Ed D’Zmura

Born in Pittsburgh on 30 November 1955, he went to Gaithersburg High School in Maryland with Connell. Connell, then a banjo player, had started out in 1975 in a duo with the guitarist Ron Welch called the Johnson Boys. D’Zmura joined on mandolin, Gary Reid came in on bass and David McLaughlin on fiddle, and when Welch dropped out Connell moved to guitar and lead vocals.

In October 1978 Reid, who had just started Copper Creek Records, produced the band’s first record, a single pairing Connell’s “When I Can Forget” with “Johnson Mountain Hoedown.” It was recorded on 22 October in Laytonsville, Maryland, with Frannie Davidson on banjo, Eddie Stubbs on fiddle and Mark Prindle on bass, and issued in January 1979. By the summer of 1979 Richard Underwood had taken over the banjo and Larry Robbins the bass, and that line-up of Connell, Underwood, D’Zmura, Stubbs and Robbins recorded The Johnson Mountain Boys at Bias Recording in Springfield, Virginia, in August 1980. D’Zmura sang baritone or tenor in the harmonies. Rounder released the album in April 1981.

As the band’s schedule grew to about 150 dates a year, D’Zmura left, and McLaughlin returned to play mandolin. McLaughlin is the mandolin player on the band’s next album, Walls of Time, recorded in the summer of 1981.