SEQUIM — It’s a multi-generational singalong, concert and fundraiser that could only happen here: Men with Guitars, the slimmed-down version.
Starring two duos, High Divide and Bill &Rudy, the event will stir together rock ’n’ roll, pop from the 1950s through the ’70s, doo-wop and Americana at the Olympic Theatre Arts gathering hall, 414 N. Sequim Ave., at 7 p.m. this Saturday.
Admission (there are no advance tickets) is a suggested $15 donation to the Mujeres de Maiz Opportunity Foundation, an international nonprofit group based in Sequim. Wine, beer and snacks will be available for purchase at OTA’s bar.
Mujeres de Maiz — women of corn, Mexico’s staple food — partners with families in Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state, to award scholarships to rural students.
The group, established in 2006, started out with one scholarship for one teenage girl. Today, Mujeres is helping 22 girls and young women continue going to school.
Judith Pasco, longtime Spanish teacher at Sequim High School, founded Mujeres — and she marvels at its progress. Events such as Men with Guitars are a lot of fun, she said, and they raise the money that not only sends the scholarship girls to high school and college, but also helps them stay and share their knowledge in their own communities.
Bill &Rudy, aka Bill Tiderman and Rudy Maxion, and High Divide, aka Forrest Gilchrist and Kevin Munro, will donate their time and talent to the show.
Bill &Rudy start with a musical history tour, from “Hound Dog” and “Roll Over, Beethoven” to “Runaway” and “Under the Boardwalk.”
The set will be a singalong because that’s what people told Tiderman they got into last year.
“That’s what I like to do best,” he quipped. “That way, they hear themselves and they don’t hear me.”
Tiderman, longtime Port Angeles High School track coach, plays acoustic guitar while Maxion plays bass guitar for the first half of the show.
The second half brings High Divide, the pair named after the Olympic National Park trail famous for its views of Mount Olympus and Heart Lake.
Gilchrist and Munro, both Sequim High School graduates — in 2006 and 2008, respectively — make their homes and their music in Seattle these days and just last week celebrated the release of their self-titled debut album with a gig at the city’s Tractor Tavern.
They’re eager to return home for Men with Guitars, which they’ve played twice before.
“We had a blast,” said Gilchrist, who added that he and Munro call their music Americana, “a blend of country, folk and rock ’n’ roll.”
Saturday’s set list will have some originals, some Beatles and some stepped-up Simon and Garfunkel.
Last year, Men with Guitars featured four acts, including the High Divide duo and Tiderman solo — “so enthusiastically received,” said Pasco, who along with her fellow Mujeres volunteers had to turn a few people away after Olympic Theatre Arts filled up.
This year’s concert has just the two pairs, Pasco added, but it will be a full evening of music.
Tiderman offered words of encouragement to everybody.
“Sing loud,” he said.
