Jesse McReynolds, the lead singer and mandolinist of the original bluegrass duo Jim & Jesse for 55 years, died Friday at his home in Gallatin, Tennessee. He was 93 years old.
His death was confirmed on his wife Joy McReynolds’ Facebook page.
Jim & Jessie, Bluegrass’ longest-serving sibling artists — with Mr. Reynolds his brother Jim — developed a harmoniously blended singing that contrasted with the more piercing and earthy vocal arrangements of Bill Monroe and The Stanley Brothers. Mr. McReynolds sang the melodic line in a crystal clear baritone, and his brother, who died of thyroid cancer in 2002, added luscious tenor harmonies.
The McReynolds brothers’ instrumental approach was likewise more sophisticated than their others, building a bridge between the savage sounds of the early brother duo. the delmore brothers and the more rational sound of mid-20th century country music.
Usually backed by banjo, fiddle, and bass, the duo’s music, built around Jesse McReynolds’ wistful mandolin playing and his brother’s metronome-like rhythm guitar, lacks the experimental side. It does not mean. Most notable was the widely imitated Mr. McReynolds’ cross-picking technique, employing a flat pick to approximate the three-finger banjo roll of bluegrass pioneer Earl Scruggs.
“I kind of listened to what he was doing,” said McReynolds, referring to his Scruggs-style picking that inspired mandolin virtuosos such as David Grisman and Sam Bush. talked about the origin of 2019 interview For website candlewater.com.
“I didn’t know how he was doing,” he added. “I knew he used the three-finger roll, but I was trying to do it with a straight pick so I could play other styles.”
In another style, also described as a bluegrass innovation, Mr. McReynolds used his little finger to depress one of the mandolin’s four pairs of strings, causing the other string to echo. It included a split string technique to achieve a droning effect. The trick required great precision, and he produced two different sounds from a pair of strings that were usually played in unison on a mandolin.
The duo’s 1963 recording of the instrumental “Stoney Creek” is often cited as a classic vehicle for McReynolds’ talent as a mandolin player. But his Scruggs-inspired “mandolin roll” could already be heard ten years ago on gospel recordings like “I’ll Fly Away” and “On the Jericho Road.” .
The McReynolds brothers sometimes incorporated electric and steel guitars into their playing in place of the customary bluegrass banjo and fiddle. In 1969, Mr. McReynolds stepped into the world of rock, contributing mandolin to a song on the Doors’ album The Soft Parade.
Repertoire was another area in which Jim and Jesse pioneered bluegrass. This was most evident on the 1965 album Belly Pickin’ in the Country. The album is a collection of bluegrass covers of Chuck Berry songs, including a rousing take on “Memphis”. The album turned out to be one of the most popular albums of the brothers’ career.
Despite their unbridled musical instincts, Jim and Jesse were among the most commercially successful bluegrass artists of the 1960s and 70s. They had 10 singles on the country charts, most notably “Cotton Mill Man” (1964), a laborer’s appeal, anddiesel on my tail(1967), a truck-driving song featuring steel guitar, reached number 18.
Jesse Lester McReynolds was born on July 9, 1929 in Carfax, Virginia, in the mountains of southern Appalachia. His father, Claude Matthew McReynolds, was a coal miner and amateur banjo player. His mother, Savannah Prudence (Robinette) McReynolds, played guitar, banjo and harmonica and taught her sons to sing gospel harmonies.
Mr. McReynolds’ grandfather, fiddler Charles McReynolds, recorded as one half of the Bull Mountain Moonshiners at the Bristol Sessions, which later became known as the Bristol Sessions. This is the so-called big bang of country music in 1927, Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter family.
Although he grew up in a musical family, young Jesse didn’t start playing the mandolin seriously until he was 14, when he was recovering from two broken legs in a car accident.
Four years later, he and his brother formed a banjo-free string band playing country music in Southwest Virginia. They first described the music they were making as bluegrass when they began working with producer Ken Nelson at Capitol Records in 1952.
In an interview with the liner notes for the 1987 Rounder album Jim & Jessie and the Virginia Boys: In the Tradition, McReynolds said, “I wasn’t even sure if I should feature a five-string banjo. ‘ said. “But it turned out Ken Nelson expected us to record as a bluegrass band, so we did.”
Mr. Nelson also encouraged the brothers to change the name of the ensemble from The Virginia Trio, who made their first recordings in 1951, to Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys. In 1960, after her more than ten years of appearances on many radio stations of the time Her Burn Her Dance, Martha White began hosting her own syndicated television show under the auspices of Her Flower Company. bottom.
The duo became popular in the folk scene in the early 1960s, notably performing at the Newport Folk Festival. In 1964, they became members of the Grand Ole Opry cast and, like Bill Monroe before them, gained a reputation for attracting elite talent to the band, including fiddlers Tommy Jackson and Vassar Clements. .
In the decades that followed, the brothers returned to a more traditional approach to bluegrass, while cementing their reputation as one of the finest ensembles in bluegrass history. Mr. McReynolds served as the group’s affable frontman, while his brother served as executive director.
In the late 1980s, Mr. McReynolds toured and recorded with the bluegrass supergroup The Masters, which included fiddler Kenny Baker, dobro player Josh Graves, and banjo player/guitarist Eddie Adcock.
In 1993, Jim and Jesse were inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame. Four years later, they received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Mr. McReynolds continued to work after his brother’s death. Among other projects, Jim and Jesse released in 2010 a collection of songs written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter of the Grateful Dead, the band that shaped them.
McReynolds has a daughter, Gwen, in addition to his wife of 27 years. He has two sons, Michael and Randy. 8 grandchildren. and three great-grandchildren.
Much has been said about Mr. McReynolds’ indebtedness to Earl Scruggs’ enthusiastic banjo phrases. While this was certainly the case, Mr. McReynolds used his ancestral technique by reversing the order of the notes played in Scruggs’ banjo variations on his rolls to produce a more melancholy tonal effect. was improvised.
“In the end, I ended up playing the opposite of what he did,” McReynolds explained, referring to the difference between his technique and Scruggs’s. In a 2017 interview Today with bluegrass. “My roll went backwards, but Earl’s rolled forward.”
