J. D. Crowe
James Dee Crowe (August 27, 1937 – December 24, 2021) was an American banjo player and bluegrass band leader. He first became known during his four-year stint with Jimmy Martin in the 1950s. Crowe led the bluegrass group New South from 1971 until his death in 2021.
J.D. Crowe
James Dee Crowe
August 27, 1937
Lexington, Kentucky, U.S.
December 24, 2021 (aged 84)
Nicholasville, Kentucky, U.S.
Musician
Banjo, vocals, guitar
1956–2015
Life and career[edit]
James Dee Crowe was born on August 27, 1937, in Lexington, Kentucky.[1] He began playing the banjo early on and was offered a job with Jimmy Martin's Sunny Mountain Boys, a backup group in 1954.[2][3] Before starting in Martin's band, Crowe played with Pee Wee Lambert and Curly Parker.[4]
Crowe recorded with Martin between 1956 and 1960.[5] In 1961, he formed the Kentucky Mountain Boys, principally performing in the Lexington region.[6]
In 1971, Crowe changed the band's name to The New South.[7] As of 1975, the New South began to add jazz and rock influences to its bluegrass repertoire,[8] as well as country and folk elements drawn from the work of Gram Parsons and Gordon Lightfoot, respectively.[9]
Crowe stopped releasing new records between the late 1980s and 1992, when he founded a new band.[9]
Kentucky Educational Television in 2008 aired a biography of James Dee Crowe, A Kentucky Treasure: The James Dee Crowe Story, produced by H. Russell Farmer.[10]
Crowe received the Bluegrass Star Award, presented by the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation of Dallas, Texas, on October 15, 2011. The award is bestowed upon bluegrass artists who do an exemplary job of advancing traditional bluegrass music and bringing it to new audiences while preserving its character and heritage.[11]
He died from pneumonia on December 24, 2021, in Nicholasville, Kentucky, at the age of 84.[1][12]