BLAINE YOUNGER BAND (Victoria, KS) – this regional favorite and his band kick off the Main Fairgrounds Stage schedule at 3 pm with their own brand of Country/Rock and a large dose of his own original material. Blaine has appeared on the Main Stage at Country Stampede. Visit their web site

FLAT RIDGE – a dynamic merging of the Heronome family Flatland Band (Ellis) combined with members of SlyRidge (Hays), another area family band, FlatRidge will provide a multi-genre performance of country/blues/rock music.

Formed especially for the Russell American Roots Festival, the FlatRidge Band is a combination of two family bands from the area. . . the Flatland Band and the SlyRidge Band.

The Flatland Band has been together for over thirty years, and grew out of the Albert Heroneme Band which started in the 1950s playing barn dances and square dances in and around Ellis County. Albert’s band included his son Alan and daughters Lyndell and Bonnie and became the Flatland Band in 1971 when they added Kurt Downing as their drummer. Today, Alan, Lyndell Heroneme Rorabaugh, and Downing are still part of the band along with members who met each other in Russell at “Pickin’ at the Deines.”

Members of The SlyRidge band, Skip and Nancy Wooldridge Schlyer, Hays, will be singing and playing at the festival with current members of the Flatland Band, Lyndell Heroneme Rorabaugh, Ellis, on guitar and vocals; Keith Burditt, Ness City, on harmonica;, Larry Nelson, Sylvan Grove, on saxophone, and Kurt Downing, Ellis, on drums. The band will be performing country, rock, and blues at 11:00 am downtown at Cecil Bricker Park. Admission is free.

NEW OLD TIMERS – a traditional acoustic bluegrass band from Hill City featuring J.F. Stover and members of the Joe and Kenna Vincent family with fiddler Todd Toman.

The New Old-Timers are a group of friends from Hill City playing and singing traditional-style American music. They will be performing as part of the Russell American Roots Music Festival at 12:30 pm in Cecil Bricker Park on May 31st.

Leader of the New Old Timers, JFStover learned guitar as a student at KU, sang his way through the folk music revival of the 1960s, and found himself also drawn to bluegrass and old-time music during a decade in Germany. Stover, along with Ronn Raymer and Nancy Selbe, founded the “Pickin’ at the Deines” program in Russell.

Joe Vincent taught himself to play guitar and then banjo, fascinated by the bluegrass style of Earl Scruggs, and later on, the earlier frailing or clawhammer forms that grew out of the mountain music of the eastern United States. Kenna Vincent learned the love of traditional American music first by attending the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, then branching out into the revival of old-time music currently growing throughout the country, finally finding her place as bassist and singer with The New Old-Timers. Jordan Vincent heard banjo and fiddle music close up from his earliest age--as the family played, visited festivals, and hosted music gatherings at the family farmstead. He pulls out those sounds, reshuffles them, collects the old and new fiddle tunes and songs from the old masters and the eager new generation of bluegrass players, and adds strong lead and harmony vocals.

The New Old-Timers play and sing traditional-style tunes and songs: specifically bluegrass, old-time folk, and gospel music of the kind that flourished in rural America throughout the 1800s and up to about 1950, plus newer forms of traditional and country music that draw on the old styles.

The New Old-Timers have played for re-enactment dances concerts and festivals throughout Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado. They’ve been part of the Kansas Arts Commission's touring program; and now, on the Vincent farm south of Hill City, have their very own barn, where they invite the neighbors in, gather musicians, assemble potluck suppers, and then fiddle, dance, and sing the Kansas night away.

The Russell American Roots Music Festival is part of the Smithsonian’s New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music programming hosted by the Friends of the Deines Cultural Center, Russell Arts Council and Russell Main Street, and Kansas Humanities Council.

WESTERN KANSAS STRING ACADEMY TO HAVE “INSTRUMENT PETTING ZOO” Children will have an opportunity to try their hand (and bow) on stringed instruments at an “Instrument Petting Zoo” in the lower level of the Deines Cultural Center on Saturday, May 31st from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm as part of the Russell American Roots Music Festival. Retired Russell music teacher Peggy Anschutz has been working with the Western Kansas String Academy students on traditional fiddle tunes and will be on hand as the students demonstrate their skills and encourage others to join.

Western Kansas String Academy is sponsored by the Fort Hays State University's Department of Music. It is a collaborative education and community outreach project in which FHSU faculty and undergraduate music students, talented community musicians, public school string teachers, cultural arts advocates, and parents work together to support the development of individual skills of young string players and to train future string teachers by providing hands-on teaching experience.

Cathy Drabkin, Hays, is the director of the Western Kansas String Academy. Drabkin invites parents and children and others who would like to listen to stop by the “petting zoo” during the festival.

The Russell American Roots Music Festival is part of the Smithsonian’s New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music programming hosted by the Friends of the Deines Cultural Center, Russell Arts Council and Russell Main Street, and Kansas Humanities Council.