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Talking with Dan Lehman, founder of this weekend’s Mammoth Bluegrass Festival in the Village at Mammoth, it’s hard to determine whether he found bluegrass music or it found him. From the sound of it, they’ve been circling each other most of his life.

“When I was 15, I saw the Kingston Trio in San Diego, and that sold me on the banjo,” Lehman reminisced. “After high school, in the 1960s I worked at Disneyland on the Jungle Cruise and one of my coworkers was a kid named Steve Martin, who played the banjo in our break room. I’m sort of the Forrest Gump of bluegrass; we keep bumping into each other.”

Another new entry in this year’s festival scene, Lehman said he’s wanted to do a bluegrass festival here since 1974. “We moved to Mammoth in 1973, and I occasionally flew on Sierra Pacific Air, which was owned by Dave McCoy at the time,” he recalled. “Gary McCoy, who ran the airline, and I talked about doing a festival back then.”

A few years later, in 1977, Lehman staged a concert at what was then Warming Hut 2 (now Canyon Lodge) starring Bo Diddley, followed by Joe Sample and the Crusaders the next year, and one with Jerry Lee Lewis at the Tri-County Fairgrounds in Bishop.

After a lengthy hiatus, Lehman finally decided this was the year to string up the banjos and tune up the fiddles. Using Mammoth Rocks’ basic structure as a template, he enlisted help coordinating the event from Mark Deeds, who co-founded Rocks and was one of the organizers who helped make this year’s first Margarita Festival a hit.

“I wanted to bring in some Southern California bands, a couple from Northern California and one from out of state,” he explained. A couple of the groups on this year’s bill were recommended from San Diego, Chris Stuart & Backcountry and Gone Tomorrow. From the Bay Area, High Country and Bill Evans’ Banjo in America one-man show. Jeff Scroggins is coming in from Denver, Colo. His son, Tristan, is a much-lauded mandolin player, with several competition wins on the instrument.

Bluegrass, is inspired by the folk music of Appalachia in the Blue Ridge Mountains, especially Kentucky, derived from Scottish, Irish and English traditional music. Like jazz, bluegrass relies heavily on improvisation. Reels and ballads are played with fiddles in the lead, while the faster breakdowns (bluesgrass’s contribution to speed metal) tend to feature guitars and banjos.

In 1948, bluegrass emerged as a genre within post-war country/western music. The term “bluegrass” is believed to have been coined in the late 1950s, taken from the name of the Blue Grass Boys band formed in 1939 by Bill Monroe, widely considered the “father of bluegrass.”

Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt popularized the music starting in the late ‘40s, and bluegrass had a distinct effect on skiffle music popular in England during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Impacting the sound of a young, upstart band known as the Beatles, Monroe and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott were two major bluegrass influences on Beatle Paul McCartney.

In the 1970s, Roy Clark (banjo) and Buck Owens (guitar) did a regular segment on the syndicated TV show “Hee Haw” called “Pickin’ & Grinnin.’” Steve Martin went on to find fame first as a comedian, using his bluegrass banjo picking talent as part of his standup set, later going on to make more straightforward recordings with Allison Krauss and other country-bluegrass artists.

Bluegrass played a minor character of sorts in the Coen Brothers film, “O Brother Where Art Thou,” yielding a hit version of the folk standard “I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow” for the fictitious Soggy Bottom Boys.

Bluegrass seems to be a natural for mountain towns, he suggested. “Look at Telluride,” he pointed out. “Their festival in June swells the population from 2,000 to 10,000 in a weekend. And that’s not even in ski season, and they’re in the middle of nowhere and at a dead end when you get there.”

Most bluegrass songs aren’t written on formal musical charts for the most part, but Lehman is quick to point out the musical acumen of the players. “It can be pretty complex and there’s a lot of dexterity involved. The four-part harmony is just amazing to hear,” he said. He also thinks that given some of the challenges in the economy and in Mammoth in particular, the music would be a much-needed feel-good shot in the arm. “It appeals to everyone, from kids to folks in their 80s. It’s all-around great American music.”

