ALEXANDRIA BAY — Two groups that mix traditional bluegrass with more contemporary sounds will perform at the Thousand Islands Bluegrass Preservation Society's ninth annual "Weekend Getaway."
The March 26 concert at Bonnie Castle Resort on Holland Street will feature Beartacks from the Plattsburgh area. On March 27 Acoustic Blue, a band from the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts, will perform.
Corey Zink, the lead singer of Acoustic Blue, has a singing style that has been compared to George Jones and Randy Travis. He plays mandolin for the group and is its songwriter. He is joined by upright bass player and baritone Alton "Bear" Acker; banjo player Mike VanAlstyne and Shaun Batho on guitar. Mr. Batho's style has been compared to Carter Stanley and Del McCoury.
Mr. Batho said Acoustic Blue does a lot of its own writing.
"About half the songs on each of our CDs were written by us. So, we're very proud of that," he said. "But we also do traditional-sounding songs like 'Angel Band' that was written and made popular by Ralph Stanley or 'All Prayed Up,' which was written by Vince Gill."
It's not the first time Acoustic Blue has been in the north country.
"We've gotten a number of chances to play up that way," Mr. Batho said. "We really enjoy being up there and the people are so nice to us. They treat us like family."
Beartracks consists of resophonic guitar player Junior Barber; acoustic and electric bass player Julie Hogan and her brother, Thomas Venne.
Mr. Barber is one of the most respected and well known resophonic guitar players in the country, having been nominated many times by the International Bluegrass Music Association for "Dobro Player Of the Year." A Dobro is a brand name of a type of resonator guitar, which uses metal resonators for sound amplification.
Mrs. Hogan began singing at the age of 5 with a band her family put together. She began playing bass at the age of 12.
Mr. Venne splits lead and vocal harmonies with his sister. He was inducted into the New York State Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999 while playing with the band The Upstate New Yorkers.
Beartracks performs a mixture of roots country, bluegrass and Americana music.
Opening the shows both days will be Malone-based Dave Nichols and Spare Change.
