>> And now Ladies and Gentlemen, Is make welcome to the stage, one of therue legends of Bluegrass music, J.D.

Crowe and The New South.

[ Cheers and Applause ] (banjo playing) >> RICKY SKAGGS: It was one of the best moves musically I think I ever did, getting to be a part of The New South group and The New South Album with Tony and J.D and Bobby Slone and Jerry Douglas.

>> TONY RICE: But I think when the history books are written the collaboration of J.D Crowe and myself, whatever it was that we recorded at anytime, will not only have extreme historic value, it will have extreme musical validity.

>> DOYLE LAWSON: True friends are hard to find, and when you get one, you need to treasure it and I, more than anything, all the good music I got to play with J.D.

over the years, the thing I value the most is my friendship with him.

>> ALLISON KRAUSS: You know, I know people who carry around pictures of his hand in their case.

What are you doing?

I want a copy of that for my case.

Yeah!

>> SONNY OSBORNE: When I saw him, he probably weighed maybe a hundred pounds.

Maybe.

Real skinny guy, thin.

Boy he could play though, he could always play.

>> BELLA FLECK: People always talk about his timing, his tone and his touch and what he can get out of a banjo and that's incredibly impressive, but it's the Crow-ness of it for me.

It's a magical, indescribable thing that he has.

>> TONY TRISCHKA: Shhhhhh!

Please?

I can not be interrupted while J.D.

is soloing.

When he takes a solo, it has to be complete focus, ´cause every single solo is just this piece of classical music practically.

JD CROWE IS A KENTUCKY TREASURE.

>> BESSIE CROWE: We married in '36, and JD was born in ´37.

We moved to Jessamine County.

and we were there for 12 years.

That's where he started his schooling.

>> J.D: I can remember working on the farm, doing whatever needed to be done.

>> BESSIE: The first song he learned was the books of the bible.

And he sang that in church.

>> J.D.

: I've still got the little small bible that they give as an award for learning that.

The books of the bible.

I usually had a ukulele or some small guitar, and I would beat on that.

>> ROSA CROWE: I don't remember a time there wasn't music in our home.

From the old Victrola's, the ones that played 78's and radios and.

>> JD: They had a barn dance they called it back then called The Kentucky Mountain Barn dance and it was every Saturday night and they would bring in different acts.

Some of them from the Opry.

>> BESSIE: We went every Saturday night at Woodland or wherever the musicians would come from the Grand Ole Opry.

>> JD: Some of the people that came to Woodland Auditorium was Pee Wee King, the Golden West Cowboys, ah, Maddox Brothers and Rose, Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Lefty Frizell then you had some local stars like Homer Harris and his trick horse Stardust.

Really, I was wanting to play electric guitar.

That was what I was really wanting to play, that what I had my mind set on.

>> ROSA CROWE: Oh they would get in there and they wouldn't just do bluegrass.

They would get in there and J.D.

would get on a guitar.

J.D.

could burn a guitar up too.

>> J.D.

: The band that stood out in my mind was Ernest Tubb.

♪ we been together for so long.

♪ it hurts to know your love is gone ♪ >> J.D.

: I recognized the sound.

It was the guitar, and I wanted to play a guitar just like that guy right there that played with Ernest Tubb.

>> J.D.

: That's who I was listening to and kinda who I wanted to pattern myself after.

Then of course that all went to pot when I first saw Flatt & Scruggs, that guitar went out the window.

>> LESTER FLATT: Time for some five string banjo picking now.

We're going to call on a fella that can do just that.

My buddy Earl Scruggs and a little tune called The Randy Lynn Rag.

Earl.

♪ >> J.D.

: I never heard anything like that.

That was the first and it just hit me like a ton of brick.

>> EARL SCRUGGS: Lester Flatt and I had been at WCYB in Bristol, Virginia.

And at some point, we went to Lexington and did a broadcast, I think out at Versailles.

They started a show I think called, Kentucky Barndance.

>> J.D.

: I had never seen or heard anything like that.

Not just the banjo but the whole band.

The way the choreography was on stage.

The way they moved in and out with one mic.

The whole bit.

I'd never seen a band do that.

♪ >> J.D.

: I decided, well, I had to try to do that.

♪ >> J.D.

: So that was my first introduction to a banjo.

>> LESTER FLATT: Aah, that's real fine Earl Scruggs, thank you so much.

The Randy Lynn Rag.

♪ >> J.D.

: I decided, well, I had to try to do that.

>> BESSIE: He was 12, I think.

He told, at Christmas time.

>> J.D.

: I remember telling my Dad, you know, I want a banjo.

>> BESSIE: He said Daddy; I want a banjer for Christmas.

>> J.D.

: Yeah, I remember he said, Why, you couldn't play like that, you know.

>> BESSIE: And I said now J.D., honey, I think you better get a guitar.

I don't believe you can play a banjer.

>> J.D.

: I said, Well, I´d like to try it.

You know.

>> BESSIE: Orval went to Joe Rosenberg's in Lexington and bought him a banjo.

>> J.D.

: That was a Kay, yes.

Isn't everybody's first instrument a Kay (laughs) especially a banjo?

>> ROSA: J.D.

would go around working his fingers on his side, on a table, on a broom, anything.

Just, I mean, he was always thinking music.

>> J.D.

: When I first got one, I was sick.

No, I had a vision of being able to pick it up and play some of this that I had heard Earl play.

Wrong!

>> J.D.

: I had to set back.

listened to 78 records and you would take the control arm, pick it up and set it back.

That's the way I had to learn.

>> BESSIE: He'd crank that old Victrola, you know that's what we had, and he'd turn Lester Flatt and Earl on and he would pick.

>> J.D.

: Dad would get on me.

You're messing up the record player son.

>> ROSA: He woke us up at 3:00 in the morning playing Cripple Creek.

And nobody showed him anything.

>> BESSIE: Every morning he rode a bus and he had to wait on the bus.

He'd say Momma, give me my banjo.

So I'd give it to him, he was sitting by the winder.

Well, he'd pick that banjer ´till he seen the bus.

>> ROSA: Then he would see the bus and he would give it to mother and she would put it up and as soon as he got home it was the same thing again.

>> J.D.

: I aggravated my Mom and Dad to the point my Dad would say.

I remember I would think things and I would go to bed and I would get up.

You know, I´d lay there and I would think of how this goes, and I would get up and try it.

>> ROSA: And Mom and Dad never got tired of it.

>> J.D.

: He would say, Son, it's 2:00 in the morning, I've got to get up at four-thirty.

