CMT Blog: Doyle Lawson

I love festivals! There’s no other way to put it. When we drive into a campground and see thousands of people with their tents and little village communes, it just makes me smile. I love the energy created by people who quite often plan their summer vacations, if not their whole year around the festival circuit. In a few short hours we will fly up to Hartford, Conn., collect our rental car, and drive the short distance to the Strawberry Park Bluegrass Festival. Yay!

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Hi Y’all! This past week we traveled to Denton, N.C., to play Doyle Lawson’s festival and had a great time on stage there. The fans were great and seemed to have a good time with us as we always love to do. After Doyle’s show, we headed north to Iowa to play at Terrible’s Lakeside Casino in Osceola. What a time we had there.

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My personal highlight of today is easy – I sat next to Sam Bush at the IBMA nominations announcement this morning. (IBMA is the bluegrass equivalent of the CMAs.) Sam Bush is only one of the greatest mandolin players ever. He’s hosting the awards show on Oct. 4, so he was on hand to talk about how much fun it’s going to be. The last time I saw him play was at Bonnaroo, when Dierks Bentley brought him out for a rousing rendition of “Same Old Moon.” I couldn’t get that song out of my head for days.

Right now I have “If You Don’t Love Your Neighbor, Then You Don’t Love God” bouncing around in my mind. That’s because the songwriter Carl Story was announced as one of two new inductees into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame. (It’s officially changed its name from Bluegrass Hall of Honor, starting this year.) One of the most pivotal bass players in bluegrass history, Howard Watts, a.k.a. Cedric Rainwater, is this year’s other inductee. He played with Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys (in what many people refer to as ‘the classic lineup’), as well as Flatt & Scruggs, Jimmy Martin, the Osborne Brothers and even Kitty Wells.

One of the most promising bands in bluegrass, the Infamous Stringdusters, kicked off the easygoing morning with a few songs. I remember seeing these guys at Station Inn when they were billed as Wheelhouse, under a slightly different configuration. They’re definitely talented but I know I’d be sweating bullets with several of the top bluegrass musicians in the world sitting in the crowd, including fellow nominees Del McCoury, Doyle Lawson, Tim O’Brien, Dale Ann Bradley, Jim Van Cleve and Andy Leftwich. I’m happy to report that the Stringdusters did a terrific job. Meanwhile, I was just trying to play it cool, because did I mention I was sitting next to Sam Bush?