Josh and Wayne has had a music career for the past 35 + years in the music business. Before their professional career started, Josh and Wayne grew up in Clayton, Ga. playing bluegrass music with their dad Jr. Crowe. They worked with some of the local bands performing bluegrass gospel in the local and regional churches. Their professional break came in 1975 when they met Raymond Fairchild at a bluegrass festival in Walhalla, S.C. At that time, Raymond offered them a job with Josh playing guitar and being the front man of the show and Wayne playing bass. Since that time, they have accomplished some of their biggest goals in the music business.
Such as being a guest at The Grand Ole Opry since 1978. Along with the bluegrass festivals they do each year, some of their musical career highlights have been their performance on “Bluegrass Spectacular” for PBS, The Nashville Network’s “Fire On The Mountain” series, TNN’S I-40 “Picking At The Paradise” and also “The Nashville Now” show with Ralph Emery.
During this time, they were nominated and voted one of the top bluegrass acts in the nation by SPGMA Bluegrass Nashville Tenn. Along with the band, Josh received the “Best Bluegrass Rhythm Guitar” award and the band was voted “Best Instrumental Band” award.
In 1990, Wayne decided to take a leave of absence from the music and Josh at this time, started “The Josh Crowe Band”.
In 1993, Josh and David McLaughlin of “The Johnson Mtn. Boys” teamed up together and started “Crowe & McLaughlin”. During this time, with David, who Josh still occasionally performs with, was another highlight in Josh’s career. Their first venture was a recording contract with Rounder Records which produced their first CD “Going Back”. This CD was nominated and voted “Album Of The Year” at the Washington D.C. music awards, and the band was also nominated for “The Energizing Artist Of The Year”, at the IBMA Awards. This opened more music career doors such as a spot on TNN’S” American Music Shop”, also playing at “The Library Of Congress” in Washington D.C. and opened up overseas tours, and performing as guests at “The Grand Ole Opry”.
After Josh and David’s time together, Josh started touring again as “The Josh Crowe Band” and signed with Pine Castle Records where he recorded his 1st solo CD and was starting the 2nd CD when everything changed. Wayne had been filling in with Josh and was going to record with Josh on the 2nd CD but due to some changes at Pine Castle, Josh had to make a decision to put a hold on recording or go forward and Josh made the decision to go ahead and record. During this time, Josh had talked to Rural RhythmRecords about taking the CD. During a trip to Nashville and while recording the CD, Josh and Wayne made the decision that the CD was going to be a Crowe Brothers CD. When Josh let Rural Rhythm know what they had decided that sealed their CD with Rural Rhythm. They have released 2 of their most successful CD’s to date, “Brothers-N-Harmony” & “Bridging The Gap”
If you don’t get the chance to catch a Crowe Brothers show on the road, maybe you can catch a show at “The Stompin Ground” which is their home base located in Maggie Valley, N.C. where they do select dates May thru October.
