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December 3, 2009

A Bluegrass Christmas: Celebrate the holidays with the Cherryholmes family

TERRE HAUTE — The holidays are a time for family, music and special memories — sentiments that ring particularly true for Cherryholmes, one of bluegrass music’s biggest buzz bands. The award-winning group will help the Wabash Valley welcome in the holiday season with a special Christmas show on Dec. 6 at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology’s Hatfield Hall Theater.

Tickets for the Performing Arts Series concert are $22 for adults, and $17 for youths and non-RHIT students. Tickets can be purchased weekdays from 1-5 p.m. in the Hatfield Hall ticket office or by calling (812) 877-8544.

“Christmas has always been a special time for the Cherryholmes family,” said matriarch Sandy Cherryholmes in a recent interview. The musical group also includes father Jere and four siblings.

Cherryholmes’ down-home bluegrass Christmas show will include such holiday favorites as “Winter Wonderland,” “Beautiful Star of Bethlehem,” “The King as a Babe Comes Down” and a medley of Christmas favorites. There will also be a patriotic tribute to military service members and their families, along with popular selections from the group’s albums. The show will also feature their trademark clawhammer banjo, Celtic-style step dancing, hard-driving instrumental virtuosity and explosive vocal harmonies.

In less than a decade, Cherryholmes has gone from performing at talent shows in California to winning the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Entertainers of the Year Award and moving to Nashville. The six-piece unit has put out three Grammy-nominated albums, been on the Top Country Albums chart, performs regularly on the Grand Ole Opry stage and toured internationally.

Cherryholmes’ self-titled debut album on Ricky Skaggs’ family records was nominated for Best Bluegrass Album, and their second Grammy-nominated album “Black And White” came in at No. 1 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Album chart. The group’s latest album, “Don’t Believe” crossed them over into the Grammy Award’s Best Country Instrumental Performance category for the track, “Sumatra.”

It’s no wonder that Cherryholmes is recognized as “the first family of bluegrass.”

Ironically, the family group began out of tragedy, after the death of Jere and Sandy Cherryholmes’ eldest daughter, Shelly, from respiratory failure in 1999. The remaining siblings were brought together and taught to play musical instruments to lift their spirits.

“We saw Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys and it changed our entire lives, going to that bluegrass festival and spending that day with them,” Sandy recalls in a press statement. “On the way home, Jere said, ‘You know, what we really need right now is to do something special with our kids. Let’s start a bluegrass group.’ We decided who would play what and I started giving them music lessons.”

Cia plays the banjo and has proven to be a masterful and versatile songwriter, writing nearly 75 percent of the group’s album releases; B.J. is a dazzling fiddle and mandolin performer; Skip is a guitar player known for his aggressive rhythm style that characterizes Cherryholmes’ drive and energy; and Molly is a left-handed fiddle player who also adds her lead and harmony vocals to many of the group’s hit songs. Jere plays the upright bass hard and fast, sensitive and smooth, while singing lead with a “rough around the edges” old country style. Finally, Sandy plays a hard-hitting mandolin style with driving rhythms that keep the band’s momentum going. For special numbers, she switches to the clawhammer banjo.

“I heard someone say that bluegrass music has to change or evolve, or it will die. I don’t think it needs to be changed. It just needs new breath. I feel like maybe I’m offering something like that with my family,” Jere states.

Rose-Hulman’s Performing Arts Series has been very popular this season, according to director Bunny Nash. She advises that limited tickets are still available for the Moscow Festival Ballet’s performances of “The Sleeping Beauty,” on Jan. 4; “Coppelia”, on Jan. 5; and the Actors From The London Stage’s “Romeo & Juliet” performances on March 19-20; and a show by Celtic Crossroads on March 28. The Five Browns’ show on Feb. 12 is sold out. Advanced tickets for these shows can be purchased from the Hatfield Hall ticket office.



If you go

• The Cherryholmes’ Christmas Show is 7 p.m. Dec. 6

• Where: Hatfield Hall Theater, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, 5500 Wabash Ave.

• Tickets: $22 for adults; $17 for students and youths. Purchase tickets by visiting the Hatfield Hall ticket office from 1-5 p.m. on weekdays or calling (812) 877-8544

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