Members of the Green Mountain Bluegrass Band hold a jam of their own at guitarist Gary Dunbar's house
VIDEO:	Watch the Bluegrass Jam at Sam Bond's Garage (short version)
VIDEO:	Watch the Bluegrass Jam at Sam Bond's Garage (long version)
VIDEO:	Q & A with Sean Shanahan, banjo player and host of the Jam

The moment you walk through the door a rush of warm air comes from within. The inside has the look of an old barn that has been given new life. The walls are mostly knotted wood paneling, and the remainder is painted a welcoming tone of orange. It gives one the cozy feeling that there is a fire burning from the center of the room, creating a soft glow. Mellow music is the undertow making waves beneath the quiet murmurs of the crowd. This is Sam Bond’s Garage an hour before the weekly Bluegrass Jam begins.

“Here comes the man with the bass,” a customer yells excitedly. Towering over the crowd is a rather large man whose size is comparable to the giant, upright bass he is carrying through the parting sea of patrons. Behind him is Chuck Holloway, a man of smaller stature, but showing an enormous amount of character. Holloway is the man who started the Bluegrass Jam at Sam Bond’s 11 years ago.

Looking rather distinguished, dressed in mostly black with a coarse, salt and pepper beard, Holloway moves behind the bass player toward the stage. He has a banjo case in his right hand, a guitar in his left and a mandolin strapped to his back. Holloway plays all three instruments, and he’s been doing so for most of his life.

“I’ve been playing bluegrass for almost 35 years,” said Holloway, “and I am still friends with many people from all over the U.S. that I’ve met during the time I’ve played bluegrass music.”

It’s no surprise that Holloway is still in touch with many of his fellow bluegrass musicians.

“More than anything, it’s the camaraderie that bluegrass musicians have between themselves,” Holloway remarked. “We speak our own language; it’s like we all have a common bond in the heavens, and we were sent to earth to play the music.”

Sean Shanahan, another host of the Jam, has similar feelings about bluegrass musicians and the way they play.

“It’s like a vocabulary,” Shanahan explained. “It’s like you’re talking a language and you all know the vocabulary. If I start to say, ‘I’m gonna jump in the pool and get,’ someone might say, ‘wet!’”

The view from the stage at Sam Bond's Garage on Bluegrass Jam Night

This is very true of the music. Watching bluegrass being performed is like watching a vibrant musical communication in which all the band members know when to play a solo and when to remain in the more subtle background of supporting stanzas.

“Each individual has to step up to the mic by themselves and take a break when it’s their turn to take a solo, either to sing or play their instrument,” Holloway said. “Then, the soloist falls back into the ranks of an accompanist, rejoining the team, focusing on making the leads be the best they can be at the time,”

Sometimes this silent, intimately understood language of cues and accompaniment turns into hoops and hollers on stage. “Gary, you take it away!” and other such enthusiastic instructions are sometimes bellowed back and forth between the musicians. This is often met by an excited cry from the crowd.

Every night of the Jam, after the musicians have tuned their guitars and stopped poking fun at each other, a twangy sound begins to fill the room. It starts up suddenly, but makes a smooth transition into being the backdrop for the evening. The music flows from the stage and into the crowd, making feet tap and people smile. The musician have different styles of singing ­ some roar above the music, and others have a softer, quieter appeal. The music can be wild at times, but somehow it is always soothing.

Bluegrass music comes from old roots that are held in high regard by the people who play the music. “It’s folk music in that the roots and the music itself comes from people on their porches, not an academy somewhere or some institution,” Shanahan said.

Holloway shared his love for keeping this tradition alive, adding that not many people are literate in the ways of bluegrass music.

Bluegrass musicians hold a private jam at Gary Dunbar's house

“It’s an unbelievably rewarding experience knowing that as a bluegrass musician, I’m keeping the art of an ancient art form alive,” he said. “Basically, from any population base on the West Coast, only 2 percent of the general populous are familiar with what bluegrass music is.”

“Many of the songs performed today under the auspices of bluegrass music have Appalachian roots which is essentially formed by the heritage of people who settled in the Appalachians back in the 17- and 1800s . . . Irish, English, Scottish and African,” added Holloway.

A usual bluegrass band will include about five instruments ­ a banjo, a rhythm guitar, a mandolin, a bass and a fiddle. Most of the time, the musicians take turns singing and soloing in each song.

Audience members find it a moving musical experience.

“It never ceases to make me tap my foot or shake my bootie,” said Jim, a 15-year resident of the Whiteaker neighborhood where Sam Bond’s is located. Of the jam, he said, “It’s been going on for so long it’s sort of a fixture. It’s comforting. If I want bluegrass music all I have to do is wait until Tuesday.”

“Bluegrass music is a music form that, for some unknown reason, I’m drawn to like a moth to a flame,” said Holloway, who hosts the Bluegrass jam every first and third Tuesday. “It takes a certain flamboyant personality to play bluegrass music as an entertainer. I truly believe that by playing bluegrass music, I’m answering my calling. That’s what I was put here to do; make people happy and provide music so their hearts can sing, and their feet can dance.”