accordions, into the mix.
In 1975, then Lawrence elementary school teacher Gloria Throne decided to try and bring the down-home bluegrass jam sessions she had grown up with in Brown County, Ind. — just 20 minutes from Bill Monroe's birthplace — to Lawrence. Throne placed an ad for a Wednesday night jam session in the bulletin of the "Free University," which was a no credit, no fees system, she explains. Steve Mason came to the first meeting, offering to host the event at his music store Harmonic Arts at Fourth and Locust Streets, she says. Within a year, word-ofmouth had turned the event into a huge success.
"We tried to emphasize we're just getting to share the music in whatever way people could," says Throne, who is now 63, retired and living in Rushville, Mo.
Throne says that there were no rules for what instruments people could and could not bring, so people often brought instruments that weren't traditionally associated with bluegrass music.
"We kept creating categories. If you played harmonica or hammered dulcimer at least you could have the chance to share what you did," she says.
As it was then, playing music in these weekly jam sessions was a good way to network with other musicians around town, she says. Through these jam sessions, Throne hooked up with Steve Mason to play bass and sing in his oldtime parody band Goldilocks and the Bagels. Throne played the stage role of Goldilocks.
From the '70s into the early '80s, barn dances — otherwise known as "contra dance" — became popular in Lawrence. These dances, which incorporated a song-and-dance style reminiscent of
square dance, flourished around oldtime music and the bands that defined bluegrass in Lawrence up to this point. Throne says.
In 1976 — the United States' bicentennial year — the rich musical scene that had been growing through the years culminated in the local Fiddling and Picking Championships, which Throne organized. Though it since has expanded to include a plethora of stringed instruments, Throne says the first Fiddling and Picking Championships involved just guitars and fiddles.
"It had two categories — fiddling and picking — and everyone had to play together," she says.
Mirroring the evolution of the Fiddling and Picking Championships to include new instruments and new musical styles, the Lawrence bluegrass scene has evolved over the years and now encompasses more musical styles and instruments that push the creative envelope of American roots music.
The Americana Experience
The Americana Music Academy, located at 1410 Massachusetts St., is the modern day incarnation of the "70s weekly jam sessions and the subsequent bands formed from the relationships fostered in this "everyone plays together" atmosphere. Founder and established guitarist Thom Alexander says he believes in the power of playing music together and thinks it is important to provide people, of all different backgrounds with varying degrees of musical skills, opportunities to play music in "low-stress situations."
Coming from a background in education, the 48-year-old Alexander moved to Lawrence from California in 1993 and
had a vision to start a music school.
"I think everybody should learn and have the joy of music in their lives," says Alexander, an outspoken, silver-haired man with a matching grey goatee and round glasses.
In August 2001 Alexander opened Americana. Four months later, in January 2002, classes for a wide
range of instruments and musical styles associated with roots music began.
"I was into filling a niche," Alexander says. "I have a real love for banjo, I have a real love for mandolin, I have a real love for dulcimer."
Alexander's vision of people from all different walks of life playing music together has boldly manifested itself in various weekly events that Americana sponsors. He says that some of these events, such as the Thursday night community jam at Signs of Life Books, 722 Massachusetts St., and the front porch jam at Americana on Saturday mornings, regularly attract many local musicians of all different ages and musical backgrounds.
"Anybody can show up," Alexander says. "Sometimes there's three people, sometimes there's 35. The goal is just to provide an opportunity for people to play with other people for the sake of playing."
Tax Day Jamboree
On April 15—officially known to everyone in the country as "tax day" — the post office is packed but not with tax fil-
ers. Steve Mason's band, the Alferd Packard Memorial Stringband, plays its distinctive mix of old-time and contra dance music to an eclectic mix of Lawrencians, young and old. The roots of this event at the most peculiar of venues goes back to 1986. In that year, Mason got his taxes done late and said he had that feeling like the pressure had been taken off—a feeling similar to finishing a big exam. He wanted to play music but there was nothing going on. The next year, a member of Mason's band, Seventh $^{th}$ and Hickory, half-jokingly suggested they have a tax-day jam at the post office and the band was into the idea so they just showed up and started playing.
"We thought they would kick us out but they didn't," he said.
Since 1987, the event has been a town spectacle. At 10:30 p.m. on tax day this year, crowds of people pack the interior. Some dance, some just observe. The Alferd Packard Memorial Stringband plays a fast-paced contra dance number for the affable crowd. The band members are decked out in elaborate costumes, which can best be described as Civil War meets Old West. Outside, a man cooks "road-kill stew," and there's a tinge of its rich contents in the post office air. In between songs, the band cracks corny jokes and the crowd responds with disapproving laughs. At the start of another song—a medium-paced waltz—former mayor Mike Rundle takes center stage
The (Unofficial) Rules of Bluegrass
"You can totally suck, but if you're in a family band, you can get away with it."
Steve Mason on families playing bluegrass music
"Drums are very controversial in bluegrass. The idea anyone would play drums at a bluegrass festival is like heresy."
—Steve Mason on instrument choice in bluegrass music
"Vory few bluegrass songs speak happily about love."
David Barnhill, Lawrence senior and mandolin player in the bluegrass band the High Water Marksmen, on bluegrass lyrics