Doyle Lawson

Doyle Lawson was born in Fordtown, Sullivan County, Tennessee,{{cite book|author=W. K. McNeil|title=Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=beGNAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA226|date=18 October 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-37700-7|pages=226–}} the son of Leonard and Minnie Lawson. The Lawson family moved to Sneedville in 1954.{{cite book|author=Stephanie P. Ledgin|title=Homegrown Music: Discovering Bluegrass|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7kgBY8tV6zYC&pg=PA47|year=2004|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-275-98115-0|pages=47–}} Lawson grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday nights. This is where he heard mandolinist Bill Monroe, the "founding father" of bluegrass, and his band the Blue Grass Boys.

Lawson 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. Later Lawson learned to play the guitar and banjo as well.

In 1963, aged 18 or 19, Lawson went to Nashville to play the banjo with Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys.{{cite book|author1=Kurt Wolff|author2=Orla Duane|title=Country Music: The Rough Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Jorozp1yp4C&pg=PA228|year=2000|publisher=Rough Guides|isbn=978-1-85828-534-4|pages=228–}}

In 1966, he started playing with J.D. Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys (later called the New South) in Lexington, Kentucky. He returned to play the mandolin and sing tenor with Martin in 1969 for six months, and then played again with Crowe until August 1971.{{cite book|title=Contemporary Musicians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uwo5AQAAIAAJ|year=2006|publisher=Gale Research, Incorporated|isbn=978-0-7876-8068-8|pages=101–102}}

In September, 1971, Lawson started playing with The Country Gentlemen and remained part of the band for almost eight years. During that time, in 1977, he backed up U.S. Senator Robert Byrd on his Mountain Fiddler album. In March 1979, Lawson left the Country Gentlemen with the intention of forming a band and creating his own sound.

Within a month Lawson had formed Doyle Lawson and Foxfire, with Jimmy Haley on guitar, Lou Reid on bass, and Terry Baucom on banjo. The band name was soon changed to Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver.{{cite book|author=Thomas Goldsmith|title=The Bluegrass Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LgAGzopOTbYC&pg=PA248|year=2004|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-02914-1|pages=248–}}"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 (what date?). In 1981, through Sugar Hill Records, Lawson with this lineup released the critically acclaimed Rock My Soul, an album that would become a landmark bluegrass gospel project.{{cite book|author=Neil V. Rosenberg|title=Bluegrass: A History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hp1Sm81MYboC&pg=PA376-IA10|year=2005|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-07245-1|pages=376–}}{{cite book|title=Option|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rytLAAAAYAAJ|year=1987|publisher=Sonic Options Network|page=64}} With a new bassist, Randy Graham, the band recorded a second gospel album, Heavenly Treasures, also on Sugar Hill.

Shortly thereafter, Graham, Baucom and Haley left to form their own band. Lawson hired guitarist Russell Moore, banjoist Scott Vestal and bassist Curtis Vestal, and continued to perform. After a time Ray Deaton took over on bass.

In 1989 the band won song of the year at the International Bluegrass Music Awards for "Little Mountain Church House". In 1997, There's a Light Guiding Me was a 39th Annual Grammy Award nominee for Best Southern Gospel, Country Gospel or Bluegrass Gospel Album.{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-01-08-ca-16471-story.html|title=The Complete List of Nominees|date=1997-01-08|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035|access-date=2017-01-27}} Through the years, Quicksilver toured regularly, performing at festivals concerts and other musical events.{{cite book|title=No Depression|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=025LAAAAYAAJ|year=2004|publisher=No Depression|pages=22, issues 49–54}}

In 1998, Lawson and Quicksilver became the first bluegrass band to perform at the National Quartet Convention. Lawson and Quicksilver performed in Ontario, Canada at the Tottenham Bluegrass Festival in June 2001Strings, newsletter of the Pineridge Bluegrass Folklore Society, May/June 2001 and again in June 2015. Lawson and Quicksilver provided the background vocals to the song "Dazzling Blue" on Paul Simon's 2011 album So Beautiful or So What. In 2015, In Session was nominated for Best Bluegrass Album at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards.{{Cite web |url=https://www.grammy.com/awards/58th-annual-grammy-awards?cat=611 |title=58th Annual Grammy Awards |publisher=Grammy Awards |access-date=2024-06-14}}

File:Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver on stage at the 2015 Tottenham Bluegrass Festival in Ontario, Canada.jpg

Lawson composed a number of the band's songs and tunes. His instrumental piece "Rosine", is a tribute to Monroe's birthplace and features, among other things, strains from the singer's 1967 instrumental "Kentucky Mandolin".[http://ibmaawards.org/node/43#2012 Profile] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121203195413/http://ibmaawards.org/node/43#2012 |date=December 3, 2012}}, ibmaawards.org; accessed October 30, 2015. Lawson hosts the annual Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver Festival in Denton, North Carolina. In 2021, Lawson announced his retirement as a bandleader. Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver played their last show in the winter of 2021.

Doyle has been married to Suzanne Lawson since 1978. He has one son, two daughters and a grandchild. Doyle rededicated his life to Christianity in May 1985 and is a practicing member of Cold Spring Presbyterian Church.{{citation needed|date=October 2015}}

{{main|List of Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver band members}}

Final lineup

• Doyle Lawson — mandolin, mandola, guitar, dojo, lead, baritone and low tenor vocals {{small|(1979–2021)}}
• Eli Johnston — banjo, guitar, bass {{small|(2013–2018)}}, lead, baritone and low tenor vocals {{small|(2013–2018, 2020–2021)}}
• Stephen Burwell — fiddle, percussion {{small|(2014–2020, 2021)}}
• Jerry Cole — bass, guitar, percussion, lead, tenor and baritone vocals {{small|(2018–2021)}}
• Ben James — guitar, lead and tenor vocals {{small|(2020–2021)}}
• Matt Flake – fiddle, bass, bass vocals {{small|(2020–2021)}}

Lawson is a recipient of a 2006 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.{{cite web |url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/2006 |title=NEA National Heritage Fellowships 2006 |author= |website=www.arts.gov |publisher=National Endowment for the Arts |access-date=January 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200521114746/https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/2006 |archive-date=May 21, 2020 |url-status=dead}}

• 1990 Song of the Year: Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver for "Little Mountain Church"
• 1996 Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year: Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver for "There's a Light Guiding Me"
• 2000 Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year: Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver for "Winding Through Life"
• 2001 Vocal Group of the Year: Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver
• 2002 Vocal Group of the Year: Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver
• 2003 Vocal Group of the Year: Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver
• 2003 Song of the Year: Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver for "Blue Train"
• 2003 Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year: Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver for "Hand Made Cross"
• 2004 Vocal Group of the Year: Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver
• 2005 Vocal Group of the Year: Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver
• 2005 Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year: Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver for "Praise His Name"
• 2006 Vocal Group of the Year: Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver
• 2006 Album of the Year: Celebration of Life: Musicians Against Childhood Cancer, featuring various bluegrass bands and musicians
• 2006 Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year: Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver for "He Lives in Me"
• 2007 Vocal Group of the Year: Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver
• 2007 Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year: Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver for "He Lives in Me"
• 2011 Recorded Event of the Year: Doyle Lawson, J. D. Crowe, Paul Williams for "Prayer Bells of Heaven"
• 2011 Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year: Doyle Lawson, J. D. Crowe, Paul Williams for "Prayer Bells of Heaven"
• 2012 Hall of Fame: Doyle Lawson [https://ibma.org/awards/recipient-history Profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103011642/https://ibma.org/awards/recipient-history |date=January 3, 2018}}, ibma.org; accessed August 16, 2016.

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{Official website|https://www.doylelawson.com/}}

{{Bluegrass Album Band}}

{{Country Gentlemen}}

{{International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame}}

{{Authority control}}

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Category:1944 births

Category:American bluegrass mandolinists

Category:American male singers

Category:The Country Gentlemen members

Category:Living people

Category:National Heritage Fellowship winners

Category:People from Sullivan County, Tennessee

Category:People from Hancock County, Tennessee

Category:Singers from Tennessee

Category:Southern gospel performers

Category:Bluegrass Album Band members

Category:New South (band) members