>> ROSA: And even though he had to get up and go to work you know, never mind, cause he loved the music.

>> J.D.

: And you've got to get up and go to school.

But I did that a bunch.

>> ROSA: And he never stopped.

It just went on and on.

He was determined to do it and he succeeded.

>> J.D.

: Like I said, It wasn't easy.

>> J.D.

: As you go through the amateur status you know, different people would hold amateur shows and I would go enter them and I would win a few and lose a few you know, whatever.

But there was a guy by the name of Esco Hankins.

He was kinda a local hero as the country think goes and he had a band and he came from Knoxville, Tennessee.

>> J.D.

: I went up on one of his shows one time as a guest.

It was like an amateur thing.

And I did that and then every Saturday night he had a radio show on WLAP.

And it came on at 6:00 until 7:00.

It was a live audience in the studio and I guess it held 35 people which was pretty good for that time.

But anyway, that's where I started really.

And then, he asked my Mom and Dad if it would be alright if I'd go on some shows with them.

So that started me on that type of thing you know.

Even though I was still in school, we didn't play that far away.

I could always get back home in time to go to school the next day.

Sometimes it was rough, (laugh) but anyway, they figured I was in good hands and I was.

They were all a good bunch of guys.

Anyway, that's how I got started then I was on there one Saturday night and Jimmy Martin was driving through.

He had left Bill Monroe at the time and was on his way to Middletown, Ohio.

And he heard me on that particular radio show.

>> J.D.

: I think, if I'm not mistaken, I went with him to Middletown.

I was out of school at the time.

Summer vacation, and I think I went with him to Middletown at that time and stayed a couple of months.

That was my first deal with Jimmy.

And I remember he told me, he said, if there ever comes a time when he could use me again he would call.

Well, of course you know how that is, but it did work out that way.

In 1955, I went to work with Mac Wiseman.

A friend of mine that I had known previously, Bennie Williams, was working with Mac.

Benny was playing fiddle and mandolin.

Luckily for me, I was out of school at the time.

So, Bennie called me and asked if I would be interested in going to work with Mac for a while.

I said well I'm still in school so I would have to be back.

He said well that would be alright.

And so I said well sure, I'd love that.

So, in 1955, I hopped a bus and went to Richmond, Virginia, and I worked with Mac for about two and a half months.

♪ >> EARL SCRUGGS: We moved away from Lexington, and I lost contact with J.D.

at some point and the next time I heard of J.D.

Crowe he was playing with Jimmy Martin, doing a fine job of picking.

>> J.D.

: He and the Osborne Brothers had teamed up after I left, and that was my first encounter with those guys.

>> SONNY OSBORNE: I will say this about Jimmy Martin: At one point in his life for a period of about, probably three or four years, he was the best at what he did that's ever been.

♪ and I'll feel like I'm number one on your hit parade of love ♪ On the hit parade of love I'll know I'll never stop.

♪ I've got a long long climb before I reach the top ♪ But if I do you'll get there soon ♪ I'd really have it made.

♪ then I'll know I'm number one on your lover's hit parade ♪ >> SONNY OSBORNE: Absolutely the best.

I'm talking about vocally, I'm talking about guitar and timing.

And wanting you to do the right thing.

>> J.D.

: I went with him in 1956 and he was living in Detroit, Michigan at the time.

They also had a Barn dance, of all places in Detroit, MI, which was kinda odd I though at time.

♪ then I'll know I'm number one on your hit parade ♪ ♪ now I know I'm number one on your hit parade ♪ >> PAUL WILLIAMS: I said, hello; and he said, Is this Paul Williams?

and I said, Yeah!

He said, This is Jimmy Martin up in Detroit.

He said, I'll tell you why I called, he said, I want you to go to work for me, play the mandolin and sing tenor.

He said, come on up, catch a bus and come on up.

And so I did.

That was in November, 1957, and he come and got me at the bus station and took me out there to where he lived.

There was a little slim red headed feller there, and Jimmy said, I want to introduce you to my banjo player.

This is J.D.

Crowe.

Some of the clubs that we played in Detroit are probably gone by now and it would be a good thing.

They were rough, a lot of them were.

>> PAUL: It was mostly night clubs.

It was usually Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

You would start early evening and finish up midnight or later.

>> J.D.

: It was just a lot of fun.

For me back then because I hadn't been to Detroit before and there I was in the big city.

The big Motor City you know.

I enjoyed my stay while we were there.

>> PAUL: In 1958, we got a chance to go and audition on the Louisiana Hayride, which at that time was one of the big Saturday night jamborees.

WRVA in Richmond had the Barn Dance, the Old Dominion Barn Dance.

Of course Wheeling had the Wheeling Jamboree.

Of course you had the Grand Ole Opry on WSM but KWKH in Shreveport, LA had the Hayride and had people on there like Johnny Horton and James O'Guinn and Hank Williams had been there at one time.

Web Pierce had been there at one time, and Jim Reeves come through there at one time.

>> J.D.

: At that time Jimmy's records were doing pretty good.

He was recording for Decca at the time.

>> PAUL: At 8:00 on Saturday night one of those shows was coast to coast on the CBS radio network.

>> J.D.

: The Louisiana Hayride, as I remember it, is probably one of the finest places I really looked forward to playing.

Because, it's kinda hard to explain, but I think everyone there couldn't wait until Saturday night.

Hayride announcer: Frank Page: Page: Alright, we're going to put Jimmy Martin and his crew to work again along with the fiddling Dobber Johnson and we've got old J.D.

Crowe and his five string banjo to pick a little bit here tonight.

>> JIMMY MARTIN: Thank you so much Frank.

It's awful nice to be down here at the good ole Hayride.

Big howdy to all you folks here and also you folks listening in to us by the way of radio.

We'd like to do that number J.D.

especially for Tom and Nell and all of them listening in.

How would you folks like to hear pick one on the five string banjo?

Would you folks like to hear that, huh?

That ain't enough.

That's just a few of ya.

I asked did you want to hear him play one?

>> JIMMY: (giggle) With my help J.D., you will be able to pick a banjo tune here tonight.

You got anybody special you'd like to dedicated this to J.D.?

>> J.D.

: Nobodies I can think of, just everybody.

>> JIMMY: Do it for Ken and the band here on stage >> J.D.

: Alright.

>> JIMMY: They like to hear you pick too, OK. >> J.D.

: Let's do a little Train 45.

>> JIMMY: Alright.

♪ >> J.D.

: The crowds at the Louisiana Hayride I think probably was as good a crowd as I've had the pleasure of working with or working to.

>> J.D.

