Pickin' up a musical afternoon

Hearing the music blasting off the stage, 3-year-old Grady Bowen felt inspired to join in Sunday afternoon. So he snatched up his fiddle and began playing in tune to the music - playing it like a guitar.

But to his father, Chad, it's a start.

Chad wants to start a family bluegrass band, with him on banjo and guitar, his son on mandolin and his daughter, Leah, on fiddle. Her lessons will have to wait a while because they don't make fiddles small enough for a 1-year-old.

The Bowen family was among the 100 people who took in the second day of the Bluegrass on the Comstock Festival in Virginia City. The two-day festival, in its second year, ran all weekend at Miners Park.

"We try to go to every (bluegrass) festival we can," Chad Bowen said. "I started playing the banjo about a year ago. I just always liked the way the music and the instruments sounded."

What made this festival unique for Chad was the chance to see Digger Davis, a family-band from Oakwood, Texas.

The family, including 15-year-old Jonathon, 12-year-old Jamie and their parents Digger and Jeannie, has been traveling the country and playing together for two years.

"We love doing it. We home-school the kids so that we aren't tied down to anywhere, and traveling lets us work in times to do fun things," Jeannie said.

John Grantham, a member of the Cool River Trio, said he was pleased to see the festival's attendance grow after only one year.

"One of the things that surprised me is that we are starting to draw from outside the area. There are people coming from the Bay Area, so people are talking about the festival," Grantham said.

Master of ceremonies Don Evans, of Silver Springs, said the festival needs to keep growing so that people will know to come back.

"We need more people to come, even for one day, so that more people hear about it and word spreads so that it gets bigger every year," he said.

Stage manager Bill Naylor, of Washoe Valley, said that having the event broadcast live on KHWG 750 AM in Fallon was a huge step.

"The more people who hear the music, the more they get hooked," he said.

• Contact reporter Jarid Shipley at jshipley@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1217.