Over the next decade and a half, Lawson became one of bluegrass's preeminent musicians, thanks to long stints as a member of Crowe's Kentucky Mountain Boys and then the internationally renowned Country Gentlemen, with whom he would take up the mandolin again, this time for good. Noted not just for his immense talents as a lead and harmony singer and instrumentalist, but for his contributions to both groups as song finder, arranger and, with Crowe, as a on-stage spokesman, he was the consummate sideman. Yet Lawson also had a creative vision of his own, and in 1979 he left the Gentlemen to form Quicksilver - and if he was already one of the most important and respected bluegrass musicians of his time, the pursuit of an original sound that was his alone would quickly propel him to the status of one of its ultimate greats.

Even before the release of their epochal self-titled debut, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver had burst onto the scene with remarkable force. Building on Lawson's deep mastery of the bluegrass tradition and his keen eye for a wide range of songs from both within and beyond the genre, the quartet created a compelling new standard for vocal precision -- delivered with the hard drive of Martin's classic sound -- to create a new kind of sound that quickly spawned legions of imitators. And when the group released 1981's all-gospel Rock My Soul, those elements served yet another innovative step - a powerful kind of gospel music that had deep roots not only in bluegrass, but in the southern and African-American gospel quartet sounds that Lawson had followed since childhood.

At the same time, even as he broke new ground with Quicksilver, Lawson contributed to the maintenance of bluegrass's roots with the Bluegrass Album Band. Drawing almost exclusively from the catalogs of Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Martin, Reno & Smiley and other first and second generation greats, the Band - which, among other things, reunited Lawson and Crowe, together with guitar great Tony Rice, who had followed the former into the latter's band - brought the classics of bluegrass, many of them out of print and forgotten, to a new generation of listeners and musicians.

Still, it was with Quicksilver that Doyle would make his most important mark over the next quarter of a century. The group turned out album after album and show after show filled with brilliant music in what quickly became known as the Quicksilver mold, and whenever a musician would depart to pursue another venture, Lawson would bring in another, no less talented youngster and teach him the essentials of the sound and of the business - a process that made the group, as the title of a 2004 collection of rehearsal, show and previously unreleased recordings had it, "a school of bluegrass" unrivaled on the bluegrass scene. Indeed, a look at not only the awards and nominations (including nine International Bluegrass Music Association honors, four Dove Award and three Grammy nominations) that Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver have won on their own, but at those won by alumnae of the band in such groups as IIIrd Tyme Out, Mountain Heart, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, the Lonesome River Band and Blue Highway, proves the point conclusively.

Lawson broke new ground, too, in reaching out to southern gospel audiences, especially in the 1990s, when Quicksilver concentrated almost exclusively on all-gospel recordings. Incorporating an ever-growing measure of southern gospel quartet influence, the group became favorites at the music's biggest annual gathering, the National Quartet Convention held in Louisville, KY, following up with a steady string of performances at churches around the country that exhibited his commitment both to a bedrock faith and to entertainment.

His preeminence in the bluegrass gospel field assured, Lawson began to reinvigorate his profile in the bluegrass field, too, as the new century dawned. With current lead tenor singers Barry Scott and Jamie Dailey on board, Quicksilver captured its first IBMA award in four years when it took home the Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year for Winding Through Life in 2000. The following year, the group won the first of four consecutive awards for Vocal Group of the Year, and when they released their first bluegrass CD in more than half a decade in 2002, the Association responded by handing them Song of the Year and Gospel Recorded Performance for two selections from the album.

Today, with Scott and Dailey now veteran members, hot young fiddler J. W. Stockman, and banjo man Terry Baucom simultaneously the newest and oldest member - he was part of the very first Quicksilver lineup - Lawson has not only achieved a legendary status of his own, but is fielding a lineup that is, in the words of one critic, fully capable of making his best album ever. Admired, respected and beloved by gospel enthusiasts, long-time bluegrass followers and a growing number of newly-acquired fans from across the musical spectrum, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver have truly become a bluegrass band for the ages.

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