Almost every Thursday night one of the oldest buildings in Morgan Hill is filled with raw American sounds. Varying octaves of stringed instruments bounce off one another in a melodious and rhythmic hum, underlying a harmony of vocal verses with high energy that contrasts the often somber lyrics.
A look inside the Grange on East Fourth Street reveals a circle or two of men and women sitting in folding chairs, wielding banjos, guitars, mandolins and fiddles, tapping their feet, bobbing their heads and smiling as they produce a wall of sound that requires no electric amplification.
These folks gather for a weekly bluegrass jam from all over Santa Clara County and, in some cases, areas farther south. Every third Thursday they meet for a similar jam session at GVA Cafe coffee shop in downtown Morgan Hill a couple blocks away. Those who participate aren’t getting paid, although some play separately in professional bands. All of them are retired or have day jobs unrelated to music. But they enjoy the practice, along with the socializing and even therapeutic benefits of the informal sessions.
Arden Collins, 83, is a retired teacher who lives in Morgan Hill and attends the weekly jams, where participation ranges from three to more than a dozen pickers and fiddlers. He started playing the mandolin about five years ago, shortly after his wife died. He jams every week in Morgan Hill, and informally for his fellow patients when he goes to physical therapy.
“It’s a lifesaver for me,” Collins said. “It keeps me busy. I had to give up golf (due to an injury) and I don’t miss it.”
The acoustic form of American roots music that originated in Appalachia in the late-1940s morphed from much earlier European and African forms of traditional music. Interest in bluegrass has gained a solid foothold in South County in recent years, according to those who participate. There are also a number of similar jam sessions in northern parts of Santa Clara County on other nights.
Tim Edes, one of the original members of the weekly Morgan Hill jam which started nearly 10 years ago, is a Morgan Hill resident and the chair of the 11-member board of directors of the California Bluegrass Association, which was founded in 1975. Another board member, Jim Ingram, 68, is a Gilroy resident.
The CBA, with Edes, 61, as organizer, has hosted the annual Night at the Grange bluegrass concert, which celebrates its 10th anniversary Saturday with the Lonesome River Band. For this event, CBA books nationally-known bluegrass acts. Lonesome River Band has recorded 15 commercial records since 1982. A previous performer at the annual Morgan Hill event was Rhonda Vincent, “the queen of bluegrass” according to Edes.
The event has consistently sold out, with about 200 tickets sold, in recent years.
Edes, an amateur banjo player, participated in the weekly jam at the Grange last Thursday, when about 14 musicians showed up – enough to split up into adjacent rooms and form two independent circles. Musicians spent the evening wandering back and forth between the two rooms between songs, partaking in both circles. Edes and other musicians stressed the sessions are open to anyone who has an instrument and wants to join, whether it’s to learn, have fun or improve their skills.
Bluegrass’ favorability toward such impromptu participation is part of its appeal to those who jam, as is the musicians’ mutual, enthusiastic encouragement of each other regardless of their skill level.
“You can be advanced, or a beginner, and just play with them and build up your skills,” said Melissa Blas, 44, of Morgan Hill, an accountant who plays upright bass at the weekly jam. She has played with the Morgan Hill circle for about seven years. She also plays guitar for two local bands – the Just Picked String Band and Bluer than Blue – which perform at small venues, fundraisers and for community organizations.
“The people I’ve met (at the weekly Grange sessions), we call them our bluegrass family,” said Blas, adding the jam has even served as her “support group” following a divorce a few years ago.
Autumn Thompson, 49, of Mountain View, has played banjo at the weekly jam in Morgan Hill consistently for about the last year. She is also a member of two bands – Autumn and the Fall Guys and Black Mountain Radio – which play different styles of Americana music.
Even though the weekly jam at the Grange is informal, the musicians are “more focused” than at other jams Thompson attends.
“There’s always something new to learn, to see how other people play and what other people are listening to,” Thompson said.
Even though bluegrass is a difficult style to learn, it’s a “very structured and very intricate” form of music, and that’s why bluegrass jam sessions seem to be friendlier and more welcoming than other types of jams, according to John Cooper, a fiddler and singer from Gilroy. Bluegrass tunes universally follow the same structure with each instrument taking turns improvising the melody over the rhythm between vocal verses.
And everyone seems to have a good time at bluegrass jams.
“I just like the sound of the music and the blend of the voices. Bluegrass is happy music about sad things,” Cooper said. “It’s always fun.”
Many of those who attend – including Edes, Thompson and Cooper – have played music for decades, and some started with different instruments than they play now, such as brass or woodwinds in elementary school.
Encouraging young people to play instruments is the key to preserving and growing interest in bluegrass and other traditional forms of American music – including jazz and blues – according to bass player Frank DeRose, 61, of Morgan Hill, who is a music teacher at the School of Blues in San Jose. DeRose, who plays professionally for the Tip of the Top blues band, played at the Grange jam for his first time last Thursday.
“All these traditional American music styles – if they don’t bring in younger players, they have a problem,” DeRose said. “You always need the younger set, and that’s one of my personal goals.”
