Sandy Cherryholmes said the success of her band, Cherryholmes,
is one part miracle and one part hard work.

The family has called a tour bus home for the last five years as
it spends nearly 300 nights a year on the road playing bluegrass to
audiences across the country, and even on the other side of the
world.

Cherryholmes is scheduled to perform at the Bromeley Family
Theatre at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford at 7 p.m.
Saturday.

Trying to find a way to uplift their spirits after the death of
their eldest daughter, Shelly, in 1999, the family decided to go to
a bluegrass festival. The uplifting quality of the music and the
warmth of the musicians and fans was life-changing, Sandy
Cherryholmes said.

The family members were so inspired by the festival that they
decided to learn how to play bluegrass together.

“We thought it would be really great to give the kids
instruments and start a family jam,” Cherryholmes said.

Parents Jere and Sandy Cherryholmes and daughter, Cia
Cherryholmes, were already musicians of sorts playing electric
bass, piano, and guitar, respectively. But the other half of the
sextet didn’t know how to play an instrument. The children were all
assigned instruments to form a bluegrass group; Cia moved over to
the banjo, B.J. and Molly were assigned the fiddle, and Skip got
the guitar. Mom and dad took up the mandolin and the upright bass,
respectively.

Sandy Cherryholmes, who had a bit of knowledge of stringed
instruments, incorporated music lessons into their home schooling.
The family would jam together at night, playing church songs and
bluegrass numbers from songbooks. Not everyone was happy with their
instruments at first but they quickly began to master them with the
help of the family jams.

“I think it was more the fun of doing it together that made them
want to do it, even if they didn’t like their instrument,”
Cherryholmes said.

The family began getting offers to play out after only four
months of jamming. They landed a gig at a ski resort in the San
Bernardino Mountains a few months later playing only on
Saturdays.

“All week long we would be like ‘we got to learn 10 songs this
week,'” Cherryholmes said. “It became an important project so
fast.”

The family began traveling farther and farther away for gigs
and, after some discussion and prayer, decided to make the band
their life. Jere Cherryholmes quit his carpentry job and the family
house was sold in 2002. The family moved to Arizona but didn’t even
have time to settle, Sandy Cherryholmes said. They put their
belongings in storage, bought a tour bus and hit the road.

They appeared on the Grand Ole Opry and at the Country Music
Awards’ Music Fest in 2003, were named Entertainer of the Year by
the International Bluegrass Music Association in 2005, and received
a Grammy nomination for their first commercial release,
“Cherryholmes.” Their follow-up album, “Cherryholmes II: Black and
White” debuted at number one on the bluegrass music charts.

The recognition has been great for the family, especially the
children, Cherryholmes said. Cia Cherryholmes has received numerous
nominations for banjo player of the year from the International
Bluegrass Music Academy and Skip Cherryholmes has been nominated by
the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America for
guitar player of the year. The children have also been featured
individually on various other musical projects.

“Now that they play in an adult world it means a lot to them to
be respected for what they do,” Cherryholmes said.

The band’s live show features energetic instrumentals and sweet
ballads combined with Irish step-dancing and classic country
yodeling. The band’s hand work and long hours on the road “blows up
in a positive way” on stage, Sandy Cherryholmes said.

Now that all of the children, except Molly, have graduated from
high school they can concentrate more on building the band,
Cherryholmes said. Each are paid employees of the business. Each
has their own responsibility, aside from writing and performing
music, including overseeing road inventory and merchandise,
overseeing sound reinforcement, as well as Web site and
publicity.

But its not all business. Family members have their own hobbies
from personal music recordings to needle work. The family enjoys
taking in the sights of each destination. Sometimes they will even
grab movies from bargain bin sales to enjoy on the way to the next
city, Cherryholmes said.

“It has really been great,” Cherryholmes said. “We have done a
lot of things together. Family has been a real nucleus for us.”