Del City’s bluegrass hot spot

Del City’s bluegrass hot spot

By Eric Bradshaw, staff writer
The Sun

A large crowd was on hand Saturday evening at the Greater Oklahoma Bluegrass Music Society’s monthly show, held at the Oklahoma Country-Western Museum and Hall of Fame.

The club rotates more than 150 bands through the museum, according to Del City resident Melba Arnold, who is in charge of publicity and the monthly program.

Melba and her husband Glen were not always into bluegrass but they did like country, she said.

“I grew up with country music and I liked listening to that in the Grand Ole Opry,” Melba said.

But after moving to Del City some 30 years ago and working at Tinker Air Force Base, they ran into a coworker who performed in a bluegrass band.

“When we began working at Tinker, we both worked with a lady who played in a bluegrass band and she tried to get us to go to performances. We went and we were hooked. I thought we were back at the Grand Ole Opry,” she said.

The couple found out about GOBMS also, which at the time held performances at Midwest City’s community center.

In 2002, the club, which has been around since 1977, began holding its performances in the Oklahoma County-Western Museum and Hall of Fame.

The building used to hold a number of large country stars and events, Melba said.

The Del City couple have made bluegrass their hobby for the past 20 years, she said. Melba is a retired secretary from TAFB while her husband has returned as a contractor after retiring from the base as an electrical engineer.

Three Oklahoma-based bands performed Saturday — The Graystone Bluegrass Revival of Newcastle, the Bonham Brothers Reunion and Cedar Ridge of Shawnee.

Each band got a bit of time in a practice room before their performance. Meanwhile another band not performing that night and a number of musical individuals were playing in other rooms — what the club’s members call jam sessions.

According to Melba, her husband produced 31 DVDs from Saturday’s show, which they give to the bands and to friends.

Next month will bring a lot of young talent through the museum. The Rockin’ Acoustic Guitar band out of Broken Arrow’s oldest member is 15, Melba said. Virgil Bonham of the Bonham Brothers Reunion will be back with Jim P. Blair, Clifford Parrett and the next generation of the family’s bluegrass performers — Shilah, Brittany and David Bonham. The band, the Bonham Revue, is listed on the GOBMS Web site as a club favorite. A third band, Glory Bound Bluegrass out of Oklahoma City, will also perform.

The next performance will begin at 6:30 p.m. March 8. The doors to the Oklahoma Country-Western Museum and Hall of Fame open though at 5 p.m.