Bluegrass music thrives today because new bands are coming up all the time to add new spice to a genre that has so much to offer. All of the best bluegrass bands have a grounding in the legendary performers of the past and they honor that tradition.
Some of the founders of Bluegrass are still active and playing great music. I heard Doyle Lawson play at Bean Blossom in June and he was still great.
But some performers of note just are not there in our Bluegrass music scene for one reason or another. Case in point, Lynn Morris.
Lynn suffered a devastating stroke at the peak of her career and was unable to perform any more. I first heard Lynn’s beautiful voice in the mid nineties when I lived in Maryland. There were many other great local bands in the area like the Country Gentlemen, Seldom Scene and the Johnson Mountain Boys and bluegrass streamed almost nonstop on my favorite local radio station WAMU.
If you have never heard Lynn Morris sing or play the banjo you need to find a Lynn Morris performance on the internet or somewhere and listen to it. I guarantee you it will blow you away.
I have the Lynn Morris Band’s first CD. Ronny McCoury plays mandolin. Dave McGlaughlin of the Johnson Mountain Boys plays on her next CD. Both of these CDs are great. As a would be mandolin player I of course like to listen to good mandolin pickers but Lynn somehow was able to attract really good talent to her bands.
Lynn Morris has an almost angelic voice but she is also an accomplished banjoist. She took top honors in banjo at the prestigious Winfield, Kansas competition in 1974 and was the first woman to do so. She won again seven years later. And she recorded instructional videos for would-be claw hammer players that are still used today. Here is a clip of Lynn playing Old Rip with her husband on bass:
I met Lynn’s husband, the bass player Marshall Wilborn, a few years ago at a workshop with Michael Cleveland. Marshall really seemed like a nice guy and I have it on good authority (elite musician friends that have played with them) that they actually are very good people.
Well here’s the good news. Lynn recovered from her stroke enough to sing at least a few more songs for us:
What a joy to hear that special voice again! Lynn doesn’t perform regularly any more but what a great gift we have to hear even just a bit from this special talent. She must have worked really hard to recover her speech and playing skills after the stroke to be able to make that concert happen for her fans. She even played Old Rip again.
What a treasure, Lynn Morris.
