FISHER HOUSE - HELPING MILITARY FAMILIES

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That phrase will take on a deeper meaning this month as she and fellow members of the Wednesday Night Garage Jammers host the second annual "Mostly Bluegrass Marathon Jam" from noon to midnight Feb. 26 in Severn.

Proceeds from the 12 hours of acoustic music benefit the Fisher House Foundation, which provides lodging for families of wounded soldiers while their loved ones are hospitalized.

Bageant, 23, got the idea for the event, to be held simultaneously in several cities in the United States as well as in Baghdad, after a friend was injured in 2009 by a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan.

The festival "was a really good distraction from our worries," said Bageant, who asked the informal group to get involved after learning of a similar jam in South Carolina.

In addition to donated money, Bageant said this year's marathon jam will include 50-50 raffles and a silent auction with items donated from area businesses.

Last year's event drew about 300 people and raised $9,000 for Fisher House, a national nonprofit organization that provides "comfort homes" for the families of service members at veterans hospitals and medical centers.

Odenton resident Neil Mathauer, a member of the Jammers, said the group had hoped to get at least 20 people and raise $1,000 last year.

He said he was "amazed and shocked" by the numbers.

"It was one of the most incredible events I've ever been involved in," he said.

"It's amazing to me how musicians come together for a good cause."

Anyone could join in the jam, which is for acoustic instruments only.

"It was beautiful," Arbutus resident William Bageant, Sara-Jane's great uncle who plays guitar, said about the jam. "I couldn't believe what a success it was."

Relay resident Bob Bageant, Sara-Jane's uncle, was among three members of the Jammers who earned the event's "Iron Picker" award for playing his upright bass all 12 hours.

"Let me tell you, that was one of the hardest things I ever did," said Bob Bageant, who said his hands and fingers hurt from the experience. "It was tough."

Sara-Jane's father, David, and Severn resident Jim Beam also received Iron Picker awards for playing all 12 hours.

While growing up in Lansdowne, Sara-Jane said her parents, David and Pamela, often sang and played in the living room.

"I just thought that's what people did at night in their house was sing," she said.

She said she didn't realize until friends from middle school stayed over that not everyone plays music.

Last week, about a dozen friends and family members with guitars, mandolins, a dobro and an upright bass crowded into a small room of her parents' house on South Rolling Road.

"There is time for us to wander," sang Bageant in a clear soprano as she played along with the group, which usually jams at Beam's house on Wednesday nights.

"When time is young as so are we," she sang as she performed the classic bluegrass song "There Is a Time" by the Dillards.

Wandering is not an unfamiliar theme for Bageant, who took a six-month "hiatus" after graduating from the Carver Center for Arts and Technology in Towson to travel to various bluegrass festivals along the East Coast.

"Most people go to the beach for senior week, and I skipped my graduation (and) walking across the stage because there was a festival in Ohio that I wanted to go to," she said. "So I set out and then six months later, when I was out of money, I had to come home."

While in high school, Bageant worked at the Appalachian Bluegrass music shop on Frederick Road, in Catonsville. Now she is employed at Dynamic Design Enterprises, a sportswear business, in Hanover.

Though she studied voice at Carver, Bageant said it was after she traveled to Gettysburg, Pa., for her first bluegrass festival that she really found her calling.

"That is where I learned that there are people my age in bluegrass music," she said.

She immediately asked for mandolin lessons when she returned home.

"It was nice to see that I could make my own friends and inroads in the music. Plus, it was just really, really exciting to see all the professionals playing and that's when I really caught the bluegrass bug," she said.

"There's something about the style, the attitude, the people that play it; it always kind of feels like coming home," she said. "You feel it so heartfelt, because it's just raw music, and that's what I love about it."

The "Mostly Bluegrass Marathon Jam" will be held noon to midnight Feb. 26 at American Legion Post 276, 8068 Quarterfield Road in Severna Park.

Admission is free but donations will be taken. For information, call 443-875-8797 or e-mail somdcatman@aol.com.

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