Crowe on the Banjo: The Music Life of J.D. Crowe

4. Louisiana to Wheeling and Home Again

chapter 4 louisiana to wheeling and home again The music Jimmy, Paul, and J.D. made was “different” in many ways. “Jimmy’s rhythm patterns are definitely a little different,” J.D. said. “I’m sure Alan Munde and Kenny Ingram [both played banjo with Jimmy; Ingram also played with Lester Flatt] will tell you it’s a lot different playing with Jimmy than it is with Lester. And I’m doing different timing now than I did when I was with Jimmy. When you play with Jimmy, you play what suits what he is doing. That’s what makes for a good musician. A lot of pickers don’t know that.”1 Always prominent in Jimmy’s music is his emotional involvement. “When I sing ‘Shake Hands with Mother Again,’” he said, “every time, I think about my mother laying there in the casket, and how good she was to me when she was alive. I’m not thinking about the audience. Your baritone’s got to put that same feeling in it.” Doyle Lawson, who played both banjo and mandolin with Jimmy, said, “I recorded that with him in 1970. I remember he had tears streaming down his face—it was not long after his mother had died.”2 Other things that set their music apart were the beat set by Jimmy’s strong right arm and the tight trios. Most bluegrass bands of the period had good i-xviii_1-240_Godb.indd 54 8/3/11 9:28 AM Louisiana to Wheeling and Home Again 55 harmony, but constant rehearsal with J.D. and Paul created one of the tightest trios ever heard. Novelty songs showcased Jimmy’s vocal tricks, his way of accenting a note by pausing just before it and singing it a bit louder, or perhaps higher. Possibly most outstanding was the energy, the electricity, that reached out into the audience from the moment Jimmy hit the stage. According to J.D.: I think sometimes Jimmy maybe had a multiple personality I remember, I looked at him one time and said, “Jimmy,” I said, “you know, you’re two different people. I’ve just figured this out. When you’re off the stage, and we’re just sitting around, you’re a lot of fun, but when you put that hat on, you totally change.” And I always thought that. He became like a different person, but, I guess, in a way that was good, because he became strictly musical, a performer, totally. He shut out everything else. It was serious and down to business, and very professional. When we got through playing and he took that hat off, he was totally different. Jimmy, mostly, was into the music; that was his life. I’d say 75 percent of his life was music—maybe more. Jimmy was a sincere person; he might not have come across that way to a lot of people, but he had a big heart. He said, “When you’re on that stage, give a hundred and ten percent,” and he did. Jimmy was really a lot smarter than people give him credit for; even with all his shenanigans and the way he did things, Jimmy was pretty wise.3 In February 1958, they went to Nashville for a recording session. All the rehearsing and effort paid off; the six sides recorded included some of the strongest and most popular songs Jimmy ever recorded. “Ocean of Diamonds ,” Alton Delmore’s “Sophronie,” “I’ll Never Take No for an Answer” (which Jimmy had written with Billy Gill), “Rock Hearts,” and two gospel songs, “I Like to Hear ’Em Preach It,” written by Jimmy and Paul, and “Voice of My Savior,” were cut in four hours at Bradley’s Barn. Nashville session men were “Lightnin’” Chance, bass; Gordon Terry, fiddle and bass vocals; and Buddy Harmon, drums. This was the first time Jimmy used drums on a recording. “Times were getting a little harder in Detroit,” J.D. observed, “and I guess Jimmy had talked to someone about our coming to the Louisiana Hayride. Jimmy’s records were doing pretty good; he was recording for Decca at the time. We went to Shreveport, Louisiana, and joined the Hayride.”4 i-xviii_1-240_Godb.indd 55 8/3/11 9:28 AM 56 chapter 4 The Louisiana Hayride, established along the lines of the Grand Ole Opry, began in 1948, and became known...