FIDDLING AROUND BLUEGRASS ENJOYS HEALTHY VALLEY CLIMATE.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

BLUEGRASS TRAVELED down from the mountain to the San Fernando Valley long before the Coen brothers made it fashionable with their film ``O Brother, Where Art Thou.''

The proof came on a recent Saturday night, when more than 300 bluegrass enthusiasts crowded into the Encino Community Center to hear the Witcher Brothers play.

It was standing room only when the Granada Hills-based ensemble fronted by mandolin player Dennis Witcher stepped onto the stage. The band delivered an hour of spirited bluegrass gospel tunes, unrequited love songs and homespun cracks that were aimed mostly at Witcher's fiddle-playing son, Gabe, who was sporting a mohawk that night.

``I don't know if you noticed,'' Witcher told the audience. ``Gabe's been out touring with a rock band for the last year and a half,'' adding that since his son has been back from playing bass with Eve 6 ``we make him sing all of our gospel material.''

Laughs were heard all around the auditorium as the 23-year-old on the hot seat took the lead on a song about man's salvation. Like many pieces of the Witcher Brothers' repertoire that night, ``Man in the Middle'' was steeped in heritage.

Bluegrass originated out of Kentucky in the 1940s with the hot-rodding Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys, whose brand of revved up country got peoples' pulses racing.

Today the music is still lively - although the walls have come down a bit - and thriving in such places as the Valley, where the bluegrass community centers around the Canoga Park-based Blue Ridge Pickin' Parlor.

Like a little piece of the Appalachians transplanted to the Valley, the Pickin' Parlor has been the place where, since 1976, people find five- string banjos, bluegrass records and songbooks. Back rooms are reserved for students, who are schooled in everything from fiddle to dobro. There's even a workshop, where instruments are repaired.

But the shop has become a curiosity to many seeking to know more about bluegrass in the wake of ``O Brother.'' The soundtrack has sold in excess of 4 million copies without the support of commercial country radio and spawned the highly anticipated Down From the Mountain tour.

Some call to find out where they can see live bluegrass, which, according to the Bluegrass Association of Southern California, regularly goes on at such places as the Granada Hills Baker's Square Restaurant, Lakewood's Me and Ed's Pizza and Encino's California Traditional Music Society - as well as at festivals such as the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest & Folk Festival coming to Paramount Ranch on May 19.

Others ask their instructors to teach them songs from ``O Brother.''

The Rev. Marvin O'Dell, 56, host of the music program ``Bluegrass Express'' 7 to 10 a.m. Saturdays on KCSN-FM (88.5), says he didn't think much of ``O Brother'' at first.

Then the phone calls started coming into the radio station on the campus of California State University, Northridge, from first-time listeners. One 20-something man, O'Dell recollected with a chuckle, ``was so thrilled about the music you'd think he discovered gold.''

Ben Elder, who works behind the counter at the Pickin' Parlor and who from 6 to 8 a.m. Saturdays hosts the music program ``Wildwood Flower'' on KPFK-FM (90.7), is encouraged by the ``O Brother'' craze.

``Trendiness often excludes this music, but we're at one of those rare times when it doesn't,'' Elder, 48, said. ``Those of us who love this organic music, this wood and metal music, have to do what we can to represent it and encourage it and try to augment the enjoyment of other people who are just discovering it for the first time.''

While people in the bluegrass community have witnessed small peaks of interest in the music as the result of other such films as ``Bonnie and Clyde,'' ``Deliverance'' and ``Songcatcher,'' they've never seen a reaction like this.

Michael Witcher remembered practicing ``Man of Constant Sorrow'' on his dobro during his lunch hour at Santa Monica College. He had been hired to play a theater opening in conjunction with the ``O Brother'' release.

While some of his earliest memories were listening to bluegrass music, Witcher was not as familiar with the traditional mountain song as he was with the music of, say, Flatt and Scruggs. He didn't even pick up dobro until age 14, when his father, who held regular living-room jams, suggested it to him.

A year later, he was sitting in with the Witcher Brothers and teaching other people how to play. Witcher now teaches at the Pickin' Parlor and spends his time between music festivals and regular gigs. At 20, he has performed with such artists as Dolly Parton and Tony Rice.

But on that day Witcher was rehearsing ``Man of Constant Sorrow,'' he got caught off-guard when a student sitting nearby recognized the song and started to sing along.

``Here's a person who would never go out and listen to folk music and bluegrass music; they just wouldn't, and yet they know the song by heart,'' he said. ``I'm thinking, 'Wow, this is awesome,' because a lot of people have gotten in touch with American roots music because of the soundtrack, which isn't even bluegrass. It's old-time music.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Gabe Witcher took some ribbing over his appearance Saturday from his fellow bluegrass musicians (and family), the Witcher Brothers, who played in Encino.

(2) The Witcher Brothers played a packed house of 300 ``wood and metal'' music fans Saturday at the Encino Community Center.

Joe Binoya/Staff Photographer