Women in Bluegrass Newsletter Archive, Reader’s Edition

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Lynn Morris

Lynn Morris (born October 8, 1947 or 48) is a banjo player, guitarist, singer, and bandleader who grew up in Lamesa, Texas. She first heard bluegrass in a Colorado bar while at Colorado College, where she earned an art degree, and she took up banjo the following year. She joined the Colorado band City Limits in 1972, and the band recorded Hello City Limits in 1975. In 1974 she became the first woman to win the National Banjo Championship at Winfield, Kansas, and in 1981 she became the first person to win it twice. She toured Southeast Asia twice with a country band, then played with Whetstone Run in Pennsylvania in the early 1980s. She and her husband, bassist Marshall Wilborn, formed the Lynn Morris Band in 1988, and the band released its debut album on Rounder in 1990. Later lineups included Ron Stewart, David McLaughlin, and Jesse Brock. Her recording of Hazel Dickens's "Mama's Hand," the title track of the band's 1995 album, spent six months at number one on the National Bluegrass Survey and won IBMA's Song of the Year in 1996. IBMA named her Female Vocalist of the Year in 1996, 1998, and 1999. She won SPBGMA's Traditional Female Vocalist of the Year seven times. She retired from touring after a stroke in 2003. IBMA gave her its Distinguished Achievement Award in 2010 and inducted her into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2021.

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  • Spotlight on... Lynn Morris (No. 3)

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