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 this phenomenon – if not entirely new, then new to me – I asked some of them if I could talk to them about how and why they are doing what they are doing.
I started with two members of the band Sweet Fern: Hannah Dondy-Kaplan, who plays banjo; and Linda Scherba, who plays mandolin. They both sing as part of a five-part ensemble, focusing on three-part harmonies and music from the bluegrass songbook.
(From left to right: Dennis, Linda, Sarah, Brendon and Hannah)
Hannah’s Story
Hannah grew up in Connecticut, and like many her age, was first exposed to what we’ll call, for lack of a better overall description, Boomer tunes. Her parents listened to folk music, like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.
She soon developed her own tastes, leaning toward alternative rock. She said, “I was obsessed with Ani Difranco and Tori Amos, and also moved toward alternative music and other eclectic sounds – a pretty broad range.”
Like many, Phish and the Grateful Dead were gateway drugs to bluegrass, followed by the influence of a mandolin-playing boyfriend who introduced her to Doc Watson and newgrass. But the big “aha” moment didn’t come until many years later.
In her 30s, a Steve Martin/Edie Brickell show set her on fire for the banjo, and she spent some time winding through Portland’s old time scene, resistant to jump into bluegrass. After time away from playing during a sabbatical year abroad, she returned to Portland to realize that maybe it was time to learn about that genre.
A friend convinced her to join Taborgrass. That was when she immersed herself in the bluegrass genre – and the rich community of local musicians who share common songs and common musical perspectives.
(Hannah and her husband, Adam Bartini)
Linda’s Story
Linda’s musical background is different from that of many bluegrass pickers who came of age listening to folk, folk-rock and different alternative rock and country forms.
She said, “I grew up with a grandmother who always listened to traditional Vietnamese music, Vietnamese operas and musical dramas. This was the soundtrack of my childhood.
“Now that I've learned a lot about music as an adult, I realize how much that had influenced me, and why I like traditional bluegrass.” Both, she recognizes now, use a five note (pentatonic) scale.
Linda said, “I don't know if that's why I was drawn to bluegrass, but I've started to connect the two types of music. It's interesting how a lot of cultures use the pentatonic scale.” That scale can express a longing for home and the suffering of hard times, as well as a calmer, stable existence.
(Nina, Adam, Oliver and Linda Scherba)
While her family has little in common with the boys who left the farm for the city, as so many bluegrass songs describe, her family’s experience was also that of being torn from home.
Growing up, Linda always was involved with music – from choir and musical theater to piano – often as a break from her intense academic courses (she is a pharmacist). She’s also currently learning to play fiddle with her son.
Later, she took her husband, who was already a bluegrass fan, to a Del McCoury concert. She calls that her “defining moment . . . It was so amazing to see that kind of talent on stage.
“And after the show,” she said, “I thought ‘I want to do that.’”
She bought an inexpensive mandolin and started teaching herself. She signed up for a class at a local music store, “and we did one song for six weeks. . . and I thought I should probably do something else.”
And this is where her world converged with Hannah’s. She found Taborgrass, and her life changed.
Until her first class, she only knew one fiddle tune on mandolin, so joining a group of musicians on different instruments playing different songs, “I was totally overwhelmed.” But once the class broke into small jam groups, it became fun, rather than intimidating.
“I stood next to Mitch Cline, and he was playing bass. And when everyone started playing together and I could hear the bass, I thought ‘This is so amazing! This is so fun’”
She remembers thinking “Even though I was totally in over my head, I realized it didn’t matter, because we’re all strangers sharing this moment together, and we’re all having fun. I immediately fell in love!”
Friends and Tradition
Early on, students who met in Taborgrass began forming jam groups outside of class – creating lasting friendships. When Covid hit, formal classroom sessions were suspended. But when weather permitted, friends started gathering in small groups again to keep the learning and the energy going.
Hannah said, “I started to get to know people through that and found the beginner community really welcoming.”
Along with Taborgrass, she had started taking bluegrass banjo lessons to expand the Scruggs style that is unique to traditional bluegrass. She also was “listening to traditional songs and trying to understand where it all came from,” since, she said, she had never really paid music attention to traditional bluegrass before.
