Johnson Mountain Boys
Bands / Ensembles
The Johnson Mountain Boys (1978–1988) were a bluegrass band from the Washington, D.C., area, led by singer and guitarist Dudley Connell. The group began in 1975 as a duo called the Johnson Boys, with Connell on banjo and Ron Welch on guitar, and took its new name, invented by Connell's father, after learning another band already used the old one. It became a full five-piece band in January 1978. Its longest-running lineup in the 1980s was Connell, Richard Underwood on banjo, David McLaughlin on mandolin, Eddie Stubbs on fiddle and Larry Robbins on bass. Bassist Marshall Wilborn and banjo player Tom Adams joined in 1986. The band recorded for Rounder Records from 1980 and played venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Grand Ole Opry, with tours of Asia, Africa and Europe. It gave a farewell concert at the Old Schoolhouse in Lucketts, Virginia, on February 20, 1988, and the live album recorded there, At the Old Schoolhouse, was nominated for a Grammy. Connell, Underwood, McLaughlin and Stubbs regrouped part time in 1989, later joined by Adams and bassist Earl Yager. This version performed until November 1996 and recorded a second Grammy-nominated album, Blue Diamond (1993). The band was inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2020.