toledoblade.com --

Sherri Chekal of Redford, Mich., has always been ambitious when it comes to educating people about bluegrass. She plays banjo in a band called Deepwater Bluegrass. She's co-owner and art director for the Bluegrass Journal, a quarterly newspaper delivered in Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana, and she's the editor of buckeyebluegrass.com.

Now, she's focused on a more ambitious goal.

"I want to make Toledo the bluegrass capital of Ohio," she says matter of factly.

Driving home from a gig several months ago, it occurred to Chekal that she was always heading to shows around the state and in Michigan, but never in northwest Ohio.

"I asked myself, 'Why aren't there more bluegrass places to play in Toledo,'" says Chekal, formerly of Perrysburg. "The Ark [in Ann Arbor] has people like Ralph Stanley, Del McCoury, even Ricky Skaggs, and they'll pack the place for $40 to $50 a head. If they can do that 40 minutes away, why can't we do it for half the price?"

That was the genesis of the Glass City Opry, a bluegrass concert that takes place the second Monday of each month in the Maumee Indoor Theater on Conant Street. She and pals Jeff Birdwell and Dave Russell debuted the show on Aug. 13, featuring regional groups Hardline Drive and and Copus Hill.

Birdwell plays bass for Deepwater Bluegrass, and he and Chekal played at a bluegrass festival the weekend before the Glass City Opry debuted. There were maybe 100 people at the festival, counting spouses and boyfriends and girlfriends.

"We looked at each other. I just thought, 'Wow, we're going to lose our shirts doing this,'" Chekal says with a laugh.

But 191 people showed up for the first show in Maumee. This month, 204 people bought tickets. The next show will be Oct. 8 and will feature the Spanky Moore Gang and Rock Bottom Mining Co. Tickets are $8, and doors will open at 6 p.m. The show will begin at 7. Information about those groups and upcoming shows can be found at www.glasscityopry.com.

Just like the Ark, the aim of the Glass City Opry is to feature national acts, acts that rarely make an appearance in the Toledo area. The first of these, Honi Deaton & Dream, will be playing in Maumee on Dec. 10. The group has a national following and was recently nominated for a Dove Award.

Because of her longtime association with bluegrass, Chekal has built a pile of connections in the industry.

"People like Mountain Heart and J.D. Crowe think they could fill this theater in a heartbeat, but we need to build this slowly," Chekal says. "We're hoping every show we present has good, solid musicianship. We want the audience to trust us. They may not know who some of the groups are, but we want them to trust us.

"We want to make sure we bring in really good grass. Sometimes it will be a contemporary group, sometimes traditional. There are some really talented individuals out there who are writing amazing songs. This is the type of stuff Bill Monroe would have wanted. It's not washboards and harmonicas."

Congratulations to J.J. O'Shea and Jim Van Deilen. The hosts of the Sunday Ramble will mark five years on the air with their show at 7 p.m. Oct. 14 on WCWA-AM (1230).

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