- The Cherryholmes
group consisting of members of the Cherryholmes family, including father Jere Cherryholmes and wife Sandy Lee and their kids, Cia Leigh, BJ, Skip, and Molly Kate. Often Jere will say from the stage, Yes, we are the Cherryholmes family. No one is named Cherry, and no one is named Holmes. There's no hyphen, nothin'! Just Cherryholmes.
The story of the family is a somewhat tragic one. Their eldest daughter died in her teens. The family decided to get away for a weekend to maybe get their minds off the tragedy, and so they decided to go to a Bluegrass Festival. Upon arriving, the realized that there was no regular parking, so they were told to park up near the buses. They saw the shows, and afterwards met Jim and Jesse McReynolds. The Cherryholmes were extremely impressed to see they were so amazingly kind and open, and so decided to stay an extra unscheduled day.
On the way home from the weekend long festival, they were wondering what it would be like to start their own family band. Jere took the lead, and assigned the kids an instrument each. Both having a strong background in Celtic music, he and his wife Sandy decided to teach the basics of each instrument to the children. The rest seems to be history. The Cherryholmes were recipients of the
International Bluegrass Music Association Entertainers of the Year award for2005 and were nominated for the very same award again in 2007. Other accolades include a Grammy nomination in 2006 and 2007 for Best Bluegrass Album. The most incredible part, it seems, is that they've been playing for around six year unprofessionally, and all self taught. Molly Kate and BJ are fiddlers, Skip is a guitarist, Cia Leigh is an award winning banjo player, Sandy Lee is on mandolin, and backing up everyone is Jere.Cherryholmes have released five albums since 2001. The first three albums – "Still A Little Rough Around The Edges", "Dressed For Success", and "Bluegrass Vagabonds" – were released on their own label. The band's eponymous fourth album, the best-received of their releases, was issued by Skaggs Family Records in
2005 . OnJune 12 ,2007 , Cherryholmes latest album, "Cherryholmes II: Black and White", was released on Skaggs Family Records. The sixth Cherryholmes album is being recorded and is being expected for a September release in 2008.Based in Nashville,TN,the Cherryholmes tour regularly, with at least 100 dates [http://cherryholmes.musiccitynetworks.com/index.htm?id=9507 scheduled] this year and some already booked for 2009. The group has performed at the
Grand Ole Opry andDollywood , been the subject of aFox News report, and performed on several other radio and television programs.Discography
*Still A Little Rough Around The Edges(2001)
*Dressed For Success(2002)
*Bluegrass Vagabonds(2003)
*Cherryholmes(2005)
*(2007)External links
* [http://www.cherryholmes.net/ Cherryholmes Official Site]
* [http://www.skaggsfamilyrecords.com/ Skaggs Family Records]
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