As part of UCLA Live’s well-rounded fall season, Nashville-based bluegrass family band Cherryholmes will join genre legend Ralph Stanley on Royce Hall’s stage Sunday night.
The Daily Bruin’s Christie McCollum spoke with mandolinist mom Sandy and her 25-year-old banjo-player daughter, Cia, about the performance.
Daily Bruin: What does bluegrass music mean to you? What influences you as artists?
Sandy Cherryholmes: I think for us, bluegrass is America’s music. So much of the fiddle tunes and the influence came from the early settlers from different regions who lived in the hills and played on their porches. They played these tunes socially; it was a truly social genre where people would sit down and play. As new generations have added their own experiences … and life is different now than it was 50 years ago, the messages have changed, and the influences have changed.
So we can take the essence of bluegrass and add something that came from inside of us, like Celtic music and old jazz. Our young people are really into the music that came out of the ’40s, so we also add clawhammer banjo, so that gives us more of a mountainy feel.
We have a lot of influences now in our lives, and we seem to find that our music seems to appeal to a large range of people.
Cia Cherryholmes: For myself and for my brothers and sister, we listen to a wide variety, from pop music to sound tracks. We’ve found that you can pull ideas from any good music form. We’ve listened to a lot of genres and styles, so we can get some outside influences. Sometimes people look at bluegrass, and they think it has to be this way, and it has to be about a cabin … but there’s a lot more there. We like to see people in concert and stay creative and stay open-minded.
DB: How does your songwriting process work?
SC: It can be different things. When (the kids) write songs, because they haven’t had as many experiences or relationships gone south, often what they’ve done is taken and capture the feelings of the people that they know or people that they’ve heard of. As artists they will try to capture an experience even if it wasn’t their own personal one.
Everyone writes, some more than others, and sometimes we will collaborate, and people work together on songs.
DB: You’re just starting a long tour with your family and band. How do you balance work with family?
SC: We’re family. If someone doesn’t like what another person suggests, they’ll say, “Well, that sounds really stupid.” We have a similar family dynamic as many people, but we still realize how hard it is to get past everything and respect (each other’s) feelings.
It used to be kind of a joke: We would hear about other bands that would go out on the road for a few weeks and members would quit, but when you’re a family you don’t really need as much space. This trip we’re on will be about six weeks, and we’re on day two. We have a long way to go.
CC: It has its moments. … We’re pretty close, especially my siblings and I, whether we’re on the road or off the road. But since we’re family we try to give each other some space and try to not be obnoxious if we can help it, or sometimes we (act obnoxious) on purpose. You know you’re related, so you do it because you can get away with it.
DB: What about Ralph Stanley? How does he fit into this dynamic?
SC: We have played with him many times. We met Ralph and he invited us to perform at his festival up in the hills in Virginia. We do lots of shows with them, and they’re just a great group of guys, and we have the most respect for Ralph and all of his wonderful accomplishments, and we’re honored to share the stage with him.
CC: Ralph’s great. He’s like having your little old grandpa around. All the guys in the band are great. … We always have a really good time when we’re together.
E-mail McCollum at cmccollum@media.ucla.edu.