Remembering Mayne Smith, who helped turn Freight & Salvage into a nonprofit

"Mayne was a very honest, straightforward guy, sometimes to a fault, said his longtime music partner, guitarist Mitch Greenhill. He was very loyal and devoted to traditional music but ready to take it to new places."

"he was also a pioneering scholar and steady hand who played a key role in transforming Freight & Salvage in Berkeley from a shaky storefront venture into a nonprofit roots-music powerhouse."

"Among musicologists he was recognized for writing the first scholarly treatise on bluegrass, Bluegrass Music and Musicians: An Introductory Study of a Musical Style in Its Cultural Context, a 1964 book that expanded on his Indiana University master's thesis."

Mayne Smith was a skilled steel guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter from Berkeley who helped shape the East Bay bluegrass scene. He served as a pioneering scholar of bluegrass, authoring Bluegrass Music and Musicians (1964), which expanded on his Indiana University master's thesis. He played a key role transforming Freight & Salvage in Berkeley from a shaky storefront into a nonprofit roots-music powerhouse. His compositions were recorded by Rosalie Sorrels, Laurie Lewis, and Linda Ronstadt, and he remained an active collaborator despite holding demanding non-musical jobs. He died at home in the Richmond hills on Nov. 12 at age 86 following complications from a fall.

Read at www.berkeleyside.org