: Usually when we had the Hayride every Saturday night it was full.

It was in Memorial Auditorium there and I forget how many it held but quite a few thousand.

>> PAUL: Jimmy said we was going to WWVA, the Wheeling Jamboree in Wheeling, W.VA. >> J.D.

: When Jimmy mentioned that to Paul and myself about leaving the Hayride and what we thought about it, of course I don't think we wanted to go but.

>> PAUL: He thought probably we could get some more work.

It had got kinda slack working Oklahoma and New Mexico and Texas and around there in Louisiana.

>> J.D.

: And also I think the concerts were a lot better.

You had a lot more chance at playing more concerts.

>> PAUL: So we loaded up and went up there and it did get better.

We did work more.

>> J.D.

: It was a drastic change from Shreveport, LA.

To Wheeling W.Va and I really never liked it.

>> PAUL: We got a whole lot more work.

And of course when you work more you got a little more change a little more jingle you know.

That always makes you feel better.

>> J.D.

: We was doing a lot of traveling and I was getting tired and I didn't like the place anyway.

I think all those combinations is what did it.

I said Well, I think I'll change for awhile and see what happens.

>> PAUL: He and Jimmy had a private conversation.

There wasn't much said in my presence.

>> J.D.

: Of course, he didn't like that too much.

He tried every way in the world to talk me out of it.

>> JIMMY: I remember the time when J.D.

left.

It was a sad time.

J.D.

left and I left in the winter of '63.

Not saying it because of J.D.

or myself but Jimmy never did get over that.

He never did, he tried real hard, he never did understand.

I don't know about J.D.

's reasons but he never did understand my reasons.

>> J.D.

: Like I told him, nothing lasts forever.

Things change.

>> J.D.

: I came back to Lexington, KY and, as they say, got into the reality of life, in an 8:00 to 5:00 job.

I guess it was two or three months before I had played any.

There was two brothers, Bob and Charley Joslin.

I had known them growing up.

We had not lived too far apart.

>> BOBBY JOSLIN: J.D.

lived on Harrodsburg Pike there in Lexington, a few miles from us and we went to his house one night and played some music.

They had heard that somebody was playing the banjo and they had found out I guess where I lived and came to my house.

>> BOBBY: J.D.

played with Esco Hankins there in Lexington.

Esco, do you remember him?

He sang and sounded a lot like Roy Acuff.

>> J.D.

: When I came back in 1961 to Lexington, they were playing at a club.

>> BOBBY: But there was a note left there said, J.D.

is coming by.

So we hung around awhile and he did.

>> J.D.

: So I did, I went over and I think I had taken my banjo.

>> BOBBY: We formed the Kentucky Mountain Boys, me and my brother and J.D.. >> J.D.

: And we played a club called the Limehouse.

>> BOBBY: Then we picked up Ed Stacey on the bass.

>> J.D.

: We went into it with the attitude of, ´Look, we're going to play what we want to play.

We don't care what people want to hear, we're going to play what we want to play.

And we did, primarily that's what we did.

Charley Joslin: (from stage) Hello friends and neighbors.

Welcome once again to country picking and singing with all the Kentucky Mountain Boys down tonight.

Just rippin' and rearin' to go here.

Here's one we'd like to start off with.

So, fellas if you're ready, a little thing called ´Down the Road'.

>> J.D.

: It was probably a step down from what I had been doing, of course it was.

But at that point in my life I never thought about it to that effect.

I was just.

I wanted to try to keep loose playing music and we were just playing and having fun.

♪ >> BOBBY JOSLIN: Back then, you know, I didn't think much about Everybody was just local guys, didn't have no big name or anything.

We just enjoyed what we was doing.

>> DOYLE LAWSON: I had a friend of mine and I said ´let's drive down and look up J.D..' I went to the Limehouse first.

I though that's where he played.

No, they said, he's down the street at 7th.

and Lime at Martin's Tavern.

>> J.D.

: Aw yes, the fabulous Martins.

>> BOBBY JOSLIN: Well, it was just a beer joint.

(laughs) >> DOYLE: What we call a little shot gun room.

It was long and narrow and.

>> J.D.

: That was a one of a kind place.

>> BOBBY JOSLIN: We played there I think it was Friday and Saturday night.

We played there for quite awhile.

>> DOYLE: It was a favorite for the kids over at UK.

They would come over and they would pack that place out.

>> J.D.

: We had a lot of fun there.

We played off and on there for, I don't know, we probably played there until '66, probably.

Then of course bands changed.

Bobby Slone had joined me in '64.

Of course he had heard me with Jimmy Martin during those years.

He had heard people say J.D.

is playing down at Martin's place.

You need to go down there and check with him you know.

He happened to be passing and he said he heard a banjo.

So he stops and he comes in.

And I remember somebody looking at me and saying, ´Hey did you know there's a left handed fiddle player in here.'

Well, see I had no idea who Bobby was, at the time.

So anyway, we got him up and he played with us and that's where it started right there.

>> Ed Stacey: We're going to get Mr. Bobby Slone up here with the old cornstalk fiddle.

♪ >> J.D.

: At that time, next would have been a young college student named Gordon Scott that came into the group.

>> GORDON SCOTT: The way it was listed on the sign was, The Joslin Brothers, with J.D.

Crowe and The Kentucky Mountain Boys.

Well, the Joslin Brothers were Charley and Bob and you had J.D.

Crowe and then there was Ed Stacey.

So, the Kentucky Mountain Boy.

Ed was the Kentucky Mountain Boys.

I got a call from J.D., I remember this, it was on a Monday night.

J.D.

calls me up and J.D.

goes, Hey Gordon, listen me and Charley and Bobby are breaking up.

He said, you know I've got that regular thing at Martins on Wednesday night.

Would you want to play the I said, Good God yes.

Where do I show up and what time, you know.

>> J.D.

: And that's when Ed Stacey went to guitar and Gordon played mandolin and sung tenor.

>> GORDON: So we had J.D.

on banjo and we had Ed on the guitar, me on a guitar and Bobby on the fiddle and Lightning on the bass, so we had two guitars.

Like in one of those pictures.

J.D.

said, Hoss, you know we don't need two guitars in this band.

How ´bout you learning to play something on the mandolin.

I said, yeah, yeah, that's fine with me.

>> DOYLE: I got a call from him and he wanted to know if I would come down and fill in on guitar.

He had a fellow named Eddie Stacey was playing guitar and singing lead with him at that time.

And I went down and filled in while Eddie was off sick.

>> GORDON: Along about there, Doyle is in the band.

