Old Friends Get Together brings J.D. Crowe, Doyle Lawson, and Paul Williams into the configuration their listing suggests — three veteran bandleaders sitting down with the gospel and traditional repertoire that has run through all of their careers. Crowe's banjo, with its propulsive Scruggs-derived attack and decades of New South lineage behind it, locks into Lawson's tenor mandolin and Williams's lead vocals in arrangements that prize tightness over display. The trio's combined experience reaches back through the Jimmy Martin and Quicksilver lineages to the founding generation of bluegrass, and the album benefits from the kind of unhurried ensemble cohesion that only long mutual familiarity produces. The repertoire favors gospel quartet material and traditional bluegrass standards, arranged for close harmony and clean instrumental support. As a late-career reunion record, it functions as both reflection and demonstration of a particular generational sound.
Tracklist
- 1 Prayer Bells of Heaven alt version 2:34
- 2 Goodbye 2:01
- 3 The little white church 2:59
- 4 Stormy Waters alt version 3:28
- 5 Pray the clouds away 2:34
- 6 When the Savior Reached Down for Me alt version 2:59
- 7 This World is Not My Home alt version 2:36
- 8 Voice of my Savior 2:43
- 9 Lord I’m Coming Home alt version 3:28
- 10 Give me your hand 2:51
- 11 Shake hands with mother again 3:39
- 12 Who'll sing for me 2:22
- 13 Prayer Bells alt version