Earl West

On the first of them, Quiet Grave (1982), a private pressing, he played behind Cindy West with Clyde Bailey on banjo, Bobby Thompson on guitar, Ricky Slaughter on mandolin and Harold Jones on fiddle. On Old Old House (Atteiram, 1986), with Vernon Hughes now on mandolin, he also sang the bass part on two songs. The three Rebel albums, I’ll Meet You in the Morning (1988), a gospel set that includes “Lord Lead Me On,” Express Tracks (1989) and Walking the Blues (1990), were all recorded at Bias Recording in Springfield, Virginia, with Thompson, Bailey, Hughes and Jim Skelding on fiddle, and on each of them West is one of the band’s singers as well as its bassist.

Appalachian Express stopped touring in 1992. When it returned to the road some years later, West was again its bass player and one of its singers, in a 2018 lineup with Cindy West, Thompson, Bailey and Tim Peade on mandolin.