Doyle Lawson

 (Singer, Songwriter, Mandolin, Guitar)

• Date of Birth: April 20, 1944
  
• Place of Birth: Kingsport, Tennessee
• Married: 1. Christine (div), 2. Suzanne
• Children: Robert Doyle, Suzi, Kristi

Doyle Lawson (Bristol, Tenn.), with his precision singing and virtuosity on the mandolin, has redefined traditional gospel music and its role in bluegrass music. Beginning with the Country Gentlemen and J.D. Crowe, and continuing today with his own group, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Lawson has championed the gospel singing style of the 1940-50s quartet, mixing black and white southern gospel traditions with his own unique brand of bluegrass. The result has inspired thousands, including dozens of Quicksilver alumni who have gone on to fame in other groups.

Doyle Lawson is one of Bluegrass music’s most respected mandolin players and Quicksilver, the band he leads, is considered one of the premier Gospel-Bluegrass bands.

Doyle became interested in Bluegrass music at age 5 listening to the music of Flatt & Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers and Bill Monroe. Doyle got his first mandolin at age 11 when he taught himself to play on one loaned to him by a member of his father’s Gospel quartet. He also learned to play 5-string banjo and guitar. One of his neighbors was Jimmy Martin, who was helpful to him and along with Red Rector, Paul Williams, Frank Wakefield and Bobby Osborne, a great influence in his music. Martin invited him to join his Sunny Mountain Boys as a banjo player in 1963, but Doyle only stayed for seven months before moving to Louisville, Kentucky.

In 1966, he played guitar part-time with J.D. Crowe and when Crowe moved to Lexington, Kentucky, Doyle joined Crowe’s Kentucky Mountain Boys on a full-time basis as a mandolin player.

Doyle’s first recording experience was in 1968, when he recorded Bluegrass Holiday for Rebel, with Red Allen and bassist Bobby Sloan. He recorded two albums with Crowe, before leaving in 1971, when he joined the Country Gentlemen and while with them recorded ten albums.

In 1979, Doyle left the Country Gentlemen and formed Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver. The band signed with Sugar Hill Records and in 1980 released Rock My Soul, the album that would help launch them. Thereafter, the group alternately released a Bluegrass and a Gospel album, with the Gospel releases outselling the Bluegrass by two to one.

Through several changes in band membership, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver continued to release several very imaginative albums through the 1980’s. In 1990 Doyle was approached by Brentwood Music and signed with them.

Recordings include:

• Quicksilver Rides Again (album)
• Heaven’s Joy Awaits (album)
• The News Is Out (album)
• Pressing on Regardless (album)