These Bluegrass Stars Have Realigned

John Starling, center, and Carolina Star: Rickie Simpkins, from left, Tom Gray, Jimmy Gaudreau and Mike Auldridge. "We're just doing this because it's fun," Auldridge says. (Senor Mcguire)

Once Seldom Scene, guitarist John Starling, dobro virtuoso Mike Auldridge and stand-up bassist Tom Gray have reappeared as John Starling and Carolina Star, reconstituting a musical partnership stretching back 3 1/2 decades. That's when the trio began playing together in the progressive bluegrass quintet known for stunning musicianship, rich harmonies, inclusive repertoire and two stellar singers, John Duffey with his stratospheric tenor and Starling with his smooth, soulfully emotive baritone.

"The reaction's been very heartwarming," Auldridge says of the group's reemergence. "It's like in the early days of the Scene: We're just doing this because it's fun, but people are making us realize that they missed us, and that's really nice to hear."

Carolina Star, which also includes mandolin player Jimmy Gaudreau and fiddler Rickie Simpkins, will celebrate the release of its debut album, "Slidin' Home," Friday at the Birchmere, for years the home base for a group of musicians that intended to remain local and low-key but ended up as one of the most revered and influential ensembles in bluegrass history. The Seldom Scene still operates, with banjoist Ben Eldridge the only founding member still aboard. Starling left the Scene in 1977 to pursue a medical career, returning for a couple of years in the early '90s after relocating his practice to Virginia; it was only after his recent retirement that he decided to return to music.

"Music to me had always been a therapy," Starling says, but "I knew enough people in it and knew their frustrations, had seen them rant about record labels and the music business and saw where, with some people, it just destroyed their musical ability, they got so upset with how things were handled.

"So I decided to pursue medicine and still try to use music as a therapy as opposed to worrying about how much money I was going to make," he adds. "Plus, I always like to do it my way."

Gray and Auldridge left the Seldom Scene in 1987 and 1996, respectively. According to Auldridge, the Scene's historic importance is something he recognizes now, "but back then, I didn't have a clue, though I remember meeting someone in California and telling him how much I loved Flatt & Scruggs when I was a kid, and he said, 'You know, you guys are my Flatt & Scruggs. I didn't even know who they were until I heard you.' "

"It was one of the first times I realized that we were bringing a lot of people into bluegrass for the first time. Now it's real evident we were a pretty significant link in the history of all this stuff."

Gray has even deeper links. In the '60s, he was part of the classic Country Gentlemen lineup with mandolinist Duffey (considered the father of "newgrass"), Charlie Waller and Eddie Adcock. Gray and Duffey left the Gentlemen in the mid-'60s, tired of endless travel and low pay. Duffey repaired instruments, while Gray began a career as a cartographer for National Geographic.

In 1969, they started attending a weekly jam session in mathematician-banjoist Eldridge's Bethesda home, along with then-Army surgeon Starling and Washington Star graphic artist Auldridge. The music was good enough that Duffey agreed to come out of his self-imposed retirement, and in 1971 the Seldom Scene was born, with "Duffey rules" embodied in their name: They'd play only one night a week locally (Thursdays at the Red Fox and, later, the Birchmere), do occasional concerts and festivals on weekends, make records -- and keep their day jobs.

"John would say, 'It's just boys' night out,' " Auldridge recalls. "The whole thing for us was just a lark in those days; we never thought we'd be actual musicians. The Star had to let me go, and I was forced into the life of a musician or I would never have had the nerve to try it."

Almost against their will, the Seldom Scene became one of the most important ensembles of the '70s, influencing a generation of musicians that included Emmylou Harris and Ricky Skaggs, the mom and pop of country's neo-traditional movement. They released a string of critically acclaimed albums on Rebel before Starling left to practice his specialty -- head and neck surgery -- in Alabama.

Blessed with one of the most moving and supple voices in bluegrass, Starling did make three albums, beginning with 1977's "Long Time Gone." Produced by Little Feat's Lowell George and featuring pal Harris's backing vocals on half the tracks, it was a blend of progressive bluegrass, country and honky-tonk. That mix continued on 1979's "Waitin' on a Southern Train" and 1991's "Spring Training," a Grammy-winning collaboration with Carl Jackson. But Starling never could take time away from his practice, or his family, to support the albums.