The Bluegrass Band

Band · Active 1981–1982 · Nashville, Tennessee
Gospel Traditional Bluegrass

The Bluegrass Band was a short-lived but influential Nashville ensemble founded in 1981 by banjoist Butch Robins, a former member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys. Operating on corporate underwriting that allowed all members to draw salaries, the band recorded one album and toured for less than a year before disbanding — but several members went on to shape the next generation of bluegrass.

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  • Founded in 1981 by banjoist Butch Robins, with Alan O'Bryant on guitar and lead vocals, Blaine Sprouse on fiddle, David Sebring on mandolin (later bass), and Ed Dye on bass (later Dobro).
  • Sole album, Another Saturday Night, was released in 1982 on Voyager Records and later reissued on Hay Holler Harvest. Robert K. Oermann predicted in his review that the group was "poised to become one of the most important acts in bluegrass music."
  • Toured the West Coast, Nashville clubs, and the Vancouver Folk Festival, but folded in 1982 when the band's corporate backing dried up.
  • Alan O'Bryant used momentum from the group to put together the Nashville Bluegrass Band in 1984 with Pat Enright, Mike Compton, and Mark Hembree — one of the most celebrated bluegrass bands of the next two decades.
  • Blaine Sprouse left to join the Osborne Brothers.
  • O'Bryant wrote "Those Memories of You" during this period — later a Top 5 country hit for Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt on their 1988 Trio album.

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