Chattanooga Times Free Press entertainment reporter Casey Phillips spoke with Josh Crowe, lead singer of the traditional bluegrass band The Crowe Brothers, about the lost art of the brother duet, the magic of playing the Grand Ole Opry and how satellite radio is changing their business.
CP: How did you and Wayne get your start playing music?
JC: We were both raised in the little town of Clayton in Northeast Georgia. Our dad was a musician and got us into the music business. We’ve been a musical family all our lives. That was kind of the start of our music business. We didn’t know anything else because we grew up in it.
CP: Was it a foregone conclusion that you would end up being musicians yourselves?
JC: Yeah, it kind of seemed that way because from day one, our dad was in the music business. Actually, he started out pretty big. In 1960, when I was about six years old, he got to go and play on the Grand Ole Opry. He and his band won something through the Pep Milk Talent Contest that got them a spot on the Grand Ole Opry with their three-piece bluegrass band, the Sunshine Melody Group. That made my dad a pretty big star back in the day.