For the better part of five decades—ever since she emerged as a leading voice in the San Francisco Bay Area’s New Grass scene—Laurie Lewis has cultivated collaborations and long-term creative friendships with an extraordinary assortment of musicians. Ten of those…
(Laurie Lewis/Spruce and Maple Music) From “Laurie Lewis and Her Bluegrass Pals” (Rounder 0461) You can find Blow Big Wind and 43 other songs on the Laurie Lewis Songbook, Earth & Sky. Sometimes, the best thing you can do for…
From One Evening in May Spruce and Maple Music, SMM 1009 On a road trip that led me through Barstow, I started wondering what would make that town a destination for someone, and I came up with a story. It…
About twenty years ago, I stumbled across a photo in the back of a National Geographic magazine, depicting a man standing in the midst of towering chestnut trees. The mere size if the trees arrested my attention first, but as…
“I can’t stop listening to this CD these last few days. I’m looking for a word: prescient perhaps. It’s as if she knew I needed to hear this collection of songs right at this time. Of course, that’s incredibly selfish…
Bluegrass musician Laurie Lewis will cap a long tour with a performance at Berkeley’s Freight & Salvage on Saturday, Nov. 25. Raised mostly in Berkeley, multi-instrumentalist Lewis has been a bandleader and … more Sometimes it takes a good kick…
Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard came from different worlds. One from the open-minded neverland of San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest, the other from the green rolling hills of West Virginia. They met through a mutual friend–Mike Seeger, master of…
At the end of each year, writers and broadcasters get to indulge themselves and-one hopes-their readers and listeners with their judgements on the year past. I’ve spent considerable time reviewing the bluegrass albums I heard during the past year, and…
When bluegrass legend Laurie Lewis stepped to the mic to address her hometown audience before launching into her annual Thanksgiving weekend show, her voice was lower than expected. Lewis and The Rights Hands — her crackerjack band of bluegrass masters…
Laurie Lewis has a long list of musicians she’s grateful for, and somewhere near the top are Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, bluegrass music’s foremost foremothers. The longtime Berkeleyan gives a sneak peak at her upcoming album The Hazel and…
Laurie Lewis has plenty of reasons to be excited these days: she was awarded the 2011 Performer Award from the Folk-Alliance Far West and her Bill Monroe tribute album, Skippin’ and Flyin’ has just been released. Laurie has been one…