The entire bluegrass world was shocked when Audie Blaylock died unexpectedly earlier this year. Only 61 years of age, he had been present in professional bluegrass all of the past four decades, and in such a highly visible way, that it seemed like he would always be there. And yet he was gone.
Audie was only 19 when he hired on with Jimmy Martin, staying seven years as a Sunny Mountain Boy. He lived the life of a bluegrass journeyman, working stints with Red Allen in Nashville, with Chris Jones, and Lynn Morris, before taking the guitar gig with Rhonda Vincent & The Rage in 1999. After several years there, he worked with Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper before dedicating himself to a solo career with his own group, Audie Blaylock & Redline.
Now, nearly a year on from his passing, Blaylock’s good friend and former bass player, Reed Jones, is set to release a memorial single written about his relationship with Audie. Titled Ran Out of Road, Reed says that he was inspired to write it by experience most of us will have had after losing someone close.
“I wrote this song in the wake of what appeared to be a posthumous Audie sighting. It was like he was reminding me that he was still right there with me. And I know he is.
This song was written for me, my Redline brothers, and everyone who has experienced the pain of losing a loved one. Each of those groups gets a part of this song, and I hear Audie all over it.”
Jones wrote a good bit of the material that Redline recorded in recent years, so his style is closely associated with theirs. And he brought in a number of Audie’s former bandmates to record the track, with both Evan Ward and Russ Carson on banjo, Patrick McAvinue and Mason Wright on fiddle, McAvinue on mandolin, and Darren Nicholson on harmony vocal. Reed himself played bass and guitar, using Blaylock’s vintage Martin, Thor, and sang the lead on Ran Out of Road.
Also appearing on the track are Vince Gill on tenor vocal and Harry Stinson on snare.
The studio reunion was a happy time for everyone, and Reed believes that it helped them all with their grief.
“All of us in Redline needed something like this to do together as part of our healing. We hope that healing is evident to everyone who hears this song, and that they can experience it themselves.”
Finally, Jones expressed why he cared so deeply for his friend, Audie Blaylock, both personally and musically.
“He listened tirelessly. He loved deeply. He lived passionately and intensely. He was fiercely loyal and incredibly sensitive. He was a musician’s musician, a singer’s singer. He was a kindred spirit. He was my brother.
In our first conversation, he told me, ‘we play bluegrass music, but we play it like rock stars.’ I could get behind that, and I found out very quickly he meant it. I also found out quickly that when he said, ‘I love you,’ he meant that too. In fact, I think that pretty accurately sums up Audie: he meant it.
Audie was a musical force. I would love it if Audie could hear this from the other side and think, ‘those are my guys, that is my music, and I can hear myself all over it.’ I hope he’d love it and be proud.”
Have a listen to a sample from Ran Out of Road, set to release January 10, 2025, the one year anniversary of Audie’s passing.
Look for the single on 1/10/25 from 615 Hideaway Records.
