Mike Derzon plays this weekend’s Bluegrass Fest with pal Johnny Bregar.
As musicians and friends, Johnny Bregar and Mike Derzon go way back.
They connected in the 1990s when mutual friends recorded a CD in Bregar’s basement as a wedding present for Derzon. Then they joined with three other musicians to form a Seattle-area folk rock band.
Big Spoon had a steady seven-year run that included regular local gigs, a concert at Seattle’s old Summer Nights at the Pier series opening for the Allman Brothers Band and a single in rotation on radio station KMTT.
But life moved along. Four out of the five band members started families, one left the area and the grouping naturally dispersed. That’s when Bregar opened a new chapter.
“As Johnny had kids, miraculous things happened,” Derzon said.
When Bregar’s first son Toby was born, he said he looked around for kids’ music and found himself “less than excited about 90 percent of what was out there.”
MIDI-driven instrumentation and drum machines fronted by Mickey Mouse voices ran counter to his beliefs about what kids’ first exposure to music should be.
So inspired by former Del Fuegos frontman Dan Zanes and a handful of other “crazy, fun musicians” like Elizabeth Mitchell, Justin Roberts and Peter Himmelman, Bregar set out to record an album that both children and their parents would love.
While he might never fully connect with the alphabet song, “Stomp Yer Feet” and its follow-up, “Hootenanny,” both satisfy his own sense of musical integrity.
As the songs strike the fancy of young ears, they also restore the musical cred of parents who sometimes find themselves in traffic wondering how in the world they suddenly acquired a van and two cranky kids under the age of five when they used to be so hip.
Bregar regularly receives emails from parents saying, “Thank you for making something I won’t hurl out the window after playing it for the 50th time.”
This summer, Bregar enlisted Derzon in a series of tour dates, among them the second annual Bainbridge Bluegrass Festival running this afternoon at Battle Point Park, just a few miles down the road from Derzon’s island home.
While Derzon says that Bregar is more than capable of holding his own in front of an audience, he allows that with his own skills on trumpet, banjo, guitar, mandolin, harmonica and “ham bone” – his own body – he’s equipped to offer backup.
Bregar is less modest on Derzon’s behalf.
“He’s a magician with musical instruments,” Bregar said. “And he’s a school teacher, so he really connects with the kids. I think without Mike, I’d be lost.”
Derzon, a teacher for 16 years, keeps a banjo and guitar at the ready in his fifth-grade classroom at the Island School and says he’s always incorporated music into his curriculum.
As part of a unit on farming, he teaches the kids the music and lyrics to “Big Yellow Taxi.” For a unit on the Columbia River, students learn both Woody Guthrie’s “Roll On Columbia” and as a counterpoint, “Celilo,” about the loss of Celilo Falls to the John Day dam.
Derzon also helps ensure that music infuses the school day outside the classroom by co-leading the morning sing, coordinating a weekly fifth-grade lunchtime band, and giving every one of his students a harmonica the first day of class.
He believes that the act of making music helps kids learn better.
“Singing provides kids with a form of engagement,” he said. “It gives them another way to access the material we’re learning. And the music we’re doing in class offers an emotional attachment to the subjects we’re learning that makes it so much more real for them.”
Derzon doesn’t draw any particular lines between the music he plays at school, on stage and at home with his family. He hopes to make quality music and convey a sense of joy onstage.
“Fun is a huge part of everything I’m doing musically,” he said, “particularly for kids.”
Bregar, meanwhile, has a full-time day job as a program manager at Microsoft, busing to Redmond each day.
Like so many working parents, he and Derzon have had to think of ways to get creative with their time so they can stay creative with their music.
Kids’ music has helped them strike the right balance.
“It’s a labor of love,” Bregar said. “It’s such a great opportunity to play music and have it be compatible with being a dad.”
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Stomp yer feet
Johnny Bregar will play with Mike Derzon on the children’s stage at this year’s Bainbridge Bluegrass Festival and Family Fun Fair, which runs from noon to 8 p.m. today, July 21, at Battle Point Park. Proceeds benefit the Transmitter Building. For a schedule of events, see www.bainbridgebluegrassfestival.com. Bregar maintains a website at www.johnnybregar.com.
