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Laurie Lewis
'Seeing Things' Through the Eyes of Laurie Lewis
Apr-18-1999
©1999 iBluegrass.com. All rights reserved.
One of the first names that comes to mind when one thinks of the West Coast bluegrass scene is Laurie Lewis. Twice IBMA female vocalist of the year, she served as a pioneer in bringing the unique sound of the West Coast to the East. Now a bandleader in her own right, she has proven to be a major force in bluegrass -- be it East or West.
Laurie graciously spoke with "iBluegrass" sharing details of her illustrious career, issues
facing women in bluegrass and the many projects in which she's recently been involved. Included in these projects is her brand new release on Rounder, "Laurie Lewis and Her Bluegrass Pals," on which Laurie revisits her bluegrass roots, steeped in tradition.
Debbie: At what age did you first become involved with music?
Laurie: Very early. I love to sing. Although I never took any voice lessons, I've always sung. In terms of formal training, I had a botched try on the piano when I was seven. I quit taking piano lessons because my teacher stopped playing tunes for me at the lessons when she realized I wasn't learning to read. I was just playing by ear. To make me figure it out from the music, she stopped playing through my lessons. I discovered it wasn't any fun at all that way. Nobody could get me to practice after that, so I just quit. When I was twelve my parents decided it was time, once again, for me to take some music lessons and they decided I should take violin. I didn't really have any reason to say no. It's a beautiful instrument. My older sister played the flute, and kids were just expected to play an instrument. I took classical violin from 12 to 17. It was at age 14 I discovered folk music...when I went to the Berkeley Folk Festival. There I saw Doc Watson and I started playing guitar. Then I saw the Dillards and the Greenbrier Boys...I can't recall which group was first. I think it was the Dillards, when I went to a Byrds concert. They opened for the Byrds and just knocked my socks off. I especially loved their humor. They were just so funny. I loved them and I nagged my dad, well actually I didn't have to nag him, to get me a banjo. I started to play bluegrass banjo and taking lessons from a guy who was a student at the university here. The banjo didn't last very long. Bluegrass is such a team music and needs to be played in groups and I didn't know anyone in my high school class that was interested in it. I got bored playing by myself; however, I did keep playing guitar off and on. When I was 17 I quit violin, graduated from high school, went to Europe with a friend of mine and that fall went to college and stopped playing music all together.
Debbie: Very interesting, why was that?
Laurie: I studied mostly theatre and modern dance.
Debbie: Where were you going to school?
Laurie: First, I went to a junior college here in the Bay area. Then I went to UC San Diego and later transferred up to UC Berkeley. In my 4th year, I still hadn't declared a major and I got offered a job as business manager of a dance studio. I got paid $100 and all the free lessons I could take. I said, "Hey, I'll do it!!!!!!!" At that point, I dropped out of school and went to work at the dance studio. It was a really wonderful time of my life. I was there all the time and I loved it. The husband of the studio director was a musician and he found out that I played the banjo. He decided we needed to get together to play. I hadn't touched it in years, and when I dragged it out I was just awful. I mean, I was terrible! (laughter) He also found out I played violin and decided I could play bluegrass fiddle. So he dragged me over to a local tavern and there were marvelous musicians...fiddle players...over there. I was just completely smitten. I immediately started taking fiddle lessons. I started going to all of the fiddle contests, listening to all of the old guys and just soaking it up.
Debbie: This was in your early 20's?
Laurie: Yes, that's right. From that point on I played fiddle. I had a violin that needed a lot of repairs. I met a violinmaker and we made a deal: he'd work on my violin if I'd work in his shop. I actually worked for him several years on and off. In 1980 or '81 he decided he was going to retire and asked if I'd like to buy the shop. I thought about it and decided I should give it a go. I bought the shop and moved it to a different location. I ran it for six years. At that point, I decided to do my one solo album. I thought I'd record my little songs and have a memento and then go back to running my shop. During the recording process, however, I just completely fell in love with the music. I realized that was what I wanted to do more than anything else in the world, so I sold my shop. That first album was "Restless Rambling Heart," on Flying Fish. Almost immediately I started getting job offers. So, I quickly had to put together a band to fill the requests for the gigs.
Debbie: Did that lead to the Good Ol' Persons?
Laurie: No, I wasn't in that group for very long and it was actually years earlier. We never recorded when I was them. See, people think I was a big part of that band. I did start the band along with Kathy Kallick and three other women, but I was only in the band for two years of its 20-year existence.
Debbie: Ah, I see...yes, I'm one of those who thought you spent a fair amount of time with them.
Laurie: I don't really think it's fair to take any credit for their success.
Debbie: Also, anytime I read about the Good Ol' Persons they make it sound like it was a really significant part of your early career.
Laurie: Well, it was significant, for me, but it was short in terms of the career of that band. It was most certainly significant for Kathy and me to start the band and to work with each other, but I'm almost a footnote in their history.
Debbie: When did the Grant Street String Band come about?
