Bluegrass pioneer back with fiery band.

Byline: LEWIS TAYLOR The Register-Guard

KATHY KALLICK remembers the first lesson she learned from playing with the Good Ol' Persons, a bluegrass band that lasted for two decades and helped pave the way for female bluegrass musicians before disbanding.

"The main thing I learned was that I had a lot more fun playing with a group than performing solo," Kallick said, speaking by telephone from her home in Oakland, Calif. "The dynamic of playing with people, that was so compelling for me. I just didn't have time for stage fright."

Kallick and her current bluegrass outfit, the Kathy Kallick Band, will play at the Coburg Grange Hall on Saturday. Since May is international bluegrass month, this is as good a time as any for Kallick's long overdue return to the Northwest. The show, Kallick's first here in three years, is being presented by the Oregon Bluegrass Association.

Kallick's fiery band complements her enthusiastic singing, writing and guitar playing - all skills that have been well honed. Before she co-founded the Good Ol' Persons in 1975, Kallick was a solo folk performer who struggled with her nerves on the stages of Chicago.

Not only did the Good Ol' Persons help her blossom as a performer, but it helped open the door for other female bluegrass musicians. The group was one of the first bluegrass bands to feature the singing and songwriting of women, something that is still considered a minor taboo in parts of the Southeast, Kallick said.

"I don't know why that is, because there are wonderful women musicians," Kallick said.

"It just doesn't make any sense to us."

After the Good Ol' Persons splintered in the early 1990s, Kallick returned briefly to solo recording and contributed to several different compilation albums including the Grammy-winning "True-Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe."

As a soloist, she explored different avenues including folk, rock, jazz and pop, but eventually found herself drawn back to bluegrass.

"I came out of that with a renewed interest in playing bluegrass," Kallick said. "I have really enjoyed throwing myself into the sounds of traditional bluegrass."

Kallick's interest in bluegrass first began with Bill Monroe. In addition to her contribution to the Monroe tribute album, she wrote a master's degree thesis about his life and work. He was not only a great player, she said, but also a great supporter of the music.

"He didn't make any judgments about people. He was very open-minded and lived a little outside of his time," Kallick said. "I think that open-mindedness permeates bluegrass if you let it."

In casting her bluegrass band, Kallick sought out familiar musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area, all of whom had sat in with the Good Ol' Persons.

Tom Bekeny (mandolin, fiddle, harmony vocals) and Avram Siegel (banjo, guitar, harmony vocals) had both played extensively with Kallick. Amy Stenberg (acoustic bass, harmony and lead vocals) met Kallick when she was 16, and became a regular presence at Kallick's shows.

Kallick calls her band the "most bluegrass" of all her collaborations. Originally intended as a vehicle for her solo songs, the group has begun to take on its own identity. The band's "Monroe-based" sound leaves room for women players and traditional influences and, Kallick said, does not fit the mold of the jazzier, softer, West Coast bluegrass bands.

"It definitely has a very traditional bluegrass sound, but we're really drawn to country songs that we can turn into bluegrass songs," Kallick said. "Our mandolin player is very bluesy. I think all that gives us a bit of a distinction, that and the fact that we have a lot of original songs."

Although steeped in tradition, many of Kallick's songs have been reworked to make them more relevant. "Who's Goin' Down to Town?" a traditional tune originally about tobacco, has been recast as a more hopeful song about finding new uses for tobacco fields that have grown fallow.

"When we do a Jimmy Martin song, it's going to sound different just by the very nature that it's being sung by a woman," Kallick said. "It's going to have a very different message."

Kallick's most recent release, a solo album called "My Mother's Voice," features folk songs she learned from her mother, a folk singer. Kallick also was also influenced by her father, a classical guitarist. Growing up to the strains of folk music and jazz, Kallick got her first guitar at age 10.

"Being a musician was always neck and neck with being an artist," Kallick said. "Two practical career choices."

After studying art at the San Francisco Art Institute, Kallick opted to become a musician and hasn't looked back since. She's currently at work on a new album with her band. Although she still paints occasionally, music and motherhood now command most of her attention.

After more than 25 years in the business, Kallick has seen some welcome changes in bluegrass, and she has seen some things stubbornly remain the same. She says the popularity of Americana music from the film "O' Brother Where Art Thou" has had a less significant effect on the bluegrass scene than many have suggested, but she has seen a greater acceptance of the music as a result of the film.

"I haven't seen an impact so much on performances. What I have noticed is just an increased consciousness of bluegrass as a form of music," Kallick said. `For a lot of people, it's just been irrelevant until now. Now they feel personally involved in it ... they don't have to think, `Is this something I heard in a Porky Pig cartoon I saw when I was 6?' Everybody knows what bluegrass is now.'

Entertainment reporter Lewis Taylor can be reached by phone at 338-2512 and by e-mail at [e-mail].

KATHY KALLICK BAND

WITH: The Emerald Valley Boys

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Coburg Grange Hall, 32663 E. Mill St., Coburg

TICKETS: $10

ALSO: To hear music by the Kathy Kallick Band, call GuardLine at 485-2000 and select category 3475

CAPTION(S):

The Kathy Kallick Band has begun to take on its own identity. KATHY KALLICK BAND WITH: The Emerald Valley Boys WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday WHERE: Coburg Grange Hall, 32663 E. Mill St., Coburg TICKETS: $10 ALSO: To hear music by the Kathy Kallick Band, call GuardLine at 485-2000 and select category 3475