Bluegrass and country western band Lazybones often plays at festivals and at Six Rivers Brewery in McKinleyville on Thursday nights.
Photo: Courtesy of Lazybones

by Michael A. Bronfman

Science editor

Lazybones is one of the premier bluegrass bands in Humboldt County.

The members are from the Arcata area and play at the Six Rivers Brewery most Thursdays.

The group was formed three years ago by mandolin player Chris Richard and accordion and mandolin player Jeff Siedschlag.

After the demise of their band Blue Diamond Door, remaining members Brian Powell, Ian Davidson and Matt Brunner joined Lazybones. They play upright bass, banjo and acoustic guitar respectively.

At gigs random fiddlers join Lazybones since they do not have a permanent player.

"We're having a good time," Matt Brunner said.

"(Bluegrass music) tickles your inner soul once you get it in there!"

Several members of Lazybones are recent HSU graduates.

Richard graduated last spring. Brunner graduated with a degree in wildlife studies and is a supervisor at HSU Graphic Services.

Powell has a degree in geography, and works for Geographic Resource Solutions.

Lazybones' CD "Where the Mountains Touch the Sea" is a collection of traditional bluegrass tunes.

It is categorized by its lack of drums, train-like "chugga-chugga rhythms" and major scales.

Several members of Lazybones also play on Matt Brunner's CD "High on a Desert Road."

They released the self titled "The Lazy Bones Bluegrass Band" album fall of 2002.

The band's concerts are more like a pow-wow amongst friends rather than a gig. The band is casual when it plays its music.

The members do not have much to say in between the songs. They let their music do the talking.

"They have their finger on the pulse of Humboldt County," music aficionado Todd Jenkins said.

"They represent everything that is right about Humboldt. They are the cure for what ails ye," he said.

Guitarist Matt Brunner describes his band as a down- home style, a mix of country and blues, and a piece of Americana.

"It is very structured, but there is lots of improvisation soloing around the structural arrangements," he said.

Lazybones has played in Utah, and at the Telluride Bluegrass festival in Colorado.

They have also played at the Fillmore in San Francisco with Santana, String-Cheese Incident and Leftover Salmon.

In concert Lazybones pays homage to Bill Monroe by playing "Whitehouse Blues."

Bluegrass is a style of music that is drawn from Irish fiddles, Scottish bagpipes and African banjo all meshed together in Appalachian Mountains.

It stems from country western music and emerged in the United States after World War II. It is a direct descendant of the old-time string-band music that had been widely played and recorded by such groups as the Carter Family from the late 1920s.

Bluegrass is the high and lonesome sound of rural backwoods. Its syncopated (offbeat) rhythm, its relatively high-pitched tenor (lead) vocals, tight harmonies and a strong influence of jazz and blues distinguish Bluegrass.

There is a very prominent place given to the banjo, always played in the three-finger Earl Scruggs style, which is unique to bluegrass.

Mandolin and fiddle are generally featured to give the songs more texture and melody.

Bill Monroe pioneered this down-home style of music.

Monroe, who by the mid-1940s had experimented considerably with new methods of presenting string-band music, began to evolve a highly distinctive mandolin style while playing with his brothers.

After their group broke up, he formed his own band, the Blue Grass Boys. The band already showed many of the distinctive features of modern bluegrass.

In 1945 Earl Scruggs, originator of the revolutionary aforementioned banjo technique joined. By the late '40s a number of bands were playing the music. The most successful groups was usually led by musicians who had played with the Blue Grass Boys and learned the style directly from Monroe.

Some of their musical influences include: Grateful Dead, Old and in the Way, Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Bill Monroe, the Dillards, Carter Family, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Jodie Foster's Army, Bob Dylan and Earl Scruggs.

The members of Lazybones all have day jobs and play in the band mostly for fun. They have a nice following at all their shows. They concentrate on preserving an older style of music. They write some their own songs, while others are traditional tunes passed down for hundreds of years.