PENDLETON — The bluegrass musicians who make up the band The EOCenes typically take to the stage in Pendleton in September, but they’re playing a special show at Pendleton Center for the Arts, 214 N. Main St., on Monday, May 6 this year.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 and available at pendletonarts.org or by calling 541-278-9201. Early ticket purchases are recommended.

“We have so many people who have to miss the Round-Up week show because of conflicting events, so we’re thrilled to have the band here for a spring performance,” said PCA Executive Director Roberta Lavadour.

Ron Emmons, well known as the frontman for the popular Cabbage Hill bluegrass band, will bring his classmates Hugh McClellan, Duane Boyer and Hal Spence back to Eastern Oregon for the show. The group will be joined by Alan Feves on bass and Doug Jenkins on fiddle.

Emmons and Boyer met during freshmen orientation week at Eastern Oregon College and connected with Spence and McClellan through their involvement in the Eastern Oregon College Ambassadors, a musical touring group that performed at high school assemblies all over the Pacific Northwest. Each man went on to have success over the next five decades on the national bluegrass scene.

The name EOCenes is a play on the college’s monogram, EOC (which later became EOU) and the Eocene epoch, a period on the geological time scale that occurred 55-34 million years ago.

“Because we’re old,” Emmons said.

Emmons lives in Hermiston and has played mandolin and sung lead tenor and baritone with the Blue Mountain Crested Wheatgrass Boys, the Muddy Bottom Boys, Blue Heat and The Thatchmasters, as well as Cabbage Hill.

Boyer lives in Haines and plays banjo and guitar, and sings lead, tenor and baritone. He taught banjo and guitar at EOU and played a major role in bringing national bluegrass acts to that part of the state.

McClellan, of Oregon City, plays rhythm guitar and harmonica, and is known for his bass voice. He’s also fronted a country-swing band and sang in a gospel quartet.

Spence, of Dallas, Oregon, played guitar and sang tenor for 27 years with The Sawtooth Mountain Boys, one of the nation’s best-known bluegrass bands whose travels included three tours of Europe.

Jenkins first played with the other members at festivals and fiddle contests in the late 1960s. He went on to win many titles with his fiddle, earning the nickname “Lightning.”

Lavadour said this performance is made possible through the generous support of Drs. Connie and Dan Marier and is part of the Blue Heron Live Music Series of Pendleton Center for the Arts.