Laurie Lewis has carved out a unique, superlative niche in American roots music occupied by almost no other musicians or creators. A multi-GRAMMY nominee, Lewis is a forebear and contemporary of so many bluegrass, old-time, and folk greats. Over more than fifty years in music she has established herself as a truly singular voice, instrumentalist, and frontwoman in genres that lionize tradition, “authenticity,” and emulation.
“Bay Area music icon Laurie Lewis has been captivating her fans for the last five decades. With timely and timeless tunes, her voice and songs have captured moments in time of lives well lived and challenged, beauty in nature that is changing all around us, and a spit and fire that rises up and denies victory to opposition.” – Brenda Hough, California Bluegrass Association
Her latest album, Trees, finds Lewis’s music-making rooted in the natural world – as on many past recordings – with a measured and often melancholy view of life, loss, and grief that’s resplendent and complicated.
“Lewis’s lyrical ear is evident, whether catching songs from other songwriters or collecting lines for songs of her own. Music lovers, particularly John Prine fans, will find “Why’d You Have to Break My Heart So Early in the Day?” […] poignant, inspired by a comment from the late singer-songwriter as Lewis exited the stage after a morning set at the Strawberry Music Festival. The line eventually found its way into a song after she heard the news of Prine’s death on a morning years later.” – Nancy Posey, No Depression
An avid walker, Lewis is both an urban explorer and a wilderness wanderer – plus a self-taught naturalist and conservation activist. Her skillset in songwriting and recording is usually looking outward, text-painting to evoke the landscapes she adores and to relay their speaking to us. On Trees, Lewis looks inward instead, utilizing all of the literary and naturalist skills at her disposal to observe and process seasonal, organic, inevitable life changes.
Please join us in welcoming back the incomparable Laurie Lewis & The Right Hands! Don’t miss them on the Main Stage at 7:15pm on Friday, October 17. Listen and learn more here.
