12
SOUND CHECK
APRIL 13–20, 2022
WHAT’S PLAYING AROUND
THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
A bluegrass blast from the past
EOCenes first
played together
50 years ago
By Lisa Britton
Go! Magazine
B
AKER CITY — Bluegrass
music will finally fill Churchill
School when the EOCenes per-
form live on Saturday, April 23.
They were supposed to play
on March 20, 2020.
“We’re just two years and a
month behind schedule,” Duane
Boyer said with a chuckle.
Doors open for the concert
at 6 p.m., and the music starts at
6:45 p.m. Tickets are $10 in ad-
vance at www.churchillbaker.com,
or $15 at the door. Admission is
free for youth age 15 and younger
who attend with a ticket-holding
adult. Proof of vaccination or a
negative COVID test is required.
Churchill is located at 3451
Broadway St., but enter through
the 16th Street parking lot.
The EOCenes formed at
Eastern Oregon College (now
Eastern Oregon University) in
La Grande. The musicians were
members of the EOC Ambas-
sadors from 1969-1971, and
EOCENES IN
CONCERT
Saturday, April 23
Doors open at 6 p.m.
Churchill School, 3451
Broadway St., Baker City
$10 in advance, $15 at the
door
www.churchillbaker.com
performed concerts around the
Northwest as a recruiting pro-
gram for the college.
After graduation, the musi-
cians went their separate ways
and played with various bands
throughout the years.
Boyer said they gathered
again at a festival about 12
years ago.
“We had such a good time,”
he said.
They all remembered their
parts from songs they’d per-
formed 40 years in the past.
“Having played together for so
long, everything was ingrained in
our minds,” Boyer said.
They decided to become a
regular bluegrass band and, in
typical years, play six to seven
times during what Boyer calls
“music season.” The members
are Boyer, Hal Spence, Hugh
Duane Boyer/Contributed photo
The EOCenes will play Saturday, April 23, at Churchill School in Baker City.
McClellan, Ron Emmons, Alan
Feves and Doug Jenkins.
They play bluegrass “from
old to new” — songs from the
1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s up to cur-
rent music.
“We’ve taken newer songs
and given them a bluegrass
treatment,” Boyer said.
He said bluegrass really got
started in 1946, and gained pop-
ularity with the movies “Bonnie
and Clyde,” “Deliverance” and
“Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?”
Although bluegrass festivals
are held around the Northwest,
Boyer said it’s quite popular on
the East Coast, where multiple
bluegrass festivals are held dur-
ing summer weekends.
As for the EOCenes, they
didn’t have any concerts in
2020, and played just a couple
times in 2021. This year, Boyer
said they “have a fairly full
lineup” beginning with the
Churchill concert.
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