By Adam Smith

The North Jefferson News



If you were driving down Beasley Road in Gardendale Monday night, you may have seen a stream of parked cars lining the street, near the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Bosworth.

The Bosworths opened their home to more than 100 special guests and some of the state’s best country and bluegrass talent.

Guests arrived at the house with acoustic and electric guitars, banjos, dobros, fiddles, bass guitars, keyboards and harmonicas to take part in a musical melting pot, staged in different rooms of the Bosworth’s home.

The holiday gathering has become a tradition to these pickers who come from Gardendale, Mt. Olive, Leeds, Shelby County and other parts of the state to join in the camaraderie.

“We decided several years ago that we would combine all the people we know who played music and have a big y’all come,” Mrs. Bosworth said. “That’s how we got to know all these people.”

However, the Bosworths said the main motivation for the large jam session is their love of people. “The older I get, the more obvious it becomes that people need people,” she said.

Upon entering the Bosworth’s home and walking up the stairs, a guest could hear one bluegrass band playing “Old Joe Clark” in the couple’s upstairs living room, complete with two banjos, two acoustic guitars, a dobro player and a champion fiddler, 19-year-old Kyra Key of Hoover.

Key, an engineering student at Georgia Tech, placed third place in the junior fiddlers division in the Georgia Official State Fiddlers Convention held on Oct. 22.

Down the hall, another bluegrass band assembled in a large closet. In the couple’s basement, two bands played simultaneously. In the couple’s downstairs recreation room, a group of six men played to a small audience. Through the recreation room door, another band, featuring a steel guitar, played a mix of honky tonk and gospel.

Bryan Knox of Mt. Olive, a champion auctioneer, sang the Conway Twitty song, “Linda On My Mind,” as four or five couples danced next to the Bosworth’s garage door.

Knox then left to join renowned bluegrass guitarist Glenn Tolbert and other musicians upstairs in the Bosworth’s foyer.

The Bosworths said they felt comfortable having so many musicians in their home because they, too, are musicians. Mr. Bosworth plays guitar and is the leader of Four Picks and a Bow, a five-piece band, that regularly plays at the Gardendale Senior Center. Mrs. Bosworth plays autoharp and has played piano since she was 6 years old.

“I didn’t start playing guitar until I was 50,” Mr. Bosworth said. Bosworth, now 69, is retired from ACIPCO. “I started playing and they said, ‘You have to sing.’ I had to learn to play and sing,” he said.

He said he preferred country to bluegrass, though he said he loved to play bluegrass. His wife said she prefers all kinds of music. “I just like happy music,” she said.

Kirby Parker, one of the Bosworth’s guests and vice president of the Alabama Bluegrass Music Association, said Monday night’s gathering is “the lifeblood” of bluegrass music.

“We’ve been doing this so long, it’s almost like a family reunion,” Parker said. “A lot of people only see each other at these events, but a lot of great friendships have developed out of these gatherings.”

He said he hosts similar gatherings at his home in Shelby County about twice a year that feature between 100 and 250 people.

Parker said the camaraderie of bluegrass is the key to its longevity. He explained that the genre is one of the few in which complete strangers can play the same songs together.

“Some people play the same tune a little bit different, but it’s music everybody knows,” he said. “They can sit down and play this music and you’d think they’ve been in a band for years.”

Some of the same performers who played at the Bosworth’s home will be featured at an upcoming benefit concert for the Alabama Bluegrass Association. The benefit, to be held Feb. 16 at the Bessemer Civic Center, will feature 20 bands over the course of 10 hours.

Admission for members is $5, while non-member tickets cost $10.