In 2015, Longbranch resident Susan Quigley signed up for a ukulele class while vacationing in Hawaii.
“I loved it; it spoke to me,” she said. After she returned home, she began playing with a few friends. “We were lousy, but we had a good time.”
Word spread and the group evolved. The South Sound Strummers gather weekly and now include a fiddler, a single-string bass, guitars, accordion, banjo and singers.
The backstories vary. Some have formal music training and others started playing on a whim. Some have known each other since childhood and others are relative newcomers. They all love playing together with an occasional opportunity to perform.
“I love how the harmonies fill the room,” said ukulele player Lynn Lloyd.
Mark Runions, who has performed professionally as a pianist, brings his guitar and accordion skills to the sessions. Ron Cummins plays on the single string bass he built from a steel canister, sapling, paddle and clothesline.
The Strummers perform on occasion, primarily during the Christmas season. “Performing makes us focus,” said vocalist and uke player Ann Morris. “And Christmas music takes us back to childhood.”
Meanwhile, the Wednesday Wonder Band owes its start to a family reunion in Lakebay.
Diane Grant comes from a musical family. The youngest of six, she and her guitar-playing brothers spent summers in cabins on Delano Bay. She started playing the fiddle in earnest when she was in her 50s. Her family reunites every summer, and every day includes music on the back porch.
Cathy Williams, who now lives in the house her parents built in Home, also spent summers at the Delano cabins, including music around the campfire with the Grants. Williams took piano lessons from her mother until junior high, began playing oboe when she was 10, and banjo and guitar a few years later. She hosted hootenannies at her house through high school and supplemented her income as a busker at the Pike Place Market.
By the time she stopped by the Grants during a family reunion, Williams had put her guitar aside. As usual, there was a jam on the porch. She borrowed a guitar and has never looked back. She now keeps several groups organized and arranges open mic events and a monthly hootenanny at The Mustard Seed Project.
Russell and Nadiene Van Dyke, who moved to Lakebay in 2020, met Grant at a neighborhood party, and started playing together that evening. In no time they were part of both the Wonder Band and the Strummers.
The Van Dykes met each other while performing in a community production of “Guys and Dolls” when they were at Stanford. Nadiene, a music and performance major, was cast as alto Sarah Brown, who was on a mission to save gamblers. Russell, a pre-med student who played in a garage band and taught guitar, joined the chorus. On closing night, he plucked a gardenia from someone’s garden and presented it to her.
Two years later they were married and living in Milwaukee where Russell was in medical school. Nadiene put performance on the back burner, teaching and then working as an administrator as they raised a family there, then in San Diego and New Orleans. They got involved in the San Diego Folk Festival and joined the San Diego Folk Song Society. Russell took up the banjo.
When they moved to New Orleans, Nadiene joined an acapella choir with many professional singers. Russell became part of Hazel and the Delta Ramblers. “We played mostly old-time and bluegrass music, which was a bit of a niche in New Orleans,” he said.
“It was remarkable to move from the big city to here and find way more music,” Russell said. Both he and Nadiene also play with the Strummers. “We didn’t play music with nearly as many people as we do here. People are eager to get together and play.”
Other Wonder Band members include mandolin player Bill Hay, who comes from a family of professional musicians but didn’t start to play until he was 65 and overtaken by “old age and boredom — just like (with) pickleball.” String bass player Tom Zim also came from a musical family and played in a band in high school, but only “really took up the bass” after he retired. Runions brings his guitar and his accordion.
The Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association meets at The Mustard Seed each month, and a few people come just to listen. The instruments — fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bass and guitar — vary from month to month. So do the players, sometimes from as far away as Tacoma, taking turns choosing what to perform.
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