MH resident Tim Edes now the president of California Bluegrass Assoc.
Published in the February 18-March 3, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Photo courtesy www.adkinsloudermilk.com
Dave Adkins and Edgar Loudermilk will perform at this year’s A Night at the Grange concert.
Morgan Hill resident Tim Edes got hooked on bluegrass music because of a 1960s TV show featuring a famously named family who moved from a Southern state to Southern California after accidentally finding oil on their property. The tune that sparked his love for this genre of American music was “The Ballad of Jed Clampett,” the 63-year-old man recalled.
“When I first heard bluegrass music, I was watching ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ on TV years ago,” he said. “The banjo playing by Earl Scruggs just captivated me, so I bought a banjo and I took lessons for a year — I think I was 20 or 21 at the time. Then it just faded away and I put it down.”
When Edes turned 45, something struck him to take the banjo up again. His wife saw that he was much more serious about it this time, and so she bought him a series of banjo lessons as a birthday present from a music teacher in Campbell.
That started his journey to becoming the chair of the board of directors of the California Bluegrass Association. He went to a couple of small home-jam festivals. And then in 1995 heard about the four-day Father’s Day Festival in Grass Valley which has been held the third weekend in June for the past 40 years. Edes remembers pulling up to the gate of the festival and seeing a sea of recreational vehicles parked all around the festival grounds.
He asked the gatekeeper if he was in the right place for the bluegrass festival and was told he was indeed.
“How long have these people been here?” he asked.
“Oh, probably a week.”
“So where do you camp?” he asked.
Photo by Gary Mansperger
The Quebe Sisters Band headlined at ‘A Night at the Grange’ in 2014.
“Anywhere you can put your tent or RV,” came the reply.
Soon, Edes found a stage and watched the bluegrass musicians perform for a while. After that set, he got hooked on the music “big time.” From that point on, bluegrass has been an important part of his life.
“I think the attraction is, it’s the musical ability of people playing acoustical instruments,” he said. “You just don’t see that kind of ability and the harmonization of singing, you don’t see it in other genres. If you try to play the music, it really hooks you. I started going to more and more festivals.”
At one festival, he met a man named Rick Cornish who at that time was the chairman of the California Bluegrass Association. They started talking and eventually Edes found himself working as the transportation and electrical coordinator and communication coordinator at the Grass Valley Festival. He came up with a system to supply 90 RVs with electricity from a portable generator.
The Central Valley Boys perform at last year’s ‘A Night at the Grange’ concert. Photo by Gary Mansperger
Next thing Edes knew, Cornish had convinced him that he should run for the California Bluegrass Association’s board of directors. He got on the board. And for the past three years, after Cornish retired after 20 years as chairman of the board, Edes has taken on the responsibility of serving as the association’s leader.
Edes’s bluegrass promotion efforts led him in 2004 to initiate an annual bluegrass concert in Morgan Hill. There had been a concert at Machado School, but that no longer was being held. Someone suggested that downtown’s Grange Hall would serve as a venue, and so Edes approached local resident Jack Todd who at that time managed the Grange building. Soon, the first concert was being organized, with Edes feeling anxious about the attendance.
“I was so afraid that it just wasn’t going to be popular,” he said. “But we had three quarters of the place filled up for the first several years. I was thrilled. This is our 12th year now and we’ve sold out probably the last eight years.”
This year’s A Night at the Grange concert will be held Feb. 28 and will feature well-known bluegrass performers Dave Adkins and Edgar Loudermilk. This is the fourth year Loudermilk will perform at the concert.
“It’s the first time with our own band, and so we’re happy we could work it out to be back,” he said. “It’s a great place to play music and the people treat us wonderfully. We have a great experience every time I’ve been to Morgan Hill. A place that makes a musician feel at home always make him play better.”
Bluegrass is a type of music that lets listeners have fun with the musicians and gives them a “down-home kind of feel,” and that’s one element of the music style that appeals to Loudermilk.
“This is a music that just gets in your blood,” he said. “The way I would describe performing in Morgan Hill is awesome. I feel the energy with the folks at Morgan Hill, and they are so receptive of our music. I play music all over the country, and I can say I’ve never felt any more appreciation from any audience than in Morgan Hill. That’s what makes us as artists want to be an artist. We can’t wait to be there.”
Besides putting on the annual A Night at the Grange concerts, Edes has been involved in bringing bluegrass to downtown Morgan Hill almost every week through friendly jam sessions opened to anyone who might want to attend. The free sessions are held Thursdays at the Grange from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Sometimes the jams have as few as four people, but average about 14 people. One time, 30 people showed up to play bluegrass together. Children are welcome to attend as well, and one young boy who plays the bass who lives one block from the Grange has attended the jam sessions, Edes said.
“Sometimes we have people who just want to come and listen,” he said. “In the summer, it gets busy where people want to be picking and playing. They just need to show up, bring an instrument and they’re welcome to play. Beginners to advance, it doesn’t matter.”
