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J.D. Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys

Band · Active 1961–1971 · Lexington, Kentucky

J.D. Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys was banjo master J.D. Crowe's first major band — the Lexington-based group that followed his five years with Jimmy Martin's Sunny Mountain Boys and preceded the more famous New South (see separate entry). The Kentucky Mountain Boys' decade-long run at clubs across Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio produced three Lemco albums and served as a training ground for Red Allen, Doyle Lawson, and Larry Rice.

  • Crowe formed the band in 1961 after leaving Jimmy Martin, initially with brothers Bob and Charlie Joslin. The early band worked as the house group at Martin's Place, a Lexington tavern.
  • Landed a five-nights-a-week residency at the Red Slipper Lounge in Lexington's Holiday Inn North in 1968 — one of the first times a bluegrass band played an upscale, college-oriented room. Crowds lined up in the parking lot for vacant seats.
  • The classic Red Slipper lineup featured Red Allen (guitar, lead vocals), Doyle Lawson (mandolin), J.D. Crowe (banjo, vocals), and Bobby Slone (bass, fiddle) — described by one reviewer as “flawless.”
  • Debut album Bluegrass Holiday (Lemco, 1968, later reissued on Rebel) captured that foursome playing straight-ahead bluegrass classics like “Little Girl in Tennessee,” “Will You Be Satisfied That Way,” and Crowe's signature “Train 45.” Regarded as one of the definitive documents of traditional bluegrass from the late 1960s.
  • Red Allen left the band in 1969. Doyle Lawson switched to guitar, and Larry Rice (older brother of Tony) moved from California to play mandolin and sing lead.
  • This lineup cut Ramblin' Boy (Lemco, 1970, reissued by Rebel in 1978 as Blackjack) and The Model Church (Lemco, 1971, reissued Rebel 1978) — albums that signaled Crowe's turn toward more progressive material.
  • Lawson left for the Country Gentlemen in late summer 1971. Tony Rice joined on guitar, and the band's name changed to the New South to reflect the shift toward electric-tinged, jazz-informed arrangements.
  • The Kentucky Mountain Boys era overlapped with Crowe's appearances on Jimmy Martin's Decca sessions in September 1963 and November 1966 — Martin's banjoists were famously told to “play it like J.D.”
  • All three Lemco/Rebel albums remain in print and are considered essential listening for Crowe's pre-New South work.
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