The School of Bluegrass with Doyle Lawson starting soon at Bluegrass Today

Big news for fans of the great Doyle Lawson, and anyone interested in the history of bluegrass music.

We are delighted to announce that Doyle will be joining us for a regular column called The School of Bluegrass, where he will take your questions about his heralded career, and provide answers to the best of his ability. With a sharp memory for details, it will surprise me very much if anyone is able to stump him with a query.

Lawson, of course, has been involved in bluegrass as a professional musician since he joined Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys on banjo in 1963. From there he spent a memorable five years with J.D. Crowe & The Kentucky Mountain Boys on both mandolin and guitar. That was followed  by a notable stint with The Country Gentlemen (’71-’79) on mandolin, which produced five strong recordings, including the classic, Award Winning Country Gentlemen.

The world of bluegrass was forever altered when Doyle left the Gentlemen in 1979 to launch his own band. Popular opinion at the time was that he had made a bad move, leaving such a successful group to strike out on his own. But Lawson has had the last laugh, keeping Quicksilver on the road for 42 years, right up to his retirement from full time touring at the end of 2021.

He insists that he won’t become invisible, or live the life of a hermit far from the music. Doyle plans to continue producing in the studio, and performing at such selected shows as pique his interest. There may even be some recording in his future.

And to stay in touch with fans while he’s off the road, he will answer questions each week at Bluegrass Today.

So get your submissions queued up by commenting on this post (below), or by sending it to us directly by email. He is ready to address inquiries about the many bands he toured and recorded with, the large group of bluegrass contemporaries he has known, and the dozens of recordings he has made over a professional career getting close to 60 years’ duration.

You ask… he’ll answer. We hope to have the first edition of School of Bluegrass with Doyle Lawson within the next two weeks.

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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.