Russ began playing guitar at the age of 13 in Chester County, Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia. He took lessons from Alan Miller, the older brother of future band mate, guitarist John Miller, and was inspired early on by guitarists Doc Watson, Mississippi John Hurt, and Clarence White along with a wide range of old-time, bluegrass and contemporary folk and blues artists.
While attending Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, in 1970, Russ joined with Peter Wernick, TonyTrischka, Kenny Kosek and John Miller to form Country Cooking. During the four years that Country Cooking was together, the group recorded two influential albums, Country Cooking: 14 Bluegrass Instrumentals and Barrel of Fun and accompanied mandolinist Frank Wakefield on a third album. Russ also played on a number of Trischka’s solo albums throughout the 1970’s.
After Country Cooking disbanded in 1975, Russ temporarily switched to electric guitar and performed with a jazz-rock band, Carried Away. In 1977 he moved to New York and, together with Trischka, Miller, and fiddler Matt Glaser, formed the eclectic string band, Heartlands. Heartlands backed Russ on many of the cuts on Cowboy Calypso.
Moving to Boston in 1979, he joined Glaser and fiddler/mandolinist Jay Ungar in the triple-fiddle band Fiddle Fever, recording two albums with the group. Fiddle Fever’s recording of “Ashokan Farewell” was later used as the centerpiece for the soundtrack to Ken Burns’ celebrated documentary, The Civil War. Russ played on the soundtracks for several other Burns’ films as
well, including The Brooklyn Bridge, The Shakers and Huey Long. During this time, he also worked with Glaser and mandolinist Andy Statman in the experimental bluegrass-jazz band Laughing Hands. Russ recorded his second solo album, Behind the Melodies, in 1983. That album, along with his appearance on Jerry Douglas’s 1982 release, Fluxedo, marked the beginnings of an ongoing series of collaborations between the two musicians. While in Boston, he was also active in the vibrant contradance scene, playing frequently for dances. He played on fiddler Rodney Miller’s recording, Airplang, which was seminal to the development of contradance music in the late 80’s and 90’s. A number of Russ’s own tunes have since become popular standards in the contradance repertoire.
Russ moved to Nashville in 1986 and has lived there since. Along with Douglas, he worked for several years accompanying Irish singer, Maura O’Connell, and in 1988 recorded his third solo album, Moving Pictures, another beautiful collection of original instrumentals featuring Douglas, Meyer, banjoist Bela Fleck, and fiddlers Mark O’Connor and Stuart Duncan, among others. The previously mentioned trio with Douglas and Meyer, active throughout the 1990’s, was a highly original ensemble that further reshaped the direction of acoustic music. Their popular 1993 recording, Skip, Hop & Wobble, influenced and whole new generation of acoustic musicians. In 1996 Russ worked with Douglas, fiddler Darol Anger and Los Angeles-based music producer Snuffy Walden to create the soundtrack for Homecoming, a film starring Anne Bancroft.
In 2008 he worked with banjoist and actor, Steve Martin on his CD, The Crow; with jazz bassist Charlie Haden on Rambling Boy; and with singer-songwriter, Jesse Winchester on his CD, Love Filling Station.
Russ has performed and recorded with many other top acoustic and country music artists including Randy Travis, Emmy Lou Harris, Ricky Skaggs, Bela Fleck, Tim O’Brien, Sam Bush, Paul Brady, Darryl Scott, Joan Osborne, Bryan Sutton, Aly Bain, Phil Cunningham, Eddi Reader, Natalie McMaster, Sharon Shannon, Julie Fowlis and Cara Dillon. Many of these musical associations came about through his ongoing work on Transatlantic Sessions, a series of television shows produced in Scotland beginning in 1995 that bring together top musicians from the British Isles and the United States for collaborative performances. The sixth and most recent Transatlantic Sessions series was filmed in March 2013. In a live concert format, Transatlantic Sessions tours in the UK every year and in 2017 began touring in America.
Russ is also an sought-after teacher, and has taught at music camps and workshops throughout the United States and Europe. He has authored a number of guitar instruction books and recordings, and has taught privately for many years.
Russ’s Compass Records release, When at Last, is described well by music writer Jon Weisberger: “…while ensemble interplay is the foundation of When at Last, its heart and soul ultimately is to be found in Barenberg’s tunes—some dating back to the early 90s, others composed shortly before recording began—and in his glistening playing. Few guitarists so perfectly blend a mastery of roots music traditions with melodic originality, or so finely balance muscularity with delicacy, and each moment of the album is shaped by these artistic dualities…”
