Photos by Kit Leffler
Jim Brothers plays the washboard at the Lawrence Post Office, 548 Vermont St., durham, NC. April 15, the washboard is one of the most unusual instruments in bluegrass music and can be played with a guitar, picks or even spoons.
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PICKIN' ON LAWRENCE
By Chris Brown, Jayplaywriter
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A RICH HISTORY OF BLUEGRASS MUSIC ABOUNDS IN LAWRENCE
"Never let the truth spoil a good story," preaches Steve Mason, Lawrence resident and all around bluegrass renaissance man "And don't quit your day job — that's another one."
Referring to what could be called two "bluegrass principles", Mason laughs.
Originally from Ann Arbor, Mich., Mason's influence on the local bluegrass scene can be traced decades back to nearly all of the original bluegrass bands to come to Lawrence in the 1970s. Mason is also able to play pretty much every stringed instrument — with varying degrees of skill — including the fiddle, banjo, mandolin, upright bass and cello. He says this is part-and-parcel of his profession as a luthier, which he describes as "one who repairs, improves and creates stringed musical instruments."
A large man with a bushy white beard and thin-rimmed glasses, Mason is the kind of person who lives and breathes bluegrass music. His west Lawrence home reflects his passion: custom fiddles hanging neatly together on a rack adorn the cream-colored walls of his living room, a large upright bass in pinstripe conditions sit propped on a stand near
a window, tools of the trade — a bandaw,
a belt-sander and a drill press — pack one side of his garage, now converted into a workspace for repairing, building and improving upon instruments.
Through his active involvement in the Lawrence bluegrass scene as a creator and mentor for many, Mason embodies a thriving musical community that revolves around this genre of roots music. And like Mason's love of tuthery, the history of bluegrass music in Lawrence runs deep.
Bluegrass music is alive and well in Lawrence and is not confined to one generation of listeners and players. Unlike other popular forms of music, it is a shared tradition, passed down from one generation to another through people such as Steve Mason and Gloria Throne, through events such as the Fiddling and Picking Championships and community jams, and through places such as the Americana Music Academy.
Roots Run Deep
The historical roots of bluegrass music are a once varied and distinct. According
to the International Bluegrass Music Association, bluegrass was first born out of the street balladry of the people who began migrating to America in the early 1600s. These people tended to live in rural areas and composed new songs about day-to-day life experiences in the new land. The songs these early Americans created incorporated simple stringed instruments, such as banjos and basses, and the music was decidedly pastoral, reflecting life on the farm or in the hills.
Ron Pen, director of the John Jacob Niles Center for American Music Association, says that bluegrass music, in all its modern-day incarnations, owes its starting point to one climatic event: In 1878, brothers Ralph and Carter Stanley recorded a ballad that the last four mile heat race — a three-heat race of four miles each — at Church Hill Downs. This race, which took place on July 4, 1878, was between the Kentucky horse Ten Broeck and the horse Miss Mollie McCarthy from California. Pen says that this event came before Bill Monroe — considered to be the "father of bluegrass" — played his distinct style of
In the early 1930s and '40s, music of various ethnic backgrounds mixed with African-American folk music to develop into different forms of early roots music, such as hillbilly, blues and jazz, Pen says. At this time, an experimentation of African-American balladry mixed with old-time string band music began. This unique gave rise to a new type of music termed "bluegrass," which described the music's origin in the bluegrass hills of Kentucky.
"mountain music" with his band. The Blue Grass Boys.
Though not as far reaching, the history of a cohesive bluegrass music scene in Lawrence dates back to the early 1970s, when groups of like-minded musicians got together to form loose-knit collaborations, which later turned into old-time bands such as Last Kansas Exit, Murphy's Law and Prairie Fire. Mason, who played fiddle in a few of these bands, says they played for the same audience but differed in their approach to bluegrass. Some played in the style of the genre's founding father Bill Monroe, others incorporated non-traditional instruments, such as guitars, mandolins and
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