The Boulevard Music Festival returns this week, taking place, as ever, each Thursday at the courtyard of Culver City Hall. The first performer, on Thursday July 6, is bluegrass group Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands. We’ll be speaking to the week’s performing artist each week, so this week we chatted with Lewis, as well as curator and organizer Gary Mandell of Boulevard Music.
Gary Mandell, Boulevard Music
Culver City News: How many years has the festival been running for now?
Gary Mandell: I took over running it in 2001 – back then it was the City Music Festival. It had been going for a number of years before that, since the late 1980s I think. About four years ago, Boulevard took over from the City completely, although the City is still one of the main sponsors. There were only a couple of hundred people attending at the beginning. Now we’re at up to 1000.
How do you pick the artists?
A couple of things: name recognition, and draw. Plus, diversity of gender, ethnicity, and genre.
Who does this event appeal to?
This isn’t Culver-chella. The Santa Monica Pier shows are more like that. 18-25 year olds, besides the Eric Burdon & The Animals show. With a community festival, you can’t just book who you want to hear. Plus, I have a limited budget. I want the acts to be PG-rated, as with my store. I want anyone to be able to come.
What else is going on, besides music?
Papa John’s Pizza will be selling food and refreshments. The parking under City Hall changes this year, at the end of July. It used to be free, and now it’s the same as the others. Free for an hour, then you pay. This is the centennial edition of the festival. I hope we continue to get all ages.
Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands
Culver City News: Have you ever played this event before?
Laurie Lewis: Yes, I’ve played it at least twice. Possibly three times. I got in through Gary. It was really fun. I honestly had my doubts about playing right there off the street, on a major thoroughfare in Downtown Culver City for a free event. What’s great about it is, it’s such a family-oriented fun thing. Everybody brings their chairs and their dinners and their kids, and it’s a really sweet event. I was quite impressed with it and, after the first time, I wanted to do it again and again.
For those that are new to you, how do you describe your style?
The foundation is bluegrass. The instrumentation is bluegrass. I write a lot of songs that we do, and they aren’t necessarily traditional bluegrass but I think that’s the best label to put on it. It’s music that’s very personal in nature. Backing me up are fabulous musicians who all have a lot of heart and technical ability at the same time, which is a wonderful combination.
Where are you based?
Berkeley, CA. The bluegrass scene up here is pretty vibrant. There’s a new little Berkeley bluegrass festival that’s started. It’s in its second year, and it’s a really fun event. Of course, up here we have the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco. It’s a huge event that happens every first weekend of October. That spurs a lot of interest in the music, although there’s hardly any bluegrass per se at that festival anymore. It’s still opening people’s ears to the idea of this acoustic string-band music. There are a lot of musicians, players, in the Bay Area that just like to sit around and play in their living rooms or play small clubs and there are jam sessions that happen weekly up here in numerous places. So I’d say it’s quite vibrant.
Give me a brief history of you… Have you always played bluegrass?
Well, I’ve played other styles of music. For many years, I played string bass in a traditional jazz band for instance. Which is quite different, but in some ways similar. I’ve played folk music in duo situations and things like that. But I love the power and flexibility of a bluegrass band, and that’s more what I have stayed with. I just love that combination of instruments: the banjo, the guitar, the fiddle, the mandolin and the string bass is just an unbeatable combination for me.
What can we expect from the set?
Probably some new songs. Some songs from our Grammy-nominated latest album, which is called The Hazel and Alice Sessions. I’m sure we’ll be doing a lot of songs from that, and some songs from our fairly vast repertoire of having recorded and performed for the last 40 years.
After the festival, what’s next for you this year?
Oh boy. Directly after that, we’ll be headed up to the Mendocino Music Festival, but we’ll be playing in Colorado and the Mid-West, West Virginia, and coming back out to California and playing up and down the state in the fall. So we have quite a lot of miles to travel this year.
Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands play Culver City’s Boulevard Music Summer Festival at City Hall on Thursday, July 6. Admission is free, although limited seats are available for $10. The show runs 7-9 p.m., as they do each week. Next week, on July 12, Andre Thierry and Zydeco Magic will perform, and we’ll be speaking to him. Following weeks will see performances from Ricardo Lemvo and Makina Loca, The John Jorgenson Quintet, Led Zepagain, and Albert Lee. For more information, call Boulevard Music at 310-398-2583.