Band History, page 1

Lunch at the Dump began as an informal gathering of pickers just learning to play their guitars, fiddles, banjos, and mandolin in the spring of 1972. Peter and Matt Leavenworth had heard of some musicians living in an old brick former tourist home in Davisville, New Hampshire called the Amesbury. With bassist Brian Coleman, also from Concord, they began to drop in regularly to join mandolinist Jim Barthelemy, guitarist Ron Langley, and banjo-player Rick Millon for jam sessions. Over the next few years, this group gradually honed their instrumental chops and vocal abilities while sitting around the stove in the Amesbury’s kitchen or at Rick’s house in nearby Webster. A core repertoire of traditional bluegrass and old-time instrumentals was blended with versions of contemporary folk tunes by writers like Gordon Lightfoot, Bob Dylan, and John Prine.

While playing out in bars was sporadic at first, they eventually began a regular summer gig at a local roadhouse called the Glendon, located conveniently a few hundred yards from the Amesbury in Davisville. With a pink exterior and aquamarine interior, and the charismatic Bovee family as hosts, the band felt very much at home. Known temporarily as the Kearsarge Mountain Valley Boys, the band was joined by fiddler John Holden during this period (1974-75). The exposure that the growing crowds at the Glendon gave the group induced them to begin looking further afield for jobs. Meanwhile, a chance encounter with a carrot cake reportedly retrieved from the local landfill prompted the adoption of a new name -Lunch at the Dump. And, despite the refusal of a few restaurants to display their name and several attempts to try out alternatives, the name stuck. continued...