Laurie Lewis
| Laurie Lewis | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Born | September 28, 1950 |
| Origin | Long Beach, California, United States |
| Genres | folk, bluegrass, country |
| Occupation(s) | singer/musician |
| Instruments | vocals, fiddle, guitar, upright bass |
| Years active | mid '70s—present |
| Labels | Hightone Records |
| Associated acts | Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands |
| Website | Official Website |
| Notable instruments | |
| fiddle, guitar | |
Laurie Lewis (born September 28, 1950 in Long Beach, California), is an American bluegrass musician.
Lewis fell in love with American folk music as a teenager, at the sunset of the 1960s folk revival. She says of the Berkeley Folk Festivals where she first caught the folk bug:
Oh, it was so exciting. Every night there were concerts, and during the day you'd be in a eucalyptus grove listening to someone making music with nothing between you and them. Every day I'd hear something new, Doc Watson or the Greenbriar Boys. Something about it just invited me to start playing it.
She began picking simple songs on the guitar, then the fiddle. After high school, she drifted away from the music, but always kept her fiddle under her bed, not knowing exactly why.
In her early 20s, she discovered the Bay Area bluegrass scene. To her, it was . .
like opening that door all over again. Here were all these people making music together, and I could immediately see myself as part of it. It woke up all that excitement I felt as a teenager, and I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life.
The bluegrass scene of Northern California was a powerful mix of the region's historic progressivism and ardent devotion to musical tradition. Nobody minded that young Laurie was a woman, a non-southerner, or a novice. They didn't mind if she didn't want to learn, chapter and verse, the gospels of Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley. The scene gave her a rock-ribbed foundation in the rudiments of American roots music.
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Wikipedia