When the February issue of Bluegrass Unlimited came through my letter box I was greatly saddened to read of the death of Lamar Grier. I have always regretted missing Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys on their first visit to the UK in 1966. They even played in my home town of Norwich on a date when I had to be away at college – definitely bad management on my part! I later heard rave reviews from friends, including particular praise for the “young lad” who Monroe had brought over on banjo. Lamar Grier was actually aged 28 at the time but I guess he still looked a youngster compared with Bill.
Since then I’ve always listened out for Lamar Grier in my collection of recordings and on the internet. He did a detailed interview with Hub Nitchie in Banjo Newsletter July 1978 which you can now read on line at the BNL website – https://banjonews.com/1978-07/interview_with_lamar_grier.html Years later Lamar also spoke at great length to Jim Moss – see http://candlewater.com/interviews/LamarGrier_Part1/ Lamar seems always to have been very frank and open about the way he thought about the banjo and how he wanted it to sound. His major influence was Earl Scruggs, but he had his own variations in timing , often syncopating the syncopations, an approach which he also found in the guitar playing of Clarence White. This did not always coincide with Monroe’s ideas. Lamar heard of a comment Bill had made about him to someone else: “I don’t know about that boy. I don’t know whether he’s playing it right or wrong.” Lamar wasn’t sure whether to take that as a compliment or not! And he was not particularly into melodic style playing (which was in the ascendant in the 1960s). However, Monroe required him to play certain tunes that way, including the first part of Lamar’s (impressive!) banjo break on Turkey In The Straw, recorded in 1966.
Lamar Grier was clearly an individualist when it came to playing music. At the forefront of bluegrass developments in the 1960s, he had given up playing in public by 1985, at the same time taking a new job with the United States Government, where he stayed until he retired in 1998. By this time his son David was established as probably the best flatpicking bluegrass guitarist in the business. David Grier had been entranced as a child by listening to his dad’s tapes of Clarence White and had also been helped in his early years by Clarence’s brother Roland. The musical thread from father to son is clear!
Gary Reid’s obituary for Lamar Grier is in the February issue of Bluegrass Unlimited. Gary includes references to the main recordings on which Lamar participated including the tracks on Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Time LP, the superb recordings of Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard on Folkways, and the Strange Creek Singers album on Arhoolie with Hazel and Alice plus Mike Seeger and Tracy Schwarz. By 1981 Lamar had made his final recordings, on Buzz Busby’s Webco release A Pioneer of Traditional Bluegrass. It is a gift to us that we can still listen to the music of Lamar Grier. He was a dedicated and inspired musician whose heart was in the music that he played. May he rest in peace.
John Baldry February 2020