Right now, Hannah focuses on performing first and second generation bluegrass, in large part because “I’m an intermediate player. . . I feel like I still have so much to learn of traditional methods and banjo licks and banjo backup.
“And there’s the community aspect, too, that’s based around the traditional stuff that unites us all.”
She thinks that as her musical skills and confidence improve she may take on more contemporary works. And the Sweet Fern band already has started incorporating originals into their repertoire.
Linda said she likes some contemporary bluegrass, “but some of it gets very jammy and goes off the melody. And I am a very melody-driven person. When I play my breaks, I’m playing the melody, and I like to sing, so I’m always looking for the melody.
“What draws me to a song is the melody, and the contemporary stuff starts there, but it goes off into something else, and I can’t follow it!,” Linda said.
“I really like traditional bluegrass, because I just love that lonesome sound. It reminds me of my grandmother, and I connect with the struggles of people. That lonesome sound really translates to those emotions.”
For Linda, “When I find a song I love, it’s because I connect to it in some personal way. I think that’s why I gravitated to the traditional, and I still lean into that. The song has to speak to you to be worth playing.”
Sweet Fern
Sweet Fern had its seeds when Sarah Lamb-Christensen, a bass player, and Linda began singing harmonies together. They recruited Sarah’s husband, Dennis Christensen, to sing and play guitar, and then decided Hannah was the perfect banjo player. More recently, Brendon Haggerty joined the group on fiddle.
In just over a year from when they felt ready to perform, Sweet Fern has made its mark on Oregon bluegrass. With regular gigs at local pubs, they already have festival bookings, including closing the show at the recent Columbia Gorge Bluegrass Festival and taking the stage at the Tygh Valley Festival this October.
Hannah said, “I feel very lucky they asked me to start practicing with them. It felt really different to me (from jamming or playing with other bands) because of the focus on vocals and the fact that everyone really cared a lot about how we sounded.”
They all love singing, and they all love harmony. While it's clear from the way their voices resonate that Dennis and Sarah have been singing together for years, the band gives its other members the opportunity to shine as lead singers and harmonizers. The all-female trios add a different twist to the traditional stacking of most bands.
Hannah said, "We might spend most of a practice on one song, just figuring out the parts,” something she doesn’t experience in a more casual gathering of musicians. “We do it till we’re exhausted and have to leave and get to bed or get cranky,” a nod to the reality of jobs and kids.
The Safe Space
It seems like every conversation about Northwest bluegrass ends up at the word community. It’s been that way since the early 1980s, when the Oregon Bluegrass Association formed as an extended family of pickers and bluegrass advocates.
And Sweet Fern finds itself in a new community of musicians with a lot in common – from a love of traditional music to a goal of mutual support. They say they feel welcome, enthusiastic – and like they’ve found a home.
After the pandemic concerns eased, Hannah started venturing out beyond the Taborgrass world to jams at Tomorrow’s Verse and one Josh Cole hosted at Grand Fir Brewing.
And people started recognizing her and inviting her to other jams. “ The big jams are great, and you get vibes from people who are friendly and open to jamming together, and this allows for smaller jams and more connections with people.”
From there, the community just grew.
These days, she said, “We’re all camping together at festivals. Everyone’s really open and welcoming to beginners,” unlike many other jams she’s seen. “And I think no matter how many people are in our friends group, we’re still very beginner-friendly and encouraging, because it wasn’t so long ago we were there ourselves.”
Hannah said her immersion in the bluegrass community “has 100 percent changed my life. I’ve become a ton more social and of course am listening to live and recorded bluegrass as much as possible these days.” Gaining experience on stage has given her more confidence and comfort in her work life, too.
“I connect every day with so many of these friends I have made since Taborgrass, either texting or socially in person. We’re not just talking about bluegrass—we’re all great friends now helping each other navigate through middle age right now. But at its core, we’re all similarly obsessed with the music.”
For Hannah, as for Linda and others who have come together in recent years around traditional bluegrass music, “It’s a safe space.”
The good news for us all is that we have plenty of opportunities to hear Sweet Fern. Check out their website for shows – they are already booked into next year!
A safe space