So, Doyle comes in on the band and here I am playing mandolin.

So, Doyle is playing guitar.

And Ed Stacey moves from guitar to the bass and Lightning gets bumped for awhile.

So there we are and we're playing along for a little while and it's a happening little band.

But I'm learning on the mandolin.

>> J.D: We were on a break in the back room there at Martins and Gordon was trying to figure out something on the mandolin and he kept going over and over it.

He couldn't get it.

>> GORDON: And I kinda got lost you know and Doyle says, Hoss, I think I know.

Let me help you with that.

>> J.D.

: Doyle looked at him and says, Maybe I can, if you don't mind let me see it.

I think maybe I can show you how that goes.

>> GORDON: So I handed him the mandolin and you know Doyle Lawson.

Man, he nailed it, just like that.

>> J.D.

: Well, Doyle proceeded to take the mandolin and just pick the dad-gone devil out of it.

>> GORDON: And I said, ´whoa!!

We need to do a little switcher-roo here.

>> J.D.

: I'm thinking, Ahhhhh, I didn't know you played mandolin.

>> GORDON: J.D.

see is the kind of guy that he not only plays banjo like that but he taught me all the stuff I know on the mandolin him and Doyle Lawson.

So he plays the mandolin and he plays the guitar.

He's a killer guitar player.

>> DOYLE: J.D.

and I have often talked that the days we spent at Martins Tavern; we both worked jobs during those days, during the day and played at night.

But there was no pressure.

We played what we wanted to play and that was pure bluegrass.

>> GORDON: I was going to school and getting paid for it so once that was done, I had to get to work so there was no teaching job for me there in Lexington.

So basically I left the band in '68 to go over to Madisonville to start teaching school.

>> J.D.

: It was in 1968 when we left there and went over to the Holiday Inn.

>> Voice of Ed Stacey on stage: We do have all the Kentucky Mountain Boys here at Ms. Martin's place every Friday and Saturday night so, anytime you're out hossin' around well drop around and be with us.

We'd be just might glad to have ya.

We sure would.

>> DOYLE LAWSON: There was a girl came to a party out there and her father owned some of the Holiday Inn's.

She told her Dad about J.D.

and the group.

♪ >> J.D.

: Finally, the owner of that Holiday Inn came to Martins one night.

He introduced himself to me.

He asked if I would be interested in working at the Holiday Inn.

>> DOYLE LAWSON:: I guess the Holiday Inn North out on I-75.

>> J.D.

: But I didn't know whether it would work out or not.

I said ´yes we would be but we would probably need to do it out on a trial basis.

He said, Well that's what I had in mind.

>> DOYLE: So we took it on a trial run and.

>> J.D.

: We did it for a couple or three weeks.

On Thurs.

Fri. And Saturday night.

>> DOYLE: It worked so he hired us on full time.

>> J.D.

: When we started, first Thursday night it was full.

Friday and Saturday night it was packed, you couldn't get ´em in.

And I think we did that for, like I said, three weeks.

Then he approached me about signing a year's contract.

>> DOYLE: At first it was six nights a week, four sets a night and it was pretty regimented.

Finally, we had to drop to five.

Six was too much.

It was killing us.

So we dropped to five nights a Week, Tuesday through Saturday.

>> J.D.

: I knew that I for one could not play five nights a week and work from 8:00 to 5:00.

Not very long.

I tried it for about a month.

It didn't work.

So, we looked at each other and said, ´well, do we want to do this?

>> DOYLE: It would have been physically impossible to work five nights a week like we worked.

We worked 9:00 to 1:00 every night, and then, you can't work a job during the day and ah, you can but something is going to suffer and most of the time it will be everything you're trying to do.

>> J.D.

: We left, gave our notice and went to the Holiday Inn and, as they say, the rest is history.

>> Red Allen's voice: Here's one called ´Will You Be Loving Another Man Honey' ♪ >> J.D.

: The line-up when we Then Bob Morris left and that's when Red Allen came in: Will you be loving another man?

Will you be loving another man,?

When I return will you be waiting, Or will you be loving another Man ♪ >> DOYLE LAWSON: Well, the Holiday Inn was a fun gig, it really was.

They would line up in the stre down the parking lot trying to get in it.

>> J.D.

: All of the music I had heard in places like that was like a woman sitting there with a piano.

Real easy listening stuff.

Nothing, no string music.

Jack of Diamonds, jack of diamonds, I know you've grown cold.

You've robbed my pockets of Silver and gold ♪ >> J.D.

: Probably one of the first bands that ever went to the Holiday Inn with that type of music.

And to stay as long as we did, I don't think that has ever been equaled.

♪ Hug me closer, my dear, closer.

♪ put your arms around me tight ♪ For I'm cold and tired dear mother ♪ And I feel so strange tonight ♪ >> J.D.

: When Larry Rice came into the band, it was because Bobby Slone knew Larry and Tony and the whole family.

Bobby was telling me about Larry and he was wanting to come back to this part of the country cause he was in Los Angeles.

So, Bobby contacted him and sure enough he said he would love to have the job.

♪ Somehow tonight I feel lonely my darling Somehow tonight I feel blue Somehow tonight these tears of mine keep falling Come back sweetheart and be true ♪ >> DOYLE: Larry had a real baritone voice.

He could sing and had a good range but his best range was from medium to a low range so we started experimenting with trios and ...

So we wound up doing a lot of stuff with what we call inverted harmonies.

We would reverse the order of the harmonies and put the lead on top.

>> J.D.

: ´course it was still the Kentucky Mountain Boys at that period in time.

>> DOYLE: We know that the Osborne Brothers.

I don't want to not give them credit because that is something they came up with.

>> J.D.

: of course we had other things in mind.

Maybe one of these days we were going to leave the Holiday Inn and do concerts and festivals.

Which we did.

I think we worked like eight or nine months out of the years then leave during the summer or late spring and play festivals.

Then come back to the Holiday Inn I think in September after Labor Day.

♪ She took all the love that a poor boy could give her And left me to die like a Fox on the Run Like a Fox, like a fox, like a Fox on the run ♪ >> DOYLE: The Holiday Inn was a fun place to do, but like any place else, I don't think there is a job any place in the world that is 100% plus.

There's a few negatives along the way.

Working five nights a week, pretty much 52 weeks a year.

For me, it started wearing me down.

It was like punching a clock.

I went to the Country Gentlemen in 1971.

♪ She took all the love that a poor boy could give her And left me to die like a Fox on the Run.

