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			August 12, 2002

Laurie Lewis

During the past two decades, Berkeley, California-based band leader/ singer/ songwriter/ fiddler/ guitarist/ bass player Laurie Lewis has quietly established herself as one of the finest, most diversely talented artists in traditional music.

Tom Rozum

Since joining forces with Laurie in 1986, Tom's 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.

AIX Records Product:

John McEuen and Jimmy Ibbotson

Additional Information - Laurie Lewis

Laurie is highly regarded as a singer (twice voted International Bluegrass Music Association "Female Vocalist of the Year"; her album Love Chooses You won the 1989-1990 "Country Album of the Year" designation from the National Association of Independent Record Distributors), lyric interpreter (her compelling reading of Kate Long's "Who Will Watch The Home Place" led to the song being named IBMA "Song Of The Year" in 1994), duet partner (she has recorded wonderful duet albums with fellow Good Ol' Person Kathy Kallick and Grant Street bandmate Tom Rozum; that album, The Oak and the Laurel, was nominated for a Grammy as "Best Traditional Folk Album" in 1996), instrumentalist (she is an award-winning fiddle player and one of the best flat out breakdown fiddlers around and has lent her instrumental talents to countless recordings by her peers, including a recent appearance on Peter Rowan's Bluegrass Boy, on which both her fiddling and harmony singing fit hand-in-glove with Peter's efforts). Almost incidentally, Laurie is also known as one of the finest acoustic bassists on the West Coast, occasionally taking time out from her busy schedule to nail down the rhythm on other artists' recordings.

Recently, Laurie has stretched out and applied her production skills to other artists' projects, including Peter McLaughlin's outstanding debut album, The Cliffs of Vermilion, Erica Wheeler's critically acclaimed The Harvest, Tom Rozum's Jubilee, and most recently, Charles Sawtelle's posthumous solo album, Music From Rancho DeVille.

Laurie's instinctive feel for the lyric content of bluegrass, traditional country, and folk material is a major reason for her popularity among lovers of the traditional repertoire (for a demonstration of this particular talent, check out her impassioned vocal performance of "Teardrops Falling in the Snow", a song first made popular by the great Molly O'Day, on The Oak and the Laurel duet album with Tom Rozum). "Tall Pines", from Laurie Lewis and her Bluegrass Pals, spent over a year on the Bluegrass Unlimited's radio survey, peaking at #1 for three months.

Laurie is also highly regarded as an original songwriter- her "Love Chooses You" is everything a country ballad should be, so much so that Kathy Mattea's interpretation on her Willow in the Wind is one of the high points of that best selling album. Laurie's "Cowgirl Song" sounds as if it may have been written by Patsy Montana in the '30s. Patsy did, in fact, record the song in the '80s, and it has become the unofficial theme song of the Cowgirl Hall of Fame.

It is as an interpreter of her own memorable songs that Laurie most often touches the uninitiated, and it is as interpreter of her own songs that she continues to leave an indelible impression on the hearts and minds of festival audiences, concert-goers, album buyers, and music lovers in general throughout the traditional and acoustic music world.

Additional Information - Tom Rozum

Tom is a fine lead vocalist, the ideal harmony partner for Laurie (it's not for nothing that their duet collaboration The Oak and the Laurel was so highly regarded that it was a Grammy nominee for the 1996 "Best Traditional Folk Album"), and occasionally functions as the comic foil for on-stage goings-on whenever things get too weighty.

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. Tom's highly acclaimed solo recording, Jubilee, (Signature Sounds 1246) is marked by Tom's trademarks: versatility, humor, and diversity, and features everything from straight ahead bluegrass to old-time country to selections from more contemporary realms. He enlisted help from Laurie, Todd Phillips, Peter McLaughlin, Craig Smith, Mike Marshall, David Grier, Rob Ickes, Darol Anger and Herb Pedersen.

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