KEEPING THE FAMILY IN BLUEGRASS

PATTON -- About 10 years ago, Don Ezell returned from his first bluegrass festival knowing what he wanted his family to do. So he went out and bought himself a guitar and his then-13-year-old son Rory a mandolin.

"Rory didn't want no part of no mandolin," Ezell told the audience Saturday at the first Dogwood Hills Gospel Bluegrass Festival. "He liked Nintendo and watching TV.

Don did what every father who thinks he knows best would like to do: He hid the Nintendo in a shoe box in the closet and had the cable TV disconnected. The cable TV remained unhooked and, as listeners at the festival could attest, Rory learned to play the mandolin very well.

The Ezells were one of nine groups at the festival held at Meadow Heights High School. They were followed to the stage by the Sitze Family, a five-piece band from Fredericktown consisting of Candy and Denny Sitze and their three sons, Chad, Dennijo and Andy.

Other bands were to follow from Painton, Jefferson City, Fredericktown, Iron County, Marquand, St. Louis and Ellington.

Promoter "Steamboat Bob" Fulton, who hosts a gospel bluegrass show on Marble Hill radio station KMHM-FM 104.1, wasn't sure what the response would be to a festival that focused solely on religious bluegrass music.

But only an hour into the festival, a quiet and respectful audience of about 350 was listening in the high school gym. "I'm happy," he said.

John and Elsie Miller traveled the 30 miles from Cape Girardeau to Patton in part because they wanted to see what a gospel bluegrass festival was all about. "I'd never heard of that," she said.

John is a country music fan, Elsie is not but she doesn't mind bluegrass. At the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, she was impressed to see how the lineage can be traced back to Celtic music and other influences.

"That these are local people enhances it somewhat," she said. "This keeps a tradition alive."

This festival focuses on the strong gospel tradition within bluegrass music.

For the Ezells' encore, a member of the audience requested a whistling song. They didn't have a gospel whistling song in their repertoire so lead singer Marge Ezell whistled a verse of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken."

Marge, who is Don's wife and Rory's mother, was the third member of the Ezells. A fourth, St. Louisan Cecil Tenon, was missing Saturday because he is about to have back surgery.

Three times, the angelic-voiced Marge has been voted Midwest female vocalist of the year by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music.

Don and Marge lived in Marble Hill before moving to Van Buren to teach school last year. They plan to retire at the end of the year to pursue their musical career full time.

They have another grown son, Cory, in the U.S. Navy, and two more, Miles, 4, and Asa, 18 months, at home.

Rory and his wife, Melody, have a 13-month-old son named Olan.

Rory, 22, is a virtuoso who is recording an instrumental album in which he plays all the instruments. He learned most of what he knows by going to bluegrass festivals and being shown things by older musicians, "the elders of the art."

The family atmosphere is what sets playing bluegrass apart from playing other music, he says.

"You get to stay close with your family. There's a strong bond. And the people at the festivals, if you don't know them they're willing to get to know you."