- Doyle Lawson
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Doyle Lawson
Doyle Lawson (left) and his band harmonize during the 2006 NEA National Heritage Fellows concert.Background information Born April 20, 1944
Sullivan County, TennesseeGenres Bluegrass, gospel Occupations Singer Instruments Mandolin Years active 1977–present Website www.doylelawson.com Doyle Lawson (born April 20, 1944) is an American bluegrass and gospel musician. Doyle is best known as an accomplished mandolin player, vocalist, producer, and leader of the 5-man group Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver.
Contents
Biography
Doyle Lawson was born in Ford Town, Sullivan County, Tennessee, near Kingsport, the son of Leonard and Minnie Lawson. The Lawson family moved to Sneedville, Tennessee in 1954, around the time that Doyle acted upon his love for music.
Doyle grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday nights. This is where he became inspired by Bill Monroe, the "founding father" of bluegrass, and his band the Blue Grass Boys. His own instrumental piece, "Rosine," is a tribute to Monroe's birthplace and features, among other things, strains from the singer's 1967 instrumental "Kentucky Mandolin."
Doyle became interested in playing the mandolin around the age of eleven so his father borrowed a mandolin from Willis Byrd, a family friend and fellow musician. Doyle taught himself how to play the mandolin by listening to the radio and records, and watching an occasional TV show. His love for music grew and Doyle decided to learn to play the guitar and banjo as well.
Doyle’s perseverance and hard work style has shown through over forty albums since 1977 and through his band’s schedule, which includes over sixty concerts in one year. His hard work and high expectations for his band seem kind of humorous to some with Doyle’s recollection of one practice when he "instructed each member to go to a separate room in the house and continue singing. If the individual members were no longer in pitch when they rejoined their leader, they'd start over again. ‘Of course, they thought I was crazy,’ he told John Wooley in Tulsa World, ‘but I told 'em that if it'd work for the banjo, it'd work for vocals. What it does is, it gets you to do things without being conscious of it, because we all were being programmed the same way.’" Doyle expects a lot from his band and it shows with numerous awards and nine nominations for this year’s International Bluegrass Music Association Awards.
Every year Doyle hosts the Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver Festival in Denton, North Carolina.
He has one son, Robbie,and two daughters Suzi and Kristi. Kristi gave birth to the Lawson’s first grandchild, Spencer, in July 2007.
Doyle rededicated his life to Jesus in May 1985 and is a member of Cold Spring Presbyterian Church.
1960s
In 1963, at the age of eighteen, Doyle went to Nashville, Tennessee to play the banjo with Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys.
In 1966, Doyle started playing with J.D. Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys (later the New South), in Lexington, Kentucky.
Doyle went back to play the mandolin and sing tenor with Jimmy Martin in 1969 for six months. After he left Martin’s band he went back to play with Crowe until August 1971.
1970s
On September 1, 1971, Doyle started playing with the Country Gentlemen and remained part of the band for almost eight years, when in March 1979 Doyle left the band.
Doyle states that at that time in his career he wanted to make his own sound and that he has done.
In April 1979 Doyle formed his own band and called them Doyle Lawson and Foxfire, which quickly changed to Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver.