Like a Fox, like a fox, like a Fox on the run ♪ ♪ >> TONY RICE: When I was with the Alliance I had befriended Jimmy Gaudreau and Eddy Adcock.

The decision was made by Eddie that he wanted to start a full time band with that configuration.

>> J.D.

: I had heard Tony with the Bluegrass Alliance and he had told me if you ever need a lead singer and guitar player, let me know.

That stuck with me.

>> TONY: Jimmy Gaudreau was leaving the Country Gentlemen and that meant Doyle came in to replace Jimmy Gaudreau in the Gentlemen.

So that left that void in Crowe's band.

>> J.D.

: I have this policy; I will not deliberately hire somebody from another band.

They have to quit before I will ever approach them.

>> TONY: It really had me in a precarious position because I had sorta made the commitment to Adcock and Jimmy.

>> J.D.

: He told me he was leaving that particular band.

>> TONY: The real musical configuration I wanted to play in was with J.D.

Crowe.

>> J.D.

: In 1971, he left the Bluegrass Alliance.

>> TONY: Emerson was the one that told me that, basically what I would have to do to satisfy my own soul was to follow my own instincts and go ahead and take the job I wanted to take, which was the one with J.D.

Crowe, and so I did.

>> J.D.

: In '71, Doyle had left to join the Country Gentlemen.

Tony Rice was coming into the band and I wanted to change it to something other than The Kentucky Mountain Boys.

>> TONY: Crowe and I were in a Winnebago and he was driving late one night and I remember him saying he wanted to change the name of that band.

>> J.D.

: To a name that wouldn't really label you.

So you could play whatever kind of music you wanted and it would still fit.

>> TONY: The Kentucky Mountain Boys can only be one thing, a bluegrass band.

>> J.D.

: So that's how the band name was changed.

>> TONY: To this day I don't know where he came up with the name, The New South, but I do remember I liked it.

>> J.D.

: So that's how the band name was changed.

>> TONY: To this day I don't know where he came up with the name, The New South, but I do remember I liked it.

I did like what it represented.

It was a good call on his part.

>> TONY: Larry left in '74 to go with Dickey Betts.

Sam had come and replaced Larry, I think, for a couple of weeks.

>> J.D.

: Meanwhile, I had heard Ricky numerous times out at festivals.

Ricky was with the Country Gentlemen.

He worked with them for awhile, and then he had quit.

>> RICKY SKAGGS: When I got the call from J.D.

I said, ´Look, me and Keith Whitley want to put together a band and at some point we're going to do that and that never really never ever happened.'

He said well could you come here and just stay until you did, I said ´That sounds like a good plan.'

>> TONY: It was a lot of work.

I mean there were times when we were doing four sets a night six nights a week.

>> TONY: I think we were lucky that we had what we did.

It was a really good paying job.

As an occupation in the music business and in the musical world that we lived in, that was the ideal situation.

>> RICKY: Coming to work with J.D.

and Tony, I had things to learn like Sin City.

♪ This old town's filled with sin; it'll swallow you in if you've got some money to burn Take it home, right away, you've got three years to pay, but Satan is waiting his turn ♪ >> RICKY: It wasn't long after we started playing the shows at the Holiday Inn that J.D.

said, Oh by the way, we're supposed to go cut a record, it was like (inhales deeply) >> J.D.

: When we recorded the album, the old Home Place Album, The old '44 as a lot of people know it; Jerry was not working with us at the time.

He was still working with the Country Gentlemen.

>> RICKY: When we got together the material to cut the record, The New South Album, I kept telling J.D., ´Man this would be great to have Dobro on.'

>> JERRY DOUGLAS: And I don't think J.D.

was too crazy about Dobro player up to that point.

But Tony and Ricky talked J.D.

into taking me on.

>> J.D.

: Of course he and Ricky were big buddies at that time.

>> RICKY: I said, I think we really should ask Jerry to come in.

I don't know if I want any Dobro on any of this stuff you know.

>> J.D.

: So when we recorded the album, we borrowed him for the session.

>> JERRY: It was amazing to play with them.

I knew I had gone to another level.

I knew that as soon as I started playing with them, with J.D.

especially, was this guy whose taste and time and tone were impeccable.

Were rivaled by none.

>> J.D.

: Meanwhile, he had told me he was going to be leaving the Gentlemen.

>> RICKY: Once he came in and kinda proved his worth, I think J.D.

was really loving the sound that we got with Jerry.

>> J.D.

: When he did, let me know.

So, he was interested in joining the New South.

>> RICKY: He decided he would leave the Country Gentlemen and come work with J.D.

for awhile.

>> JERRY: All those years after hearing him play with Jimmy Martin and how much that blew me away, I couldn't believe I was actually going to play with this guy.

I would have done it for free.

♪ What have they done to the old home place, why did they tear it down?

And why did I leave a plow in the field and look for a job in the town?

♪ >> RICKY: The Japan trip was a bitter-sweet trip for me because it was like our farewell tour.

>> TONY: Grissman and I had met from working together on a Bill Keith album, and Grissman and I befriended each other, and that's when I heard his new music, and I was ecstatic about it to say the least.

>> J.D.

: That was our last tour and I knew that.

We all knew that >> JERRY: I really didn't' know that it was going to be such a sudden end to this band.

>> RICKY: I would have probably stayed a long, for awhile longer if Tony had stayed.

>> J.D.

: But it didn't effect our playing any.

That was probably the best performances we probably ever did.

>> TONY: I had already did some extensive rehearsals with David Grissman and was ready for a change.

>> JERRY: Musically he was taking another step and the direction that he needed to go in.

>> TONY: When I gave notice to Crowe, I had no idea that Ricky and Jerry were going to leave and form their own band.

>> RICKY: Jerry Douglas and I decided that when Tony left we would go ahead and put together a band and we did with Boone Creek and so it kinda left J.D.

with no mandolin player, no Dobro player, no guitar player, no tenor singer, no fiddle player.

It was a tremendous restructuring for J.D.. >> JERRY: You know I felt sorry for J.D.

all of us leaving at the same time.

>> TONY: By the fall of that year, everybody's sentiments, though unspoken, I think were basically the same in that individually we were ready to move on to other pastures >> JERRY: I don't think we really wanted to go.

I think we just thought this is the time, it's going to change so drastically when Tony goes, that if we're going to step out, this is the time we need to do it.

>> TONY: I know J.D.

was ready to move The New South into its own new identity >> J.D.

: Well, like I said, all good things come to an end.

So I started looking around for other people and of course, there they were.

(Laughs) ♪ And why did I leave a plow in the field and look for a job in the town?

♪ >> J.D.

