JD

J.D. Crowe

As in J.D. Crowe, not the kind of degree lawyers have. If degrees were handed out for bluegrass banjo (and in some places perhaps they are), this man would be at the head of the line.

Back in the 1960s, he three-finger-picked the banjo alongside Jimmy Martin, still considered one of the best rhythm guitarists in the business.

"I got to work the Opry with Jimmy and I met so many of the artists back then [who have] since passed away," he recalls. "That's some of my greatest memories of Nashville."

One of those who has passed is Martin, who died in 2005.

In the 1970s, Crowe relocated to Lexington, Kentucky, where his band, the Kentucky Mountain Boys (later the New South), had a steady, six-nights-a-week gig at the Holiday Inn. There he had the pleasure of picking with another premiere guitarist, Tony Rice, perhaps the best rhythm and lead player of that (or any) era of bluegrass.

In a recently published biography of Rice, Still Inside (Word of Mouth, 2010), Tony speaks highly of his former boss: "One thing's beyond dispute -- playing with Crowe shaped my guitar playing permanently," he says. "He is the guy who made me aware of the fact I have the capability of taking this guitar and having a rhythm section in my hand."

August

Who is this banjo-pickin' legend?

This silver-haired banjo picker, pictured here at the Station Inn, is a veteran -- and I do mean veteran -- of the Nashville scene. His first gig in Music City was as one of Jimmy Martin's Sunny Mountain Boys -- 57 years ago. (You do the math.)

"We came up and recorded some sessions over at Bradley's place," he says of those early days. "That was real exciting because I had never been in a recording studio like that. Being where it was in Nashville ... that was big time."

In the 1970s, he formed his own back-up band, the New South, whose list of members through the years reads like a Who's Who of bluegrass all-stars: Larry Rice, Tony Rice, Doyle Lawson, Keith Whitley, Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas, and Don Rigsby, to name but a few. The self-titled first album, released in 1975 and featuring the classic song "The Old Home Place," was one of the most widely influential bluegrass albums of the 20th century.

Significant August dates in bluegrass history

• 2nd: Lorraine Jordan, featured elsewhere in this calendar, was born (1961)
• 3rd: Paul Mullins, of the Traditional Grass (and a former Blue Grass Boy), died (2008)
• 8th: Osborne Brothers joined the Grand Ole Opry (1964)
• 10th: Jimmy Martin was born (1927)
• 13th: The same recorded "Sunny Side of the Mountain" (1964)
• 15th: County Sales began full-time operation (1965)
• 16th: Fiddler extraordinaire Vassar Clements died (2005)
• 18th: Charlie Waller died (2004)
• 20th: Ralph Stanley II was born (1978)
• 27th: Ralph II's uncle, Carter, was born (1925)