Free Range

Hannah and Linda

Recently, I’ve become interested in and delighted by the resurgence of traditional bluegrass bands in the Portland area and the many fans who follow them. 

Portland’s newest band members are generally post-Baby-Boomers with careers, and many have spouses and children. And many have come to bluegrass as adults, both as listeners and as pickers. And these new Portland bands are dedicating themselves to the songs that emerged from the first and second generation of bluegrass stars.

Curious about…

The Post-Boomer Bluegrass Boom, Part 1

For what seems like a long time, every year at The Columbia Gorge Bluegrass Festival one friend would say, “Where are all the younger people?”

He, like everyone else sitting around drinking coffee in our folding chairs, was a Baby Boomer.  And, with the exception of the young families who came to hear the music and bring their children to enjoy the beautiful Columbia Gorge, it was Boomers as far as you could see.

Well, my friend’s question has been answered. 

They’ve all…

Pam Brown has never met an opportunity to help that she hasn’t embraced. 

She is packing her life with ways to reach out: building community, performing essential duties in her small town, promoting music and music education and leading the Oregon Bluegrass Association.

And Wasco County residents, school children and the bluegrass community are all better off for her presence.

A roundabout way to Oregon. Pam grew up in Florida, where she developed her love of music while studying flute. After college, she…

Chuck Holloway: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

If you are new to the Oregon bluegrass community, you might know Chuck Holloway as the banjo player in Thunder Ridge and a key member of KBOO Radio’s Music from the True Vine show.

If you have been involved for a while (say, decades), you might know him as a former Oregon Bluegrass Association president, a Eugene radio programmer, a member of various bands throughout the Willamette Valley, and a keeper of the flame of traditional bluegrass.

Portland fans are…

Sharon Hennessy: A force of nature unleashed!

Sharon Hennessy is hard-wired to be goal oriented.

Just a couple years out of high school, Sharon set the goal of becoming an executive and owning a red Mercedes by the time she was 30.

Fortunately for everyone in our community, Sharon is also flexible. Under the influence of her then-beau, now husband, Jeff Smith, “I started seeing things from a different perspective,” Sharon said. 

Her new goal was to become fluent in Spanish and visit Spain, which she did. She…