Laurie Lewis

Laurie Alexis Lewis (born September 28, 1950) is an American bluegrass singer, musician, and songwriter.

History Laurie Lewis was born in Long Beach, California on September 28, 1950. Her family moved regularly from place to place until she was eight years old, when they settled back in Berkeley. Her family strongly encouraged Laurie and all her siblings to play music. She started on piano and violin until a friend took her to the Berkeley Folk Festival 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. that also included Pat Enright (later of the Nashville Bluegrass Band). When the Phantoms broke up she co-founded the Good Ol' Persons, an all-female bluegrass band with Kathy Kallick. In 1979 she founded the Grant Street String Band, also including Beth Weil, Tom Bekeny, Greg Townsend, and Steve Krouse, in which her own songwriting came to the forefront. In the late 1980s, she formed "Laurie Lewis and Grant Street". Since then, she has recorded solo and duo albums, usually accompanied by mandolin artist and singer, Tom Rozum. Nowadays, she often plays under different names with a fairly regular roster of musicians, calling themselves "Laurie Lewis and her Bluegrass Pals," "the Guest House Band;" in 2006, she renamed her group "Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands."

Many years ago, Lewis twice won California's Women's Fiddling championships. She is a versatile musician, having for many years played bass and sung with Dick Oxtot's Golden Age Jazz Band, as well as with the Bay Area band the Arkansas Sheiks. Lewis plays guitar and other string instruments. As a crossover artist, Lewis is comfortable with folk music and some pop music. She writes her own lyrics as well as composing the music. Her Songbook contains most of the songs she wrote in the twentieth century, as well as photographs from her from early life and the early days of her career. She has received a Grammy, and was previously nominated for that honor.

Style and sound In addition to being well known in the bluegrass world, Laurie has crossed many boundaries and played many genres, from bluegrass to folk and Americana.

"She is newgrass in the truest sense of the word, in that she uses bluegrass instruments to create new original music: it's music for now. As a fiddler, she could be from the 1940s or from 2010; it's timeless. As a singer, she knows the rules of bluegrass and how to sing in her own voice. She's probably one of the few female singers who really knows the nuances of the Ralph Stanley."

-Sam Bush (Newgrass Revival founder and mandolin player)

"To ask how Laurie Lewis's music is relevant in this day and age, in the broader folk, Americana, and bluegrass scenes as a whole, would be similar to asking how a brick in a home's foundation is relevant to its structure. Her influence, her reach and her artistic intent are quiet stalwarts on which so much has been built."

-Justin Hiltner, Bluegrass Situation Contributed fiddle and vocal performances for True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe that won a Grammy in 1997 for Best Bluegrass Album. Todd Phillips (musician) is credited for winning the award as producer of the album. She was nominated with Tom Rozum for a GRAMMY for their collection of duets, The Oak and the Laurel, in the category of Best Traditional Folk Album of 1995. Twice named Female Vocalist of the Year at the International Bluegrass Music Awards, in 1992 and 1994. Nominated for a GRAMMY for The Hazel and Alice Sessions, a collection of songs celebrating Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, in 2017.

She received the Collaborative Recording of the Year award three times:

Discography Grant Street String Band (1983) Restless Rambling Heart (1986) Blue Rose with Blue Rose: Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, Molly Mason, and Sally Van Meter (1989) Love Chooses You (1989) Singin' My Troubles Away with Grant Street Band (1991) Flying Fish Records — ASIN: B000000MOQ True Stories (1993) Rounder / Umgd — ASIN: B0000002L5 Together with Kathy Kallick (1995) Rounder Select — ASIN: B0000002M1 The Oak and the Laurel with Tom Rozum (1995) Rounder / Umgd — ASIN: B0000002N6 Earth & Sky: Songs of Laurie Lewis (1997) Rounder / Umgd — ASIN: B0000002PL Seeing Things (1998) Laurie Lewis and Her Bluegrass Pals (1999) Rounder / Umgd — ASIN: B00000IP88 Winter's Grace with Tom Rozum (2003) Birdsong Guest House with Tom Rozum (2004) Hightone Records — ASIN: B0001LJCQ6 Live - with The Right Hands (2008) Spruce & Maple Blossoms (2010) Spruce & Maple Skippin' and Flyin''' (2011) Spruce & Maple MusicOne Evening in May (2013) Spruce and Maple MusicLaurie & Kathy Sing the Songs of Vern & Ray (2014) Spruce and Maple Music (with Kathy Kallick)The Hazel and Alice Sessions (2016)and Laurie Lewis (2020)Freight '98 (2022)Trees'' (2024)