The Johnson Mountain Boys were a popular
bluegrass band throughout the 1980s from the
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
area. Their style favored a more traditional approach to bluegrass than some of their contemporaries. They released two 45 RPM single records, one EP record, ten albums and toured widely, playing venues such as
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...
,
The White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
, the
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...
,
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
, and the
Grand Ole Opry
The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment (a divis ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Other tours took them around the world to
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, and
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. The group was frequently recognized with nominations for
Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
,
International Bluegrass Music Awards
The International Bluegrass Music Awards is an award show for bluegrass music presented by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). Awards are voted based on professional membership in the IBMA.
Award winners
2021 award winners
The ...
, and awards from the
Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America.
Many of the band's members are still active in other musical groups and settings.
In 2020, the band was inducted into the
Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.
History
Early years
The first grouping initially known as "The Johnson Boys", formed in 1975 as a duo featuring
Dudley Connell
Dudley Connell (born February 18, 1956) is an American singer in the bluegrass tradition. He is best known for his work with the Johnson Mountain Boys, Longview, and The Seldom Scene.
Biography Early years
Connell grew up in Rockville, Maryland. ...
on
banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
and Ron Welch on
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
. Eddie D'Zmura, a high school friend of Dudley Connell's, joined soon thereafter on
mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
. The band was renamed, "The Johnson Mountain Boys" after learning of another folk band already using the "Johnson Boys" name. The name The Johnson Mountain Boys was suggested by George Connell, Dudley's father. The "Johnson Mountain" referred to in the name of the band is a fictitious name (i.e. there is no Johnson Mountain in any of the areas from which any of the band members came).
The group became a full five-piece band in January 1978 featuring Connell on guitar, Franny Davidson on banjo—replaced by Richard Underwood after the band's first recording session—Eddie D'Zmura on mandolin,
David McLaughlin on
fiddle
A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...
, and
Gary Reid on bass. Gary Reid left the group in late 1978 and started the
Copper Creek record company. He was replaced by Mark Prindle on the bass. The Johnson Mountain Boys first commercial record release was
Copper Creek Records
Copper Creek Records is a record label based in Roanoke, Virginia specializing primarily in bluegrass and old-time music.
History
Spurred by his interest in the music of the Stanley Brothers, Gary B. Reid launched Copper Creek in October 1978. T ...
number 0001 featuring original instrumental composition "Johnson Mountain Hoedown" written by
Dudley Connell
Dudley Connell (born February 18, 1956) is an American singer in the bluegrass tradition. He is best known for his work with the Johnson Mountain Boys, Longview, and The Seldom Scene.
Biography Early years
Connell grew up in Rockville, Maryland. ...
and Ed D'Zmura. The B side was "
When I Can Forget" a song written by
Dudley Connell
Dudley Connell (born February 18, 1956) is an American singer in the bluegrass tradition. He is best known for his work with the Johnson Mountain Boys, Longview, and The Seldom Scene.
Biography Early years
Connell grew up in Rockville, Maryland. ...
. The personnel on the record was Dudley Connell on guitar and vocals, David McLaughlin on fiddle and vocals, Ed D'Zmura on mandolin, Franny Davidson on banjo, and Mark Prindle on bass. After the release of the first
Copper Creek single,
David McLaughlin went off to college and continued to play fiddle part-time with the band. After
David McLaughlin left for college,
Eddie Stubbs
Eddie Stubbs (born November 25, 1961) is an American radio disc jockey. Stubbs is best known for his work and promotion of country music on WSM, a radio station with a nighttime clear channel signal broadcast from Nashville, Tennessee, United ...
performed his first show on fiddle with the Johnson Mountain Boys in November 1978 when he was just 16 years old, just a week before his 17th birthday. From that point, he was considered the main fiddle player for the group, but played only once per week with the group since he was still in high school (senior year). Since Eddie was not able to perform every show because of school, the fiddle duties were covered by David McLaughlin, Bill Belford, and Carl Nelson when Eddie was not able to appear. In May 1979, Eddie became the full-time fiddle player for the group at age 17. He graduated from
Gaithersburg High School
Gaithersburg High School (GHS) is located in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Part of Montgomery County Public Schools, the school was founded in 1904 as "Gaithersburg School" and offered grades K-12. Since 2013, the school resides at 101 Education Blvd a ...
that June. In 1979, before the recording of their second
Copper Creek record, Mark Prindle was replaced by Larry Robbins on bass. The group's second record was
Copper Creek Records number 0101, an EP featuring "Sitting Alone in the Moonlight," "Eddie's Hoedown," "Where We'll Never Die," and "No Depression in Heaven." In 1980, the band was picked up by
Rounder Records
Rounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by Al ...
