Grammy nominees Cherryholmes light up stage

Anyone walking by the Hilltop Center on February the second around eight o’clock would have heard strains of expertly harmonized Bluegrass music emanating from the building. They may also have heard some strange stomping sounds and a yodeling woman.

Cherryholmes, a family band whose album “Cherryholmes” is Grammy nominated for “Best Bluegrass Album,” played to a full house and combined their musical talents with some energetic “clogging.” Sandy Lee Cherryholmes clogged and sang and yodeled her way into the hearts of the audience. Sandy learned to yodel by listening to a tape. “It takes a lot of practice,” she noted, “and you definitely don’t want to have anyone hear you practice.”

The Cherryholmes family was chosen “Entertainer of the Year” in 2005 by the International Bluegrass Music Association. They have garnered other awards as well and have appeared on several television shows including the “Grand Ole Opry.”

The band consists of the father, Jere, who plays the bass; the mother, Sandy Lee, who plays the mandolin and banjo; daughter Cia Lee, 21, on banjo; son B.J., 17, on fiddle; son Skip, 15, on guitar and mandolin; and Molly Kate, 13, on fiddle. “All four kids are incredible ‘pickers,’” Sandy said proudly.

The group tours the country in a bus driven solely by Jere. The band is on the road 300 days a year and performs an average of 170 of those days. “We stay out two to four weeks,” explained Sandy, “but we don’t really get tired of it because the experience is so exhilarating.” Sandy home schools the children using books only with no help from the Internet or computers.

The family is originally from the Los Angeles suburb Bell and began singing as a way to draw closer to one another after the death of the Cherryholmes twenty-year-old daughter Shelly in 1999. “We are a Bible-believing Christian family,” said Sandy, “and we felt that it was put together by God.” The Cherryholmes never had any desire to form a band until they attended a Bluegrass festival in Norco about a month after Shelly died of respiratory failure. “We came back uplifted,” Sandy recalled.

“We started off with church songs and some Bluegrass,” explained Sandy. After the group’s first performance at Calvary Chapel Downey they started getting calls to play. Sandy is the only member of the group with any musical training and the only member who reads music, but they didn’t let that stop them. “Everyone sings, we don’t have a lead singer — we have six lead singers,” Sandy noted. The group first earned only fifty to one hundred dollars per performance. However, as their reputation grew their receipts grew.

The family made a decision to sell their home in Bell and move to a secluded area of Arizona where they owned property. The Cherryholmes lived in trailers where they had to haul water in and live with no electricity. “We thought the experience would help us to understand the heart of the music,” said Sandy. “It worked… the loneliness and seclusion got to us.”

At one point, the group decided that they wouldn’t last very long in the Bluegrass world if they didn’t have a banjo player. Cia was chosen for the role and she learned quickly. She is now an expert according to the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America (SPBGMA), who chose Cia as Banjo Player of the Year for 2005. On Thursday night she proved to the audience that the SPBGMA made the right choice.

The Cherryholmes now have a fast-paced schedule but the family is happy about working together and see themselves traveling and entertaining for years to come.

Thursday evening the Cherryholmes’ stage presence was relaxed and their voices blended harmoniously. As the women sang and clogged, their black-fringed outfits glittered. The men also lit up the stage with their songs and fiddling, their rhinestone coats gleaming in the lights.

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis bought two tickets to the concert as a birthday surprise for her husband, Christopher Guest. During the intermission Norma Chagolla of Sun City approached the actress and told her, “You look like Jamie Lee Curtis.” The star then replied, “That’s because I am Jamie Lee Curtis!”

Ben Fish traveled fifty miles from La Mesa to see the Cherryholmes and was not disappointed. He was entertained by the marvelous musicians and also came home with a bonus — an autograph from Jamie Lee Curtis.