This
father and daughter team has been among Kentucky’s best ambassadors over
the past four decades, as it traveled the world playing the traditional
old-time tunes of Appalachia.
As a young boy, Lewis Lamb emerged as the
newest musician in a family that revered old-time music. His brother and father
played claw-hammer banjo and he began learning on guitar. In 1950, his mother
sold a basket of eggs for five dollars and bought him his first fiddle. At the
age of 16, he learned to play by listening to 78-rpm records at a slow speed
and then tuning his fiddle down with the sound until he would learn the song.
In the ‘60s he started playing for different dances in surrounding towns,
just for the enjoyment. In 1963, he told the director of the Berea College
Country Dancers that the recorded tunes would be much better if he played them
live. She quickly agreed, hired him and his career was born.
His
daughter was not far behind. In 1967, when she was 13 years old, Donna wanted a
guitar for Christmas. She did get it, but had to help her father strip his
tobacco crop to earn it. He taught her how to play by ear and within three
months she was joining him in public performances.
Beginning in 1975,
they took their first overseas tour with the Berea College Country Dancers and
have traveled widely in the U.S. and abroad to England, Scotland, Luxembourg,
Denmark, Mexico, Germany and the former Czechoslovakia. Through these years
they have been the staff musicians at Berea Christmas Country Dance School, the
nation’s premier training event for leaders in traditional American folk
dance and associated music.
Lewis and Donna Lamb have represented
Kentucky and traditional music well, with performances in 1976 at the World
Expo in Toronto, Canada; in 1982 at the World’s Fair in Knoxville,
Tennessee; from 1985-87 at Folkmoot USA, an international folk and dance
festival in North Carolina and at a benefit concert for “Save the
Children” at London’s Royal Albert Hall. In Kentucky, they have
played many years for the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen annual fairs
and currently preside over a Thursday evening jam session at the Welcome Center
in Berea, where all musicians and would-be musicians are encouraged to
participate.
Lewis and Donna Lamb share their talents generously in many
ways. They have recorded several albums, including two volumes of Dances
from Appalachia, an album of music from their own family traditions and a
new album designed especially for teaching square dancing and clogging. Donna
also contributed to the flatfooting tradition by writing a book and teaching
flatfooting lessons.
The creativity of Lewis and Donna Lamb does not end
with music and dancing. Lewis also carves whimsical figures and animals, which
Donna paints with acrylics. Lewis has made many musical instruments and Donna
has a reputation for producing some of the most beautiful inlay work in
Kentucky. Lewis is also a fine storyteller with wit and wisdom true to Kentucky
traditions.
Respected for their many talents, their selflessness, their
generosity in sharing and perpetuating various folk art traditions and their
openness and warmth as human beings, Lewis and Donna Lamb are living treasures
for Kentucky and for the nation.
Previous recipients: Eddie Pennington, J. D. Crowe, Lynwood
Montell, Lestel Childress, John Harrod and Marvin
Finn.