“Blackjack” is an instrumental credited to J.D. Crowe and Doyle Lawson (Lemco Music, BMI). Crowe’s band, the Kentucky Mountain Boys, recorded it at a Nashville session in 1968, with Crowe on banjo, Lawson on mandolin, Harley “Red” Allen on rhythm guitar and Bobby Slone on bass. It was released that year on a King Bluegrass single (45-RPM 403) with the vocal “You’re Not Easy to Forget” on the other side, sung by Allen with Crowe and Lawson on harmony. The group’s other King Bluegrass single (45-RPM 404), “We’ll Meet Again Sweetheart” backed with the instrumental “Pike County Breakdown,” was also recorded in Nashville in 1968.
The Green Mountain Boys recorded the tune on their 1970 LP Green Mountain Boys (Green Mountain GMS 1036), with Bruce Stockwell on banjo and Tim Harlow on mandolin. Del McCoury and the Dixie Pals recorded it on 22 December 1984 at Wally Cleaver’s Recording in Fredericksburg, Virginia, with Paul Silvius on banjo and Ronnie McCoury on mandolin, and Rebel released it on Sawmill (1985). Another version, with Scott Vestal on banjo, was recorded on 26 February 1996 for Pinecastle’s Bluegrass ’96.