"No one since the late great Bill Monroe melds bluegrass with gospel music quite like the former Country Gentlemen member Doyle Lawson…" Memphis Commercial Appeal
Original and current lineup
Original:
- Terry Baucom-Banjo, Vocal
- Doyle Lawson-Mandolin, Vocal
- Jimmy Haley-Guitar, Vocal
- Lou Reid-Bass, Vocal
Current:
- Jason Barie-Fiddle
- Jessie Baker-Banjo
- Doyle Lawson-Mandolin, Vocal
- Mike Rogers-Guitar, Vocal
- Josh Swift-Dobro, Vocal
- Corey Hensley-Bass, Vocal
- Carl White-Drums
Discography
Studio albums
Year Album US Bluegrass Label 1977 Tennessee Dream County 1980 Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver Sugar Hill 1981 Heavenly Treasures Quicksilver Rides Again Rock My Soul 1985 Once and for Always 1986 Beyond the Shadows 1987 The News Is Out 1988 Heaven's Joy Awaits Hymn Time in the Country I'll Wander Back Someday 1989 I Heard the Angels Singing 1990 My Heart Is Yours 1992 Pressing on Regardless Brentwood Treasures Money Can't Buy 1995 Doyle Lawson with Bobby Hicks & Jerry Douglas Koch Never Walk Away Sugar Hill 1996 There's a Light Guiding Me 1997 Kept & Protected 1998 Gospel Radio Gems 1999 Original Band Winding Through Life 2000 Just Over in Heaven 2001 Gospel Parade 2002 The Hard Game of Love 1994 Hallelujah in My Heart Music Mill Thank God Crossroads 2005 You Gotta Dig a Little Deeper 4 Rounder 2006 He Lives in Me 4 Crossroads 2007 More Behind the Picture Than the Wall 2 Rounder 2008 Help Is On the Way 4 Horizon 2010 Light On My Feet, Ready to Fly 11 2011 Drive Time 15 Crossroads Compilation albums
Year Album US Bluegrass Label 1990 The Gospel Collection 1 Sugar Hill 1999 A School of Bluegrass 9 Crossroads 2007 Best of the Sugar Hill Years Sugar Hill External links
Tony Rice · J.D. Crowe · Doyle Lawson · Bobby Hicks · Jerry Douglas · Todd Philips · Mark Schatz · Vassar Clements Discography The Bluegrass Album (1980) · Bluegrass Album, Vol. 2 (1982) · Bluegrass Album, Vol. 3 - California Connection (1983) · Bluegrass Album, Vol. 4 (1984) · Bluegrass Album, Vol. 5 - Sweet Sunny South (1989) · Bluegrass Album, Vol. 6 - Bluegrass Instrumentals (1996)Charlie Waller · John Duffey · Eddie Adcock · Tom Gray · Bill Emerson · Doyle Lawson · Bill Yates · Larry Lahey
list of all former membersStudio albums Country Songs, Old and New (1960) · Folk Songs & Bluegrass (1961) · Bluegrass at Carnegie Hall (1962) · Hootenanny (1963) · Folk Session Inside (1963) · Bringing Mary Home (1966) · Traveler And Other Favorites (1968) · Play It Like It Is (1969) · New Look, New Sound (1970) · One Wide River To Cross (1971) · Sound Off (1971) · The Award Winning Country Gentlemen · Remembrances & Forecasts (1974) · Joe's Last Train (1976) · Calling My Children Home (1978) · Sit Down, Young Stranger (1980) · River Bottom (1981) · Good As Gold (1983) · Return Engagement (1988) · Classic Country Gents Reunion (1989) · Nashville Jail (1990) · Let The Light Shine Down (1991) · New Horizon (1992) · Souvenirs (1995) · Crying In the Chapel (2001) · Songs Of The American Spirit (2004)Live albums On the Road (1963) · Live From The Stage Of The Roanoake Bluegrass Festival (1967) · Live In Japan (1970) · Going Back To The Blue Ridge Mountains (1973)Compilation albums The Best of the Early Country Gentlemen (1971) · Yesterday & Today Volume 1 (1973) · Yesterday & Today Volume 2 (1973)Yesterday & Today Volume 3 (1974) · 25 Years (Country Gentlemen album) (1980) · · The Country Gentlemen feat. Ricky Skaggs (1987) · Sugar Hill Collection (1995) · Early Rebel Recordings: 1962-1971 {Box Set} (1998) · High Lonesome (1998) · Complete Vanguard Recordings (2002) · 45 Years of Memories (2002) ·Related articles Bluegrass music Typical instruments Stylistic origins Sub- and fusion genres Notable festivals Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom Festival · California Bluegrass Association Father's Day Bluegrass Festival · Delfest · Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival · High Sierra Music Festival · Kentucky Festival of the Bluegrass · Merlefest · San Francisco Bluegrass & Old Time Festival · South Carolina State Bluegrass Festival · River City Bluegrass Festival · Rockygrass · Telluride Bluegrass Festival · WintergrassOther International Bluegrass Music Museum · International Bluegrass Music Association · International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame · Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America · Bluegrass UnlimitedCategory · Portal Categories:- 1944 births
- Living people
- People from Sullivan County, Tennessee
- People from Hancock County, Tennessee
- American bluegrass mandolinists
- Musicians from Tennessee
- American male singers
- The Country Gentlemen members
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