FORT FAIRFIELD, Maine – Whether they were newcomers or familiar with the event, everyone found a reason to enjoy the latest County Bluegrass Festival on Friday.
Since launching the festival in 2006, Stev and Nancy Rogeski have been dedicated to bringing fan favorites and emerging performers, and this year is no exception.
As the festival’s second day began Friday afternoon, Nick Chandler, wife Trudy and members of his band Nick Chandler & Delivered sat with Stev Rogeski to greet attendees and sell festival merchandise.
The two chatted like old friends exactly because that’s what they’ve become.
Chandler and his band have been regulars at County Bluegrass since 2019, and only stopped coming when the pandemic canceled shows in 2020 and 2021. It’s the people of Aroostook, including the Rogeskis and local bluegrass fans, that keep Chandler and company returning.
“I’ve played all over the U.S. and in Canada and Norway, but this is the festival I look forward to every year,” Chandler said, several hours before his set. “I played gospel music for years and when I got back into bluegrass, Stev was the first person to book me for a festival.”
At County Bluegrass, folks can hear music even when the guest acts are not onstage.
Every year, hundreds of bluegrass devotees from across the U.S. and Canada park their RVs and campers near the Rogeski’s Farm Park pavilion for the weekend. The event runs through Sunday.
In between sets, or whenever the moment feels right, those hanging out near the campers are known to start jamming on their fiddles, banjos and guitars. People form a circle with their lawn chairs, each taking a turn to sing.
It took Stev Rogeski a few years to recognize a few distinctive traits of these circles that showcase everyone’s camaraderie and love of freewheeling music.
“When they’re doing ‘breaks,’ [solos], the lead singer will nod to the fiddle player, the banjo player, etc. when it’s their turn,” Stev said. “Even if they say let’s play this song and not everyone knows it, in a few minutes they’re all playing it.”
Impromptu jams have become as special as watching the bands, said Ed Betts of Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Ed and his wife Becky have been coming to County Bluegrass since 2008 as part of the yearly bluegrass festival circuit in Maine and Vermont. The couple are regulars at daily jam sessions with friends like bass player Glen Vautour of St. John, New Brunswick, and Rene Child, who lives in Florida during the winter and spends every summer traveling to festivals.
Early Friday afternoon, the Betts and nearly a dozen of their friends led a jam circle outside their campers while waiting for afternoon performances to start. Their plans for the day included serving dinner to Nick Chandler & Delivered after their 6 p.m. set.
“We just have fun. It’s part of every festival,” Ed Betts said. “We come here for the music and getting together with friends.”
Every night during the festival, longtime attendees Joan and Evan Richert of Brewer host their own jam session in a small building near the pavilion. The festival’s rural setting makes sense for a small, close-knit bluegrass gathering, Joan said.
“The barn pavilion and all the open fields and spaces [make it unique],” she said. “Stev and Nancy and everyone is just so friendly.”
That welcoming atmosphere was good news for bands new to Aroostook County, including the Virginia-based Mike Mitchell Band.
Frontman Mitchell and his four bandmates bring their “original music with a traditional flavor” to around 30 festivals every year. Mitchell met the Rogeskis through a mutual friend who hosts a bluegrass radio station in Nova Scotia, and jumped at the chance to play in the type of rural region where bluegrass thrives.
“I was raised in central Ontario, so I love the north country, and want to visit often,” Mitchell said. “We’d love to come back next year.”
Based on the enthusiastic applause Mitchell’s band garnered after just a few songs, that might just happen.
