Bluegrass benefits: Clarke couple's concerts aid school athletics

View larger image Cyndy and Frank Jurney stand between bluegrass posters in their home office in Shenandoah Farms in Clarke County. The couple are the founding organizers for the Berryville Bluegrass Series, a major fundraiser for the Clarke County High School Eagles Athletic Association. Rich Cooley/Daily View larger image Jurney looks over a collection of bluegrass CDs that fills bookcases in his home office. He estimates he owns between 800 and 1,000 bluegrass albums. Rich Cooley/Daily

CORRECTION: A story published Thursday should have said that of the $20,000 the Berryville Bluegrass Series raised last year for the Clarke County High School Eagles Athletic Association, $4,000 was used for scholarships.

By Josette Keelor -- jkeelor@nvdaily.com

BERRYVILLE -- As the Berryville Bluegrass Series nears the heart of its ninth season, founders Frank and Cyndy Jurney, of Shenandoah Farms in Clarke County, can practically just sit back and watch the music program run itself.

"We have a 480-seat auditorium, and this year we have 400 season ticket holders," says Jurney. Many of the dates are already sold out, he said, but people still come from all over the area to listen to bluegrass bands at Johnson-Williams Middle School in Berryville.

The next show is at 3 p.m. Sunday and will feature a CD release concert with Bill Yates and the Country Gentlemen Tribute Band Volume II. The concert will benefit the JWMS Athletic Boosters.

Amazingly, the economy has not made a dent in the crowds flocking to see the best that bluegrass has to offer, the Jurneys say.

"We were really worried [at first]," says Mrs. Jurney.

"We picked up 60 new season ticket holders last year," her husband adds. At $20 per concert on the season-ticket plan, that's no small feat. The bluegrass series keeps on truckin'.

"We've been doing this so long, since 1985," Jurney says of bringing musical talent to the area. "We're pretty much attuned to what's out there."

"We knew of 'em [local bands]," Mrs. Jurney says.

"Through our connections," her husband adds.

Jurney, 69, passionate in his love for bluegrass music, quickly jumped on board when his wife, 55, came up with the idea for hosting local and nationally known bands.

"We went from one concert, now we do six or seven during the wintertime [from October to March]," Jurney says. Mrs. Jurney formed the idea shortly after moving to the area from Maryland with her husband in 1982. She was vice president in charge of fundraising with the Shenandoah Farms Volunteer Fire Department in the 1980s and planned a bluegrass concert to raise funds.

The idea caught on and became a tradition. Before long, organizations around the area were seeking help from the Jurneys to plan fundraisers.

Mrs. Jurney, who had taken several years off from work after the move, soon returned to work and began a job as bookkeeper and the athletic director's secretary with Clarke County High School. She realized the benefit of using the concert series as a fundraiser for the CCHS Eagles Athletic Association.

Because the middle school hosts the concerts to benefit the high school, the Jurneys decided that Sunday's concert ought to give back to the middle school.

What seems to draw in the crowds is the friendly atmosphere, the Jurneys agree.

"Bluegrass is a very tight-knit community," Jurney says. "Everybody's on the same page, everybody wants the same thing" -- namely, a "nice, clean environment for concerts."

"It's alcohol-free, smoke-free," his wife says.

For the current season, the concert series has attracted the likes of Nothin' Fancy, Rhonda Vincent and The Rage, Roadside Cafe and Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out.

When IIIrd Tyme Out previously performed on the middle school's stage, so many people showed up to watch that the Jurneys were seating audience members on the stage behind the band. Concert officials joked that the audience had formed a IIIrd Tyme Tabernacle Choir, Jurney says.

"The competition for the entertainer's dollar is tough," he says.

But with perseverance and love for the musical genre, the Jurneys have solidified their footprint on the market in the Northern Shenandoah Valley. The Jurneys, both retired, keep up their lot in life for the sheer fun of it.

"We enjoy the concerts, we enjoy raising the money for the kids," says Jurney, who worked for 12 years at the Clarke County Sheriff's Office.

The couple also provide scholarships for graduating seniors in Clarke County. Last year, donations from the concert series tickets totaled $4,000, he says.

The couple, who have lived in Clarke County for 27 years, quite literally built their place in the community, fashioning into a dream home the tiny abandoned cabin in the woods they purchased on Old Oak Lane. They did not know a soul here when they moved to the country from Prince George's County and continued their lengthy commutes each day, Journey to Washington and his wife to Maryland.

"We could not be more enmeshed in a community than we are now," Mrs. Journey says.

For tickets or more information about the Berryville Bluegrass Series, call 837-2187 or visit the Web at www.berryvillebluegrass.com.