: I believe in doing what you feel like you want to do.

If you can do that and get some satisfaction, plus reach a wider audience, I can't see why people won't do it.

>> JIMMY GAUDREAU: Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas had left the band earlier that year and he had recruited Glenn Lawson, to play mandolin and Harley Allen to sing lead, tenor and play guitar.

Harley had left the band and moved back to I guess, Dayton.

Back in D.C.

I had gotten word through the proverbial grapevine all of this was going on and it just got me thinking I should give J.D.

a call and see what the scoop was.

So, I came down to Lexington, hit some licks and, as the saying goes, the rest is history.

>> JIMMY: I could see right off the bat that Glen would have had a hard time keeping up on the Mandolin if Crowe decided he wanted to play one of his or Earl's banjo tunes at full speed.

>> J.D.

: I, for one, realized you couldn't keep doing the same kind of songs over and over.

The same way.

So, I kinda decided to add some drums, and we hooked up amplifiers.

I always liked to mix up music because I love the old country music, the old rock and roll, the old rhythm and blues and I always like to try to mix that together.

♪ Well, my window faces the south and I'm almost half way to heaven The snow is falling but all I can see is fields of cotton smiling back at me >> JIMMY GAUDREAU: I have to honestly say it was a pleasure and some of the most fun times in my nearly forty years as a musician.

We all got along great.

We laughed and joked constantly and we all became close friends along the way.

♪ >> JIMMY GAUDREAU: All that seemed to carry over to our performances on stage which made for a good show and connection with the audience.

It doesn't get much better than that.

♪ oh, my window msh oh my window faces down south >> JIMMY GUARDREAU: Oh and on top of that, did I mention we got paid for it too.

Wow!

>> J.D.

: Keith and Jimmy Gaudreau worked together in a band years ago called, The Country Store.

>> JIMMY GAUDREAU: He had been with Ralph about long enough the second time around and he was getting itchy.

♪ My darling left me this morning She left me feeling so blue I'm a going to roll, rock, and ramble Try to forget all about you >> JIMMY GAUDREAU: He didn't think a lateral move to another bluegrass band was what he wanted to do if indeed he was going to make any kind of change at all.

>> J.D.

: I always knew he liked country.

Every time he came on our camper he'd get a guitar and sit there and he'd sing George Jones, Merle Haggard, and Lefty Frizell.

Of Course that's what I liked too.

>> JIMMY GAUDREAU: My pitch was that Crowe had already used a steel guitar and drums in his previous album, You Can Share My Blanket, and he would be looking at an opportunity to record with these instruments and the next project as well.

That seemed to get his attention.

>> J.D.

: So, he did quit and in fact, I think we were on the same show somewhere in Maryland.

I can't remember where it was but there was a bunch of acts on the show.

We were there, Ralph Stanley was there and that was his last show with Ralph and he rode back, when we came home that night, Keith rode back home with us.

So, that's how Keith came to be in The New South.

♪ I'd leave here today; I'd leave in a hurry.

♪ >> J.D.

: Probably one of the finest singers I've ever listened too.

He was unique.

He was a singer's singer.

>> WENDY MILLER: I always thought that J.D.

gave him the reach to reach that star when he OK'd the Somewhere BetweenAlbum.

>> J.D.

: That was probably the thing that helped him get his contract with RCA at the time and there again, I knew what was going to happen.

I hated to lose him as a lead singer but I knew where he belonged.

If I could be of any help to do that, then that was what I wanted to do.

>> Keith was so well respected as a singer even when he was bluegrass that we would go to Nashville.

Lot's of times it was the who's who, in the recording studio listening to him sing, listening to him sing.

You sometimes, if you tried, you couldn't walk in to hear him record.

>> J.D.

: I was always aware of Keith's problems.

I knew that going in.

But there again, I though this would help if he got to a place he wanted to be with people that cared about him and.

And Lord knows I did.

So did everyone in the band.

But I knew he had a problem.

Of course we did all we could do but.

it didn't work.

>> WENDY MILLER: You know the good Lords works in mysterious ways.

It just wasn't to happen, it just didn't happen.

But he had the talent.

♪ Hey Lady, do you ever think of me?

♪ >> WENDY MILLER: J.D.

began sort of to drop little hints to the band that he might take some time off.

>> CURT CHAPMAN: J.D., called me right after the first of the year.

It was right after the Christmas Holidays, and he said he wasn't going to play that year.

He was going to take some time off.

>> J.D.

: I was just really tired and burnt out of the whole deal, the whole scene.

>> WENDY MILLER: I think Crowe missed his little boy growing up.

Missed all those baseball games and it got to worrying him and.

>> J.D.

: I just didn't want to be around music, pickers, period, at that time.

Nothing personal but that just how I felt.

>> Curt Chapman: I said, well, that's fine but we still remained friends and we still played golf.

>> J.D.

: Well, you know you still have to do something.

I was a mail contractor.

I had a route.

A lot of people thought I was walking and delivering mail in the city.

No, thank you.

Did not want that.

I had a route.

I ran about 350 miles a day.

About five stops.

I did that for about six years.

(Applause/Music) >> J.D.

: In that time period, I was able to play some, some special things.

One of the things, of course, that I did was the All-star group.

>> ALISON KRAUS:: It was really wonderful to be there.

I was pretty self absorbed in wanting to play well and sing well and self conscious by being there with them.

♪ >> TONY RICE: Usually I shy away from such things, which end up basically amounting to a jam session whereby the outcome can be really unpredictable, but on that particular event, everything jelled.

>> ALISON KRAUSE: That particular record from 1975 is what really made me have a passion for wanting to play music.

How new and original it sounds now, 32 years after it was made, that is still sounds like a first.

>> MARK SCHATZ:: When he kicked off a tune, you knew exactly where the down beat was.

>> MARK SCHATZ: Whenever he was playing, he was one of those guys; it was just like falling off a long to get with him.

And it was just a pleasure to play with.

♪ >> ALISON KRAUSE: And that was the first time I met J.D., was on The Lonesome Pine Special.

Sitting and talking with him, and looking at him, and really wanting to get an idea of what he was all about.

>> J.D.

: That was a lot of fun.

That show was really a lot of fun to do that.

♪ [ Cheers and Applause ] >> ALISON KRAUSE: I was first aware of J.D.

Crowe when I first got into playing Bluegrass music.

I was 12 and a friend of mine had given me a bunch of Bluegrass Album band records which was Tony Rice, Doyle Lawson, J.D.

Crowe, Todd Phillip and starting with the second record, Jerry Douglas and Bobby Hicks on fiddle.

