|
Event
Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum
Laurie Lewis-Grammy Award-winning musician Laurie Lewis is internationally renowned as a singer, songwriter, fiddler, bandleader, producer and educator. She was a founding member of the Good Ol Persons and the Grant Street String Band and has performed and recorded since 1986 with her musical partner, mandolinist Tom Rozum. Laurie has twice been voted Female Vocalist of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association and has won the respect and admiration of her peers.
Linda Ronstadt speaks for many when she says of Laurie: Her voice is a rare combination of grit and grace, strength and delicacy. Her stories are always true. A pioneering woman in bluegrass, Laurie has paved the way for many young women today, always guided by her own love of traditional music and the styles of her heroes that came before.At the same time, she has steadfastly followed her personal muse and remained open to new influences.
Despite a botched run-in with the piano at age seven, and several years of classical violin lessons starting at 12, Lauries musical passion was aroused not by a printed score, but by an earthier sound she found just down the street from her familys home in Berkeley, Californiaat the annual Berkeley Folk Festival.
At the Berkeley Folk Festival, Laurie remembers, you could hear all kinds of music, and it just really grabbed me. That was the first place I heard Doc Watson, the first place I heard Jean Ritchie, maybe the first bluegrass band I heard, the Greenbriar Boys. And then there was Jesse Fuller and Reverend Gary Davis and Mississippi John Hurt. It just totally busted my ears open and got me really excited about folk music.
Inspired by the music she heard at the festival, Laurie started learning guitar and then bluegrass banjo. A friend took her to Pauls Saloon in San Francisco, a bar that featured bluegrass music every night, and Laurie experienced a life-changing epiphany. I saw fiddlers live, she remembers, and it knocked me out. I realized I could be a fiddler.
It was really a different deal coming at bluegrass in the San Francisco Bay Area. All you had to do to be in was love the music and show up. There werent a lot of cutting contests; it was all about making music together, a focus on interdependency rather than individual prowess.
Laurie was soon on stage at Pauls playing bass for the Phantoms of the Opry. In 1974, she helped found an all-female bluegrass band called the Good Ol Persons. Next was a group called Old Friends, and in 1979, the Grant Street String Band. That was the first band I really started taking a leadership role in, she remembers.
In 1980, deeply embedded in the Bay Area bluegrass community, Laurie opened a shop called Marin Violin and ran it full time for eight years before the pull to make a solo record became too strong to ignore. Plus, she had begun writing songs, inspired by songwriters ranging from Jean Ritchie and John Prine to Hoagy Carmichael and Chuck Berry. I wrote my first song that actually held together and was singable in about 1975, she says, but Id say that my songwriting probably started kicking in, such as it is, in about the late 70s and early 80s.
If I just do this one recording, she thought, Ill get my songs out the way I hear them in my head, and then I can go back to my violin shop. What happened instead was I just felt so much more alive and so much happier in the recording studio and working on my music than I did in my violin shop, that I finished my album, sold the shop, and never looked back. It was an artistic reawakening, and from that point forward, Laurie would make her living solely from playing music.
Her solo debut,Restless Rambling Heart, co-produced with Tim OBrien and released on Flying Fish Records in 1986, featured seven of Lauries original songs. The release of that album sparked interest in Laurie as a performing songwriter and bluegrass bandleader, paving the way for a career as a touring musician.
Since that debut in 1986, Laurie has recorded nearly 20 albums in a number of musical formats for such labels as Flying Fish, Rounder, Hightone, Sugar Hill, Kaleidoscope and her own label, Spruce & Maple Music. Her latest album with her band the Right Hands (Tom Rozum, Chad Manning, Patrick Sauber and Andrew Conklin), The Hazel and Alice Sessions, was nominated for the Best Bluegrass Recording Grammy in 2017.
Also in 1986, Laurie started performing and recording with the gifted mandolinist and singer, Tom Rozum. Their musical collaboration has now spanned more than three decades. A huge part of my music, Laurie says, is knowing that I have a partner and a voice like that to sing the harmonies. A lot of songs I write I imagine what the harmonies are, and Ill actually change melodies so its easy to incorporate Toms voice in whats going on.
