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Across The Blue Ridge - Laurie Lewis gives some classic repertoire a great new sound

Mike Melnyk
California fiddler, singer, songwriter and bluegrass bandleader Laurie Lewis is our featured musician this week. Her new album pays homage to bluegrass pioneers Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard.

California singer, songwriter, guitarist and fiddler Laurie Lewis was hooked on bluegrass fiddle when she heard recordings of the great fiddler Chubby Wise.  The experience changed her from a sometime musician to a dedicated pro.  Growing up in the San Francisco Bay area, she circulated with ease in the bluegrass world – a feat that would have been much harder in other, less liberated areas of the U.S. where the bluegrass community was most often a boys' club.  After Lewis encountered Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, who blazed trails for many other female performers, she came to understand how unusual her own experience had been.  She performed Hazel's songs, produced a CD for Alice – and has now released an album of Hazel and Alice repertoire with her own band, The Right Hands. On this week's Across the Blue Ridge, Laurie Lewis talks with host Paul Brown about the transitions in her musical life and about knowing Hazel and Alice.  Wrapping up our Women's History Month features, we hear lots of music from Lewis' new album and from some of her major influences. 

Episode 13 Playlist

  1. Lee Highway Blues – Chubby Wise
    Album – Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, Pionerring Women of Bluegrass
    Smithsonian Folkways 1965
     
  2. Beyond the River Bend – Laurie Lewis & Her Bluegrass Pals
    Album – Laurie Lewis & Her Bluegrass Pals 
    Rounder Records1999
     
  3. Storms Are On The Ocean – Jean Ritchie & Doc Watson
    Album – Jean Ritchie & Doc Watson at Folk City
    Smithsonian Folkways 1990
     
  4. Let Us Get Together Right Here – Reverend Gary Davis
    Album – Reverend Gary Davis Harlem Street Singer
    Fantasy 1992
     
  5. Whistlin' Rufus – Chubby Wise & the Rainbow Ramblers
    Album – Fiddler's Hall of Fame
    Vintage Masters 2011
     
  6. Peacock Rag – Chubby Wise
    Album – 30 Fiddlers' Greatest Hits
    Deluxe 1994
     
  7. BREAK 1  Sugar Tree Stomp – Kenny Baker
    Album – Kenny Baker Master Fiddler
    County Records 1993
     
  8. Little Liza Jane – Chubby Wise
    Album – Chubby Wise An American Original
    Pinecastle 1994
     
  9. Worried Man Blues – Laurie Lewis & Her Right Hands
    Album – Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands Live
    Spruce and Maple Music 2008
     
  10. Bluegrass Breakdown – Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys
    78 RPM disc
    Columbia 1947
     
  11. Won't You Come And Sing For Me – Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard
    Album -- Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, Pionerring Women of Bluegrass
    Smithsonian Folkways 1965
     
  12. I Hear A Sweet Voice Calling – Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard
    Album -- Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, Pionerring Women of Bluegrass
    Smithsonian Folkways 1965
     
  13. Train On The Island – Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands
    Album – The Hazel & Alice Sessions
    2016
     
  14. BREAK 2  New Five Cents – Paul Warren
    Album – America's Greatest Breakdown Fiddle Player
    CMH Records 1957
     
  15. Let That Liar Alone – Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard
    Album – Hazel Dickens And Alice Gerrard
    Rounder Records 1998
     
  16. Let That Liar Alone – Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands
    Album – The Hazel & Alice Sessions
    Spruce and Maple Music 2016
     
  17. Walking In My Sleep -- Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands
    Album – Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands
    Spruce and Maple Music 2016
     
  18. Cowboy Jim – Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard
    Album -- Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, Pionerring Women of Bluegrass
    Smithsonian Folkways 1965
     
  19. Darling Nellie -- Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands
    Album – Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands
    Spruce and Maple Music 2016
Former 88.5 WFDD News Director Paul Brown founded Across the Blue Ridge at WFDD in the late 1980s. It was an instant hit, and was broadcast on WFDD for more than a decade until Paul left to become an executive editor, producer, reporter, and world newscaster at NPR in Washington, DC. Now Paul is back in his beloved Blue Ridge region, his journalism and storytelling skills honed better than ever. He's ready to present more music, share discussion with more interesting characters, and be your friend and guide in discovery. Paul is actively involved in today's acoustic music scene, crisscrossing the region and the country as a teacher, performer, and interviewer.

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