Bluegrass family attains early success

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The family bluegrass group Cherryholmes was tearing through a song last summer at the Ryman Auditorium when a guitar string snapped.\nThe lanky young picker in a white cowboy hat began working furiously to replace it on the fly. In just a few moments, the new string was in place and the group never missed a beat.\nThings happen fast for the Cherryholmes clan of Los Angeles.\nOnly six years ago, the group consisting of Jere and Sandy Cherryholmes and their daughters Cia, 21, and Molly, 13, and sons B.J., 17, and Skip, 15, didn't exist. Three of the four children didn't even play instruments.\nThey practiced and performed relentlessly, though, and today find themselves the hottest new act in bluegrass.\nOn Thursday, they're up for the International Bluegrass Music Association's emerging artist award and the night's top prize, entertainer of the year -- the first time in the awards' 16-year-history that an artist has been nominated in both categories.\n"It's kind of a mindblower," said Jere, a stocky man with a shaved head, tattoos, earrings and a long gray beard. "It's happened so fast."\nAnd so unexpectedly.\nIn 1999, Jere and Sandy's oldest daughter, Shelly, died from chronic heart problems at age 20. To lift their spirits, the family went to a bluegrass festival where Grand Ole Opry stars Jim & Jesse and their group the Virginia Boys were performing.\nThe festival was their first real exposure to bluegrass, a musical form that seemed foreign in their tough Los Angeles neighborhood, where the children did homework crouched between twin beds because of frequent drive-by shootings.\n"On the way home, I told Sandy that we ought to get the kids together and play music like that -- not form a band and perform somewhere, but do it as a pastime, something to keep the family close together," Jere said.\nAt the time Jere played guitar and bass, Sandy played the piano and Cia some guitar. But church performances were about the extent of their experience, and the three younger children didn't play at all.\nSandy was homeschooling the kids and began incorporating music into the lesson. The children were assigned instruments: B.J. and Molly the fiddle, Skip the guitar and Cia the banjo. Jere and Sandy took what was left, bass and mandolin, respectively.\n"We made time during the day with the goal of learning a song, so everyone had a reason for what they were doing," Sandy said. "We'd teach the parts and then at night we'd have jam time when Jere came home to make the parts fit. We could play two to five hours a day all week long."\nThey started winning local contests and landed a regular gig on Saturdays in the San Bernardino Mountains. As their reputation grew, so did their bookings.\nBy 2002, with momentum building, they had to make a decision. Jere retired from his job as a carpenter with the Los Angeles school system and sold the house, and the family -- all except the oldest son, Tyson, who was already on his own -- struck out as a full-time musical act.\nThey relocated to Arizona where they lived without electricity and running water and played the bluegrass festival circuit in the West.\nWhen they felt they'd honed their skills enough, they moved to Nashville, Tenn., the center of the industry.\nThey stay on the road about 300 days a year. When not traveling, they park the tour bus at a friend's house in Goodlettsville, Tenn. Jere and Sandy sleep on the bus and the children on Army cots in a garage apartment.\n"Like any family, it's a family and we have days where we all want to go and do something completely different," Cia said. "But we're very close. We always have been."\nLast month, they released their self-titled debut on Ricky Skaggs' Skaggs Family Records. The album, which has nine original songs, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard bluegrass chart behind Nickel Creek and Alison Krauss & Union Station.\nJere said the group's success is way beyond anything he imagined when the family began playing music together for fun and fellowship.\nSometimes, he can't help but wonder whether his late daughter has had something to do with it.\n"People ask me 'Do you think she's up there pulling strings?' That doesn't necessarily go with my theology so much, but it's an interesting thing to think about"