The Bay Area helped make Laurie Lewis a bluegrass star, and others are following her footsteps

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Bay Area’s vibrant acoustic music scene in the 1960s and 1970s helped make Berkeley’s Laurie Lewis, who grew up learning classical piano and violin, a bona fide bluegrass star and an inspiration to young local musicians who’ve followed in her footsteps.

Bluegrass festivals seeded fan communities far beyond rural Appalachia, where the string band musical style was popularized by Grand Ole Opry star Bill Monroe. But there was something about the Bay Area that made it easy for someone like Lewis, with no background in a musical style mostly performed by men, to fit right in.

“It wasn’t until I started touring nationally that I realized what an oasis this place was and what a good place for me to get into the music, because it was completely acceptable,” Lewis recalled over coffee at Way Station Brew, one of her favorite Berkeley cafes. “If you loved the music, you should play it.”

As an “older statesperson” of the Bay Area bluegrass and roots music scene now, Lewis can point to a number of local musicians who’ve followed in her footsteps, many of whom she’s helped along the way, and signs that the region continues to provide opportunities for budding traditional musicians.

Two of bluegrass’ biggest new stars are Bay Area women — Molly Tuttle and AJ Lee. San Francisco’s free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, now in its 23rd year, showcases the music not often heard on commercial radio. And new young talent like the East Bay’s Crying Uncle, who hone their skills at local and regional music festivals, cafes, farmers markets and other venues, are driving interest among the region’s kids.

But Lewis also worries the region’s astronomical cost of living makes it much harder to make it as a musician now and to sustain an acoustic music community.

Attending the Berkeley Folk Music Festival for the first time as a teenager was an awakening for Lewis, whose father was a classical flutist.

“We just had classical music going all the time,” Lewis recalled. “But that really opened my ears to traditional music, folk music, of all stripes.”

Her father arranged for her to take banjo lessons from a student at UC Berkeley, who let her explore his bluegrass record collection — at a time when most teens were grooving to Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Lewis drifted away from music and explored modern dance while attending classes at UC Berkeley, but the break didn’t last long. She soon discovered there was a vibrant bluegrass and acoustic music scene centered at a pub in San Francisco called Paul’s Saloon with music every night, including a jam night where “where people would just get together and play.”

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