Active 1958–1970 · Bluegrass band, New York City · Vanguard Records
The Greenbriar Boys formed in New York in 1958 out of the Washington Square Park sessions, and became the northern city band that southern bluegrass had to take seriously — the first northern group to win the Union Grove Fiddlers’ Convention. The lineup that mattered ran through guitarist and lead singer John Herald (1939–2005), banjo player Bob Yellin and mandolinist Ralph Rinzler, later Frank Wakefield. They recorded for Vanguard, and in 1966 put Michael Nesmith’s new song on Better Late Than Never!, slowing it down and letting Herald’s voice catch on the turns. The band broke up in 1970; Herald spent the rest of his life as a solo singer in upstate New York, and died at his home in West Hurley in 2005.