(Editor’s Note: This morning we welcome a new Welcomer, Andrei Ferrera. Andrei is a communications director at Children’s Day School in San Francisco. He has been playing bluegrass music for close to twenty years. In recent years, Andrei has been occasionally featured as a co-host with his friend Ray Edlund on KPFA’s “Pig in A Pen” program. He earned a music degree from Sonoma State University in 1994. RC)
My introduction into the Bay Area bluegrass community began, oddly enough, at an Oscars party. It was March 2003 when I walked several blocks in the rain to a Sunday night gathering of movie buffs, and a few jammers, none of whom I had ever met. I was expecting a jam, and even brought my guitar, but it wouldn’t be so. The night was all about the movies. The event was hosted by the sister of a woman who worked with my wife. They had been on several out-of-town audits together when, at some point, the topic of bluegrass came up. As Jen said to me on the phone, “My co-worker and her sister are bluegrass pickers! They live in the city, and they’re having a party in a few weeks.” My wife was out of town that weekend on another audit, but encouraged me to go by myself. And, to my own surprise, I did. I’m usually not so brave. It was a great party, but no music.
A few months later, I was invited by my new friends to join a bluegrass jam class in Berkeley. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a jam class. It was hosted by Avram Siegel and his wife Allison Fisher at their home in Berkeley, just around the corner from the old Freight & Salvage. At the time, both were playing in True Blue, a fantastic bluegrass group. I was nervous, of course, during the first few classes, but by the third week, I felt right at home. For us students, Avram and Allison’s living room became a very comfortable setting; for learning, for music, and for new friendships.
There were several great things that came out of jam class. First, I learned about the etiquette of the bluegrass jam. How to lead a song; the dynamics of the group’s volume; how to give that subtle gesture to someone that their break is coming up; and much more. Today, some of these things seem somewhat basic, but at that time, it was all so new.
And of course we studied vocals and harmony parts. For me, the singing piece became an obsession. Sure, I had played guitar at this point in my life for more than twenty years. I had even been in a couple of bands that played amplified music (oh, the horrors!). But I had never been in a jam setting such as this, where your fellow musicians give you the floor when it’s your turn. This was a big revelation. “Hey, I can do this song. And they will play along and support me.” It was also a huge boost of confidence. I became obsessed with learning songs. I wasn’t that keen just yet on the fiddle tunes; I could play the back-up chords of course, but generally would pass on the breaks for tunes (until I studied with Jody Stecher a decade later, but that’s another story). For me it was all about the songs, and learning more songs.
Another great thing that came from this class was that it opened up for me, and so many of us, a brand new social world. I suddenly knew many other pickers. I would stay in the jam class for almost three years. And each session—typically 8 weeks long—would bring a few new faces, with many of us continuing on. Well into my first year, I was building up a nice group of playing partners. By the second year, many of us we were jamming with each other at the festivals, or taking turns hosting our own jams. Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, Mill Valley, and Petaluma.
It turns out that the small house on Byron St. in Berkeley was in fact a breeding ground of sorts. A minor league system of budding bluegrassers. There was so many who would go off and start bands, or be invited to join a band. The alumni list of Avram and Allison’s jam class is a veritable “who’s who” of young, Bay Area bluegrass people, mid-decade. Among the groups whose members had sat in Avram and Allison’s living room: The Kentucky Twisters, The Mighty Crows, The Barefoot Nellies, Dim Lights, Grizzly Peak, Rosebud Blue, Canyon Johnson, and I reckon many others. Thank you fellow pickers, and thank you Avram and Allison.
Andrei Ferrera
a.ferrera@comcast.net
