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After 41 years, Lawson’s still happy to play
Bluegrass legend Doyle Lawson knows where Cullowhee is – he’s even played there a time or two during his 43 years onstage.
“We’re looking forward to it,” the longtime musician told The Herald Tuesday about this Friday’s Ramsey Center gig. “You’re in a beautiful area of the state with some real friendly people.” Lawson and his group will be in Cullowhee to headline Western Carolina University’s annual pre-Mountain Heritage Day concert.
Doyle Lawson, left, and his group, Quicksilver, are known for their tight-knit vocal harmonies. They’ll take the Ramsey Center stage this Friday.
The last time he played Cullowhee was during his stint with The Country Gentlemen, Lawson said. He joined that band when he moved to Washington, D.C., in 1971 after breaking into the music business with bluegrass greats Jimmy Martin and J.D. Crowe. He stepped out on his own in 1979 when he formed his own band, Quicksilver. Two of the musicians who started out with him 26 years ago – banjo-picker Terry Baucom of Monroe and fiddler Mike Hartgrove from Mississippi – have returned to the fold and are part of his current group, Lawson said.
“Terry was gone for 18 years and Mike for 15 before they came back,” Lawson said Tuesday. “I guess I’ve started recycling.”
Rounding out the quintet are Jamie Dailey from Gainesboro, Tenn., on guitar; and Barry Scott of Ellijay, Ga., on bass.
Lawson is justifiably proud of his group; he and the band are up for seven International Bluegrass Music Association awards this year, including Album of the Year (“You Gotta Dig a Little Deeper”); Song of the Year (“You Gotta Dig a Little Deeper” and “Heartbreak No. Nine”); Entertainer of the Year. Lawson is also nominated for his instrumental prowess on the mandolin.
Lawson traces his musical heritage back to the same wave of Scotch-Irish immigration that populated our Jackson County hills – and brought many of the traditions that Mountain Heritage Day was established to celebrate.
“My grandpa Lawson was Scotch and my grandma Lawson was Irish,” he said.
Lawson is also proud to be from Bristol, Tenn., which he describes as the birthplace of country music. Back in 1927 a man named Ralph Peer came to Bristol and advertised for musicians to come to town and make records. From those sessions came recordings from a Mississippian, Jimmie Rodgers, and, from just over the mountain in Maces Spring, Va., a trio that would go down in history as The Carter Family.
“Those recordings started the big boom of country music,” Lawson said. “And bluegrass was a big part of it in the Bristol area and even in Cullowhee.”
Despite his success, Lawson is not one to brag.
“I’m very fortunate,” he said. “I’m grateful for the good things the Lord has blessed me with, I know our success has come from him. We’ve had good luck with music – we’ve found a niche that works for us.”
During his Cullowhee show, Lawson plans a mix of his old and new material.
“We’ll have pickin,’ ballads and gospel – of course,” he said. “I sing gospel music because I love to sing it. If I could only do one thing it would be gospel.”
And, as Lawson says they do every night in every town they play in, “We’ll work our hearts out.”
After the show, Lawson plans to reserve time to speak with fans and sign autographs.
“I always shake and howdy,” he said. “Shake hands with the men, hug the women, kiss the babies ... I look forward to that.”
When asked to single out one memorable moment in a career that has spanned five decades, Lawson had to stop and think for a minute before settling on a show from 1963, a week after country legend Patsy Cline was lost in a plane crash.
The one show that will for sure linger in his memory was the occasion when the realization that he was really a professional musician hit home.
“I was working with Jimmy Martin – he was at the top of his game – and it was a sold-out show in Baltimore,” Lawson said. “There were around 15,000 people there. That was more people in one place than I’d ever seen, and here I was – an 18-year-old kid – in a show that included Webb Pierce, the Wilburn Brothers and Red Foley. I didn’t know if my legs would hold me up.
Though Lawson plans to take a couple of weeks off after Friday’s Cullowhee show, he says he has no plans to slow down.
“I’m 61 and glad to be here,” he said. “I welcome each birthday. God’s blessed me with the fact that I can feel good and work hard.”
Friday’s concert starts at 7:30 p.m. The Steep Canyon Rangers will open the show, and ticket information is available at 227-7722 or online at ramseycenter.wcu.edu.
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