<p> “Explodes with exuberant fiddle, expert banjo, and passionate harmonies” NEWSWEEK</p><p>Chances are you’ve never encountered a family quite like the Cherryholmes. As little as 10 years ago, the band itself didn’t exist, and half of its youthful members hadn’t even picked up instruments yet. Now, it’s hard to imagine bluegrass music without them.</p><p>Jere and Sandy Cherryholmes met in their church, married, and began raising a family of six children in Bell, California, just outside of Los Angeles. Jere was a carpenter for the L.A. County school system and Sandy home-schooled the children. In 1999, their eldest daughter, Shelly (20), died in her sleep from respiratory failure, due to chronic heart problems. The family heard about a nearby bluegrass festival and decided to go, to lift their spirits.</p><p>“We saw Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys and it changed our entire lives, going to that bluegrass festival and spending that day with them,” Sandy recalls. “On the way home, Jere said, ‘You know, what we really need right now is to do something special with our kids. Let’s start a bluegrass group.’ We decided who would play what and I started giving them music lessons.”</p><p>Cia (banjo), B.J. (fiddle), Skip (guitar), and Molly (fiddle) were assigned instruments. “Well, if you asked them, they would have all picked drums,” Sandy laughs. “Cia was playing guitar in church and singing, the little kids weren’t playing anything, and I was a piano player. So, I decided that I would play whatever was left, and so would Jere. That left him with the bass and me with the mandolin.”</p><p>“When the younger ones were just starting, they couldn’t play much, so we orchestrated the music so that no one could tell,” Sandy explains. “I divided the parts up and they only played one note each – so it sounded like double stops. Then, I played mandolin with them, and they played on pitch. We taught Skip to play a few banjo licks on the mandolin, and then we just played really loud and fast,” she laughs. “Within four months, we started getting invitations from people wanting us to come and play.”</p><p>By year’s end, the family had taken a gig on Saturdays in the San Bernardino Mountains. “We started dancing out of a desperate need for songs,” Sandy confides. “We only had about 15 songs and we had to play for six hours! I had been teaching the kids Irish step- dancing in the P.E. classes anyway, so we put together some dance routines.”</p><p>What started out as a desire to draw the family closer together during their time of sorrow had developed into a legitimate part-time band. Cherryholmes won a few local contests and the promoters kept calling as their skills improved and their reputation spread.</p><p>After a 32-hour round trip to play a show in Colorado, Jere realized they had reached their weekend driving limit. “People advised us that if we were going to do this with our kids, we needed to do it while they were young,” he said. “So we talked about it and prayed about it, and decided that we were going to sell the house and I would quit my job and we would just go – and whatever happened, happened. I left my job in July of 2002.” By 2003, Cherryholmes had made their first appearances on the Grand Ole Opry, Ernest Tubb’s Midnight Jamboree, the Country Music Association’s (CMA) Music Fest and International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) FanFest. In 2004, the band self- released their third album, Bluegrass Vagabonds, and kicked off their own festival, ‘The Best in Tradition with Cherryholmes’, at Hoofer’s Gospel Barn in LaGrange, Georgia. </p><p>Pretty soon, everyone was buzzing about the Cherryholmes. Their growing popularity caught the attention of Ricky Skaggs, who signed the band to his Skaggs Family Records label in 2005. Their self-titled debut entered Billboard’s Top Bluegrass Albums chart at #3, even gaining status on the Top Country Albums chart, unheard of for a bluegrass act making their first national chart appearance. </p><p>When nominations were announced for the 16th Annual International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Awards, Cherryholmes appeared as nominees not only for Emerging Artist of the Year (an award given to artists on the rise); the band also received a nomination for the most coveted award of the night, Entertainer of the Year, making them the first act in IBMA’s 20 year history to be nominated in both categories. Their electrifying awards show performance made instant fans out of those still in doubt of what seemed like an overnight success. When Cherryholmes were named Entertainer of the Year, the entire audience leapt to its feet. Their first GRAMMY nomination capped off an amazing year, implying that the best was yet to come from this dynamic family band.</p><p>Their follow-up album, Cherryholmes II: Black and White, enjoyed even greater success, topping Billboard’s Top Bluegrass Albums chart and earning the band their second GRAMMY nomination. Raleigh News & Observer raved, “The variety, coupled with youthful urgency and unbridled passion, infuses the music with an energy that propels it beyond predictable bluegrass clichés.”</p><p>On their third Skaggs Family Records release, Cherryholmes III: Don’t Believe, the band exhibited a fearless approach to composition. Traditional elements remained prevalent, while advanced melodies and chord progressions were explored, revealing some orchestral proficiency in addition to the instrumental boldness for which they are known. GRAMMY nominations in the Best Bluegrass Album and Best Country Instrumental (song, “Sumatra”) categories proved Cherryholmes’ ever-present flair for creating music that demands attention.</p><p>With four GRAMMY nominations to date, the fourth album, Cherryholmes IV Common Threads, brings this talented family further to the fore. The band is in their element with powerful new compositions, setting a new course in their musical repertoire. While keeping the family’s harmonic blend intact, new influential styles and flavors are discovered throughout this work in their aggressive instrumental style that is incomparably Cherryholmes’ own. With a youthful spirit, masterful arrangements are melded into a rich tapestry of work that has taken Cherryholmes from humble beginnings to a full-fledged sound to be reckoned with.</p><p>“A lot of the energy when we play comes from the hard work and the long hours on the road when you’re tired. But then you get on stage and for all six of us, it almost blows up – in a positive way. I think that has a lot to do with why we’re so driven and why we can do so much,” Sandy explains.</p><p>All six band members pull their creative ideas together, forming a sound and a style that is unmistakably Cherryholmes. Their live shows include twin fiddles, Irish step-dancing, classic country yodeling, old-time clawhammer banjo, even some soulful gospel singing in addition to their dynamic bluegrass. Their vocals and instrumentation are aggressive without losing the precision of smooth, blended family harmony.</p><p>Jere concludes, “I heard someone say that bluegrass music has to change or evolve, or it will die. I don’t think it needs to be changed. It just needs new breath. I feel like maybe I’m offering something like that with my family.”</p><p>###</p><p>For more information on CHERRYHOLMES, please contact: Shore Fire Media P 718.522.7171 Rob Krauser ([email protected]) / Nick Baily ([email protected]) Skaggs Family Records P 615.264.8877 Tammy Carver / Publicity Coordination ([email protected]) Brad Fields / Radio Promotion ([email protected])</p>