20 Things You Didn’t Know About Doyle Lawson

Doyle Lawson is one of the most highly awarded and revered artists in acoustic music. He is a mandolin master and an iconic band leader. Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver recently released a live album, recorded early in 2019. Live in Prague, Czech Republic is available now on Billy Blue Records.

  1. Doyle’s father was in an a cappella Gospel group called the Clinch River Quartet.
  2. Self-taught on the mandolin before he’d reached his teens, Doyle soon added guitar and banjo to his instrument list.
  3. At the age of 18, he joined Jimmy Martin & the Sunny Mountain Boys, playing banjo, and he stayed with the group for about three years.
  4. Doyle was a member of J.D. Crowe’s Kentucky Mountain Boys (later the New South), and also played with the Country Gentlemen.
  5. Doyle’s band, Quicksilver, was originally called Foxfire.
  6. He prefers his coffee black, and never decaffeinated.
  7. Doyle likes dry Cheerios for breakfast.
  8. Gibson makes a Lawson model mandolin.
  9. Doyle was first exposed to bluegrass when he was around 5 years old, listening to Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys on the Grand Ole Opry, but then it was simply considered country music.
  10. He made his own Opry debut when the show was still performed regularly at the historic Ryman Auditorium.
  11. Often, Doyle opts for stairs instead of elevators for exercise.
  12. On the road, Doyle and his band have been known to play catch with baseball and gloves, or toss a football around for fun and exercise.
  13. Doyle is a fan of baseball and football, and plays golf every chance he gets.
  14. He has a small collection of Roy Rogers memorabilia, and he loves old cars.
  15. Doyle may well be the only bluegrass artist ever invited to record with Paul Simon.
  16. He loves old Western movies. Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy are among his favorites.
  17. The mini-series, Lonesome Dove (Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones) is still one of Doyle’s favorites.
  18. The Andy Griffith Show remains Doyle’s TV favorite.
  19. Doyle saw his first country music show when he was about 5 years old at the movie theater in Leatherwood, KY. It was Jimmie Skinner and his band. His mother had taken the kids to see a Roy Rogers movie and Jimmie did the show afterward. Leatherwood was a coal camp where his dad worked for the Blue Diamond Coal Company for about 3 years before moving back to TN.
  20. Doyle claims to have lost track of how many albums he has recorded.

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About the Author

Claire Ratliff

Claire Ratliff is the President and Senior Publicist with Laughing Penguin Publicity. Her company provides publicity and marketing/promotional services including media relations, graphic design, photography, and copy writing. They work with a variety of bluegrass and country artists in Nashville.