Poway, CA (September 9th,
2009)
When Jere (pronounced Jerry) and Sandy
Cherryholmes' 20-year-old daughter, Shelly, unexpectedly
died from respiratory failure due to chronic heart
problems, the immediate concern was how to help their
four remaining children and themselves cope with the
pain.
"We needed something to lift
our spirits," Sandy Cherryholmes recalls, "Something to
draw the family closer together."
With no
other motive than to try and find some respite from
their grief, the family attended a bluegrass music
festival close to their home town of Bell, California.
Afterward, Jere Cherryholmes said to his wife, "You
know, what we really need right now is to do something
special with our kids. Let's start a bluegrass group."
So Sandy Cherryholmes, a church piano player, and her
bass playing husband, taught their four kids the guitar,
banjo, fiddle and drums, using music to help dissolve
sorrow into renewed hope.
That much in
itself is a remarkable story--how a mom who
home-schooled her kids, along with her carpenter
husband, prevented their family from falling apart by
binding it together with music. For instead of teaching
each of their children to become soloists, Jere and
Sandy Cherryholmes guided their kids into becoming a
family of musicians who needed one another to succeed.
When you add to that the fact that today, just a little
over 10 years since Shelly's death, Cherryholmes has
become one of the most sought-after and famous bluegrass
groups in the world, the story sounds like a fairy tale.
Yet, it is absolutely true.
Known for its
"...mesmerizing presence...a cold blast of
virtuosity..." (New York Times), Cherryholmes combines
non-stop "...twin fiddles, Irish step-dancing, classic
country yodeling (and) old-time claw hammer banjo..."
creating a style of playing described by Jere
Cherryholmes as "Bluegrass on steroids."
But
perhaps it is Jere's simple musical philosophy that
fashioned Cherryholmes' unique style of bluegrass and
made them the must-see, must-hear bluegrass
band:
"I heard someone say that bluegrass
music has to change or evolve, or it will die," says
Jere. "I don't think it needs to be changed. It just
needs new breath."
On October 24, 2009, at
8 pm, the audience at the PowayCenter for the Performing
Arts will have it's breath taken away by this monster
bluegrass concert in what promises to be an evening of
spectacular bluegrass music. Especially with Ralph
Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys also performing
that evening.
Stanley, considered bluegrass
royalty and a cornerstone of the bluegrass world, was
inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of
Honor in 1992 and in 2000 became the first person in the
third millennium to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.
In 2000 he deservedly rose to
national prominence when his music was featured in the
movie Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? "O
Death," a track from the movie, resulted in Stanley
winning a Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal
Performance.
He also is known for playing
audiences like a fiddle, raising the little hairs on the
back of an audience's neck, then making them want to
roll up the carpet and start
dancing.
Cherryholmes and Ralph Stanley & The
Clinch Mountain Boys, a musical double-header in which
the audience comes out the big
winner.
The 2009-2010 Professional Performance
Season is made possible by the City of Poway,
San Diego National Bank, Jane & Tim McCarthy, San
Diego Foundation's Betsy Dam Fund for Arts Education,
Theodore & Elizabeth Schmidt Foundation,
McCarthy-Goldsmith Theater Fund, Duffy Family
Foundation, Todd & Mari Gutschow
Family Foundation, Echo Pacific Construction, Inc.,
National Endowment for the Arts, County of San Diego,
Sempra Energy, Penny & Harold Dokmo, The Pentair
Foundation, Mandell Weiss Charitable Trust, Samuel I.
& John Henry Fox Foundation, Pratt Memorial Fund,
Martin Sosin-Stratton Petit Foundation, Carol and Bill
Stensrud Family Foundation, Rancho Financial, Winton
Larson & Solecki LLP, Replica, KSDS Jazz-88.3, North
County Times, ER Management, Courtyard by
Marriott-Rancho Bernardo.
About the Poway Center for the Performing
Arts Foundation: The Poway Center for the
Performing Arts Foundation functions through a special
partnership with the City of Poway and the Poway Unified
School District. The Foundation is governed by a
volunteer board of directors and advised by a business
council that reads like a "Who's Who" of Inland North
County civic leaders. The Foundation offers a
variety of professional performing arts events including
concerts, dance performances, theater productions and a
children's theater series that includes workshops and
study guides. Visit our website at
www.powayarts.org.
