FFOTM Wednesday open jam

At noon on Wednesdays a circle of acoustic players forms in Flagstaff and plays for an hour. In summer the circle sits in Wheeler Park, downtown at 212 West Aspen Avenue. In winter it moves indoors to the Flagstaff Mall on U.S. Highway 89 and gathers next to the fireplace. Flagstaff Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, sponsors the jam. The music is mostly bluegrass, though the club says other forms of folk music are welcome, and anyone may come to listen.

An hour earlier, at 11 a.m., a practice session meets for players who want to brush up on particular tunes. The club posts the move between park and mall on its Meetup site, which it updates weekly. The club’s own calendar for autumn 2026 put the September 30 session at the mall and the October 7 session back at Wheeler Park.

Turns around the circle

The club calls the jam self-regulated, and it requires jamming etiquette of everyone who attends. When the circle is small enough, each player in turn presents a song or tune. At the start of a turn, the player asks who wants to take breaks, the jam’s word for solos, and the leads pass around the circle in order. The player also tells everyone the tempo, the key, and the arrangement.

Players are expected to know the basic chords on their instrument and to keep a steady beat. The club rates the jam as intermediate level with beginners welcome, but adds that it is “not best for rank beginners.” A newcomer may listen, or sit on the outside of the circle and play along quietly. Players bring songs to share or learn new ones from each other, “based on the oral tradition of sharing,” in the club’s words. Anyone bringing a song is asked to bring lyrics to pass out and to be ready to teach it. Songs with few chords from the folk, old-time and bluegrass repertoire serve best, and the club names “Worried Man Blues,” “New River Train,” and “Nine-pound Hammer.” Between Wednesdays, a Google group shares videos and instructional material for the songs and tunes played at the jam. The club’s instructions end: “keep it simple and have fun!”

Solstice afternoon in Wheeler Park

On Wednesday, June 21, 2023, the day of the summer solstice, Arizona Daily Sun photographer Rachel Gibbons photographed the jam at Wheeler Park. Several other groups were out in the weather that afternoon. Her caption says the group “meets to practice and learn traditional folk music.” Nearby, Caspian and Pierce Arocho played catch, and Opal Cheattam stood up on a slack line with Gretchen Abbott’s help.

An upright bass in 2023

Greg Hales, now vice president of the sponsoring club, plays weekly with the Wednesday group. His board biography says he moved to Flagstaff with his family in 2007. There he fell into the orbit of the Flagstaff performer Tony Norris and Norris’s musical partner, Bill Burke. In 2023 his officemate, Julie Sullivan, started a bluegrass jam class and needed an upright bass student to hold things together. She spotted Hales nearby and thrust an upright into his arms. He and Sullivan later co-founded a Sunday jam at the Wanderlust Brewery in East Flagstaff.

Friends since 1984, or 1988

Tony Norris also appears at the start of the club, though accounts of the date differ. The club’s About page says that “somewhere around the year 1984,” a few local folks found joy and camaraderie playing wooden instruments and singing old time songs together. It names Carol Placer, Ron Barton and Norris among those original founders. The club’s home page gives 1988 and describes the founders as a group of friends, mostly musicians. A July 23, 2003, Arizona Daily Sun story by Ryan Heinsius also gives 1988. It credits Norris, Barton and Ken Ralston with starting the club for traditional musicians who needed to get around people and play. “After a year there was a good deal of interest,” Ralston told the paper.

From there the club added regular contra dances with live bands and callers. It also held campouts under the stars, where, in the club’s telling, Carter Family songs rang out above the pines. The 2003 story credits the musician Bill Vernieu and others with branching the club out into concert promotion, technical musical support and a social scene for its members. That year the club had 350 members. It had become a 501(c)3 nonprofit in 2000. The Flagstaff Folk Festival followed in 2002 and the Pickin’ in the Pines festival in 2006. A children’s program, the Young Jammers, was founded under the direction of members Christina Boyd and Lloyd Holdeman.

In 2003, Julie Sullivan told the paper, “It’s always been a renegade group of music mavericks.” She said the club “started on the premise of really just sharing, preserving and passing on that oral tradition of music.” Her advice for players: “You never learn as much playing by yourself. Ultimately you’re going to be a better player if you play with other people.” Bill Hudson, a member for seven years at the time, spoke of the songs the circle shares: “You can go across the country and play the same songs with people.”