Earth & Sky: The Laurie Lewis Songbook

by Laura 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. It is as an interpreter of her own memorable songs, however, 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, concertgoers, album buyers, and music lovers in general throughout the traditional and acoustic music world. In "Earth and Sky" Laurie presents forty-five of her original songs along with her musical arrangements in a large-format book with a lay-flat binding. She introduces the book with an essay ( "Courting the Muse") about her songwriting methods. There she doles out plenty of practical advice, speaks openly of her influences, and touches on theory. Several of the eighty black and white photographs that accompany her music and lyrics show her hobnobbing with the masters, including Ralph Stanley, George Shuffler, and Doc Watson. Other photos document her many achievements (twice named "Female Vocalist of the Year" International Blue Grass Music Association), show her touring with the Pantoms of the Opry and the Arkansas Sheiks.Universally regarded as one of traditional music's best original songwriters, Laurie Lewis here delivers a first book full of passion and craft that is sure to touch music lovers right to the heart.

126 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010