Bluegrass fest a family affair

STONE MILLS — From all-night jam sessions in the parking lot to teaching younger generations how to play the fiddle, bluegrass festivals are far more than just a weekend concert.

"It's a way of life," Richard A. Bartlett, president of the Thousand Islands Bluegrass Preservation Society, said Sunday over the twanging of a banjo and thumping of a string bass, during the final day of the group's 18th annual bluegrass festival at the North Country Agricultural Historical Society Museum.

"There are nine bands here this weekend," Mr. Bartlett said. "They are kind of what we think of as hometown bands. They live and breathe bluegrass music."

Mr. Bartlett estimated that 500 to 600 bluegrass lovers, two thirds of whom camped at the festival in recreational vehicles for the weekend, attended.

"Bluegrass is in our blood," he said. There are no amplifiers or drums, only acoustic instruments. "It's made in America."

Bill Knowlton, who has hosted Bill Knowlton's Bluegrass Ramble radio show broadcast in Watertown on WCNY-FM, Syracuse, for 35 years, emceed the event.

"What is wonderful is the amount of kids interested and family bands," Mr. Knowlton said. "Things like this keep bluegrass alive."

Diehard bluegrass fans Raymond J. and Elizabeth A. McDonald, Fort Jackson, who have spent the last decade of summers traveling between bluegrass festivals in their RV, listened to music from their lawn chairs in front of their portable home Sunday.

"It's about getting together with our family and friends," Mrs. McDonald said. "We get to know these bands and they get to be like family."

In fact, one band that performed in the festival was family.

"Blue Lightning is my grandkids," Mrs. McDonald said. "You can't be prouder than I am."

Blue Lightning includes two of her grandchildren, Justin B. Winters, 19, on guitar, and Julian C. Winters, 16, on bass, and their friends Nicholas J. Piccininni, 18, banjo and fiddle, and Robert M. Delnero, 17, mandolin. They are all from the Utica area.

Justin and Julian are two of Mary and Steve Winters's 10 children.

"We home school, and when we were listening to historical music, the children loved the fiddle and banjo," Mrs. Winters said. "They wanted to learn how to play."

Before forming the band, the Winters boys learned to play their instruments from training videotapes and help from their grandfather, who has played guitar for 62 years.

Robert, son of Michael and Mary Delnero, said, "My grandfather taught my dad and my dad passed it on to me."

Mrs. Delnero plays bass and Mr. Delnero plays guitar.

"It's like we are painting a picture and hopefully in the end we will have a beautiful piece of art," Justin said.

"They made a bluegrass lover out of me," Mrs. Winters said.