Laurie: We played our first gig in 1979. We continued for a few years. We first started as a HUGE band with three fiddles. It was great fun, but we always played these little tiny places and we could never all fit on stage at the same time (laughter). The other problem was we never made any money because there were just too many of us...7 pieces.
Debbie: Seven pieces? Wow, I can imagine the pay didn't go far.
Laurie: That was short-lived, but wildly fun. We eventually got it down to a 5-piece band.
Debbie: Who were the members of the 5-piece configuration?
Laurie: Beth Weil, bass and vocals; Greg Townsend, guitar and vocals. Originally it was Stan Miller on mandolin and Keith Krause on banjo. Stan quit fairly early on and Tom Beckeny started playing mandolin. That was the band that recorded. We recorded one album on weekends and eventually it came out. Unfortunately, by that time the band was broken up.
Debbie: What was the title of that album?
Laurie: It was just called "The Grant Street String Band."
Debbie: Can you tell us the configuration of your current band?
Laurie: We work primarily as a trio with Tom Rozum and Todd Phillips. It's a wonderful unit because it has so much space in it. The sound is very powerful, but never sounds too thick.
Debbie: We saw you a while back at the Barns of Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia and one of the things I was impressed with was how sparse yet how full the sound was.
Laurie: Todd is a phenomenal bassist...probably my favorite guy when it comes to that. He adds so much to Tom and me. The other thing we've been doing quite a bit lately is adding Craig Smith on banjo. He plays with us whenever we can work out scheduling. He was with us at Winterhawk, Merlefest and Winfield. He just fits us perfectly. The other exciting thing I've been doing and have recently finished up is an album I've been recording with a 5-piece straight-ahead bluegrass band; Todd, Craig, Tom and myself with Mary Gibbons playing rhythm and singing tenor.
Debbie: That sounds great. Do you have a title as of yet?
Laurie: Well, we've done a few gigs and we've just called ourselves Laurie Lewis and her Bluegrass Pals, but we really don't know if that's what we'll use on the Rounder release. (Laughter) I was always a big fan of Del McCoury and the Dixie Pals so that's how I came up with it.
Debbie: Can you talk a bit about your work with Cathy Fink and Blue Rose?
Laurie: Sure! We initially got together to do an album for Sugar Hill. The idea was to put together an all female group. Cathy called me up with the idea. She told the folks at Sugar Hill she thought Marcy Marxer, myself, Cathy and Molly Mason on bass would make a great lineup. She asked me if I had any suggestions for other members and I thought about it about half a second and said Sally Van Meter on dobro. Sally was all for it. We just sent tapes back and forth with song ideas. Eventually, Cathy and Marcy flew out to California. Then the next month Sally and I flew out to D.C. We rehearsed a day with Molly and then went into the studio. We recorded the project in four or five days. We had so much fun.
Debbie: Other than the Dillards bringing you to bluegrass, we haven't discussed many of your influences. I believe I've read that Ralph Stanley is a favorite of yours, is that right?
Laurie: Oh, yes, definitely.
Debbie: You worked the Masters of the Banjo tour with Ralph and Dudley Connell. What was it like working that tour with musicians of that caliber?
Laurie: It was great! Every musician on that tour was remarkable and wonderful in their music...and very, very different one from another. I never in my wildest dreams thought, you know a Berkeley hippie, that I'd be on stage and playing with Ralph Stanley. Yet here I was doing it every night for six weeks. I was in his band...it was just the greatest thing and loads of fun. The first night we played we were all incredibly nervous. Probably the most nervous of us was Ralph (laughter). He's had such a tight band together for so long that it was really a shakeup for him. It's a credit to the folks at the National Council for the Traditional Arts for putting together a band that so many different players could feel comfortable with.
Debbie: How did you and Tom Rozum begin your musical relationship?
Laurie: I knew of him for years. I first saw him with a group called the Rhythm Rascals and they did music mostly from the 20's and 30's. They came up to tour Northern California. They were doing a free gig on the radio, and the bass player didn't want to play it because it was free. So, they put the word out they needed a fill-in bass player. Someone called and asked if I was interested and I said, "Sure!" At the time, I was playing bass a lot in a traditional jazz band. That's actually another whole side of my influences.
Debbie: I've found that many bluegrass musicians, mostly bass players, seem to have influences from jazz.
Laurie: I think there's a similarity in the two formulas. They are both very improvisational and it's built around instruments taking leads. Structurally there are a lot of similarities. So, anyway, I played the gig with the Rascals and really enjoyed it. Tom headed back to San Diego before moving to Flagstaff, Arizona where he was playing with the Flying South bluegrass band. At the same time he was good friends with Stan, who was in my band and sharing a house with me. Needless to say, we played a lot of music while Tom was up checking out the Bay area. Soon after that he decided to move here to be able to play more music.
Debbie: What are the differences you've found in working bluegrass on the West vs. the East Coast? Do you see any differences in the sound?