New Mayor confronts same old demons

Last week, Mammoth Lakes installed its newest Mayor, Matthew Lehman, to lead Town Council. His tenure begins at a crossroads, the intersection of Bankruptcy Blvd. and Recovery Rd.

Lehman, who was born in Los Angeles, but essentially grew up in the community of Mammoth in the ‘70s, long before it formally became a town, could well begin the road to recovery by presiding over Chapter 9 Municipal Bankruptcy proceedings, and has already been involved in ongoing mediation with various creditors.

“The Town has scheduled a special meeting on Monday, July 2, to report on the outcomes of the AB 506 mediation, which is scheduled to conclude this Friday,” Lehman told The Sheet in a statement. “The Town will evaluate its options during that meeting, and make a decision based on the information available to us at the time. We have invited Mammoth Lakes Land Acquisition (MLLA) to the mediation, again, and would like to work something out with them. We hope this will be possible and that bankruptcy won’t be necessary.”

(According to a Town Press Release issued Wednesday, “Regrettably … the Town’s largest creditor, MLLA, has refused to participate in the mediation, despite the Town’s multiple invitations.”)

In an interview with The Sheet, Lehman stated he sees this as but half of his top priority as Mammoth’s Mayor – the first Mayor, says Coldwell Bamker’s  Sheryl Saari, who actually grew up here. According to Lehman, resolution of the MLLA judgment against the town (now at about $44 million) is running parallel with his ideas for economic recovery, and pulling the town out of an economic downturn he’s certain its residents would have been affected by with or without the MLLA/Hot Creek Development lawsuit.

“Even without the lawsuit, we’d still have had to cut $2.8 million from this coming fiscal year’s budget,” he related. “If we hadn’t had the lawsuit, we’d have more resources to dedicate to a recovery, but we need to stop placing blame. People like to think it’s due to a mistake someone made in the past. One of my friends said he still wants a ‘pie chart of blame.’ I think it’s just the economy in general. MMSA is going through the same thing.”

Lehman said a lot of the problem has been addressed, but cautioned that time is valuable and he would rather focus on problem solving, especially getting the economy jumpstarted and back on track. A driving force on the Town’s Economic Stimulus Council, he is considering a proposal to make the Stimulus Council a subset or official committee of Town Council. “We need to make economic development part of Council, or perhaps adding it to Community Development.”

His “Best Summer Ever” (BSE) marketing concept is admittedly a short term goal, but one he thinks will set off a chain reaction of positive messaging to promote business retention and new business startups. “These are action items, ready for implementation. It’s not just talk.” Job growth is another essential that “BSE” can help provide.

“We don’t need to wait for jobs to show up, we need to be proactive and go out and find them,” he suggested. “And we’ve been clamoring for an events venue for years. I don’t see incentives and streamlining permitting as giving away the farm; that’s how things work in the real world. We need to control what we want our town to look like instead of having it dictated to us.”

One thing he’s not convinced of is that the town should be back under Mono County auspices again. Remembering what Mammoth was like prior to incorporation, Lehman recalled there was “good and bad” that came before and after becoming a Town.

“Before we were a Town, snow removal frequently took a long time,” he explained. “There are, however, unintended consequences of going back to the County. We can have a better vision and more control of our tax dollars by staying a Town.”

Another thing he’s not keen on is government process. “I don’t think we need another layer of government,” Lehman opined. “Yes, I’m involved in politics, but I’m not a big fan of process. People need to have control of their government, not the other way around.”

That said, however, Lehman said he’s got “a lot of confidence” in his fellow Councilmembers, staff and the Town’s management. “We all bring something to the table, and occasionally butt heads, but we are all working toward the same goals.”

He praised the work being done by Mammoth Lakes Tourism Director John Urdi, pointing out that he’s constantly trying to think of new and fresh ways to market Mammoth and get messaging out. One recent accomplishment: better symbiosis and integrated messaging between the Town and Mono County.

