Festival group overcomes tragedy

By Steve Wildsmith
of The Daily Times Staff

The members of the Cherryholmes family could have let their grief consume them.
After the death of Shelly Cherryholmes, the eldest daughter of Jere (pronounced “Jerry”) and Sandy, the couple and their four remaining children could have succumbed to the inexorable pull of depression and heartache that consumes so many of those who lose loved ones.
Instead, the family channeled their grief into music, and through hard work and a little grace, they’ve turned a family tragedy into a celebration of life.
“It was a tragedy, but it was a great thing anyway,” Jere Cherryholmes told The Daily Times this week. “It was back in 1999, and we weren’t a band — we were just a family living out in Los Angeles. Music was around, and Sandy and I played in church, but none of the kids played anything. Then in March of that year, Shelly passed away.
“About a month after that, we decided to play hooky from church one Sunday and just get out of town and go somewhere where nobody knew us, and we didn’t know them. We ended up at a bluegrass festival, and we all had a good time. On the way back, I told Sandy that we ought to get some instruments and start a family band.”
At the festival, Cherryholmes observed, music was a way of social interaction. Aside from the performers on stage, the campground and parking lot were full of amateur pickers who enjoyed what they were doing and shared a friendly connection with complete strangers.
Back in L.A., Jere began gathering up all of the used and broken instruments he could find. True to his role as the family patriarch, he assigned each of his four children an instrument — daughter Cia started off on guitar and switched to banjo a year later; son B.J. was handed a fiddle; son Skip began playing mandolin but switched a year later to guitar; and daughter Molly was asked to play fiddle as well. With Jere on upright bass and Sandy on the mandolin (and, occasionally, the claw hammer banjo), the sextet began harmonizing and teaching themselves to play bluegrass.
“We started playing around the house, and a couple of months later we were at another festival playing in the campground like everybody else does,” Jere Cherryholmes said. “There was some magic there, and we ended up having people coming up and asking us to play for money. About four months after we started, we kind of had a job.”
Shortly thereafter, the family found professional work playing every Saturday at an apple orchard in the hills above L.A. They discovered they had a gift for entertainment, and by 2002, they had reached a crossroads — would they continue to perform on the side and live their lives around school and 9-to-5 jobs, or would they pursue music as a full-time vocation?
They opted for the latter, packing up and heading to the South to see how residents here would respond to their music. It was received enthusiastically, and not long after, the family moved to Nashville.
It’s still sort of surreal, Cherryholmes added — eight years ago, only he and his wife knew how to play an instrument. In 2005, they were named Entertainer(s) of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association. They recently released “Cherryholmes II” on Skaggs Family Records, and they’ll perform Sunday in Maryville as part of the Foothills Fall Festival.
“It’s kind of funny — I’ve stepped outside of myself a lot of times, but I don’t know if we’ve ever really been aware of that magic that we seemed to have stumbled upon,” he said. “Definitely, there’s times I’ve been able to look and see how talented everybody is, but it seems like we’re caught in a time warp — we’re always striving to get better, and we’re always looking up to other people and striving to be what they are; and yet, in some ways, we even exceed what they are, but we’re not aware of it.”
Going in to record “Cherryholmes II” with an IBMA award under their belts wasn’t easy, he added — bluegrass legend (and label boss) Ricky Skaggs pointed out in a casual conversation that the family would have to work hard to top the first record.
“When you come out of the chute with a Grammy nomination for your first record, you have to make sure your second one lives up to that and then some,” Jere Cherryholmes said. “We were showing our style with that first record, and when we came out with the second, we more solidified what our style is.”
That style is a fine blend of traditional and contemporary bluegrass, epitomized by the song “Don’t Give Your Heart to a Knoxville Girl,” written by Cia Cherryholmes. There’s an obvious nod to the traditional murder ballad “Knoxville Girl,” but the band has put their own spin on it — driving instrumental work and angelic harmonies, as well as lyrical craftsmanship that’s both witty and striking.
It’s something Jere Cherryholmes doesn’t take for granted. Nor does he forget the irony behind the band’s formation — how it took a tragedy like his eldest daughter’s death to take them to where they are today.
“We realize that if she hadn’t died, we probably never would have taken that turn,” he said. “Her (health) needs were such that this sort of lifestyle was never something she would have been able to live with — touring, being gone all the time. Her needs were something we needed to fulfill, and if she hadn’t died, we probably never would have embarked on something like this.
“We realized what we were doing after she died was keeping ourselves busy. It’s was like a diversion, and it caused us to put our focus on achieving something together, and in doing so, holding the family together.”