The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

I really do hate to use this column for promotional purposes, but I’d like to take this opportunity to put in a plug for an upcoming event.

If you’ve read my column for a while, you know that I don’t do this for most “upcoming events.” But the following upcoming event is special.

It helps to support local music.

And to keep an important piece of American folk culture alive.

And to teach adorable little kids how to play banjos twice their size.

And to give cranky, rebellious teenagers the ability to turn their lives around and become cranky, rebellious teenagers with mandolins.

In other words, attending this year’s Bluegrass at the Plaza counts as your good deed for the decade.

This incredibly classy musical event (with the understanding that “incredibly classy” means that the emcee is not allowed to chew gum onstage) is slated for Friday at 7 p.m. at the Plaza Theater. It will feature such incredible acts as Switchgrass, Rock Salt and Nails, Switchgrass, The Kuykendall Family, Switchgrass, Switchgrass, Kate and the Bluegrass Gentlemen, and Switchgrass, with a guest appearance by Switchgrass. (What can I say? We’re versatile.)

And just in case the fabulous variety of musical talent isn’t enough to get you in the door – or in the event that you get sick of my voice halfway into our set – there’s a fabulous silent auction in the lobby. I don’t have all the details on the silent auction, but it may include fabulous jewelry (as well as some slightly less fabulous stuff handmade by yours truly) and other art items.

In addition, there’s a bottle of wine up for bidding. As Kate Hockersmith, the superhuman who organized this thing, explained to my little brother at Switchgrass practice, “It costs $100, and even if you had $100 you couldn’t buy it, because it’s only available to a private wine club. We were very lucky to get some donated.”

“Oh,” I said. “I thought he couldn’t buy it even if he had $100 because he’s 15.”

“Oh, yeah,” she said. “That too.”

And now – the million (or at least 10)-dollar question – where does the money go?

Some will go to send the younger members of the Touchet Valley Acoustic Music Project – TVAMP – to the Lomax Project’s Appalachian bluegrass concert at the Powerhouse Theater in Walla Walla. (Microsoft Word recognizes “Lomax” as a name, but not “Philbrook”. This upsets me.)

Some will go to help the older TVAMP members attend Wintergrass, a huge international bluegrass festival in a swank hotel in Bellevue. It helps reignite our passion for the genre and gives us tons of great new ideas. (Also, you can’t get Cascade Mix popcorn on this side of the Cascades.)

And some will go to Emma Philbrook’s Pet Corgi Fund, a nonprofit that, while a very worthy cause, has nothing to do with bluegrass.

Okay, fine, so none of the money goes to that one. But still, not a bad use for ol’ Alexander Hamilton – or a free Friday evening.