Mayne Smith
L. Mayne Smith (born Loyd Mayne Smith, 1939–2025) was an American bluegrass and country-rock singer, multi-instrumentalist, and ethnomusicologist who pioneered the academic study of bluegrass music. In 1959, he co-founded the Redwood Canyon Ramblers, which was recognized as Northern California's first formal bluegrass band. He went on to write Bluegrass Music and Musicians: An Introductory Study of the Musical Style in its Cultural Context (1964) at Indiana University, which stands as the world's first formal master's thesis dedicated to the analytical and cultural framework of the genre. He later spearheaded the 1983 structural transition of the legendary Berkeley, CA venue, Freight & Salvage, into a permanent non-profit arts institution.