Vista, CO, first picking up guitar around age 11 or 12 after he and his brother Greg pooled five dollars each to buy a ten dollar acoustic guitar. He met Jonah Werner, now an acclaimed acoustic folk songwriter, in high school and started playing with him at a local coffee shop in Buena Vista. Before committing to music full time, Bundy taught rock and ice climbing and was an adjunct civil engineering professor at University of Colorado Boulder. His playing style set him apart early on, as his guitar playing is percussive and harmonic, with both hands on the fretboard, intricate finger picking arpeggios and inventive use of multiple capos. Bundy's breakthrough arrived with the release of his early studio work and a pivotal live recording. Solomon's Splendor, a 2000 album comprising original instrumental music on acoustic guitar, was later re-released in February 2003. The turning point came a year later, when in October 2004 he released a CD/DVD combo titled "Adapt," with the DVD showing a live concert filmed in Boulder, CO, in the summer of 2004. Clips from this DVD circulated widely on YouTube and received well over twenty-one million views, including his covers of the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" and Pachelbel's Canon performed using the fingertapping technique. This viral exposure earned him his signature nickname, as he became known to fans as "The Acoustic Ninja" for his legato and finger tapping skills. Building on that momentum, Bundy released "A Few Songs For Christmas" in December 2007, followed by "Missile Bell" in 2008, a two-part project consisting of a studio CD, a live CD, and a DVD filmed live at the Boulder Theater in November 2007. That same year brought industry recognition, as Bundy was named "Most Promising New Talent of the Year" by Acoustic Guitar Magazine, and came in third in the same magazine's "Best Fingerstyle Guitarist of the Year" category. His touring career expanded into a truly global endeavor, with sold-out concerts in 28 countries and counting, from high-tech performance halls in South Korea and Italy to remote villages in Zimbabwe and Guatemala. Along the way he shared stages with an impressive roster of artists, having shared the stage with Brandi Carlile, Olivia Newton-John, Neko Case, Judy Collins, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Phil Keaggy, David Wilcox, David Knopfler of Dire Straits, Bill Nershi of String Cheese, Laurence Juber of Paul McCartney and Wings, Chris Hillman of the Byrds, and Stanley Jordan. Bundy remains active in music today, continuing to record and tour under his own independent label. He has independently sold over 150,000 albums on his record label, Honest Ninja Music, and his video clips continue to circulate virally, with over 45 million YouTube views to date. Critics have long praised the visceral, must-see nature of his performances, with one reviewer noting that "Possessing a staggering acoustic technique, on both right and left sides, Bundy has made his reputation as a next generation solo guitarist of serious repute." Decades into his career, he remains a touring fixture on the acoustic and fingerstyle guitar circuit, still billed everywhere as the Acoustic Ninja and still drawing audiences eager to see his two-handed technique performed live rather than simply heard on record.