The Times

BLUEGRASS: Feet tap and hands clap to good old country rhythms

By CLAIRE ORTALDA Entertainment Writer "Howdy, folks! Sure good to see you out here. We're fixing to play a real purty song. Let's go. boys." and Robert Lee and Country Style America launch into Bob Dylan's "San Antonio Road," "jazzed up jest a little." Heads bob, feet tap and hands clap to the good old country rhythms. People loll on blankets getting suntans or perch on the tops of round picnic tables. Long-haired country and bluegrass buffs toss a Frisbee back and forth over the shaded lawn. Dogs strain at leashes. Families tote out picnic lunches and cooler. Kids, couples and grandmothers set up lawn chairs in the sun or cluster under the big trees at the Coral Gables Police Benevolent Association (P.B.A.), 7530 Coral Way. It's the monthly Bluegrass Country Festival sponsored by the Southeastern Bluegrass Association, and "y'all are welcome," as emcee Butch Brown tells the crowd. A man with a dark blue cowboy shirt with embroidered flowers wanders through the crowd, shaking hands and waving: "Howdy! I'm Gentleman Jack Walker." Turns out he's a longtime country music performer and he finally gets cajoled onto the stand to play electric guitar and sing "Yore Cheatin' Heart" with Country Style America. "Look at all these people, enjoying themselves," he says later. "They don't have to go out and get a babysitter for a Sunday afternoon out. They can just bring 'em along." He indicates a small groups of kids crouched in front of the corrugated aluminum-shaded stage, clapping small hands to the lightening-quick banjo rhythms of bluegrass, with Jim Hays and the Swanee Valley Ramblers. The group becomes a crowd because three people have mounted the stage alongside the band and they're clogging in true mountain rhythm style. Association secretary Evelyn Brown wearing a full black skirt with lots of pastel petticoats whirls and dips with Dick Brown, president of the association, and a teenage boy in a plaid shirt stomps and twirls beside them. It's all very folksy and friendly with established bands moving over for a guitar player or banjo strummer to come up from the audience and jam with them. "Now, we're gonna play "Foggy Mountain," announces Hays and the heads start bobbing again at the old bluegrass favorite. The next free monthly festival is Sunday, Sept. 12, from 1:30 to 5:30 at the Coral Gables P.B.A. Remember, "y'all are welcome."

Families tote picnic lunches and coolers and many folks bring lawn chairs to the country-style bluegrass festivities.

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