Bluegrass Legend & Oldest Living Opry Member Jesse McReynolds Dies
It’s the end of an era as one of the last living links to the very formative years of bluegrass has passed on to the sweet by and by. Jesse McReynolds was a bluegrass legend, an influential and innovative mandolin player, and the oldest living member of the Grand Old Opry. He died at his home on Friday afternoon, June 23rd, with his wife by his side after having entered hospice care two weeks ago. Jesse McReynolds was 94 years old.
Born July 9, 1929, McReynolds was revered for his signature crosspicking and split-string style of mandolin playing. The Coeburn, Virginia-native began performing with his brother Jim around 1947, and spent spent much of his career as a member of the brother duo in one capacity or another. The brothers came from a musical family. The duo’s grandfather Charlie McReynolds was part of the RCA Bristol Sessions, a.k.a the “Big Bang of Country Music” in 1927.
Sometimes called The McReynolds Brothers, sometimes called Jim and Jesse, sometimes called The Virginia Boys or The Virginia Trio, Jim and Jesse McReynolds were an enterprising and important part of bluegrass beginning in the 50’s, and they never stopped. Even when Jesse McReynolds went off to fight in the Korean War, he continued to play by forming a group with Charlie Louvin who was also serving in the conflict. They called themselves the “Dusty Road Boys.”
Upon return from the military, Jesse reunited with brother Jim, and the two performed together all the way until Jim’s death in 2001. The brothers became Grand Ole Opry members in 1964 at a time when the Father of Bluegrass, Bill Monroe, was especially hard on other bluegrass acts. But Jim and Jesse enjoyed a good relationship with Monroe for the most part, even though Jesse’s mandolin style was seen as a quite progressive compared to Monroe at the time.
In the duo, it was Jesse who commonly sang lead, with brother Jim singing the harmony. Jesse also wrote many of the duo’s songs, and songs that are considered bluegrass standards today. This includes songs such as “Cotton Mill Man,” “Diesel On My Tail,” “I Wish You Knew,” “Sweet Little Miss Blue Eyes,” “She Left Me Standing On The Mountain,” “Are You Missing Me,” “I’ll Love Nobody But You,” and more.
After the death of his brother, Jesse McReynolds continued to perform regularly, often under the name Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys. Even up to the COVID-19 shutdowns, Jesse was performing 60-70 times a year, and was making regular appearances on the Grand Ole Opry. After the pandemic, McReynold’s public appearances began to die down.
Beyond bluegrass, Jesse McReynolds was one of the last living links to country music’s past. As the oldest Grand Ole Opry member, his loss is felt across the greater country music world.
No word as of yet of memorial services, but Jesse McReynolds is sure to be remembered fondly by the Opry family and beyond in the coming weeks.
June 23, 2023 @ 8:08 pm
A sad day. Truly a legend.
June 23, 2023 @ 8:33 pm
Raises the question of who’s the oldest living H-o-F member. There must be a retired one who’s older than Willie (I hope).
June 23, 2023 @ 9:31 pm
Willie is the oldest living performer in the HOF. Oldest living inductee is Bud Wendell.
Jim and Jesse are one of several highly regarded family duos /acts to have never been inducted (Wilburns, Maddox are other notables).
June 24, 2023 @ 12:26 am
Amazing that the oldest living country artist in the H-o-F is still recording and touring and winning awards. I’d say that’s unprecedented.
June 24, 2023 @ 4:46 am
Unless I’m missing somebody, the only inductees to make it to Willie’s age or older are Jimmie Davis (101), Little Jimmy Dickens (94), Bill Carlisle (94), Mac Wiseman (93), Kitty Wells (92), Gene Autry (91), and Loretta Lynn (90). None of them were nearly as active at the end of their careers as Willie is today. A few of them had been retired from music for decades. That being said, we’ve made advancements in healthcare in recent decades and, realistically, Willie and Loretta (who did tour until a few years before her death and continued releasing albums) are probably the only two of those who labels and promoters would have given the opportunity to release new music and headline tours at their age. Autry definitely could have continued touring and making personal appearances on the nostalgia circuit if he’d wanted to, but his baseball team was making too much money for him to need to do that.
June 24, 2023 @ 4:33 am
Truly sad to see the pioneers pass on. Thank you Mr. McReynolds for your contributions and dedication. May you enjoy your eternal rest.
Here’s an interesting question I wanted to ask of everyone, what do you consider the birth of country music?
1. Some say it’s with the fiddle recordings of Eck Robertson in 1922.
2. Others say it’s the release of “The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane” the first song with vocals by Fiddlin’ Joe Carson in 1923.
3. Others say it’s with the release of “The Wreck of the Old 97”, by Vernon Dalhart, Country Music’s first million selling song.
4. Others say it’s with WSM begins broadcasting in 1925.
5. And of course others will point to the aforementioned Bristol sessions in 1927.
We have either reached or will reach the 100th anniversary of the music we know and love. Although the genre had existed prior to all of this beforehand, it only started to be recorded in the 1920s. As for me, I would point to case #2. What does everyone think as the birth of Country?