. The group's self-titled first album won considerable acclaim.
[ "Overview: ''The Johnson Mountain Boys'' (1981)" ]Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
After the release of their first Rounder album, David McLaughlin left college in early 1981 to rejoin the group full-time, replacing Ed D'Zmura on mandolin. Subsequent albums made the group young standard bearers of traditional bluegrass in the 1980s. In 1986, there were two personnel changes.
Marshall Wilborn
Marshall Wilborn is an American bluegrass music bass player and composer best known for his work with the Johnson Mountain Boys, Longview, Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, and the Lynn Morris Band.
Biography Early years
Wilborn was raised i ...
replaced Larry Robbins on bass in June and
Tom Adams replaced Richard Underwood on banjo in September.
Initial break-up and regrouping (1988–1996)
In 1987, the Johnson Mountain Boys announced their plans to disband after a farewell concert at the
Old Schoolhouse in
Lucketts, Virginia
Lucketts is an unincorporated historic hamlet in Loudoun County, Virginia, along U.S. Route 15 north of Leesburg. It was originally known as "Black Swamp" due to the large number of black oak trees growing in the area at the time of its settle ...
. The February 20, 1988 concert was recorded and released the following year as a double live album, ''At the Old Schoolhouse''. Critics hailed the release as one of the group's finest moments and it was ultimately nominated for a
Grammy
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
.
After this concert, the group toured Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
without David McLaughlin and Eddie Stubbs
Eddie Stubbs (born November 25, 1961) is an American radio disc jockey. Stubbs is best known for his work and promotion of country music on WSM, a radio station with a nighttime clear channel signal broadcast from Nashville, Tennessee, United ...
in 1988. Upon the return from Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
, Dudley Connell, Richard Underwood, David McLaughlin, and Eddie Stubbs, decided to return to the stage on a part-time basis in 1989, performing 25 to 50 concerts per year instead of the 200 to 250 concerts per year they had been performing until their final Lucketts concert in 1988. The only member who could not rejoin was Marshall Wilborn
Marshall Wilborn is an American bluegrass music bass player and composer best known for his work with the Johnson Mountain Boys, Longview, Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, and the Lynn Morris Band.
Biography Early years
Wilborn was raised i ...
, who moved on to help found the Lynn Morris Band at that time. The band and the promotion of these concerts did not refer to them as reunion concerts. It was actually written in all contracts that these concerts were not to be referred to as reunions. The longest-running lineup of this version of the band consisted of Connell, Stubbs, McLaughlin, Adams and the group's newest member, Earl Yager on bass.[ This regrouping of the Johnson Mountain Boys started performing in 1989. They recorded another album, ''Blue Diamond'', in 1993 (nominated for a ]Grammy
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
). The group performed their last concert at the bluegrass festival in Myrtle Beach, SC in November 1996.
Since the final break-up (Since November 1996)
The band's various members independently continued to pursue active careers. Dudley Connell became the guitarist and lead singer of the Seldom Scene
The Seldom Scene is an American bluegrass band that formed in 1971 in Bethesda, Maryland. The band's original line-up comprised John Starling on lead vocals and guitar, Mike Auldridge on Dobro and baritone vocals, Ben Eldridge on banjo, Tom Gra ...
and became the head of the mail-order division of the Folkways Record Collection at the Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
and later an archivist for the National Council for the Traditional Arts. Eddie Stubbs relocated to Nashville where he continued to play fiddle for acts such as Johnnie Wright
Johnnie Robert Wright Jr. (May 13, 1914 – September 27, 2011) was an American country music singer-songwriter, who spent much of his career working with Jack Anglin as the popular duo Johnnie & Jack, and was also the husband of country musi ...
