Lost Dog is a very loose group of musicians who have been playing together in different combinations for thirty years. We are an institution, and should probably be in one. Have I already used the word, "loose"?
The first time I saw Jimmy Newman play mandolin was in the annual talent show at Memphis Central High School in 1967. He performed in a band called The Fruits of the Loom with Dane Layton, Van Gray, and George Joneas. They came out on stage wearing overalls and straw hats, and played The Martha White Flour Commercial, Big Daddy's Alabamy Bound, and Egg Suckin' Dog. They brought down the house, and won the Most Entertaining category. They performed regularly at the Bitter Lemon, a popular coffee house around that time.

The next time I saw Jimmy play, it was in the band Crawdad, featuring Dane Layton on guitar, banjo, and vocals, Denny Knot on guitar and vocals, and George Joneas on washtub and high harmony. Crawdad was one of the best bands to ever play in this area. They played with heat from the heart. This was in the early Seventies, and it was a magic time for all of us. Peanut's Pub was going strong about that time, as was the Folklore Restaurant, and the Last Laugh. Those times were a constant party. There was always something going on. We'd often get though with a gig, and then gravitate on over to a friend's house, and pick and sing until daylight.

I first heard Brandy Parks sing at a rehearsal of Briarpatch, a band that originally consisted of Paul Compton on Guitar and Vocals, John Chambliss on bass, Lee Phelan on Guitar and Vocals, and me on guitar and vocals. Paul brought her to the rehearsal and said we should give her a listen. We did, and I actually got goosebumps the first time she did a Patsy Cline song. She stayed with the band for as long as it lasted, through all the breakups and shakeups. Briarpatch went through a lot of changes during the next few years. At times, we had Swain Schaffer on Hammond B-3, Tom Jantzen on drums, and a young woman named Amy Miller on Viola. Different people drifted in and out, but the band played on

Originally from Maryville, Tennessee, Andy Morton moved to Memphis after graduating from UT at Knoxville with a degree in Architecture. Andy Morton replaced John Chambliss on bass at some point (I think it was during the second chorus of Friend of the Devil.), and then we actually had four part harmony. Chambliss is a great bass player, but he can't sing. He tried it once, and caused geese to fly north for the Winter. A great bass player, though. Chambliss currently plays with the Rhythm Hounds. Lee left the band early on to go to law school. I stayed with it for a few years. Larry "Gimmer" Nicholson began playing with Briarpatch about the time I quit, and this group stayed together a good while longer. It was a great band.

Back then, as now, bands were continually breaking up and reforming with different
combinations of members. Denny Knott left to go to St. Louis, and Crawdad folded it's tent for a spell. I joined them for a while around 1973, and we played a good bit under the same name, but I always felt the real Crawdad had Denny Knott in it. John Chambliss was also bass player for this band for a while. One of my favorite incarnations of this band featured Jimmy Crosthwait on washboard. Jimmy is a well known percussionist, sculptor, professional puppeteer, and a major source of creative energy that helps to feed the Midsouth. He was also a percussionist for Mudboy and the Neutrons. 

For a while, both Crawdad and Briarpatch had disbanded, and a few of us from each band joined together to form Crawpatch. Dane Layton, Jimmy Newman, Brandy Parks, Andy Morton, Paul Compton, Gimmer Nicholson, Thomas Boggs, and me were the heart of Crawpatch. David Luttrell was also featured with the band many times. Crawpatch had a great deal of success in Memphis and around the Midsouth. There was one memorable collection of recordings released on 12 inch vinyl by Crawpatch. It was on the Peabody record label, and produced by Sid Selvidge. Very soon, we hope to re-release it as a CD.

This, too, was a band that occasionally went through personnel changes. A band is a few musicians trying to play music together, but sometimes, when things go right, a band becomes something greater than the sum of its parts. Individual members come and go, but the band lives on. This was true of Crawdad and Briarpatch, and especially true of Crawpatch. Also, this was a band that other musicians loved to sit in with. A partial list of some of the people I have seen on stage with these bands reads like a who's who of Memphis Musicians ; Lee Baker, Jim Dickinson, Sid Selvidge, Tony Thomas, Furry Lewis, Zeke Johnson, Charles McNutt, Alex Chilton, Leo LeBlanc, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ed Finney, Chester Thayer, Les Birchfield, Leo LeBlanc... I'll add more to that list as more of my brain cells continue to randomly fire.

Well, Andy Morton, Brandy Parks, Jimmy Newman, and I put Lost Dog together a couple of years ago to try and keep some of the real country music tradition alive. David Luttrell joins us when he's in town, and his high lonesome vocals and banjo playing take us further into the realm of bluegrass. Jimmy Crosthwait sometimes joins us on washboard, as does Hank Sable on fiddle. We needed a format that allowed us to play out at clubs, festivals, and parties. We play at Otherlands Coffee Bar, the P&H Cafe, Kudzu's, and Borders Bookstore., as well as festivals in and around the Midsouth such as the Pink Palace Arts and Crafts Festival, the Cooper Young Festival, and the Memphis Heritage Festival. We also are proud to be a regular annual feature of the Magnolia Classic Jack Russell Terrier Trials.
We are proud past winners of the First Place Prize, a Blue Ribbon in the Bluegrass Band Competition at the Hernando, Mississippi A'Fair, a wonderful outdoor annual event.

Crawpatch/Lost Dog will have it's own CD for sale very soon.
The most important part of all these bands all along has been our friends and family who make up the audience. From professors to pawn brokers, lawyers to landscapers, and painters to poets, amidst all our diversity, we are all connected by our love and appreciation of real music, played by real people, just for the love of doing it.

Don E. McGregor 2-15-02