June 24, 2023 @ 6:41 am
I can’t see an objective case for anything other than the Eck Robertson recordings. It’s certainly not Bristol, because Bristol was an attempt to cash in on the success Carson, Dalhart and Stoneman were already having! That said I was surprised that the 100th anniversary of the Robertson recordings passed with such little fanfare.
June 24, 2023 @ 8:09 am
Don Richardson is worth a listen, also.
June 24, 2023 @ 8:50 am
I consider all of these moments legitimate, just like recognizing both A.P. Carter and Jimmie Rodgers as the “Father of Country Music.” When WSM started though, it wasn’t exclusively about country. It had variety programming. Commercially though, The Bristol Session is where country became a “genre” as opposed to a selection of recorded songs.
June 24, 2023 @ 5:45 am
I remember him spotlighted in a PBS bluegrass special with Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, etc. Slightly off topic, can someone point me to articles where Monroe was hard on other bluegrass acts? I’m curious.
TXBrian, I’ll go WSM since it was before the Bristol sessions. I’m largely unfamiliar.
June 24, 2023 @ 6:37 am
Neil Rosenburg’s book Bluegrass talked about this, and I have seen it alluded to elsewhere. Before bluegrass came to be seen as its own genre, and the Bluegrass Boys were just another country band, he looked at Flatt & Scruggs, The Stanley Brothers, and others as copycats who were decreasing the value of his unique style. He therefore used his clout to keep other bluegrass bands off the Opry with the implicit threat that he would quit. Years later, he pivoted; he appreciated being considered the father of a music but became an enforcer of tradition. If you were playing his music wrong, in his eyes, he would dismiss it with his signature phrase “That ain’t no part of nothing!”, which is iconic enough that IBMA made bumper stickers out of it. Sam Bush has said “If Bill Monroe was the father of bluegrass, I must be the mother, because every time he saw me he said ‘There goes that mother…!”
June 24, 2023 @ 8:48 am
That pretty much sums it up. Jimmie Martin was never a member of the Grand Ole Opry despite playing there many times and being a huge star in bluegrass for decades. It was all to keep Bill Monroe happy.
Last week at the 50th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Sam Bush told the story of Bill Monroe playing there once, and having to avoid him so there wasn’t a conflict.
I think Jim and Jesse were in better graces with Bill, perhaps because he saw them as a side act compared to his Bluegrass Boys.
June 24, 2023 @ 7:52 am
He also played with the Doors on “Runnin’ Blue” from The Soft Parade album.
June 24, 2023 @ 8:22 am
So long Jesse, you were a good one.
June 24, 2023 @ 10:30 am
While on a trip to the US a few years ago we were lucky enough to see Jesse McReynolds at the Opry, I was completely unfamiliar with him in any way. He played, among others, his cover of the Grateful Dead’s Black Muddy River and I was enthralled. There was a sense that one was in the presence of something very special. I can only liken it to the times I have seen Bob Dylan, and you just know ‘this is something special’. Sad news indeed.
June 24, 2023 @ 1:08 pm
Jim and Jesse were foundational bluegrass acts but also released an album of Chuck Berry covers, did gospel albums, a tribute to the Louvin Brothers, and covered Grateful Dead songs.
Trigger, if I could just add something to your eulogy, Jesse McReynolds was a GIANT in the mandolin community. He, like Monroe, invented an entirely new style of playing the instrument- crosspicking to emulate banjo rolls- which he sometimes combined with tuning the courses of strings to different notes and playing the notes of a course separately (split-string technique.)
As the webmaster of the Mandolin Cafe (the biggest mandolin player hangout and news site) Jesse did things on the instrument we may never be able to figure out or replicate.
He was that good, and players are still taking his technique further.
June 24, 2023 @ 1:14 pm
Thanks for the information and insight. As some interested in country history, I’ve always had respect for Jesse’s important role in the development of mandolin playing. But as a non mandolin player myself, it’s really hard to explain or understand exactly why he was so innovative. Thanks for the further details.
June 24, 2023 @ 8:48 pm
Thanks Trigger. I wish there was an edit function on this comment board. I meant to say above:
As the webmaster of the Mandolin Cafe (the biggest mandolin player hangout and news site) JUST WROTE, Jesse did things on the instrument we may never be able to figure out or replicate.
June 25, 2023 @ 5:04 am
What a loss. Jesse McReynolds was such a massive influence in the bluegrass community. His innovation reached beyond his signature picking style; for me he changed the way I hear music. It’s hard to explain, but his influence is part of how I think about ways to interpret a song in my own playing. And I don’t play mandolin.
Prayers to his family. He will be dearly missed and never forgotten. Might we all leave such a legacy.
June 29, 2023 @ 4:40 pm
I had seen Jesse play at the Grand Ole Opry in 2018, he was amazing, although he had his Grandson sing, due to his voice being hoarse from sleeping in the drafty ole barn the night before. His hands moved at the speed of light.
RIP 🙏
June 30, 2023 @ 5:32 pm
ALL OF TRUE BLUEGRASS IS DYING OUT, HOW SAD!!! I LOVE MY BLUEGRASS MUSIC!!!