Carolina In The Pines from Josh Grigsby & County Line

For their latest single, Josh Grigsby & County Line have reached back to 1975 to reprise a song that was ubiquitous throughout the mid-to-late ’70s, Carolina In The Pines. Michael Martin Murphy wrote the song, and his recording of it captured a great deal of attention in the US and Canada. John Denver was huge at the time, and this song delivered some of the flavor that Denver had made his trademark, and the addition of a five string banjo on the track made it stand out at the time.

Bluegrass groups at the time adopted it immediately and it became a parking lot favorite in no time The song came around again in 1985 when Murphy re-released a new version, and it moved up the charts once again. No doubt this classic song is part of the reason why Murphy was welcomed by the bluegrass community when he took a grassy turn in 2009 with his Buckaroo Blue Grass album and tour.

These days, Carolina In The Pines is less often played, making it a perfect time for the boys and girls of Country Line to bring it back. They open their version with the triplet banjo lick that John McEuen had played way back when.

Josh Grigsby & County Line is Josh on guitar and lead vocals, Judge Parker on banjo, Robert Kidd on bass, Mark Mills on lead guitar, Whitney Perkins on reso-guitar, and Crystal Grigsby on harmony vocals. They perform primarily in the central Virginia region.

Carolina In The Pines is available for download purchase from your favorite download sites, and to radio programmers at AirPlay Direct.

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About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.