In the early 1980s—long before most people had heard of the internet—bluegrass was just beginning to take hold in Oregon and southwest Washington. Stew Dodge was running a festival in Clark County, and George Rellis was producing events in Eugene, but there was little continuity between musicians or regions.
From Steve Waller’s perspective, the Oregon Bluegrass Association was fundamentally about communication—responding to what was on the minds of the people who were trying to build a bluegrass community at the time. Although the OBA was founded more than 25 years ago, many of its original members remain active in bluegrass and in the broader musical community today.
Claire Levine spoke with two of those founders back in 2008: Steve Reischman, the organization’s first president and a longtime member of Eugene’s Good n’ Country, and Steve Waller, who has performed classic bluegrass for nearly 40 years as a member of the Sawtooth Mountain Boys. While both shared a deep passion for the music, they held different perspectives on what the organization should become. What they shared, however, was energy, commitment, and the skills needed to build a strong organization with an effective communication network—well before online tools existed.
“We’d see each other at festivals, and there were pickin’ parties—some of the earliest,” Waller recalled. “People were just getting to know each other. We were doing what you’d call networking today. We’d often run into people who said, ‘I like bluegrass, and I’d like to know more about it, but I don’t know how to find anybody who plays it.’”
As those musicians became friends, they agreed there needed to be a more formal way to connect people and strengthen the bluegrass community.
They agreed there needed to be a way to spread the word—to each other, and to others who might be interested in the music. As Steve Waller put it, “There needs to be some way we can find each other and let each other know what’s going on.” Much of that early thinking happened informally, at picking parties, with musicians such as Sonny Hammond and Frank and Irene Nelson, who later donated some of the start-up funds that helped get the organization off the ground.
The idea finally came together at one of Steve Waller’s parties in 1981. “We just said, ‘We’ll do it.’” Among those present at the first meeting were Joe Ross—who later founded the Myrtle Creek Festival and the Yahoo NW Bluegrass list; Rick Winter, former bass player for Sam Hill and a familiar presence at Portland-area jams; Meryle Korn, a longtime force in Portland’s folklore community; and Fred and Sue Langner, the first editors of The Bluegrass Express.
At the time, Oregon was awash with strong bluegrass bands: Dr. Corn’s Bluegrass Remedy, the Muddy Bottom Boys, the Sawtooth Mountain Boys, Good ’n Country, and many others. Those bands contributed their mailing lists and helped spread the word about the new organization. “So we kept pushing it—all of us together—to get more people picking and attending shows,” Waller said. “We just wanted some line of communication.”
Steve Reischman came to the organization both as a musician—having long performed with his brother, mandolinist John Reischman, and with a range of Oregon groups—and as someone interested in promotion. He viewed the OBA as a serious organization that would support the business of bluegrass, rather than simply operate as a fan club. His goal was to bring the music to a wider audience in a more professional format. At the time, performance opportunities were limited. “The only place to play was the East Avenue Tavern,” he recalled.
The founders wanted more venues. They wanted to support business owners willing to take a chance on bluegrass, and they wanted to support bands trying to earn a living. One important goal, Reischman said, was “to fight the Hee Haw factor—to make people aware of the intelligent music that was being performed and called bluegrass.”
That emphasis on professionalism was shared by Steve Waller. “We wanted people to know that bluegrass wasn’t just some kind of street music,” he said. “We wanted it to have credibility—to be considered part of the American folk tradition. It wasn’t ‘hillbilly music’ to be laughed at, an attitude we had to fight hard in the earliest days of Sawtooth.”
Whether it was the organization—or simply the right moment in time—after the OBA formed, Oregonians had many more opportunities to hear high-quality bluegrass. Around that period, Steve Reischman received a $10,000 grant from the Oregon Burger King franchise to start a bluegrass concert series at the Oregon Zoo, known as Zoograss. “My focus was to bring in the really stellar people who represented the original bluegrass world,” he said. Zoograss featured national artists such as J.D. Crowe, Doyle Lawson, and Ralph Stanley, alongside top regional bands.
Not long after, the OBA itself began bringing national acts to Oregon, including Bill Monroe.
It is not the purpose of this article to fully document the activity, spirit, and energy of the OBA’s founders—that is a story for another issue. Still, it is impossible to write about the organization’s early years without acknowledging Sonny Hammond. “Sonny was the heart and soul of the organization,” Reischman said.
It was Hammond who proposed encouraging regional bands to build on their gospel repertoire and create a dedicated all-gospel event. That idea became the Gospel Show, which remains the OBA’s principal fundraising event. After Hammond’s death in 1998, the organization named the annual Gospel Show in his honor.
While Steve Reischman’s career has since expanded well beyond bluegrass alone, he continues to carry his early vision for the OBA. “I think the OBA should be working to create interest in the music, raise the bar of professionalism among performing bands, and support the business of bluegrass,” he said.