>> TONY RICE: I wanted to do a real traditional bluegrass album.

And of course Rounder liked the idea, so I called up specifically the musicians I wanted to use.

>> J.D.

: I got a phone call one day from Tony Rice.

He said, Hey Man, I gotta' do a bluegrass album, would you be interested in picking the banjo?

I said well, yeah, you know.

When are we going to do it?

He said, We're going to do it out here in California.

I proceeded to ask, who else you got on the gig?

>> TONY RICE: Number one on the list was Todd Phillips on acoustic bass.

I wanted Doyle's mandolin playing and his tenor and I wanted Crowe's banjo playing and I wanted Bobby Hicks' fiddle playing.

>> DOYLE LAWSON: Son Tony calls out of the clear blue and he says, I want to do a bluegrass record right straight down the middle bluegrass.

´Cause I want these people to know where our love is and where our roots are' and I said, well man, it sounds like a good idea to me.

>> TONY RICE: And so with a lot of patience, a lot of phone calls and a lot of waiting, we all assembled in the same studios at the same time, at the same place in Berkley, California.

>> DOYLE LAWSON: J.D.

and I flew out, we met in I believe Charlotte or Atlanta one and the rest of the flight we were together.

We made out a list of songs that we took with us and when we got there, Tony had a list he had written down.

>> TONY RICE: We would sit real close facing each other where we had contact and nobody overdubbed anything.

♪ I've been up and down and round and round and back again.

♪ I've been so many places I can't remember where or when ♪ >> DOYLE LAWSON: Neither I nor any of the other guys had any idea that recording would make such an impact on the world of recordings at that time.

♪ been turned inside out and around and about and back and then.

♪ found myself right back where I started again ♪ >> J.D.

: We were listening to playbacks and he looked up at me and said man, this is too good to do a one album thing.

Man, we need to do a series of these.

>> JERRY DOUGLAS: They were always fun to do.

J.D.

was there for all of those.

It was like a celebration.

I would have dropped whatever I was doing to go out and do one of those records ´cause they were always so much fun.

>> J.D.

: Tony owed Rounder Records a bluegrass album.

He had owed them for I don't know how many years.

He was trying to get around to doing it.

That's how that came about.

>> DOYLE LAWSON: We never laid claim to, nor would we ever, that we had surpassed what had been done.

All we were doing was paying tribute and homage to the guys that blazed the trail so we could do that.

And to show people, try to show them, our love was for authentic bluegrass music.

>> TONY RICE: After it was over, I decided that it didn't sound so much like a Tony Rice bluegrass album, that it did sound like a band and since there wasn't a band, you couldn't give the album a band title, but what I came up with was, nobody had come up with before, was The Bluegrass Album.

´Cause that is precisely what it ended up being.

>> J.D.

: We finished that one, then we did volume two, three, four, five and six and I don't think he did his bluegrass album until about ten years after that.

The ironic part of it was I wasn't on his bluegrass album.

It turned out I think Bill Emerson played on that particular album.

♪ well I've traded my love for pennies.

♪ sold my soul for less.

♪ lost my views in that long tunnel of time.

♪ been turned inside out and around about and back and then.

♪ found myself right back where I started again ♪ I've been turned inside out and around about and started again ♪ ♪ found myself right brak back where I started again ♪ >> J.D.

: I had always had it in my mind I would probably go back into it, but it would have to be at my time, when I wanted to and with whom I had in the band.

>> CURT CHAPMAN: It wasn't maybe March or April and we were out on the golf course and J.D.

had said, You know I would mind getting a band back together and just playing bluegrass.

Just playing what I want to, when I want to.

Playing the kind of music I want to.

>> J.D.

: And when I came back in '94, I had made up my mind I was not going to do as much; I wasn't going to be playing as many dates.

I didn't want to like I had been and I wasn't going to put the pressure on myself that I had put before.

>> CURT CHAPMAN: And I was lucky enough to be the person he called to come back.

>> J.D.

: In fact, Bobby Slone was the one that told me about Richard.

I didn't know Richard.

>> RICHARD BENNETT: Bobby Slone head me play a tune with him.

We played faded love together.

He came back and goes J.D.

and said, Hey, listen to this boy play the guitar.

And so I played Faded Love with Bobby Slone and Crowe looked at me and said, I may be calling on you someday.

That's the first time Crowe ever talked to me about music.

>> J.D.

: He was coming to Renfro Valley just to visit, to jam.

So I went down and met him again and heard him play.

>> RICHARD BENNETT: I remember he said to me, Well I guess we'll get a bass player and a mandolin player and we'll do some jobs.

So that was the way I was hired by Crowe.

>> J.D.

: So we rehearsed probably, picked together for about a year just working things out.

>> RICHARD: And the very first mandolin player, tenor singer was Wayne Fields and we started developing the trio that Crowe wanted at the time with myself and Wayne and J.D.

♪ why did they tear it down and why did I leave the plow in the field.

♪ and look for a job in the town ♪ >> PHIL LEADBETTER: I knew Richard Bennett had gone to Lexington to play with J.D.

and Richard had told me You know when I get up to Lexington, I'll see if I can get you up to pick or something.

>> J.D.

: Richard was the one that mentioned he knew Phil Leadbetter.

>> PHIL: So, just on a whim, I got in the directory and called J.D.

's number.

>> J.D.

: Which I hadn't thought about a Dobro player at the time.

I was thinking fiddle player.

>> PHIL: Oh yeah, he says, Richard has talked to me about you.

>> RICHARD: Wayne and Phil and I along with Curt Chapman started doing dates at that configuration.

♪ >> PHIL: J.D.

said, You know, I never did like Dobro's very much.

After I hired Jerry Douglas, I started liking them but... >> J.D.

: I said well when I first heard the Dobro I despised it.

I didn't like it because it too away from Earl's banjer breaks.

>> PHIL: But he kinda laughed after that and he said, Yeah, but I liked Josh just fine,and he said he really liked Jerry and I thought that pretty good.

Maybe I still have a chance.

♪ >> CURT CHAPMAN: When I started with J.D., he was still in the Hall of Famestyle of, doing the country style.

And when we come back we started in on more straight ahead bluegrass.

♪ how would you like to be lonesome when someone is through with you.

♪ my heart is sad and lonesome.

♪ wonder if you're lonesome too.

♪ wonder if you're lonesome too ♪ >> RICHARD BENNETT: Wayne left and at a bluegrass festival we met Don Rigsby.

>> PHIL LEADBETTER: Wayne was wanting to leave because he wasn't a real mandolin player.

