By HENRY COLT
Sentinel Staff Writer
Ted Howard, Julie Schmitts and Jeff Budd, organizers and producers of the Sitka Monthly Grind since its inception 25 years ago, hope to pass the torch to a new generation 2 p.m. Saturday at the Sitka Public Library.
“We want a couple of people to step forward and say, ‘yup, I’ll do it,’ and make a commitment for a year, or at least a season,” Budd said.
He made a similar commitment when he moved here from Ketchikan in 1995. A social worker who worked with at-risk youth, Budd looked forward to the “nonpolitical, affordable, and family-oriented” Ketchikan grinds, which he’d occasionally emcee. He says the name “grind” comes from the fact that the event occurred on the last weekend of the month (“so the grind was over”) and also the fact that Raven’s Brew, which at that point roasted its beans in a Ketchikan garage, regularly donated coffee.
In Sitka, he joined forces with Howard, Schmitts and other musicians who have since moved on, and, in a classroom of the teen center (now Pacific High), put on the town’s very first grind. The audience of 20 or so sat on donated couches while performers sang and danced on a stage which, judging from the quick estimate Budd makes with his hands, couldn’t have been more than a foot off the ground.
And then the fire alarm went off – and kept going off, periodically, throughout the show.
Still, they made it through the last act and, after three or four more teen center shows, relocated to the lunchroom of Keet Gooshi Heen, which was then Verstovia Elementary. The new space had a carpeted floor, folding chairs, less sensitive fire alarms (but more sensitive sprinkler alarms, says Budd) and a larger stage.
Both Budd and Howard remember one show from the Keet days more clearly than any other:
“We had a bunch of first- and second-grade ballerinas,” said Budd, “and then literally, within 15 seconds, we had a hard-rock thrasher group out of Pacific High.”
Jeff Budd hosts a Monthly Grind in 2016. (Sentinel File Photo)
“That’s kind of a microcosm of the way the grind goes,” Howard said. “All different sorts of acts, juxtaposed against one another, and also the philosophy that if you don’t like what you’re hearing now, don’t worry – in ten minutes there’ll be something you might like.”
After three or four years at Keet, the grind moved to the Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi community house (its current location) and, somewhere along the way, acquired a few of its defining features: a $5 ticket price (refundable in exchange for a dessert) and a theme, announced in advance for each program.
There have been Dance Grinds, Elvis Grinds, Bob Grinds (Dylan, Marley, Seger – you pick), Maritime Grinds, Cowboy Grinds, International Grinds, Woodstock Grinds, Comedy Grinds, Youth Grinds and even a Grownup Grind.
Asked about memorable performances, organizers mentioned Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, presently Sitka’s State Representative, playing the cello at age 9; Digger, a Canadian folksinger, strumming the guitar; Joe Montagna “transforming” into Joe Cocker; and Hank Moore, new to town, speaking candidly to the audience about his late wife before singing the Jimi Hendrix song “Angel.”
Schmitts says Moore’s performance brought tears to her eyes – “And I don’t do that when I go to performances,” she said. “I just don’t usually cry.”
The most recent grind was the Fiddle Grind on January 18, and certain things have changed.
Tickets (100-150 of them, still at $5 each) regularly sell out. But funding from the Greater Sitka Arts Council, which the grind partnered with eight or so years ago, has dried up. (The Arts Council is facing challenges of its own.) Kreiss-Tomkins has left for the state house, Digger for eastern Canada. Moore, busy with his cab service and guitar-teaching commitments, says he has less time to play out.
But there are new faces, like 24-year-old cellist Emma Burck, who performed Vivaldi with the Sitka Strings Trio and then stayed on stage to perform “The Ant Song” with her 7- and 8-year-old violin students – a gentler transition than the infamous thrashers-to-ballerinas at Keet, but still true to grind’s central motto: if you don’t like what you’re hearing, just wait.
Howard, Schmitts and Budd, now in their 70s, have been running the grind for 25 years, lining up the acts, sourcing the coffee, operating the soundboard, managing the stage, lugging heavy PA equipment and doing everything in their power to keep the $5 ticket price, which is now no longer refundable via a dessert.
“Maybe it’s time for some new ideas,” Schmitts said.
She has been listening to fragments of the performances from the wings while managing the stage, but says it might be nice, for a change, to sit in the audience.
