THE AMAZING GRACES

Win, Eleanor, Paul and Lela Grace

In 1974, Win Grace bought an autoharp, taught herself to play and soon found herself standing in Paris in front the Louvre busking for coins. Grace still plays music in sometimes unusual places, and now her husband and two daughters are part of the band.

Paul Grace plays fiddle, mandolin, guitar, harmonica and sings; Win Grace plays the piano accordion, the autoharp and sings; 19-year-old Leela Grace plays banjo, bones and spoons, sings and clog dances; and Ellie Grace, 17, plays guitar, mandolin, bones and spoons, sings and clog dances.

Paul and Win Grace and Family will perform contemporary folk and American old time music at 4:30 p.m. Sunday at the Bollinger Mill State Historic Site.

Paul and Win met in the '70s playing this kind of music. "We both liked rock 'n' roll but it's not really accessible," says Win, calling from Sam A. Baker State Park, where the family most recently performed. "You can't sit around a campfire and plug in an amp. We found folk music and old time fiddle music more fun."

Paul and Win began out performing as a duo but always took the girls with them wherever they went. When only 3 and 5 years old, the girls started dancing at Paula and Win's performances and spontaneously became part of the act.

Eventually they took lessons in clogging, a traditional dance form in which the feet become percussion instruments. Bored at one festival, the girls chimed in with some singing and then started playing bones and spoons before finally picking up instruments.

Traditional music hasn't always been their only love. Entering their double-digit years, the girls started listening to all-hit radio and buying Madonna tapes. Then they met Sally Rogers, a musician from Connecticut.

"She's a wonderful folk musician and such an exciting person," Win said. "I whispered to Leela, `You could be like her.'"

Win's glad that Sally was the musician who became the girls' role model.

Cathy Barton, who also has performed at the Bollinger Mill along with her husband Dave Para, is another woman musician who has taken the girls under her wing.

Though most of the songs the family performs are traditionals or were written by others, Leela and Ellie have begun writing songs.

Leela wrote one that came to her in a dream about Harriet Tubman; Ellie wrote a song about the harvest.

As a band and family, they prefer positive folk songs. "Instead of an anti-war song we would have a pro-peace song," Win says.

The Grace family has acquired some national renown -- "We're nationally known in limited circles," Win jokes.

Not long ago they performed at an outdoor Lincoln Center festival in New York City. They have played festivals of 4,000 people and for gatherings as small as six. "We like not to outnumber the audience," Win said.

There was a time in the 1950s and early '60s when folk music was commercially viable. Now most performers' recording sales are made off the stage.

"If you get famous as a folk musician, the average person wouldn't have heard of you," Win says.

The family lives in Columbia but up to now has spent much of each year traveling to various folk festivals in their 31-foot motorhome. Both daughters were home-schooled.

But now that Leela is about to start Columbia College and Ellie has graduated from high school, the lineup of the family band is subject to change.

"Paul and I are going to continue to play and we're booked as a family through the rest of the summer," Win says.

"It's getting to be time for Leela and Ellie to go off and explore their own interests. They're talking about having their own band where they hire their own musicians."

Lawn chairs are recommended for Sunday afternoon. In case of rain, the concert will be moved to the Little Ole Opry, one mile east of Burfordville on state Highway 34.