And hes really important in terms of arranging. We tend to come up with arrangements together. Hes just got such a free-form musicality. Its not like, Oh, bluegrass sounds like this, and this sounds like that. Hes just very musical, and not in a particular genre, which I think suits me really well because thats the way I write.
Producing has become an increasingly important part of Lauries work in music. I love being able to help people realize their visions, she says, and to utilize the skills I have picked up over the years helping others. In addition to her own recordings, she has served as producer on 14 records and counting, starting with Scott Nygaards acclaimed guitar instrumental album No Hurry in 1989.
In 1999, she began working with Hot Rize guitarist Charles Sawtelle and upon his death she completed the album he had started, Music from Rancho de Ville. In 2012, Laurie jumped at the chance to produce an album for one of her musical heroes, Alice Gerrard, for Alices first-ever CD of all-original material. In recent years, Laurie has produced albums by several young Bay Area musicians, including Melody Walker and Jacob Groopman, American Nomad and The T Sisters.
Laurie is also a committed music educator, teaching at prestigious camps, festivals and workshops in the U.S. and Canada. Ive taught fiddle, songwriting, vocal styles and harmony singing for many years, she says. Ive organized and run camps: Bluegrass Week at Augusta Heritage Center for 10 years, and Bluegrass at the Beach in Oregon for 14. She has also taught at the Telluride Bluegrass Academy (CO), Puget Sound Guitar Workshop (WA), Swannanoa Gathering (NC), California Bluegrass Association Music Camp (CA), Walker Creek (CA) and RockyGrass Academy (CO), among others.
The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) in Nashville has bestowed several awards upon Laurie, including Female Vocalist of the Year (twice); Song of the Year for her recording of Who Will Watch the Home Place; and shared awards for Album of the Year for True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe and Recorded Event of the Year for True Life Blues and Follow Me Back to the Fold: A Tribute to Women in Bluegrass.
Though her music transcends the formal limitations of style and genre, Laurie Lewis still sees herself as a bluegrass musician. Ive always thought that bluegrass was basically a singer-songwriter with string band, she explains. Think Bill Monroe, Carter Stanley, Lester Flatt, etc. I like to think that I fit that description and trajectory of the music rather well. I realize that not many traditionalists would put me in that camp, and I dont really care.
The good thing is Im able to express myself in a way that sounds like me, and people either like it or not. I like to do what I do, and it fits comfortably in the bluegrass camp in my head. I dont care what other people call it.
Teaching:
Laurie is a dedicated teacher, both in one-on-one sessions and in workshop settings. In her words: Ive taught music, fiddle, songwriting, vocal styles, harmony singing for many many years. Ive organized and run camps: Bluegrass Week at Augusta Heritage Center for ten years, and Bluegrass at the Beach up in Oregon for fourteen. Recently, Ive been teaching at a camp for kids. Its just so great to watch them grow up and get deeper and deeper into the music, and to feel like somehow youre some little part of it.
Laurie has taught at the following workshops:
Telluride Bluegrass Academy, Telluride, CO
RockyGrass Academy, Lyons, CO
Augusta Heritage Workshops, Elkins, WV (Bluegrass Week coordinator, 10 years)
Swannanoa Gathering, Black Mountain, NC
Bluegrass at the Beach, Nehalem Bay, OR (coordinator, 14 years)
Camp He-Ho-Ha, Edmonton, AB
Canada BC Bluegrass Week, Sorrento, BC, Canada
California Bluegrass Association Music Camp, Grass Valley, CA
Walker Creek Music Camp, Sonoma County, CA
Big Sur Fiddle Camp, Big Sur, CA
Shasta Fiddle Camp, Mt Shasta City, CA
SAMW Camp, New Hampshire Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Puget Sound, WA
and many more
Producing:
Producing has become an increasingly important part of Lauries work in music. In addition to her own recordings, she has served as producer on fourteen records and counting, starting with Scott Nygaards acclaimed guitar instrumental album No Hurry in 1989. In 1999, she began working with Charles Sawtelle and upon his death she completed the album he had started as a tribute to her friend. In 2012, Laurie jumped at the chance to produce a recording of one of her musical heroes, Alice Gerrard, for Alices first-ever CD of all-original material. 2013 and 2014 found Laurie in the studio with young Bay Area artists Melody Walker and Jacob Groopman, American Nomad, and The T Sisters.
