Lewi Longmire (acoustic and electric guitar, keys, and lead vocals)
Bill Rudolph (bass and harmony vocals)
Ned Folkerth (drums)
Regular guests include:
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Bingo (guitar, vocals)
Eddie Lakaden (percussion)
Steve James (guitar, mandolin)
Paul Brainard (steel guitar, trumpet)
David Lipkind (harmonica)
Little Sue (vocals)
Caleb Miles (rock god guitar)
Jenny Conlee (keys)
Alli Longstreth (vocals)
Dee Settlemier (vocals)
I've been blessed to play with some amazing talents...
Influences
Mad Dogs & Englishmen, Los Lobos, Big Brother & the Holding Company (with and without Janis), Michael Hurley, Oakley Hall, B'hob Dylan, Jimmy Smith, Neil Young, Beatles, Zappa, Black Flag, Nak NuNu, Doug Sahm, Mommyheads, Sarah Lee Guthrie, Mother Hips, Grateful Dead, Black Sabbath, the Band, the Creation, Decemberists, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Foghorn Stringband, Willie Nelson, Miles Davis, Moby Grape, Lightnin' Hopkins, oh so many more early influences.
My current big influences are the musicians I see around me, they're the best in the world: Bingo, Victoria Williams, Tony Mason, Fernando, Michael Hurley, Little Sue, Lynn Conover, Jimmy Boyer & Dave Reisch and the FMR, James Whiton, James Low, Mike Damron & David Lipkind (I Can Lick any SOB), Michael Jodell, Morgan Grace, Ezra Holbrook, Paul Brainard, Travis Cline (Gram Rabbit), Jackie O-Motherf*cker, Billy Kennedy. I am blessed to get to experience so much music with these folks.
Sounds Like
Probably most like the Band, Sir Douglas Quintet, Moby Grape, Mad Dogs & Englishmen or an overcaffinated wino. I'm from New Mexico, I live in Oregon, and yet I remember a girl at a show in Tucson thought the music was "swamp rock". I think she was on to something.
Here are some videos of the LL Band (w/Bingo) playing on local cable show "Recycled Music NW" on June 2nd, 2007:
THE LEWI LONGMIRE BAND is myself singing and playing,
BILL RUDOLPH playing killer bass and crooning exquisite harmony vocals NED FOLKERTH caressing and kicking the drums while whistling a jaunty 'tune
I play a lot of music around, but if it says "LEWI LONGMIRE BAND" it's these guys in the engine room. Other guests may sit in.
I've been playing guitar and various instruments for almost 20 years now... mostly backing up other songwriters. Now I've struck out on my own, subjecting to world to my own 'tunes. The calendar includes most of the shows I'm playing, whether fronting the band or playing as a "hired gun".
I was born in Albuquerque, NM and spent several years playing guitar in the acoustic jam/hippie punk band Apricot Jam. That group all moved to Portland, OR in 1997, and I stayed there when we disbanded. I quit music for a bit, looking for a "normal life", which of course proved to be too boring. When I started playing again, I figured that music is music and all instruments are more or less the same, so I'm going to try to figure out how to play any instrument I can get my hands on. By the time I get reeeeeeaaaaally old, maybe I'll be good at them all. For now, I'm just having a lot of fun.
"Lewi plays affable and kick-ass side man for tons of people but kicks ass on his own, like a southern rock JJ Cale in deranged americana bell bottoms."
- Dan Jones, Leisure King recording artist & idiot savant rocker
CLICK ON A TITLE BELOW, they're links to my albums available online.
These requests will only be handled through "official" routes:
laurelthirstbookings@msn.com (preferred method), click above for myspace, or phone 503-236-2455.
Playing with Bingo at the Joshua Tree Music Fest
Playing with Michael Hurley at Batwater
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I just found out I've been dying for over a hundred years:
"Lewis Longmire, a young man who, during the winter, was deputy sheriff and waited upon the county court, is now confined to his room at his home in Duck Creek. He is gradually sinking with that fatal disease, consumption."
- May 25, 1887, Dallas Daily Herald, p. 8, col. 4.
