BLUEGRASS MUSIC LOVERS RETURN TO ROOTS

THEBES, Ill. -- Although bass player Zac Caldwell of Tamms, Ill. has listened to and played all kinds of music, from country to rock to blues, he always returns to his first musical love -- bluegrass.

"There's something really pure about bluegrass," Caldwell said.

Caldwell and his partner Scott Kuyper were the organizers of the Stringbenders Bluegrass Festival in Thebes, the first of its kind in town.

The festival, which began on the banks of the Mississippi River Friday night and closed late Sunday afternoon, was the dream of Caldwell and Kuyper, both of whom were tired of having to drive 100 miles to get to a festival.

"We sat down one night about four months ago and decided to do it," Caldwell said. "We threw it together quick."

For Caldwell, the attraction of bluegrass is the age of the musical genre. He traces the beginnings of bluegrass to the old songs of Scottish and English immigrants who settled in the Appalachian Mountains.

He calls it "root music" because of its roots in the mountain and because it became the root of country, rock and blues music today.

"I always go back to root music," he said. "They are songs that people can relate to, songs about people's lives, about living and dying and everything in between."

Caldwell plays stand-up bass for Katie Kerkhover and Rockwood Junction, one of six bands that was featured at the festival.

In addition to the featured bands Saturday and Sunday, the festival included a jam session on Friday evening, where musicians could come and sit around one of several bonfires by the river and play bluegrass music.

Although the turnout was not as large as they had hoped for, neither Caldwell nor Kuyper were discouraged. Between 300 and 400 people attended the event Saturday, and both said a light turnout was expected for the first year of the festival.

Thebes wasn't the only Southern Illinois community where bluegrass filled the air over the weekend.

More than 1,100 visitors crowded on the grounds of the Alto Vineyard in Alto Pass Saturday to listen to the bluegrass music of Carter and Connelley and to sample some of the vineyard's wine.

On Sunday, the music changed to blues and rock as St. Stephen's Blues of Carbondale played on the gazebo that had been transformed into a stage.

"It doesn't seem to matter which type of music we play," said Guy Renzaglia, proprietor of the vineyard. "The people just love to come out and eat and drink and enjoy the music," he said.