March 7, 2025 — After the straight talk about a musician’s career in his last single, “Life on the Road,” mandolin ace Danny Roberts is back with a new instrumental for Mountain Home Music Company that pays homage to a couple of mentors.
“While I was putting together songs for this session,” Roberts recalls, “I knew that I wanted to salute two of my favorite mandolin players – Doyle Lawson and Herschel Sizemore. Both of these men not only had an impact on me musically, but personally as well, and I wanted to pay tribute to them by writing a song that would show their influence on my playing — and ‘Lawson Sizemore’ is it.”
Indeed, with the contrast between an ultra-simple chord progression in its first part and a deliciously unexpected turn in the second, “Lawson Sizemore” neatly tips its hat to both of those innovators, revealing Roberts’ grasp of the essence of each master’s approach, not only to picking, but to tune writing as well. Cast in classic bluegrass instrumental form, Roberts offers the first statement, followed by veteran Tony Wray, who delivers both banjo and guitar takes on the tune’s arpeggiated melodies. Then Roberts’ long-time friend and fellow co-founder of the Grascals, Jimmy Mattingly (Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks) serves up a typically sweet and incisive turn on the fiddle before Roberts returns to bring the track home in a final pass.
“I really enjoyed writing this tune,” says Roberts, “and I hope I did two of my mandolin heroes justice with ‘Lawson Sizemore’!”
Listen to it HERE.
About Danny Roberts
For over 30 years, mandolinist Danny Roberts has been a steady presence in the heart of the bluegrass mainstream. Born and raised in Leitchfield, Kentucky, he was a founding member of New Tradition, a prominent bluegrass gospel group that toured widely throughout the 1990s, released eight well-received albums (including two for Mountain Home Music Company) and served as a “school of bluegrass” for musicians who went on to work with artists such as the Lonesome River Band, Rhonda Vincent & The Rage and the Special Consensus. At the beginning of the century, Danny began working for Gibson Musical Instruments, eventually becoming head of its Mandolin Division and Nashville Plant and Repair Supervisor before starting his own repair service, Just Off The Bench. While still at Gibson, he helped to found The Grascals, the award-winning bluegrass sextet that quickly rose to the music’s top ranks when they earned the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Song and Emerging Artist of the Year awards in 2005 and its top Entertainer of the Year honors in 2006 and 2007; he continues to serve as the group’s mandolin player and senior member. Danny released his first solo album in 2004, and made his Mountain Home Music Company debut as a solo artist with 2014’s Nighthawk.