Lefty’s Old Guitar (Rounder 11661-0512-2) was released in 2006, J.D. Crowe’s first album in seven years. The New South’s lineup was Crowe on banjo, Rickey Wasson on guitar and lead vocals, Dwight McCall on mandolin, Ron Stewart on fiddle and Harold Nixon on bass. Stewart took the place that had been held by Dobro player Phil Leadbetter, and Nixon was new to the band. The band produced the album, which was recorded and mixed by Steve Chandler at Hilltop Studios in Nashville, with additional recording by Stewart at his barn in Paoli, Indiana, and by Wasson in Stanton, Kentucky. Eddie Stubbs wrote the liner notes.
The title song is by Dave Maggard and Jack Spencer. Crowe has said that he saw Lefty Frizzell perform when he was about twelve or thirteen, and that he talked with Frizzell in 1958 or 1959 while working with Jimmy Martin. Doug Jernigan plays pedal steel on the title song and on “She Knows When You’re on My Mind Again,” and Cia Cherryholmes sings harmony on the latter.
McCall wrote “I Only Wish You Knew,” with McCall on the high lead part and Wasson on low tenor. Cindy Walker wrote “Blue Bonnet Lane,” which Crowe remembered hearing Jim and Jesse record. Other songs include “Just Loving You” by Bernice and Larry Sparks, Max D. Barnes’s “In My Next Life,” and “You Can Be a Millionaire with Me” by Grady and Hazel Cole.
Tracklist
- 1 Mississippi River Raft Source Recording 2:17
- 2 Lefty's Old Guitar 3:35
- 3 Just Loving You 2:25
- 4 Rovin’ Gambler alt version 3:01
- 5 In My Next Life 3:48
- 6 You Can Be A Millionaire With Me 3:01
- 7 I Only Wish You Knew 3:35
- 8 Loneliness 2:02
- 9 I'm A Hobo 2:21
- 10 Too Often Left Alone 2:27
- 11 Blue Bonnet Lane Source Recording 2:33
- 12 She Knows When You're On My Mind Again 3:06
