The Blue Cat Bistro was loud on a recent Friday with the sounds of The Bird Mountain String Band as they tuned and tested their instruments.  

The waitresses scurried around through the dark room to drop off the food to the patient patrons who were there to watch the bluegrass band play. 

The Bird Mountain String Band is a small bluegrass band composed of family members Zenon Stevenson on banjo, Micah Stevenson on guitar, Adam Stevenson on guitar and family friend Sam Merwin on the bass. 

Merwin, when asked, describes bluegrass as “mountain jazz.”  

The youngest band member, Micah Stevenson, said, “It [bluegrass] is made of simple, progressive, tight sounds.” He looked around, speaking over the crowd noise and band’s tuning sounds to ask his brother if he had a better way to describe it. 

Adam Stevenson is the father of Micah and Zenon and one of the band’s guitar players. 

“I’d tell them it’s string music with no drums … It’s Appalachian Mountain music, and it’s very cohesive,” he said while taking a few sips of his beer. 

Donald Willie is another bluegrass player who was at the Blue Cat Bistro on that Friday to watch the band play. When asked if he had come to see the band, he mistakenly took this reporter for a waiter and said another waiter had already taken his order. After a quick explanation, he started talking about bluegrass.  

“Bluegrass was the beginning of the country music,” Willie said through a chuckle. 

Willie has played with the Blue Mountain String Band at local jams. He joined the bluegrass community a few years ago when he was gifted a guitar for Christmas. 

Since then, he has been an active part of the community.  

Zenon, an Early College student at VTSU Castleton, described the bluegrass community as “tightknit.” 

Merwin took it a step further. 

“Everyone has their group activities; this just happens to be ours,” he said.  

The players said the bluegrass community is open and has many fundamental songs everyone knows. Zenon says that sometimes you play with people you’ve never met before. 

Willie agreed and said that makes it fun. 

“Sometimes, as I walk through and hear a song I like, I see if I can hop in,” Willie said. 

He said most of the time, people are okay with that.

Zenon and Micah had grown up listening to bluegrass in the Stevenson house, but during COVID, they had become “obsessed” with it. That obsession led to the formation of the band. 

Adam feels a strong connection to bluegrass for a few reasons. He played in a bluegrass band in college, has always listened to it, and he  lives on a farm. He feels that the songs often touched on and reflected his life on the farm. 

Zenon says he makes time to practice for around two hours daily, even with his school schedule.  

“I feed off of people who are better,” Zenon said.  

In addition to playing the Bluecat Bistro, the band plays at the Poultney Pub bluegrass jams every Tuesday from 7-10 pm. Zenon states that they’ve never played a “real big gig.” 

Bluegrass has played a massive part in the lives of the band members, and Willie’s too.  

“This music, these guys, changed my life,” Willie said.