Jacob Metz

Oxford is about ten miles from Winfield, home of the Walnut Valley Festival, and Metz grew up around the music the festival brought. He started at about thirteen on a banjo his grandfather bought at a local auction. A few months later he heard Rob Ickes with Blue Highway, and from then on he wanted to play the Dobro. He toured regionally with the Kansas Bluegrass Association’s youth band and went on to the Bluegrass, Old Time and Roots Music program at East Tennessee State University, graduating in 2021. While a student there he won a scholarship from the Appalachian Cultural Music Association, and in June 2019 he took the reso-guitar job in the Clay Hess Band.

He later played both banjo and reso-guitar with Darin & Brooke Aldridge. With the Rage he plays reso-guitar on Rhonda Vincent’s recording of “Wagon Wheel,” with Alison Krauss singing harmony, which was released as a single in July 2024 ahead of the album Destinations and Fun Places.