To this day, creating and performing bluegrass is a delicate balancing act. Even in its earliest era, the music’s innovative elements (the startling instrumental virtuosity, towering high harmonies, the furious tempos, etc.) were carefully cloaked in songs that brought to mind more timeless, traditional values and concepts: the little cabin home on the hill, or the rose of old Kentucky. Bluegrass that is inventive and relevant to modern audiences while still resonating with the music’s deeply held sense of heritage is as rare as it is thrilling.
J.D. Crowe and the New South are among the most influential bluegrass bands of the past three decades, with a visionary sound that suggests both a rich past and a wide-open future. From 1975’s classic J.D. Crowe and the New South (affectionately referred to by fans by its catalog number, 0044), to their newest project, 2006’s Lefty’s Old Guitar, bandleader/banjo player/guitarist/vocalist Crowe has lead an array of brilliant musicians in a mission to continually reinvent and update bluegrass while simultaneously paying tribute to the legacy of tone, taste, and timing established by Crowe’s musical idols.
A formidable presence on the bluegrass scene since 1956, J.D. Crowe first turned heads when the legendary Jimmy Martin hired the young Kentuckian fresh out of high school. Crowe, who was inspired to pick up the five-string banjo after hearing Earl Scruggs, stayed with Martin for five years - learning invaluable lessons in musicianship, band leading, and harmony singing in the process. His already remarkable banjo playing - clean, crisp, and always in the pocket no matter what the tempo - is in evidence on classic Martin tracks like “Hold Whatcha Got” (1958), “You Don’t Know My Mind” (1960), and throughout the classic 1960 album Good ‘n Country. After graduating from Martin’s employ, Crowe formed the Kentucky Mountain Boys with Doyle Lawson, Red Allen (later replaced by Larry Rice), and Bobby Slone. Their three albums hinted at a radical approach to repertoire that Crowe was to explore more thoroughly with the New South - namely the integration of contemporary non-bluegrass compositions, which were cleverly rearranged to sit seamlessly beside more traditional material. On a Kentucky Mountain Boys record, one could find songs by Tom Paxton and Gram Parsons sharing an album side with cuts written by Flatt & Scruggs and Jimmy Martin.
When Lawson departed to join the Country Gentlemen in the early ‘70s, the Kentucky Mountain Boys gave way to J.D. Crowe and the New South. The epochal J.D. Crowe and the New South album, released by Rounder in 1975, is still heralded as the dawning of a new sound in bluegrass music. The lineup of Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas, and Bobby Sloan made it clear that Crowe was an astute judge of young talent. The music, at first blush, gave the impression of classic, straight-ahead bluegrass. Closer listening, however, revealed a wealth of innovation both in the picking (especially Rice’s remarkable guitar playing and Crowe’s ever evolving banjo technique) and in the material, which placed bluegrass standards like “Sally Goodin” next to compositions by Rodney Crowell, Fats Domino, Gordon Lightfoot, Utah Phillips, Ian Tyson, and Bob Dylan. Recast in a bluegrass context, the contemporary songs opened doors for the musicians, allowing them to be more expressive and personal in the vocals, and more fluid and lilting on their instruments. Crowe developed a unique approach to playing ballads on banjo, greatly influenced by pedal steel guitar players, which became one of his instrumental signatures.
The lineups of the New South continued to evolve and change from the release of 0044 onward. Many great musicians passed through on their way to start their own bands, including Jimmy Gaudreau, Richard Bennett, Don Rigsby, and Phil Leadbetter. Among the most notable alumni was the gifted, ill-fated vocalist Keith Whitley, who introduced a strong honky-tonk feeling to Crowe’s music on the albums Somewhere Between (reissued by Rounder under Whitley’s name as Sad Songs and Waltzes) and My Home Ain’t in the Hall of Fame (released by Rounder in 2002) before going on to mainstream country stardom.
Whitely and Crowe’s fusion of bluegrass and hard country can still be felt in the music of contemporary bluegrass vocalists like Bradley Walker and Ralph Stanley II. When not working with the New South, Crowe has been featured as a sideman on a number of projects, including the influential Bluegrass Album Band recordings - peerless explorations of bluegrass classics recorded alongside Tony Rice, Doyle Lawson, Bobby Hicks, Todd Phillips, Mark Schatz, Jerry Douglas, and others.
J.D. Crowe briefly flirted with retirement in the mid to late ‘90s, but following the release of 1999’s Come On Down to My World (Rounder), he put together the strongest New South lineup since the days of Skaggs and Rice and resumed touring regularly. It is this lineup that went into the studio to record the moving Lefty’s Old Guitar. Guitarist and vocalist Ricky Wasson brings a full, rich vocal sound to the band, along with his abilities as an MC and front man. Before signing on with Crowe in 1998, Wasson cut his teeth with the Kentucky-area band Southern Blend, with whom he recorded three albums, subsequently making a solo album and working as an occasional guitarist and vocalist with Alison Krauss and Union Station. On mandolin, tenor, and high-lead vocals is Dwight McCall, whose remarkable singing was featured on Come On Down to My World and on Dan Tyminski’s self-titled solo debut. Growing up in the fertile Ohio bluegrass scene, McCall first achieved national attention with Charlie Waller’s Country Gentleman before joining the New South in 1996. New to the group in 2008 is fiddle player/vocals Steve Thomas. Steve has played with numerous groups such as The Osborne Brothers and Jim and Jessie and the Virginia Boys. Also joining in 2008 on bass/vocals is John Bowman. John has played with groups such as Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, The Isaacs, and Alison Krauss and Union Station.
On Lefty’s Old Guitar, as throughout the lifespan of the New South, J.D. Crowe is the man holding it all together. A member of the I.B.M.A.’s prestigious Hall of Honor, recipient of I.B.M.A.’s Banjo Player of the Year award in 1994 and 2004, and a Grammy™ nominee, Crowe continues to challenge himself and explore new horizons of the bluegrass landscape. The title track, well-known to fans through concert performances over the past few years, is a wistful reflection on stardom that ingeniously matches a soaring bluegrass trio vocal to a gliding country shuffle rhythm. Taken as a whole, Lefty’s Old Guitar is a mature, confident collection that draws from a number of roots music sources (country, gospel, and folk music, most prominently) and combines them with cutting-edge contemporary bluegrass delivered with soul and feeling. The result is a sound and style at once classic and modern - one that could only come from the mind of J.D. Crowe. -From Rounder.com edited by D. Crowe
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