Christmas 'Cash'

After the last four bars of the Bluegrass classic “Jesse James” rang through the rotunda of the Jasper County Courthouse, guitarist Gary Courter and banjo player Warren Gardner of Indianola, sat on a pew around the two-story courthouse Christmas tree to wait for the show to begin.

Dressed in black, Gary’s wife Nancy Courter confessed Johnny Cash is her husband’s inspiration.

“I was born playing ‘Walk the Line,’” Gary said.

Gary Courter is from Chariton and attends music jams in Knoxville, Melcher and throughout central Iowa. It was friends Mary Margret of Newton, Lori O’hern of Des Moines, and Jenny Anderson of Prairie City, who first brought him to a jam in Jasper County.

Friday, Gary jumped in with members of the Newton Fiddle and Musicians Club, the Monroe Music Jam and more than a dozen players in the heart of Newton for a holiday tradition — the annual Jasper County Courthouse Christmas Music Jam.

Gary played music when he was young, but put the guitar down because of a busy 42-year career in teaching and helping raise his and Nancy’s children. Then, in 1999, he went to a Des Moines flea market and met a couple of guys playing music.

“I started in again, I started playing music. I just love it,” Gary said.

Nancy, who is also an accomplished pianist and to accompanied Iowa-born bass-baritone Simon Estes when he performed in Knoxville, supported Gary’s renewed connection to music.

“My aunt and uncle played on TV at a Fort Dodge station,” Gary said. “From the time I was 3 years old, I wanted a guitar, but no one would buy me one because I was too little.”

Gary’s mother and father finally bought him the guitar he always wanted, but it laid in their house until he was 11 years old. Always tight on money, Gary said his parents couldn’t afford lessons until one day a neighbor friend, fresh off his first lesson, bought a book and guitar and he and Gary learned together.

“I looked at that guitar one day and I said, ‘I’m bigger than you, I’m going to whip your butt. I’m going to learn to play,’” he said. “We were little kids, but it’s something that stays with you.”

This year’s Jam brought four hours of holiday music to courthouse passersby from 1 to 5 p.m. Glenda Wing of the Monroe Music Jam, organizes the Christmas Music gig each year. She said some of their favorite Christmas classics include “Away in a Manger” and “Silent Night,” both of which were picked and played at the courthouse Friday. But it’s when the Bluegrass comes out that the fiddles and company kick it into high gear.

Keith Templeton of Monroe, originally from the historic town of Percy, loves to bring his guitar and sit in on a quick 4/4 beat.

“I’m just here to follow the fiddles and provide some comic relief,” Templeton said. “We’re going to run out of Christmas songs here soon, and that banjo picker’s going to cut loose and we’ll play some Bluegrass music.”

Contact Mike Mendenhall at 641-792-3121 ext. 6530 or mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com