Bluegrass and country gospel musician Doyle Lawson is a mandolinist, singer, and, since 1979, the leader of Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. Born in the Fordtown community south of Kingsport on April 20, 1944, Doyle Wayne Lawson grew up in a family shaped by farm work, wartime labor, and sacred music, and after hearing Bill Monroe on the Grand Ole Opry he was inspired to learn the mandolin, later adding banjo and guitar. In 1963 he was hired as a banjo player by Jimmy Martin, then moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he joined J.D. Crowe in 1966, briefly rejoined Martin in 1969, reunited with Crowe, and in 1971 joined the Country Gentlemen, where he took primary responsibility for finding songs and shaping arrangements. When he left in 1979, he formed Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver to imprint himself on his music and recordings, building a long association with Sugar Hill Records after recording his first solo album, Tennessee Dream, while still with the Country Gentlemen. Lawson recorded secular and sacred bluegrass albums in almost equal number, drew on influences including classic pop, and later collaborated with Paul Simon on the 2011 album So Beautiful or So What. Married in 1978, he moved in 1984 to Bristol, Tennessee, the hometown of his wife Suzanne, and in May 1985 rededicated himself to Christianity and joined Cold Spring Presbyterian Church in Bristol. He called himself part of “bluegrass generation one-and-a-half,” said his music had stayed pretty much the same as bluegrass trends changed around him, and received many honors, including International Bluegrass Music Association awards, six Grammy nominations, the 2006 National Heritage Fellowship, and induction into the IBMA Hall of Fame in 2012.