Finger pickin’ good: A banjo champ returns

When Zach Gilmer was a baby the “high lonesome” sound of Bill Monroe, father of bluegrass music, lulled him to sleep.
By the time he had exchanged booties for real boots, his dad was taking him to bluegrass festivals within driving distance of their farm near Ivy. When he asked for a banjo for his 10th birthday, he got a Montana model for beginners.

He didn’t stay a beginner for long. In late March, at the ripe old age of 17, Gilmer landed a fulltime gig playing banjo with the popular bluegrass group Carrie Hassler and Hard Rain.
The picking phenom’ recently visited home for a few days after returning from performances in France. Tomorrow evening the band will be headlining at the Blue Ridge Music Center in Galax.
“Bluegrass music in France is huge,” said Gilmer who in 2007 became Virginia’s Adult State Banjo Champion. “Bill Monroe first sparked the interest there, and since then people like Ronda Vincent and Cadillac Sky and many others have played there.
“Our first performance was at Country Rendez-Vous Festival in Crappone-Sur-Arzon, France. There were more than 18,000 people in the audience.
“The festival had bluegrass bands from all over Europe. In the process of them trying to copy the bluegrass sound, they’ve come up with their own sound.
“We call it eurograss. It’s completely different, but it’s good. It’s not by any means traditional bluegrass, but they got their own culture involved in it, which is cool.”

Playing banjo for a band in the league of Hard Rain shows how far Gilmer has come as a musician in a relatively short period of time. He turned professional when he was 15 after landing a job playing for Gold Heart.
Then about a year ago a rumor started circulating through the bluegrass grapevine that Hard Rain’s banjo player, Josh Miller, might be moving on. Slowly, but with a seemingly meant-to-be certainty, things started falling into place for Gilmer.
“Last year when I was playing for Gold Heart we went to the International Bluegrass Music Association’s convention in Nashville,” said Gilmer who is finishing high school via home-school courses. “I met Alex Hibbitts there, and we jammed a bit and became friends.
“He liked my playing, and last November he asked me to play on a couple songs on a record he was putting out. I did that, and mentioned I was wanting to do something different, and was looking for a job.
“Alex is in the professional loop, and was my connection in Tennessee. Last March I got a text message at three in the morning from him saying that he thought Carrie Hassler was going to have an opening. They were one of my favorite bands, ever, and I told him I’d love to get an audition.”

Gilmer had already learned all the songs from Hard Rain’s first album. He immediately started learning the songs on their latest release, CHHR2, just in case a miracle happened.
A week passed without a call, but Gilmer went right on practicing. When he had all but lost hope, the phone rang. On the other end of the line was Jamie Harper, Hard Rain’s fiddle player.
“Jamie said, “Hey, we were wondering if you had your banjo handy?” Gilmer said, a smile coming to his face. “It just so happened I was practicing one of their songs.
“In bluegrass the B chord is where you capo the fourth fret and play B major. That’s our favorite key to play in, because everything feels so good. The epitome of bluegrass music is in the B chord.
“I said, ‘Well, I just learned ‘Fickle Heart,’ would you want me to play that for you?’ He said he did, and I played it over the telephone note for note. When I finished he said, ‘We may be onto something here.’
“Then I heard him talking in the background saying, ‘The boy is slammed up into B chord, ready to go.’ ”
Gilmer’s telephone performance earned him an audition. If the young man ever needs to name the place where his career was launched up into the big time, it’s likely to be the Cedar Bluff exit in Tennessee. That’s where Hibbitts introduced him to Hard Rain musicians Kevin and Keith McKinnon, who drove him on to Hassler’s home nearby.

“We got to Carrie’s house, and I’m like, ‘Man, I’m at Carrie Hassler’s house,” Gilmer said. “She had something wrong with her throat, and couldn’t sing.
“To make matters worse, I was asked to do the audition a few days earlier then I had been scheduled to do it. I knew all the songs, but I hadn’t completely learned everything solid.
“But I felt like the audition clicked, and I was thinking, ‘This is the band I’m supposed to be playing for. This is the kind of music I love to play, and these are my kind of people.’ Of course I didn’t know what they were thinking.
“When I finished, the guys all went out to the garage to look at this new piece of sound equipment. I’m stuck in the house with Carrie, looking at the ceiling.”

Gilmer learned later that the musicians were actually in the garage discussing his fate. Meanwhile, Hassler offered the banjo player some fresh strawberries.
“I had this huge strawberry in my mouth when Kevin comes in,” Gilmer said. “He slaps me on the chest and says, ‘You got the gig, man.’
“I about choked on the strawberry.”
A few days later on March 28, Gilmer was taking the stage with Hard Rain at the Early Bird Bluegrass Festival in Hugo, Okla. Since then they’ve played venues such as the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival, Graves Mountain Festival of Music in Syria and at Bill Monroe Music Park in Indiana.
Before leaving France, Hard Rain performed at the International Bluegrass Festival in La Roche sur Foron. Gilmer said they were treated like royalty.

“After our last performance in France this French guy who was also a banjo player came up and shook my hand,” Gilmer said. “He was almost in tears, because he loved the music so much.
“I’m a nobody, I just play bluegrass music. But because I play with Carrie Hassler he treated me like I was important, and it made me feel important — not that I am.
“But just the fact that I know some little French guy had a good time watching me play, that right there will keep me going for awhile.”