International Bluegrass Music Museum honors longtime Morgan Hill
resident
Morgan Hill – Jake Quesenberry never forgot his Kentucky roots. Now, after 50 years in California, the seasoned guitarist-singer can tell folks he’s more than a professional bluegrass musician – he’s a living museum piece.
On Tuesday, 76-year-old Quesenberry volunteered to be interviewed for the Video Oral History Project being compiled by the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, Ky.
The goal of the project, started in 2003, is to chronicle the lives of 232 iconic performers recognized as being part of the “first generation” of bluegrass music.
It’s a lofty crowd that Quesenberry’s happy to join. With a sense of modesty, of course.
“My first thoughts were, why the hell would they want me?” Quesenberry said, who’s lived in Morgan for 17 years.
The answer is clear. Aficionados know Quesenberry helped spread the popularity of bluegrass on the West Coast by co-starting the California Bluegrass Association (CBA) in 1974. Today it is one of the largest music associations in the world with more than 3,200 active members. Its monthly newsletters haven’t stopped in 31 years, and its yearly Father’s Day Festival held in Grass Valley, Calif., is widely considered one of the best festivals of its kind on the West Coast.
Looking back on it, Quesenberry remembers not knowing what to expect when he organized the first Grass Valley festival in 1975. He relied on word of mouth advertising, frequenting small clubs in San Francisco and Berkeley to spread the news. But when the week of the festival arrived, he found himself overwhelmed by a trully successful event.
“I was kind of chief cook and bottle washer,” he professed. “I was a musician, a master of ceremonies and the guy that cleaned the restroom.”
Bluegrass, it appeared, had arrived in California. Quesenberry helped give it a home.
Various types of music are considered to be the roots of bluegrass. Folk ballads from England and Scotland, as well as African American gospel music and blues, all played a role. Bill Monroe, known as the “Father of Bluegrass,” helped popularize the twangy accoustic sound after forming a nationally renowned band in the late 1930s called Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys.
Like the music itself, Quesenberry has traveled far to get to where he is. His roots go back to a small town in Kentucky, where he learned to play guitar at age 9. By age 15, he had gotten a job playing professionally in a small band. Raised by his aunt and uncle in a music-loving, church-going family, Quesenberry has fond memories of his singalongs and jam sessions. There were 11 children, in addition to himself, and the boys all played guitar.
“It was natural for me to pick it up,” he said.
After World War II, Quesenberry told a lie and entered the U.S. Army before his 18th birthday. He spent a total of five years in the service, traveling the globe and using music to make friends.
“I held a rifle in one hand and a guitar in the other,” he laughed. “I’d run into guys from New York and New Jersey who’d never heard (bluegrass) before. They were raised on Frank Sinatra. They’d hear this music for the first time and like it, and understand there’s a different culture other than theirs.”
The Army was like a melting pot, Quesenberry said, allowing him to share his creativity and also learn about others.
After a while, he found himself stationed in California, where in 1950 he married and settled down to raise a family.
For more than 20 years he played country music with folks who didn’t know too much about bluegrass.
Then, in the 1970s, pockets of bluegrass began to appear – thanks to hippies in search of an authentic American sound.
“I remember standing with a band that was four hippies, and me in a three-piece suit, and them in their old clothes they slept in all week,” Quesenberry said. ” But the point of it is, they were good musicians.”
Bluegrass fit their anti-establishment philosophy, he said. “They wanted stuff that was true. They didn’t want phony stuff.”
Eventually Quesenberry hooked up with banjo player and attorney Carl Pagter. The two of them discussed starting an association for bluegrass enthusiasts, and after filing the appropriate papers, the CBA was launched.
“We became fast friends,” said Pagter, who sits on the International Bluegrass Music Museum’s board of trustees. “He’s been a great bluegrass musician, a natural-born performer, comedian and just down-to-earth friend.”
Museum director Gabrielle Gray said Quesenberry’s story would now live forever. The Video Oral History Project, she said, is the museum’s seminal project, and “one of the foremost archival projects in the nation at this time.”
Still, Quesenberry jokes he’s among the “old farts” now. But his guitar picking is as sharp as his wits.
Tony Burchyns covers Morgan Hill for The Times. Reach him at (408) 779-4106 ext. 201 or tb*******@mo*************.com.
