If you were to listen to the Willms' CD, you'd probably never guess that they didn't even know what bluegrass was until 2006. But it's true. They had actually already begun playing when they decided that bluegrass was what they wanted to learn.

Rachelle started first. Her grandpa, Ken Esau, played fiddle, and for years she'd wanted to play with him. After she got good enough to play a song with him in church, Chelsea decided that if Rachelle got to play with Grandpa, she wanted to as well. A bit of squeaking later, they were both fiddling away.

Chantelle didn't want to be left out, so pretty soon she'd joined in, too. A couple months later, their grandpa and uncle gave them a banjo, which Rachelle hastily claimed. Chelsea and Chantelle, however, wanted to play guitar. Their dad, Scott, told them that once they could play as well as he could, he'd buy them their own guitars. Two months later, he went shopping. Chantelle hadn't planned on playing mandolin, but the guitar the music store had ordered in for her wasn't showing up. Scott felt sorry for her and bought her a mandolin. By time the guitar got there, she was hooked on her mandolin.

Playing bluegrass without a bass wasn't working very well, so they rearranged the living room and got an upright bass. Chelsea had such a good start on the guitar that Scott decided to abandon his guitar and take up the bass instead. Their mom, Kathy, adds in rhythm guitar and trades off playing banjo with Rachelle, who now does most of the fiddle playing. The girls trade off singing lead and harmonies. Working on their CD over the past few months has really improved their confidence when singing. Though they've all improved a lot in their singing and playing, they want to give God all the credit for anything they've accomplished.