Wayne knew his heart was in the banjo.

But Wayne was wanting to help out with the band because he thought so much of Crowe.

>> CURT CHAPMAN: And that was the band that recorded the FlashbackCD was Richard Bennett, myself, Phil Leadbetter and Don Rigsby and of course, J.D.

>> PHIL: That album really opened up a lot of doors for us and it went number one also, it was number one and the song Waiting for You was number one at the same time.

So we had double number ones.

Album and song.

It actually got a Grammy nomination.

>> RICHARD: I stayed with Crowe until ´95 Love so sweet and tender there will never be another.

♪ no one can ever love me like you do.

♪ I spent the rest of my life through the years waiting for you ♪ >> CURT CHAPMAN: Greg Luck played after Richard Bennett left.

That's when Daryl came along for his first time, and then Daryl left and Greg left and we got Ricky and Dwight.

>> RICKY WASSON: I think he was going through some band changes and he actually called me in January of '98 and I started with him the first of March.

♪ I've just got to forget you if I can ♪ I'm feeling so blue, dino what to do.

♪ because I'm head over heels in love with you ♪ >> DWIGHT MCCALL: Tony and Ricky, J.D.

and Bobby and Jerry, they'd already done the special thing.

To me that was always the band that I loved.

Then you got Keith Whitley and Jimmy Gaudreau that came along.

There have been so many good people in this band you just really can't compare yourself to the people who have been in it.

♪ I'm feeling so blue I don't know what to do cause I'm head over heels in love with you ♪ >> RICKY: I guess when I was 17, we formed Southern Blend.

I think we started in 84 and quit in '95.

When J.D.

called me to come fill in on a show in Texas, I already done probably 75 per cent of the songs that J.D.

had recorded with Southern Blend.

♪ I just can't sleep when I lay down.

♪ I'm feeling so blue I don't know what to do.

♪ because I'm head over heels in love with you ♪ [ Applause ] >> J.D.

: My schedule was a little hectic at the time and Ricky and Dwight both had their businesses to run, and it was a little more than they could handle at that time.

>> CURT: There came a time that Ricky, his children was small and he wanted to spend some time at all.

So he left and we got Robert Hale back in the band.

>> J.D.

: Robert and Daryl joined the New South and they were probably with me for a period of about a year maybe.

>> PHIL: I used to work at a park, Dollywood, years ago used to be Silver Dollar City and before that was Gold Rush Junction, and I had worked there.

>> J.D.

: They had been playing on the side at Dollywood and doing some things which I was okay with that.

They could make them some extra money.

There's nothing wrong with that.

>> CURT: We had gone in to record a project just to sell to the tourists there at Dollywood for extra money and it sorta escalated from there you know.

A couple of labels got wind of it, and they showed interest in it.

>> PHIL: It started to really looking good like things were going to happen but none of us wanted to leave J.D.

we all like him so much.

>> CURT: I felt, I didn't know how to tell him and I was scared to tell.

I wasn't scared to tell him but I was dreading to tell him cause wouldn't want to hurt nobody especially J.D.

Crowe.

>> PHIL: I called Curt one night and I told Curt, ´I've already told J.D.

that we're quitting and he's good with it'.

He said, Really, I'll give him a call.

And I said, ´no, I really didn't tell him that, I was wanting you to call him and hopefully and I said No Curt, I really didn't.

>> CURT: He was probably the most gracious gentleman about the whole situation and I know he knew and he knew that I know that he knew.

(laughs) >> PHIL: Finally we're at Shepardville and I told J.D.

and he started laughing, and he said, I've had more fun with this.

I knew you guys were doing this and I've loved watching you all sweat waiting to tell me.

>> J.D.

: I knew that something was up.

You can always tell.

I just let them go and but I knew it was going to happen.

I went ahead and played and still had a good time.

We parted in good company and they're still great friends and that the way it should be.

>> DWIGHT: Me and Ricky Wasson came back at the same time and we've been back ever since.

>> Stage Announcer: He's a native here of Nicholasville, Kentucky..

He's your friend, your neighbor and your host; make welcome, J.D.

Crowe and The New South.

♪ >> J.D.

: Dean Osborne and I talked about doing a festival together.

>> DEAN OSBORNE: When we called him and approached him, I called him myself and I said, ´J.D., there's some folks that want to do a festival in honor of you and your career in your name.

>> J.D.

: See, I never really wanted or pushed for a festival.

>> DEAN OSBORNE: He said, A lot of folks have asked me to do that in the past and I haven't ever really thought the time was right.

He was being honest with me because a lot of times in your career you don't thing the time is right to have something named after you.

>> J.D.

: The Moron Brothers was wanting me to do that and they thought that would be a good idea to have something in Jessamine County, where I live, ´cause there's nothing around like that.

>> DEAN OSBORNE: After some discussion and the County Judge making a call, he was onboard.

One of the best experiences of my life is being associated with a festival that bears J.D.

Crowe's name.

♪ >> Ricky Wasson: J.D.

was two years old when he recorded this in 1956.

You all figure that out.

It is called "honey, you don't know my mind today."

♪ ♪ honey you don't know my mind, I'm lonesome all the time ♪ I'm born to lose a drifter that's me ♪ >> DWIGHT: And since Ronnie Steward has come on board so that's been just that much better.

He's an ultimate musician.

>> RICKY: It's amazing to watch J.D.

and Ronnie communicated with each other.

It's almost like they're not even talking.

It's a musical conversation.

Ronnie will do some kind of lick and Crowe will be like, Yeah, I know where that comes from.

♪ >> RICKY: Traveling with him, it's more like traveling with a 25-year-old guy.

If you want to stop and do something, if you've got time to kill, he's right there.

>> DWIGHT: We all just have a good time playing together.

It' fun.

>> RICKY: You know me and Dwight were talking the other day; you know J.D.

is seventy years old, even though he looks older; he's just 70, but... >> J.D.

; But I still got hair.

>> RICKY: He don't act 70.

In his mentality he's 25.

>> J.D.

: At the present time, I think I'm just having a ball with it.

I'm just at ease, I'm not putting the pressure on myself that I used to and for that reason I think that has helped a bunch.

I'm just enjoying playing right now >> RICKY: Me and Dwight have actually talked to J.D.

about what his future holds for the music, and he says, he really doesn't know.

>> J.D.

: The only thing I can say is I hope I keep playing.

I hope my health holds up, that's the main thing.

I'm going to play until I decide not to.

>> RICKY: When Gabrielle blows the trumpet, he'll be rolling the five behind it.

♪