Welcoming Local Music | Community

Local music takes center stage in Lumberyard Live on High

Story by Taylor Worden |

Photos by Maggie Swanson

When music artist Megan Luttrell moved to Baldwin City from Lawrence, she quickly began searching for a new place to share her folk, guitar-laden sound.

“I moved to Baldwin when I first met my husband and I was immediately looking for somewhere to play music, and there was nowhere,” Luttrell says.

Luttrell then hoped to use her experience in Lawrence’s vibrant live-music scene to connect with local artists and help find space and opportunity for local acts to showcase their talent. As fate would have it, the Lumberyard Arts Center (LAC), famous for showcasing community talent, was also looking for ways to expand live, local music in downtown Baldwin, says Jeannette Blackmar, executive director of the LAC.

To fill this creative gap, the two women collaborated to bring a year-long series of amateur and professional concerts, music education programs, and musician development opportunities to the community.

The program, known as Lumberyard Live on High, plans to host its first events in June of this year.

“What Lumberyard Live on High seeks to do is take seriously the inclusion of live, local music as a sustained, integrated program of the arts center,” Blackmar says. “What we seek to create and deliver with this program is a really high quality engagement program with live music and the experience.”

Blackmar hopes Lumberyard Live on High will spotlight live music in Baldwin City, support artists and expand the diversity of the audience and local community. Events will take place at the LAC as well as the new downtown park, Sullivan Square.

Hoping to involve the community as much as possible, Luttrell says the program won’t be limited to professional musicians; she also wants to include Baldwin City high school students, the Baker University music program and even your dad’s garage rock band. Overall, the events center around giving Baldwin City residents the music and programs they want to hear and see—making it a community-led program.

“We want to have the voice of the Baldwin City community,” Blackmar says. The program will incorporate local talent, feature professional artists booked by Luttrell and offer music the community might not have heard about before.

Along with giving Baldwin City the opportunity to listen to some local tunes, the program will also provide the community with educational events. From multicultural music workshops to professional development for the artists themselves, Blackmar hopes the program will give interested Baldwin City residents the opportunity not only to enjoy live music, but also to learn more about the behind-the-scenes work.

As a musician herself, Luttrell found it imperative to incorporate aspects of the business of music—copyright and marketing are just two examples—to give fellow artists the tools they need to develop their artistic and professional careers.

“I’m a musician; we don’t get enough exposure,” Luttrell says. “I really want to do something to help educate local artists.”

In addition to playing at live music venues in Lawrence, Luttrell has toured professionally in Kansas full time for the past few years, and she got her own musical start at a local open mic show in Lawrence.

“It was the people at that open mic that found me, embraced me, told me to play here,”

Luttrell recalls. “People [in this industry] are just constantly trying to help each other.”

That warm, supportive atmosphere for professional and amateur musicians alike is exactly what LAC hopes to bring to Baldwin City with Lumberyard Live on High.

“I think we have a lot of artists in the Baldwin City community who are looking for a venue to learn their craft, to practice and to gain exposure in a very safe, friendly and positive way,” Blackmar says.“We hope that maybe we have the future artist of the year who got their career beginnings at the Lumberyard Arts Center in Baldwin City.”

Along with a new plethora of events to enjoy, Blackmar hopes the program will allow the Baldwin City community to come together during this socially distanced time.

“Music brings people together, regardless of age, regardless of ethnicity,” Blackmar says. “I really believe that music builds community, and that’s what the arts center is all about, building communities through the arts.”

Baldwin City residents can look forward to gathering for Lumberyard Live on High, as safely as possible, to enjoy entertainment and music education this summer and for months to come.

Baldwin City Living Magazine | 2021 Spring/Summer