J.D. Crowe: Somehow Tonight

Folks are generally surprised when I tell ‘em that bluegrass is one of my favorite things to listen to – specifically in the summer, but anytime’s good. I’m not usually prompted for examples of who I toss on all too frequently, but new grass stuff makes up a good portion of my listening habits. There’s obviously nothing wrong with more traditional fair, but the explosive musicality that can overwhelm listeners at the turn of any corner during a well conceived bluegrass track makes the genre (or sub-genre) as exciting as anything electrified.

J.D. Crowe, who’s still kicking around despite announcing his retirement a few decades back is generally cited as one of the forces that helped bring about a slight change in hillbilly music. But before any of that, Crowe landed various local gigs in and around Kentucky. His obvious musical talents eventually helped the banjoist get a gig performing on a radio station. As luck would have it, while playing one day, Jimmy Martin was tooling through the state, heard Crowe on the radio and offered the youngster a spot in his group.

Six years on Crowe split from Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys and began his own ensemble in the late ‘60s. By this time in the decade, rock and roll had already embraced country music – to a certain extent. Inverting the formula, Crowe sought to incorporate rock and blues stuff into bluegrass and traditional country music. Given the fact that he (kinda) had a template to work from with the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers making a splash in pop music, Crowe solidified the line up of the Kentucky Mountain Boys which counted at various times Ricky Skaggs, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, and Doyle Lawson as members.

But regardless of who Crowe was playing with – or how his ensemble would change when he re-christened it the New South – it was a 1971 album entitled Ramblin’ Boy that holds some of the most memorable fusions that the banjoist would work out.

“Black Jack” could be – if the key changes weren’t obscured by the insane rate of the bands playing – a part of the “Black Jack David” lineage which takes an ancient British song and revitalized the tune every twenty years or so (Warren Smith being the last big proponent of the tune prior to Crowe). But even beyond that, Crowe’s inclusion of “Sin City,” penned by Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman is an important cultural landmark.

As a rock band that included country music in its repertoire, the Burrito Brothers slashed at the cool, self importance of rock music during the ‘60s. Understanding that and embracing the attitude towards meshing musics, Crowe took a rock track that was styled as a country ditty and transformed it into a stunning vocal feature in a traditional bluegrass style.

“Sin City” wouldn’t be the group’s biggest success either in the market place or artistically, but as a marker in American culture and music there aren’t too many efforts that are so aware of a changing time.