PORT ANGELES — You can count on the music snowballing this Saturday night.
A trio of bluegrass bands — two traditional and one that mixes gospel and the Beatles – will get together for Snowgrass, the ninth annual winter benefit concert for the First Step Family Support Center of Port Angeles.
Crescent Blue, Marilyn Kay & Co. and Abby Mae & the Homeschool Boys are about to converge on the Port Angeles High School auditorium for this family-friendly show at 6:30 p.m., said Snowgrass coordinator Danielle Robb.
Tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, and free for children 10 and younger.
“The bands are all donating their time; everybody’s pitching in,” Robb added, so proceeds will go straight to First Step’s programs for children and families.
Crescent Blue, a Forks-based outfit, plays and sings about “life, love and the pursuit of happiness,” according to the band’s news release.
They’re on first Saturday night, and will feature as their guests Ed and Jerry Finley, a couple of bluegrassers who’ve been playing together since 1957.
Next comes Marilyn Kay and her band, who will dish out honky-tonk and country tunes as well as pure bluegrass and songs leavened by a gospel sound.
After a 15-minute intermission with snacks and beverages in the lobby, Abby Mae & the Homeschool Boys will step up, with a set to include switched-up renditions of bluegrass classics and, more than likely, twangy takes on the Beatles and Led Zeppelin.
The night will hit its crescendo when the Homeschool Boys – yes, they were home schooled in the Port Angeles-Sequim area — invite the other two bands back onto the stage for a whole-house sing-along.
The Snowgrass audience will be invited into a rendition of “I’ll Fly Away,” with the bands taking turns leading the verses, Robb promised. The show will go till about 9:30 p.m.
For those who might hesitate before going in for three hours of bluegrass, Abby Mae & the Homeschool Boys guitarist David Rivers offers words of encouragement.
“Come join in the carefree celebration that is Snowgrass,” he begins.
“This is a foot-stompin’ event that unites the communities of Forks, Port Angeles [and] Sequim,” through music. “Marilyn Kay & Co. and Crescent Blue are fantastic bands that both represent the classical side of bluegrass.”
A concert like this is more than a collection of traditional American tunes, Rivers believes. Bluegrass “is a celebration of community, of the lay people, the working class, the poor, the young and old. It’s a music genre that draws no lines, but instead brings everyone together.”
Abby Mae & the Homeschool Boys are making their Snowgrass debut, and “we’re truly honored,” added Rivers.
The band, together a little over a year, has built a fan base from Port Angeles to Port Townsend.
The Snowgrass set, Rivers said, will have a bigger-than-before sound, but with “the same heart-wrenching performance from Abby that we’ve come to cherish.”
Snowgrass tickets are on sale in Port Angeles at First Step Family Support Center, 325 E. Sixth St., Strait Music at 1015 E. First St., Odyssey Bookshop at 114 W. Front St., Port Book & News at 104 E. First St., and Necessities & Temptations at the corner of Laurel Street and Railroad Avenue.
In Sequim tickets are available at Pacific Mist Books, 121 W. Washington St., and in Forks they’re at Forks Outfitters, 950 S. Forks Ave.
To find out more about the event and about First Step’s programs, which include parenting classes, support groups, licensed child care, referrals to community resources, emergency formula, baby equipment, clothing and many other services, phone the center at 360-457-8355.