A Conversation with Sandy Cherryholmes (continued)

PM: Even though the kids are already what you could call bluegrass virtuosi, I mean, kids are still kids. Are any of them listening to other styles of music? Is anybody listening to hip-hop with headphones on in bus?

SC: Oh, never, no. One thing, we've had a lot of rules that we felt have helped our kids to not pull away into other things. We share all our music. Hip-hop isn't one of those things. And we never allowed the kids to sit with headsets on. We always wanted to know what they were listening to.

PM: Wow, that's an interesting rule. "No headphones."

SC: No. No headphones, no internet, no TV.

PM: But Sandy, that's so amazing! No internet, no TV, no headphones?

SC: Uh-huh.

PM: Because that's how you'd have to do it. It's like putting them in a rocket ship and saying, "We're going to a different planet. We're all on the same ship."

[laughter]

SC: Yeah, but it's such a good planet. You know, the thing is that they enjoy it now. They listen to other music. But you'd be surprised the music they listen to is Stephane Grapelli jazz. They just, for the first time--we did an in-store at a little music store up in Louisville. And the man in there let us go through and take albums home. And they got a hold of a live Phil Collins. And they're just captivated by Phil Collins live.

PM: Wow.

SC: We didn't play that at home when we were learning bluegrass and all that, because we didn't want them distracted. But now we're introducing those things to them. And since they're already geared towards the bluegrass, all they're doing is getting ideas. How to translate the energy of some of these other things, and the pizzazz, into what they're dog.

PM: Now, will you guys allow them to listen to bluegrass bands that exhibit other influences, like Nickel Creek, or the old Newgrass guys, or any of that stuff?

SC: We do. We don't have much Nickel Creek or Newgrass, but we do have Alison Krauss.

PM: Right.

SC: We listen to Sirius, which will play everything from Bela Fleck, Hot Rize.

PM: Ah.

SC: So instead of getting just a lot of albums to play all the time, we listen to Sirius, which will constantly give them a variety of everything.

PM: Right.

SC: And when something good comes out, we'll have the albums. We have tons of friends now in the bluegrass world, and any time any of them have an album out, we get it and listen to it and see what they're doing. So they do have a lot of other influences. But their favorites that they seem to always be going back to are standards. The guitar player's favorite influence is Jimmy Martin. And he loves Bryan Sutton, too.

PM: Right.

SC: But Jimmy Martin, he's got that drive. And the same thing goes for the fiddlers. The fiddlers love Aubrey Haynie. They've listened to things from Mark O'Connor, and some jazzier players.

PM: Right.

SC: And then they just interpret it on their instruments. And Cia, she likes J. D. Crowe, Keith Whitley. She just loves Keith Whitley.

PM: Oh, he's amazing, yeah.

SC: And then they like Irish, like John Doyle, Cherish the Ladies, and just some different influences like that. But nothing pop. Nothing from Eminem, or nothing from any of the pop artists.

PM: Right. And so they're incredibly untainted.

SC: Yes.

PM: That's incredible how you guys are pulling that off and have pulled that off.

[laughter]

PM: Has the family like been on Oprah yet, or something like that?

SC: No, we haven't.

PM: Because you're going there. I mean, somebody needs to land you guys on Oprah.

SC: Well, the Skaggs label has done incredible things. And we've done so much in such a short time, it's hard to even say what's around the corner.

PM: Right.

SC: We're ready for just--we're on our way. In the next couple weeks we've got the Grammy nomination, and that is awesome.

PM: Because you and I know that if Oprah Winfrey ever got wind of who you guys are, and what you've done, she'd have you on that show in a heartbeat!

SC: [laughs]

PM: You're right up her alley.

SC: Wow. And yet it's funny, I've never seen an Oprah Winfrey Show. I know who she is, but we don't watch television, so I don't even know what she does.

PM: Oh, my God! Oh, that's amazing. But you understand the magnitude of her influence.

SC: Yes, I do. I do that.

PM: I mean, if you write a book and she puts it in the Oprah Book of the Month Club, you're done. You're double done.

SC: She's amazing in that respect.

PM: So I hope that somebody is hooking that up for you, because you guys deserve that. And I'm sure somebody at Skaggs is on the stick about that. Me, I'm going to talk to some friends that book TV shows. And say, "You're onto Cherryholmes, right?"

SC: [laughs] We just got an interesting call from a promoter we're going to work for in California, just a little concert we're doing around San Diego, who said Jamie Lee Curtis had called him and said that she really wanted to go to our show and see if she could meet the band. I thought, "Oh, my God!" I said, "How did Jamie Lee Curtis hear about us?" He said, "I don't know."

[laughter]

PM: Totally cool.   continue

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