I love being able to help people realize their visions, and to utilize the skills I have picked up over the years helping others. Of course, I generally get to stay home and not be on the road if I'm producing locally, and that is a plus sometimes. I get very wrapped up in the process, and have to guard against taking on too many things, because it means putting my own ideas on the back burner. Often, I need a real kick to get going on my own material.
Im not a great all-around musician because theres a lot of skills I just don't have: I cant play really fast, I cant improvise like crazy. But the good thing is Im able to express myself in a way that sounds like me, and people either like it or not. To me thats really worth a lot in terms of anybodys approach to music. Its kind-of what I respond to in other musicians. These days theres so many young players who can just play anything or do anything, that have this incredible vocabulary but nothing to say. And, of course, there are those young musicians with incredible chops who also seem to have wisdom beyond their years. Those are the ones I listen for.
Hassan El-Tayyab, of American Nomad, had this to say about working with Laurie as a producer: "With her quick decision making and strong direction, we tracked all the basics for 12 songs on our album in just two 10-hour days at Bird and Egg Studio. Laurie got every member of the band to focus on getting the best performances we all had in us. That is how it should be in the studio. Every musician walked away from those two days of live tracking agreeing that was one of the best recording sessions any of us had been a part of, and that Laurie was a key ingredient. We are all lucky to have her sharing her heartfelt music and guiding the next generation of bluegrass and Americana musicians."
Sam Bush referred to Lauries music as Newgrass in the truest sense of the word. To which Laurie responded, I don't really see myself that way. I sort-of like the definition (which I made up, I think) of bluegrass being basically a singer-songwriter with string band. Think Bill Monroe, Carter Stanley, Flatt and Scuggs, the Dillards, etc. I like to think that I fit that description and trajectory of the music rather well. But I realize that not many "traditionalists" would put me in that camp, and I don't really care. I like to do what I do, and it fits comfortably in the bluegrass camp in my head. I don't care what other people call it.
"With her quick decision making and strong direction, we tracked all the basics for 12 songs on our album in just two 10-hour days at Bird and Egg Studio. Laurie got every member of the band to focus on getting the best performances we all had in us. That is how it should be in the studio. Every musician walked away from those two days of live tracking agreeing that was one of the best recording sessions any of us had been a part of, and that Laurie was a key ingredient. We are all lucky to have her sharing her heartfelt music and guiding the next generation of bluegrass and Americana musicians." Hassan El-Tayyab, American Nomad
Tom Rozum
Since joining forces with Laurie in 1986, Toms versatility and diverse musical influences come to the fore every night on stage with the band. He plays primarily mandolin with the band, but is also an accomplished fiddle, mandola, and guitar player. His background as a rock and swing musician adds a uniquely satisfying flavor to the band. His rhythmic approach to mandolin especially punctuates the bands repertoire, adding to their on-stage shows a verve and excitement that has become a distinctive feature of their performances. He is a fine lead vocalist, the ideal harmony partner for Laurie (its not for nothing that their duet collaboration The Oak and the Laurel was so highly regarded that it was a Grammy nominee for the Best Traditional Folk Album of 1996), and occasionally functions as the comic foil for on-stage goings-on whenever things get too weighty. Tom can be heard on most of Lauries recordings; their other duet albums, Guest House and Winters Grace; and the bands The Golden West and Live. Originally from New England, Tom moved to Berkeley from Arizona, where he played many kinds of traditional and original music with Summerdog and Flying South; and San Diego, where he honed his swing chops with the Rhythm Rascals.
Be sure to check out Toms critically acclaimed solo album on Signature Sounds and DogBoy Records, Jubilee. Featuring help from Laurie, Todd Phillips, Peter McLaughlin, Craig Smith, Mike Marshall, David Grier, Rob Ickes, Darol Anger, and Herb Pedersen, the album is marked by Toms trademarksversatility and diversityfeaturing everything from straight-ahead bluegrass to old-time country to selections from more contemporary realms.
Click the link to read the Mandolin Magazine Interview: Tom Rozum - A Rhythm Rascals Varied Influences By Bob Loomis
|
|
 |
LocationChurch of the Pacific (View)
4520 Kapa Ka Rd
Princeville, HI 96722
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
|
Contact
|
