Billy Blue Records Signs Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver

Billy Blue Records is celebrating one year in business with the signing of legendary acoustic artist, Bluegrass Hall of Fame member, Doyle Lawson.

Billy Blue Records was launched in June 2018, the brainchild of award-winning songwriter and producer Jerry Salley, who serves as A&R and Creative Director for Billy Blue. The label was founded in partnership with Nashville’s Daywind Music Group.

“I am so grateful to Ed Leonard, [President of Daywind Music Group], for sharing in this vision and to our entire team for a year of support, optimism and enthusiasm” Salley says, who also leads Billy Jam Records, an Americana imprint of Daywind.

The first Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver recording on the burgeoning label is Live in Prague, Czech Republic, recorded at Dlabacov Hall in downtown Prague. It will release on Aug. 30.

“I have known and respected Doyle for almost 3 decades. He is an icon in Bluegrass and Gospel music and it’s my honor to call him a friend,” says Salley, who himself just received a nomination for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. “He is an uncompromising professional as a singer, musician, producer and band leader, but the bonus is working with someone who also happens to be a truly incredible person.”

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver joins a roster that already boasts Appalachian Road Show (headed up by bluegrass veterans Barry Abernathy and Darrell Webb, with Jim VanCleve); Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers, one of America’s premier Bluegrass bands; International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Songwriter of the Year winner, Donna Ulisse; and Jason Barie, fiddler for Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers. The young label is living up to its own motto, “We’re here to play.”

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver had previously been signed to Mountain Home Music for nearly 15 years.

“I just felt that it may be time to move on,” Lawson says. “It was a good run and there’s no ill will, but when the opportunity came for a live recording, I decided to ask Jerry if he’d be interested in that record.”