>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

BLUEGRASS AND AMERICANA: Summit Ridge puts a special polish on folk music. (Submitted photo).

LA GRANDE - Local band Summit Ridge will be featured artists for the First Friday Concert.

The Northeast Oregon Folklore Society hosts First Friday Concert this coming Friday in La Grande.

As usual there will be an open mic at 7 p.m., with singers, songwriters, the folk equivalent of "American Idol." Summit Ridge will begin playing at 7:30 p.m.

The concert is at the Olde Meeting House, 901 M Ave.. Admission is $5, or $3 for folklore society members. Kids get in free. There will be a short intermission for coffee, tea and homemade cookies.

Summit Ridge has been performing bluegrass and Americana music for the past five years, and has polished the act as much as folk music can be, according to their websites. From the web page: "Summit Ridge is a bluegrass band, more or less. At least that was the original intent."

"Mike and I have been playing and singing together for more than 10 years," says Sharon Porter, bass player and lead vocalist. Having earned some college degrees studying music, Sharon spent several years singing in jazz combos in her native Midwest. After moving to La Grande she met bass player Mike Snider and, along with several others, formed the popular folk band The Geritones.

Snider, the band's bluegrass veteran and lead vocalist, soon gave up his bass to pursue the five-string banjo, and Sharon was ready to get back to her roots in bluegrass music. With Sharon now on bass and Mike playing a fiery five-string, and the two of them recreating those ‘high lonesome' harmonies, a band was in the works.

Thacher Carter has been playing guitar and singing his original songs as a solo act in the Grande Ronde Valley for several years and recordings of his work are available in regional music stores. He has developed a unique twist on the Piedmont finger-picking guitar style, which complements his blues-flavored original numbers and covers.

With Summit Ridge, he is not only writer and lead vocalist, but he also gets to stretch out a little farther instrumentally — adding bluegrass flatpicking, with a touch of swing and jazz, to his repertory— and his original numbers can take on a whole new character with the full band backup.

Dave Felley knows mandolins inside and out. With a background in both classical and blues guitar and a love of bluegrass, Felley set about learning to play the mandolin — building his own instrument along the way.

His bluegrass initiation into mandolin music eventually led to a discovery of gypsy-jazz, swing, old-time and classical works. Now — along with contributing both lead and harmony vocals — he provides the signature instrument of a bluegrass band, showing exceptional skill in dancing along that fine line between strong traditional playing and improvisational creativity.

"Well, I auditioned for the part of lead vocalist. Afterward, everybody was speechless — so, I think they're considering it," says Matt Snook, who's been with the band for three years now. "Meanwhile, I get to play dobro, which fits me really well since I'm an iconoclast. I always wanted to be an iconoclast, ever since I learned how to pronounce it.

"And I like playing dobro," Snook adds, "because — well, people don't even know what the thing is, so they just assume I know what I'm doing. That leaves me a lot of latitude in what I play, and that can come in handy."

The dobro plays a big part in bluegrass, of course.

This unique combination of musical background and instrumentation yields a bluegrass band that strays indefinitely into blues, jazz, swing, folk and fun.