Lehman also thinks Assistant Town Manager Marianna Marysheva-Martinez is “absolutely the right person” to navigate turbulent financial seas. “We’d be in a far inferior position without her,” he said. “She’s direct, and I like that … give me the bad news, tell me where we’re going wrong, let’s deal with it. Don’t pander to Council and tell us what we want to hear. That’s been a problem for past Councils.”

In the private sector, Lehman wants to “capture and capitalize.” He wants to continue identifying and building on the area’s strengths, such as Mammoth’s growing reputation as a high-altitude training Mecca. This year, with the 2012 Olympic Summer Games in London, many U.S. Olympians have been training in the area, including marathoners Meb Keflezhigi and Amy Hastings, and shorter distance runners Alistair Cragg and Morgan Uceny, as well as members of the Austrailian and British Olympic teams, among numerous other athletic organizations and schools.

The Nike Outpost, which had a successful stay in Mammoth last summer, is set to return this year, and Lehman is hopeful a long term relationship will emerge that could lead to building a full-time facility here and generate job opportunities.

Community benefits aren’t off his radar, but need to be sustained by revenue generation that should ideally be horse before cart. “We need to bring in revenue that will generate dollars for things that cost money and don’t generate money, but that we need and are legitimate community benefits.”

Mammoth’s Town Council will meet in open session on Monday, July 2, starting at 9 a.m. in Suite Z. Check here for any late-breaking updates.

Recreation meeting time change

During its regular meeting Tuesday, Mammoth’s Recreation Commission moved up the start time of subsequent meetings to 2 p.m. from 4 p.m. Future meetings are also expected to finish no later than 5 p.m. The move was attributed to cost-saving measures as relates to staff time and Town budget cutbacks. As a help to some of the public, however, future meetings are expected to be televised, recorded and posted on the Town’s website for instant replay.

Planning Commission notes

Mammoth Lakes Planning Commissioner Mickey Brown voiced her enthusiasm for a new application available on the Town’s website, which allows users to check on the validity of potential rental properties, and whether they are permitted or otherwise allowed to be used for nightly rentals. The application is another arrow in the Town’s quiver to both combat illegal rentals and also crack down on unreported Transient Occupancy Tax for collection.

Lehman’s “Best Summer Ever” plan

Members of the public interested in hearing an idea for an economic development plan might want to sit in on Mammoth Lakes Town Council’s meeting this coming Wednesday at 6 p.m. in Suite Z. Council member and Mayor Pro Tem Matthew Lehman will roll out his plan for driving business in the coming 2012-2013 fiscal year. Part of that plan, according to Planning Commissioner and Economic Development Committee member Mickey Brown, starts with the “Best Summer Ever” program, designed to pull together segments that business leaders are “passionate about.”

Examples cited by Brown include a Board of Realtors’ campaign to show why it’s a “good time to buy” in Mammoth, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area’s promotion of this summer’s Mud Run event and Mammoth Lakes Tourism’s showcasing the town as a high-altitude training mecca.

“What we’re trying to do is put together a first year plan, something cohesive that incorporates ideas from the Economic Stimulus Council’s various groups, the low-hanging fruit, things that won’t put a big burden on the town,” said Lehman.

“How can we put on events and consistently draw in entertainment?” he continued. ”It’s a big wheel, and I’m turning to the community as spokes in that wheel. Let’s expand on various events to help draw people to the town.”

Lehman says he also hopes to develop an Economic Indicators Report for the public and investors alike.

Council member Matthew Lehman recently made an appearance on Fox 5 News, a local Las Vegas television station where he plugged all of the upcoming events in Mammoth this August, including Mammoth Rocks, an event that he helped get up and running. Click the link below to check it out!

http://www.fox5vegas.com/video/24395993/index.html

Candidate Lehman campaigning from the ground up at the Village’s Cinco de Mayo fiesta on Wednesday. (Photo: Stayden)