In 1980 five prominent musicians entered 1750 Arch Studios in Berkley, California. The idea behind the session was to record a Tony Rice solo album with traditional bluegrass - the music that had been on fire in his soul since childhood. Tony, a 29-year-old veteran guitar player and lead vocalist, originally from Danville, Virginia but raised in Southern California, had selected the very best players and singers for this important album. And a stellar group of seasoned bluegrass musicians were certainly gathered there, each one a leading stylist on their respective instrument with three of the artists also leaders of their own successful bands.
Present was Tony’s former employer, banjo legend, mentor and friend, J D Crowe, a native of Lexington, Kentucky and an alumnus of Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys.
The tenor singer and mandolin player selected for this project was one of the all time greatest sidemen, having played with Jimmy Martin, Red Allen, J D Crowe, and The Country Gentlemen before piloting his own red hot bluegrass band, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver.
The fiddle player on this recording session was a Newton, North Carolina native who spent most of his youth in nearby Greensboro, NC. His regular job was that of a multi-instrumentalist in one of America’s most popular Country band, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. Bobby Hicks, one of the greatest talents we have ever had in our music, is a living institution in the world of bluegrass, country and western swing and referred to only as “Hicks.”
Todd Phillips, bassist for The Tony Rice Unit, and a former mandolin student of David Grisman, was chosen to handle the bass work.
In an era long before CDs and digital sound restoration techniques, these five musicians brought back to life some of the classic bluegrass songs that had been recorded 30-40 years earlier by Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs. To be able to listen to the old numbers recorded with the best sound technology of the day, together with Billy Wolf’s engineering magic, was an almost supernatural experience.
I remember so very well the first time I heard the finished product. We were gathered at Ken and Debbie Rattenbury’s home near Roanoke, Virginia when somebody, I think it might have been Chet Rhodes, put the brand new LP on the record player. …Crowe’s kick-off on Blue Ridge Cabin Home…Rice’s break, Hicks’ back up, particularly his third position double stops on the chorus…the trio…Lawson’ s chop! It was almost too much!
To claim that these five outstanding musicians redefined bluegrass music or, following the hyperbolic style of the sports commentator, beat the founding fathers of bluegrass at their own game would not only be pointless but it would potentially build a wall between older and younger fans and musicians alike. But the experience was, for want of a more powerful word, powerful! In the summer of 1982 I received a letter to my home in Sweden. The letter was from a very excited Henry Heckler who, in great detail, described having seen this band, The Bluegrass Album Band, at a place called Denton, North Carolina.
Enjoy this journey back in time
Jan Johansson