Honoring Oregon’s Bluegrass Roots: The EOScene & Northwest Bluegrass
Written by Hal Spence ~
The EOCenes had its origins at Eastern Oregon College, (now Eastern Oregon University) as all were members of the EOC Ambassadors from 1969 to 1971, which was a college-sponsored musical group that performed concerts around the Northwest, primarily at high school assemblies, as part of a recruiting program for the college. The concerts featured a variety of music, and always had several Bluegrass numbers as part of the programs, and during those two years, approximately 75,000 high school students had their first taste of Bluegrass.
Eastern Oregon University is located in LaGrande, Oregon, and Bluegrass had started to bloom on campus several years prior to the college’s creation of the Ambassadors. Duane Boyer, the EOscenes, banjo player, had played guitar in a trio which featured Rick Winter on banjo, who later played bass with Sam Hill for several years. After Rick had left college, Duane met Ron Emmons at a college picnic for new students, and they ended up performing that evening as part of the festivities, with Ron playing guitar and Duane on banjo, beginning a musical relationship that has lasted for more years than either would care to admit to. The next year a young lady named Lynn Moyer joined forces with Ron and Duane, and in short order, she not only was contributing her considerable vocal talents, but was playing bass as well. Later that year, they were asked by the college to be part of the newly-forming Ambassadors, along with seven other talented students. Soon they were joined by Terry Prohaska on guitar, and
Ron switched to mandolin, and they began performing for functions in the area, and were known as the Blue Mountain Crested Wheatgrass Boys. They were the driving force behind a college service organization’s sponsorship of what was one of the first, if not the first, Bluegrass festivals in the Northwest, which featured a couple of then unknown musicians named Sam Bush and Alan Munde, who were in the group Poor Richard’s Almanac, followed a few weeks later by a concert featuring Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys. During that time, they became acquainted with another LaGrande resident and Bluegrass picker, Steve Waller, who was attending OSU, which led to numerous holiday season jams, when Steve was back in the area on school breaks. By then, Hal Spence, who hailed from Enterprise, Oregon, had become a member of the Ambassadors, along with New Jersey transplant, Hugh MClellan. Steve first met Hal at one of those jams, and recruited him to be a member of The Sawtooth Mountain Boys when Hal transferred to OSU a couple of years later.
Fifty-five years have passed since the Eoscenes first played music together, and during that time, everyone has continued their musical careers, but on divergent paths. Hal Spence spent over 25 years as the guitarist and tenor singer with The Sawtooth Mountain Boys, and now with Sawtooth and sons, and the late Lynn Moyer Attwood was part of the Metro music scene as a member of the Rite of Spring for over 40 years. Hugh McClellan, a renowned Bass Singer, played in a number of groups in the Portland area, including Gold Rush and The Modern Age Drifters and also presently sings bass in AQUA, a nationally known gospel quartet, along with playing guitar and singing with the EOscenes. Ron Emmons was a long-time member of The Muddy Bottom Boys and later Cabbage Hill and Duane Boyer played guitar and pedal steel in the country band Muddy Creek for 25 years. In the mid-nineties, Emmons, Boyer, and McClellan reunited in a group known as the Thatchmasters. Our Ringer fiddle player from Southern Idaho, Doug Jenkins is well known in the bluegrass circles as a fantastic bluegrass fiddler and plays also with The Tygh Valley Bluegrass Jamboree in 2012 was the catalyst for the reuniting of what has become known as the EOscenes, when Hal, Hugh, Ron and Duane all got together for the first time in about 40 years.
The chemistry was still there, and everyone remembered not only the songs, but their vocal parts that had been done all those years before. Lynn’s schedule has prevented her from joining in for a couple of years, so a long time friend, Alan Feves from Pendleton, Oregon fills the Bass Fiddle spot, and also plays Dobro. Also long time friend Doug Jenkins, an incredible fiddler from Idaho has been playing with EOCene for the last few years. The EOCene is also known as the Ladd Canyon Ramblers when we play in Montana, Idaho, and points East.
After 55 years of playing tunes together, the EOCene / Ladd Canyon Ramblers, due to health and age related issues is having to call the end of an Era. We play the Hard Times bluegrass festival in Hamilton Montana that we’ve played multiple times, and it is the Last Hard Times festival as the Conroy’s that started and run the festival for many years are retiring. Then, Thursday evening of the Pendleton Roundup, Sept. 17, will be the EOCene / Ladd Canyon Rambler’s final show, unless we become young again! It’s been a blast for sure, doing our four part type of Bluegrass for the Northwest Folks!
