Jesse McReynolds (1929 to 2023) was a mandolin player, singer, and songwriter from southwest Virginia. With his older brother Jim, he led Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys from 1952 until Jim’s death in 2002. He invented crosspicking, the first mandolin style in bluegrass that did not come straight from Bill Monroe. He was a Grand Ole Opry member for 59 years.
Why McReynolds matters
Every bluegrass mandolin player before Jesse played some version of Monroe. Jesse heard the banjo instead. He worked out a way to pick the mandolin in rolling patterns across three pairs of strings, with the melody always on top, so it sounded like a banjo roll. That style, called crosspicking or McReynolds style, opened a second road for the instrument. Players like Tristan Scroggins still teach it, and his tunes Dixie Hoedown and Stony Creek are jam standards.
Life and career
Jesse was born on July 9, 1929, in Coeburn, Virginia, in the Clinch Mountains. Music ran in the family. His grandfather Charles McReynolds led a string band and recorded for RCA at the 1927 Bristol Sessions. By the early 1940s Jesse played mandolin and sang with Jim on guitar. After Jim came home from military service in 1947, the brothers took a noontime radio show in Norton, Virginia.
In 1951 they cut ten gospel songs for Kentucky Records as the Virginia Trio. Capitol signed them in 1952 and asked for a new name, so they became Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys. They recorded 20 songs for Capitol in sessions in 1952, 1953, and 1955. Jesse served in the Army in Korea from 1952 to 1954, where he and Charlie Louvin led a band for the troops.
Their first Columbia single, The Flame of Love, charted in 1960. They starred on the Suwannee River Jamboree from Live Oak, Florida, and joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1964. Hits like Cotton Mill Man and Diesel on My Tail followed. Jesse sang lead and Jim sang a high tenor above him, and they became one of the great brother duets.
After Jim died in 2002, Jesse kept the band as Jesse McReynolds and the Virginia Boys. He kept playing 60 to 70 shows a year and recorded a tribute to the songs of Robert Hunter and the Grateful Dead. He became the oldest Opry member in 2020. He died on June 23, 2023, at age 93.
Playing style
Crosspicking is the heart of it. Jesse holds a chord shape with his left hand and picks a steady pattern across three strings with his right, often down, down, up. The melody note sits inside the pattern, so the tune rings through a cloud of open strings. It sounds like a banjo roll played with a flat pick. He mixed in open strings wherever he could so notes would sustain into each other.
He also used a split-string technique. He fretted one string of a pair and left the other open or fretted it at a different spot, which let him play harmonies and slides that standard mandolin fingering cannot reach. His tone was bright and clean, never harsh. He could play Monroe style when a song called for it, but on his own tunes he sounds like nobody else.
Influences and legacy
Jesse grew up on the music of his family and on the brother duets of the 1930s and 1940s. He built crosspicking from what he heard in the five-string banjo. His Army band partner Charlie Louvin was half of the Louvin Brothers with Ira Louvin.
Crosspicking spread to guitar as well. George Shuffler built a guitar version with the Stanley Brothers. Among mandolin players, Tristan Scroggins teaches McReynolds style today, and Dixie Hoedown is a test piece for every young picker.
Signature tunes and songs
Dixie Hoedown Stony Creek Cotton Mill Man Diesel on My Tail The Flame of Love.
Essential recordings
The Flame of Love, single (Columbia, 1960) Jim and Jesse’s Capitol sessions (Capitol, 1952 to 1955)
Awards and honors
Grand Ole Opry member, with Jim and Jesse (1964) International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, with Jim and Jesse (1993) National Heritage Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, with Jim McReynolds (1997)
Watch and listen
Jesse plays his tune Okeechobee Wind solo. Listen for the rolling right hand and the open strings ringing under the melody.
What to learn from McReynolds
Learn Dixie Hoedown. It was written for crosspicking, so the tune teaches the technique. Start with the right hand alone. Hold a G chord and pick down, down, up across three strings, over and over, until the pattern is even and the accents disappear. Then move one finger at a time to put the melody on top. Crosspicking feels slow to learn, but once the pattern runs on its own, it gives you a sound no Monroe lick can match.
Sources
Jesse McReynolds, Wikipedia Jim & Jesse, Wikipedia Jim & Jesse McReynolds, 1997 NEA National Heritage Fellows, National Endowment for the Arts Jesse McReynolds passes, Bluegrass Today
Related players
See the mandolin players hub and the mandolin guide. McReynolds started from Bill Monroe and went his own way. Bobby Osborne did the same in the same decade. Tristan Scroggins carries crosspicking forward.