Young and Old Whoop It Up at Folk Festival

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and 3-year-old Jesse Durkin was spending it the best way he knew how: blissfully perched in his father’s lap, picking a miniature guitar in harmony with the bluegrass band on stage.

“He loves this kind of music,” his father, Ken Durkin, said as the two sat on a grassy lawn at Agoura’s Paramount Ranch. “He’s been playing since he was born.”

Jesse and his dad joined more than 4,000 spectators who turned out Sunday for the 31st Topanga Banjo/Fiddle Contest and Folk Festival.

The annual event, which draws contestants and spectators from around the state, is intended to perpetuate the appreciation of bluegrass music and folk art, spokeswoman Mary Wordin said.

So it is no surprise that festival organizers are particularly interested in reaching the younger crowd, those who typically know more about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Nintendo than they do about this slice of American music and history.

“There are a lot of kids who are competing and a lot who are in the audience,” Wordin said. “That’s what it’s all about: kids.”

More than 100 contestants from 4 to 74 years old vied for prizes in the banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin and harmony singing competitions. Others showed off their skills in old-fashioned square-dancing, clog dancing and international dance.

Winners received cash prizes as well as trophies in the shapes of guitars, fiddles and banjos made of wood and leather. But for most, the festival offered more than competition.

“It’s the best bluegrass festival around,” said Kari Spina of Burbank, who had a guitar slung on her back. Spina did not compete, but said she had fun nonetheless playing with groups of musicians who gathered for impromptu jam sessions around picnic tables and under trees.

The music sent some strolling down memory lane to another time and place.

“You always think of cowboys,” Romy Coberly said of the music. “But here it’s just an array of people getting up there and jamming.”

“We grew up in Taos, N. M., where there was lots of two-step music from Texas,” said Sydney Coberly, who brought her 17-month-old son, Brando, and her sister, Romy. “This brings back lots of memories.”

While bluegrass music is still not as popular as rock ‘n’ roll, some fans and musicians such as Sue Nikas of the Clay County Bluegrass Band are confident that it is a growing art form.

“Women are coming into this music with a vengeance,” said Nikas, who recited a list of upcoming female bluegrass musicians. She and fellow band members Jim Dawson and Frank Abrahams won first place in the band competition two years ago and returned Sunday as guest performers.

In addition to the music, vendors sold an array of folk arts and crafts, such as leather belts, vests and cowboy hats.

At one booth, Norma Jean Ames sold shoe taps and other accessories used by performers of the Appalachian mountain dances known as clogging.

Nearby, a square-dance caller yelled out instructions for dancers, mostly novices, including some dressed in ruffled prairie skirts and cowboy hats. Other booths, such as that of Bede Sensalo, seemed less in line with the country theme. Nonetheless, his West African clothing was equally popular with festival-goers.

His best-selling item was a straw hat that many of his customers were surprised to find came from Mali, West Africa. “They say, ‘Oh boy, an African cowboy hat,”’ Sensalo said.

Proceeds from the festival, which was sponsored in conjunction with the Santa Monica National Recreation Area, will go to organizations and schools that promote folk music, dance and art, organizers said.