Craft Recordings and HighTone Records have announced the reissue of Boone Creek, the self-titled 1977 debut from the boundary-pushing bluegrass supergroup featuring Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas, Wes Golding, and Terry Baucom. The album arrives June 26 and is available for pre-order now — marking its first vinyl pressing in nearly five decades and its debut on CD and streaming platforms for the first time ever.
And that is not even the most interesting part.
Four previously unreleased tracks have been recovered from session tapes that had been missing for decades. The tapes were eventually tracked down badly damaged and moldy, and through extensive restoration work, four recordings that never made the original LP were salvaged. One of those recovered tracks, “Misty Wind,” features a then-teenage Vince Gill on harmony vocals. The album is being previewed now with the band’s version of the Flatt and Scruggs classic “I’m Gonna Settle Down,” available to stream today.
Here at CountryMusicNewsBlog.com, we don’t get a lot of stories where the tapes were literally stolen by the engineer and then found rotting in a box decades later. This one qualifies.
The original album itself has a compelling backstory on its own. Skaggs and Douglas had just come off their time with J.D. Crowe and the New South when they joined forces with Golding and Baucom to build something that felt genuinely new. The band incorporated electric guitar, drums, piano, horns, and synthesizers into their arrangements — a move that actually got them pushback from Rounder Records, who told them parts of the record were too commercial. They went back and recorded more material in a traditional bluegrass vein, and what ended up on the album was a mix of both sessions. Divisive at the time. Fascinating in hindsight.
The four recovered bonus tracks, including “Hitchhiking to California” and the horn-laced “Dream Song,” reportedly push even further into experimental territory than the original album did.
What the artists had to say:
“It’s been over 50 years since Boone Creek made these recordings and it’s great to hear them remastered. They sound better than ever, and I never thought the previously unreleased cuts would see the light of day. A big thanks to my bandmate, brother Jerry Douglas, for assisting in the remastering process — great job!” — Ricky Skaggs
“We hope you again enjoy Boone Creek’s freshman effort along with a glimpse back into the ’70s, where the personalities and young dreams of a band gone on safari were never to be completed. This effort formed who we are individually today, unfortunately losing Terry in December of 2023. We thank everyone involved for their tenacity and forward thinking in bringing this remastered lost treasure back into the light.” — Jerry Douglas
Skaggs went on to earn 15 GRAMMY Awards and became one of the defining figures in American roots music. Douglas has 16 GRAMMYs to his name and remains a featured member of Alison Krauss and Union Station. Baucom, a founding member of Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver and IIIrd Tyme Out, passed away in 2023 and was honored with a Distinguished Achievement Award at that year’s IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards.
Boone Creek released one follow-up album, One Way Track, in 1978 on Sugar Hill Records, before disbanding. This reissue is a chance to hear where it all started — and a little bit of what got left behind.
Boone Creek is available for pre-order now ahead of its June 26 release via Craft Recordings and HighTone Records.