Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver will headline Friday evening’s entertainment for the Covered Bridge Celebration.

With nearly 40 albums to their credit, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver have multiple Grammy, Dove, ICM, IBMA, and SPBGMA Award nominations, and are 7-time winners of IBMA’s Vocal Group of the Year. Lawson was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame at the Ryman Auditorium in 2012.

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver will take the stage in Covered Bridge Park on Friday at 8 p.m. Opening for the group at 5 p.m. will be Hillbilly Bad, with their musical blend of rock and country, followed by bluegrass group Hightest Grass at 6:30 p.m.

Doyle Lawson was born in 1944 in Sullivan County. His parents, Leonard and Minnie Lawson, and his sister all sang gospel music when he was young, and when he was about 11 or 12, Doyle expressed his interest in music as well. His father borrowed a mandolin from Willis Byrd, who was in a quartet with Doyle’s parents, and Doyle taught himself how to play. He later learned also to play the banjo and guitar.

In his teenage years, Doyle decided he wanted to play music for a living, and in 1963 he moved to Nashville and got a job playing banjo with Jimmy Martin. He went on to play with other groups, but Doyle wanted to put together a group that would have “his sound,” so in 1979 he formed Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver.

The makeup of the band has changed many times in the last 38 years, and Doyle jokingly refers to his group as the “farm team” for bluegrass. He integrates each member’s special talents into the group, while not sacrificing the Quicksilver sound. While the sound changes a bit with the introduction of a new band member, Doyle believes it is important that people hear what they expect to hear when the group takes the stage no matter who is in the band.