Laurie: There are certainly regional differences. Even within the East there are differences between northeast and southeast. That's the same case with Northern California and Southern California. Southern California tends to be much more influenced by pop music...harmonies like you might hear in the Byrds or the Flying Burrito Brothers. In Northern California we actually have a scene up here that's very traditionally based. I find the sound to be more influenced by the older aspects of bluegrass than the newer additions to it. It's also a scene where it was COMPLETELY comfortable to start playing as a woman. There were a lot of women involved in the bluegrass scene here...lots playing traditional bluegrass on traditional instruments...mandolin, fiddle, guitar. There was no attitude or sense from men, or women, that this wasn't something woman should be doing.
Debbie: This segues nicely into my next question...do you find bluegrass to be an "ol' boy" type of situation?
Laurie: Well, it certainly is in certain areas of the country. By the time I was out and encountering other sections of the country I had already sort of come of age in an area of the country where there wasn't any of that prejudice. So, when I ran into it in other parts of the country I was surprised. If I hadn't already had my own band it might have been more of an issue. I think there's good reason you see more female bandleaders than woman sideman because they just don't want to deal with all the hassle.
Debbie: Exactly! Who do you believe was most instrumental in blazing the trails for women in bluegrass?
Laurie: Most certainly Hazel Dickens.
Debbie: Yes, that's who I always think of.
Laurie: Actually Hazel and Alice. Those albums that they did were really groundbreakers. The material on those albums was just awesome...the essence of bluegrass, yet being done by women. The way they took the old-time songs and did them with bluegrass backup was incredible...I mean, they had Chubby Wise playing fiddle.
Debbie: I know you produced Erica Wheeler's project. Is that something you enjoyed and will there be anymore production work in your future?
Laurie: I produced Peter McLaughlin's "The Cliffs of Vermilion" and I'm very, very proud of that project. It's a wonderful album on his Dog-Boy label. It didn't have any major distribution so, unfortunately, didn't get the recognition it deserved. I do a lot of production on my own projects. Also, I hope to be working with Erica again, soon. It's a matter of working out scheduling. I do really enjoy production. For me it's whether or not I can hear the direction to take the project. It's difficult to have much time to do it because I'm always so busy playing.
Debbie: What today excites you about bluegrass music?
Laurie: I like the old stuff...I really do! I like the more rough edged material. Craig Smith is a banjo player that excites me. I'm very lucky because I get to play with him. I've just been hearing cuts from the Nashville Bluegrass Album's new project and it's great. I get SO excited when I hear Hazel Dickens and Dudley Connell sing together. I almost got to work with James Leva and Carol Elizabeth Jones on one of their projects. It, unfortunately, didn't work out, but I'm a real fan of theirs. I like just about anything Jody Stecher is involved in...Jody and Kate Brislin. As you can tell I'm not hitting the mainstream stuff.
Debbie: Not at all...I like that. Who is all-time favorite bluegrass musician?
Laurie: Bill Monroe.
Debbie: Well, of course.
Laurie: Bill and Chubby Wise
Debbie: What would you like an audience to remember about your performance? What are you trying to convey to your listeners?
Laurie: I'm a writer; I have to write because it's my best way of communicating. I guess the most important thing for me is that people relate, somehow, to what I'm saying. If I can touch somebody and make them think about things...make them feel not so alone...make them feel connected. Also, I love playing SO much and I love the music I choose to play and I hope people come away with that sense of joy. I just want to make them laugh and cry...at the same time...that's what good music is all about.
Debbie: What does the future hold for you?
Laurie: I just want to keep playing. Whatever directions it takes me I want to stay on that road.
Debbie: I, for one, certainly hope you stay on the road along time. Thanks, so much.
Laurie: You're most welcome.
Visit Laurie Lews on the Web: http://www.laurielewis.com
New Release:
Laurie Lewis & Her Bluegrass Pals Pre-Order Now!
Release Date: May 4, 1999
Rounder Records
Recordings available from Laurie Lewis:
"Seeing Things" (1998)
Rounder 0428
"Winter's Grace" (1998)
with Tom Rozum
"Earth And Sky: Songs of Laurie Lewis" (1997)
Rounder 0400
"True Stories" (1993)
Rounder 0300
"Singin' My Troubles Away" (1991)
Flying Fish 515
"Love Chooses You" (1989)
Flying Fish 487
"Blue Rose" (1989)
(with Cathy Fink, Marcy Marxer, Sally Van Meter, and Molly Mason)
Sugar Hill 3768
"Restless Rambling Heart" (1986)
Flying Fish 406
"The Oak and the Laurel" (with Tom Rozum) (1995)
Rounder 0340
"Together" (with Kathy Kallick) (1995)
Rounder 0318
"True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe" (1996)
Various Artists - Produced by Todd Phillips
Sugar Hill 2209
"
In The Pines" (1995)
Todd Phillips
Laurie plays fiddle
Gourd Music 122
"Cliffs of Vermilion" (1996)
Peter McLaughlin (Produced by Laurie)
Laurie also sings and plays fiddle & bass
Dog-Boy Records 02
"Masters of the Banjo" (1994)
Various Artists
Arhoolie Records 421
"Craig Smith" (1997)
Craig Smith (Laurie on vocals)
Rounder Records 0357
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