, Kitty Wells
Ellen Muriel Deason (August 30, 1919 – July 16, 2012), known professionally as Kitty Wells, was an American pioneering female country music singer. She broke down a barrier to women in country music with her 1952 hit recording "It Wasn't God W ...
, and Bill Anderson. Stubbs also became a DJ on WSM-AM
WSM (650 kHz) is a 50,000-watt clear channel AM radio station located in Nashville, Tennessee. It broadcasts a full-time country music format (with classic country and Americana leanings, the latter of which is branded as "Route 650") at 650&n ...
and announcer for the Grand Ole Opry
The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment (a divis ...
. He has won Broadcast Personality of the Year awards from the Country Music Association
The Country Music Association (CMA) was founded in 1958 in Nashville, Tennessee. It originally consisted of 233 members and was the first trade organization formed to promote a music genre. The objectives of the organization are to guide and enha ...
(2002) and from the International Bluegrass Music Association
The International Bluegrass Music Association, or IBMA, is a trade association to promote bluegrass music.
Formed in 1985, IBMA established its first headquarters in Owensboro, Kentucky. In 1988 they announced plans to create the International ...
(1996, 2002). David McLaughlin formed a duo with Josh Crowe, has worked with several other bands, including the Lynn Morris Band and Springfield Exit
Springfield may refer to:
* Springfield (toponym), the place name in general
Places and locations Australia
* Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast)
* Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council)
* Springfield, Queenslan ...
. He operated a recording studio from 1994 until 2009 in Winchester, VA.[ Tom Adams has worked as a banjo player in the Lynn Morris Band, ]Blue Highway
Blue Highway is an American contemporary bluegrass band formed in 1994 and based in Tennessee. The band's albums include ''Wondrous Love'' (2003), ''Marbletown'' (2005), and '' Original Traditional'' (2016).
Background
After helping found th ...
, and in bands headed by Rhonda Vincent
Rhonda Lea Vincent (born July 13, 1962) is an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.
Vincent's music career began when she was a child in her family's band The Sally Mountain Show, and it has spanned more than four de ...
and Dale Ann Bradley
Dale Ann Bradley is an American bluegrass musician. She is a six-time (2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2021) Female Bluegrass Vocalist of the Year, a distinction given by the International Bluegrass Music Association. She has released music bo ...
. Adams was awarded Banjo Player of the Year three times (1992, 1993, 2002) by the International Bluegrass Music Association. He was most recently (July 6, 2009 - May 9, 2011) the guitarist and lead singer for Michael Cleveland
Michael Cleveland (born September 18, 1980) is an American bluegrass fiddle player.
Early life
Cleveland was born in Henryville, Indiana. He was born completely blind and a childhood ear infection caused him to lose 80% of his hearing in one ...
& Flamekeeper. Marshall Wilborn, bassist, singer and songwriter, was most recently (Fall, 2007 - May 9, 2011) a member of Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper.[
]
Discography
* ''The Johnson Mountain Boys'' (1978; 1981, Rounder
Rounder(s) or The Rounder(s) may refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Rounders'' (1914 film), a comedy short
* ''The Rounder'' (1930 film), a comedy short
* ''The Rounders'' (1965 film), a western comedy
* ''Rounders'' (film), a 1998 poker f ...
)
* ''Walls of Time'' (1982 Rounder)
* ''Working Close'' (1983 Rounder)
* ''Live at the Birchmere'' (1984 Rounder)
* ''The Johnson Mountain Boys'' (1984, Copper Creek)
* ''We'll Still Sing On'' (1985, Rounder)
* ''Let the Whole World Talk'' (1987, Rounder)
* ''Requests'' (1988, Rounder)
* ''At the Old Schoolhouse'' (1989, Rounder)
* ''Blue Diamond'' (1993, Rounder)
Compilations
* ''Favorites'' (1987, Rounder)
References
External links
Rounder Records page
{{Authority control
American bluegrass music groups