Bluegrass Isn’t Just for ‘Toothless Hillbillies’

Bringing the Sounds of Oklahoma to California, the Gifford Family Has Made ‘Banjo Music’ Popular in the Inland Empire and Beyond

“Only toothless hillbillies listen to that banjo music.”

John Gifford heard taunts like this all the time. Growing up in Riverside, a Southern California suburb, in the 1960s and ’70s, he was surrounded by friends who worshipped Simon & Garfunkel and studied the way Mick Jagger pranced on stage. But when he and his two brothers, Richard and Larry, got home from school, they picked up banjos and guitars and sang bluegrass—a tradition in their family that dates back generations to Oklahoma, more than 1,000 miles away.

Today, three decades …