![\"\"](\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Laurie-Lewis-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAngels Camp, CA…Last year attendees at the Calaveras County Arts Council\u2019s performing-arts series Ovations had a chance to weigh in on the kinds of music they would like to hear at 2020\u2019s winter concerts. According to the Arts Council Executive Director Kathy Mazzaferro, \u201cbluegrass was one of the top genres requested. It\u2019s what our audience wanted.\u201d Choosing Laurie Lewis to scratch that itch was a no-brainer. \u201cShe\u2019s one of the top bluegrass artists,\u201d Mazzaferro said. \u201cBy all accounts, she\u2019s amazing. We\u2019re very grateful she was available.\u201d<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Laurie-Lewis-2.jpg\")
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Fiddler, guitarist, singer, songwriter, and Grammy-winner Laurie Lewis has long been a staple of the Northern California (and beyond) bluegrass scene. \u201cWhen I was in my early 20s I discovered the vibrant bluegrass community in the Bay Area and I just stayed,\u201d she said. She\u2019s built a career performing this traditional art form, helping found two West Coast legends, the Good Ol\u2019 Persons Band and the Grant Street String Band, has twice been voted female vocalist of the year by the International Bluegrass Association. Her classic rendition of Kate Long\u2019s song, “Who Will Watch the Home Place?”\u00a0won International Bluegrass Song of the Year, and her latest album with her band the Right Hands,\u00a0The Hazel and Alice Sessions, was\u00a0nominated for the Best Bluegrass Recording Grammy in 2017. Lewis was an influencer in the bluegrass world before \u201cinfluencer\u201d was an Instagram path to fame.<\/p>\n
Bluegrass is the quintessential melting-pot American music, hailing from Appalachia and built on a framework of influences from Africa, the British Isles and mainland Europe. Old time string music, blues, sacred music, gospel, and jazz intertwined to create the high lonesome sound and rollicking stringed instrumentals that burst into life the early 20th century with performers like Bill Monroe, the Carter Family, and Ralph Stanley.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a very communal sort of music,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cYou want to be in a band to play it. It\u2019s so much about communication with the other band members.\u201d With her silvery voice, Lewis weaves intricate and skin-tingling harmonies with members of The Rights Hands: Singer and mandolin player Tom Rozum, Banjo player Patrick Sauber, fiddle player Brandon Godman, and stand-up bass player Andrew Conklin.<\/p>\n
Lewis says she and the band gravitate towards the older traditional style, as opposed to the modern smoother style of bluegrass. Although she admits that \u201cI also write a lot of songs, and I\u2019m not necessarily bound to the tradition when I write. It\u2019s impossible to be true to yourself and be a complete dyed-in-the-wool traditionalist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Traditional doesn\u2019t equal stuffiness. \u201cI would argue that blue grass started out as a pretty cutting edge music,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cIt was music that combined the interest of Bill Monroe. He loved the church singing and old time fiddle tunes, and he was a singer songwriter. You could sort of define it as a singer song writer with a string band. If you look at it that way, we are perfectly in the tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Calaveras County Arts Council presents Laurie Lewis on Sunday, February 9
\n3 to 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
Tickets: $25 adults\/$10 under 18. Available online at www.calaverasarts.org, or call 209\/754-1774 Monday through Thursday.<\/p>\n
Location:\u00a0Dr. Elliott Smart Performing Arts Center, Bret Harte High
\nSchool, Angels Camp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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