Springfield Exit - That Was Then

Springfield Exit has ties to a highly respected band from the past, the Johnson Mountain Boys. They played excellent bluegrass that stayed close to the model established by Bill Monroe, Don Reno and Red Smiley and a host of others. JMB members now with Springfield Exit include David McLaughlin playing mandolin, Tom Adams on banjo and Marshall Wilborn (bass). Wilborn (husband of Lynn Morris) has been named IBMA bass player of the year and has played with Michael Cleveland and Longview. He wrote the title number, a swinging beat with a walking bass line that’s sung by the group’s lead singer, Linda Lay. “Some Old Day” has been recorded by a long list of artists including Flatt & Scruggs and J.D. Crowe.
Adams is an excellent banjo player who once had to quit touring because of a medical problem, focal dystonia. This caused erratic movement of his index finger. If you compare his playing in 1992 to today you can hear that he has the licks we enjoyed when the JMB hit the stage. Watching the video you can see he’s using his index finger to pick.
Linda Lay has a good voice and spent many nights in the Carter Fold learning about this music and played with Appalachian Trail before forming Springfield Exit with husband David (guitar, vocals). For a look back at Wilborn and McLaughlin, here’s a performance from 1988 that included Dudley Connell and Eddie Stubbs. Experience and talent make for a great band.
Other traditional numbers include Ola Belle Reed’s “I’ve Endured,” “Elkhorn Ridge” which features some good clawhammer, “George Cunningham,” a really good song about Cunningham, who falls into trouble and kills a man, and is then hanged for his deed—or was he? Eight-five years later his coffin is dug up and—you need to hear the song for the rest. “Bad Reputation” (not the Joan Jett song) is another great number as is Buzz Busby’s “Lonesome Wind” (1958).
They also visit other genres and turn out some good music: “Peaceful Easy Feeling” (Eagles), “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” (Bob Dylan), “Till the Rivers All Run Dry” (Don Williams), and “Don’t We All Have The Right,” one of Roger Miller’s great songs, with Frank Solivan II singing harmony. There is no overarching consensus on what makes music bluegrass music, but it seems that while content can be important, the way you play it, the sound you produce, is the key. Springfield Exit takes these diverse songs and makes them bluegrass.