Starry Nights celebrates 10 years

Sisters Starry Nights celebrated the first performance in its 10th anniversary series on Saturday night.

For a decade, the series has brought major artists to Sisters and raised serious money for programs in the Sisters School District.

As tradition dictates, Saturday night's headliner artist, country music legend Gary Morris and special guests, award winning songwriter Greg Barnhill and Sisters High School senior and Americana Project student Travis Ehrenstrom, donated their performances to benefit the projects of the Sisters Schools Foundation.

Sisters resident and district parent Susan Arends, who has chaired the event with founder Jeri Fouts since its birth, set the stage for what the evening would offer after sound checks and rehearsals on Saturday afternoon.

"This is our 10th anniversary. This is the 10th time that we have produced this series. Everything is perfect."

Barnhill, who is renowned for being one of the most prolific and creative songwriters of the day - possessing the unique ability to intertwine country, rock and jazz into his style - was one of Starry Nights' first performers 10 years ago. Brilliantly combining their talents, Barnhill and Ehrenstrom opened the show with a creative five-song set.

The pair sang two of Barnhill's greats, "Walk Away Joe" and "House of Love," which Barnhill performed at Starry Nights several years ago with Sisters Middle School students. Two of Ehrenstrom's original songs were intermingled with a song the pair wrote together the day before the show to round out their performance.

Ehrenstrom remembers the first time he ever saw Barnhill:

"I guess I first saw Greg when I was in elementary school, in the fourth grade, at an assembly. And then afterward I guess he just came back and back with Kim Carnes, and then I had the chance - Jeri (Fouts) told me I could meet him and play with him."

Reflecting on his live, on-stage performance with Barnhill, Ehrenstrom said, "It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I'll never be able to do again." The greatest lesson Barnhill taught Ehrenstrom was to always remember that "as successful as you become, remain humble and not lose yourself in the songs and the fame and the money."

When Gary Morris took center stage, the crowd was enamored with the purity of his full and commanding voice. Wiping his brow after his first song he quipped, "Is it hot in here?" After a rousing affirmative response from the crowd, he jested: "Well why don't they take some of that money they're raising and turn the air conditioner on?"

Morris brought the audience into the palm of his hand when he turned and sang a cappella to Sisters "Miss Sew-It-All," Marsha Marr. "I've held you in my dreams ... so close yet so far away, you'll be more than just a dream some day...."

At the beginning of Saturday night's show, Joe Leonardi of Leonardi Media Arts effectively captured on the big screen Marr's admiration for Morris. Leonardi's documentary, which received cheers and applause from the audience, recapped many highlights of the last 10 years of Starry Nights performances.

Morris had sung to Marr while on stage in 1998; he chose to repeat the experience again on Saturday night.

After sharing many of the songs that have carried him up the path of stardom, Morris closed out his set with the one that is without a doubt the pinnacle of his renown, "Wind Beneath My Wings."

Rounding out the evening was a silent auction that featured two one-of-a-kind guitars which raised several thousand dollars for the benefit. One was a Breedlove acoustic guitar signed by Gary Morris and donated by Terry Barnham of the Breedlove Guitar Company. The other was a Martin mahogany acoustic guitar autographed by Crosby, Stills and Nash that included a signed copy of their CD "Carry On" plus a signed photograph. The Martin guitar was donated by Mason Wilkinson.

For the event's founder Jeri Fouts, the Starry Nights 10 year anniversary is a culmination of a community effort.

"I look back on all of these years and all of these shows and I feel proud of everybody who's participated from the student performers to all of the teachers, the business people, the parents. It's such a group effort. It just feels very rewarding. Sisters is a unique place, and all of these artists recognize that. There's a community spirit that underlies this event, and it brings them back year after year. That's why it works."