Mandolin player C. J. Lewandowski performs songs and shares stories from his career as part of the Museum’s weekly Musician Spotlight series. This program, recorded on March 3, 2024, was presented in support of the 2024 edition of the Museum’s exhibition “American Currents: State of the Music,” which features Lewandowski and one of his influences and collaborators, Bobby Osborne, in the “Unbroken Circle” section.

During this program, Lewandowski talks about learning to play the mandolin around other musicians in the Ozarks, including Ray Gore and Jim Orchard, and discovering Don Brown and the Ozark Mountain Trio. Accompanied by Avery Welter on acoustic guitar, he performs Brown’s “Letters Overdue” and Orchard’s “Trouble Written in B” and “Longing for the Ozarks,” as well as Bill Monroe’s “Little Cabin Home on the Hill” and the Carter Family’s “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

A Missouri native, Lewandowski founded the bluegrass group the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys in 2014 to perform at the Ole Smoky Moonshine Distillery in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The band won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s 2018 New Artist of the Year award and was nominated for the Best Bluegrass Album Grammy for 2019’s “Toil, Tears & Trouble.”

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