Area Kids Take To Bluegrass

WAITSBURG - Kate Hockersmith, the instiga- tor and, some might say "mother," of Waitsburg's bluegrass scene, remembers the first local jam night. It was some time in December at the old Carmen's Deli on Main Street.

She put the youthful Troublemakers, fresh from their musical exchange in Ja- pan, in the same room with several veteran bluegrass musicians from Walla Walla and created a Touchet Valley tradition marking its fifth an- niversary this winter.

Together with bluegrass lessons Hockersmith teaches at home and an after-school program she runs in the Waitsburg High School band room every week, the jams have generated a bluegrass culture that has become the envy of some observers in other, bigger towns. It also echoes the genre's popular- ity in Waitsburg during the 1930s and '40s.

This year, more local bluegrass musicians than ever will be traveling to Bel- levue for the regional three- day Wintergrass festival that offers concerts, clinics, workshop and nonstop jam- ming 'til your fingers fall off.

"I'm totally addicted," Hockersmith said in an inter- view last week.

The jam now makes its rounds in Walla Walla, Waitsburg and Dayton every month. It draws ten to 20 musicians, family members and friends to Jacobi's, Cop- pei Coffee and Sky Book & Brew on a rotating Friday- night schedule.

"It's always different and it's always fun," Hocker- smith said. "Everybody is very supportive of each other."

The jams revolve around a core group of seasoned musicians - Bob Johnston on standup bass, Ron Van Yersloo on mandolin and banjo, and Jimmye Turner, Glenn Morrison and Hockersmith on guitar - and younger musicians who join the circle at various times and venues.

And when they're really lucky, musicians from one or more of the Walla Walla col- leges will sit in and "show us all up," Hockersmith said. Even the former members of the Troublemakers, all in college further afield, will join in when they're in town.

Each jam venue is differ- ent. Walla Walla's focuses on old-time string band, roots, gospel and waltzes; Waitsburg's basic bluegrass format is more accessible to beginners and Dayton's is an open acoustic jam, she said.

Technically, bluegrass isn't the equivalent of rocket science so up-and-coming musicians can pick up on the pattern easily and "slide right in," she explained.

Most bluegrass songs have an intro, verses, chorus- es (often with singing har- monies) and a tag, a musical passage that brings a piece to an end. Trying to follow along with this formula is easy yet challenging enough to improve any musician's skills on their instrument.

"It pushes you musically," said Hockersmith, noting that this communal approach makes bluegrass so accessible to younger musicians. "You get better when you play with people who are better than you."

Hockersmith's lessons and after-school sessions have drawn solid interest from Waitsburg kids over the years, starting with her own son John Hockersmith and his fellow Troublemakers a decade ago. They eventu- ally participated as the local musical delegates in a Walla Walla-Sasayama sister-city exchange in 2007 and per- formed in Japan.

With Waitsburg music teacher Rebecca Wilson's violin program and Brad Green's guitar class as skills incubators, and cowboy musicians Cimmaron Sue and Nevada Slim, and Mike Ferrians' Salt & Light group as role models, it's easy to see why more kids in the Touchet Valley are inspired to pursue such music genres as gospel and bluegrass.

Several years ago, Hock- ersmith gathered a new generation of recruits for lessons at her home and called them the Resonators. Then she prepared them for a Waitsburg High School au- ditorium concert as a benefit for the Pioneer Park Aviary in Walla Walla.

That group in turn has since split in two: the Kuyk- endall family's string musi- cians, who are tapping a gospel vein of bluegrass, and the Barnstormers, made up of Emma Philbrook, Chris Philbrook and Sam McGowen, who are after a more traditional version of the genre.

Meanwhile, the after- school bluegrass sessions at the WHS band room on Wednesdays are now under the umbrella of the new Ru- ral Youth Enrichment Ser- vices, which has obtained 501C3nonprofitstatusthat will make it easier to raise money for what's called Touchet Valley Acoustic Music Project.

Hockersmith's dreams include the purchase of a standup bass for the program and a fund to cover the cost of sending young bluegrass musicians to Wintergrass on the other side of the mountains. And, who knows? Perhaps the Barnstormers could position themselves to qualify as the musical delegates to the next sister-city exchange to Japan.

The thought has certainly occurred to the ambitious young trio, Hockersmith said.

For more information about bluegrass lessons, ses- sions, jams and donations, contact Kate Hockersmith at 509-337-8789.