TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Musician Finds Her Own Rhythm Amid Struggles

Tribune photo by FRED BELLET

Despite being hearing impaired, surviving cancer, dealing with her husband's cancer and the death of a beloved horse, Lori Pegram can still smile.

ADVERTISEMENT

By GEOFF FOX

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 7, 2008

QUAIL HOLLOW - Lori Pegram had just fed her horse, Honey, and kicked off a pair of boots when the doorbell rang.

It was Jay Smith, right on time for his 7 p.m. banjo lesson. Finding a seat and putting his banjo in his lap, the South Tampa resident exhaled with a grin.

"Ready to try a tune?" Pegram asked.

"I think so," said Smith, a Lubbock, Texas, native with the accent to prove it.

Around him in Pegram's unofficial home studio sat an upright bass, fiddle and hammered dulcimer.

The instruments belong to Pegram and her husband, Randy. Otherwise known as "Banjo Lulu and the Moose," the bluegrass musicians have performed at local venues, restaurants and festivals for years, sometimes as Blews Creek.

In moments, Smith was picking, and Pegram was grinning.

He plucked the notes of "Boil Them Cabbage Down," a traditional folk song, as Pegram accompanied him on acoustic guitar.

She had told Smith they didn't have to run through the whole thing, but something happened as the song progressed - the kind of thing that musicians intrinsically understand and nonmusicians struggle to explain.

They didn't say a word, but as they played, she began to hum.

Then she sang softly.

His fingers, at first seemingly hesitant on the fret board, relaxed, and the notes flowed smoothly. When they reached a more intricate segment, Smith's mouth opened slightly - partly, it seemed, in concentration, partly out of wonder and pride.

He was getting it.

His head nodded slightly with the rhythm.

If Pegram, who works full time as a sign-language interpreter at the Caminiti Exceptional Center in Tampa, sensed her student's soaring confidence, she didn't necessarily show it.

She smiles all the time.

'She Overcomes'

Her lips even form a cheerful expression as her eyebrows show concern, such as when she says Randy, her longtime companion, musical partner and husband of two years, is recovering from a bout of cancer that left him weak and at least temporarily unable to sing.

A civil engineer and bassist who once toured with the bluegrass band Sweetwater, Randy was diagnosed in March. As he struggled violently through treatments, the couple's beloved horse, Frosty, died in the backyard.

"Talk about a bad month," Lori said.

For her, adversity is nothing new.

Being a hearing-impaired musician isn't easy.

The Scotch Plains, N.J., native had already started playing the banjo when, as a high school senior, she was diagnosed with Meniere's disease, which has impaired her hearing enough that she usually wears a hearing aid. The disease, which also causes vertigo and nausea, is incurable. Stress and intense weather trigger her symptoms.

A few years ago, she also was diagnosed with cancer but eventually beat it.

"She overcomes," said neighbor and friend Mary Benson, who has known the Pegrams since they moved down the street from her several years ago.

Keep On Smiling

Inside the Pegrams' comfortable home, a mandolin hangs on a wall across from a piano.

In a corner is a stringed instrument called a bouzouki.

Besides a minor flub on the last note of "Boil Them Cabbage Down," Smith, 31, had gotten through the song better than expected.

He said the progress he has made since becoming Pegram's student in March makes it worth the long rush-hour drive to rural Quail Hollow, north of State Road 54. Besides, Pegram was willing to accommodate his schedule, said Smith, a traveling research-and-development chef for Carrabba's Italian Grill.

"I've come a long way" since March, Smith said. "This is my third instructor, and she's by far my favorite - very hands-on and shows you everything visually and plays it for you. She goes step-by-step, writes it out and sings it every which way.

"I just want to be able to play comfortably and with other people in a group setting. That's what is unique about her. In bluegrass, the musicians kind of switch around playing the lead. No other instructors have showed me what I'm supposed to be doing while the others are playing."

He described Pegram as kind, patient and passionate.

A banjo in her lap, she said the instrument is easy to learn.

"This is all it is," she said, the fingers on her right hand dancing effortlessly across the strings.

Pegram plucked "Greensleeves," a decidedly nontraditional banjo tune.

Afterward, she said she and Randy were going to Sarasota for their anniversary. He was feeling better, and there was a bluegrass event in the area.

She strummed again and smiled.

That wasn't surprising.

She smiles all the time.

LEARN FROM BANJO LULU

For information, call Pegram at (813) 994-7759, or e-mail her at banjolulu@verizon.net.

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or gfox@tampatrib.com.

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT