The Free State Bluegrass Festival in Canton

When: June 25 – 27, 2009

Where: Canton Civic Center in downtown Canton, Texas.

Bluegrass music may be the heartbeat of Kentucky, but its rhythm reverberates all the way to the Lone Star state, and perhaps no place outside of its native land does the genre seem more at home than in the antiques-laden town of Canton.

Best known for its First Monday Trade Days, where folks flock to find purchases from the past, Canton is also recognized for its annual ode to the high lonesome sound at The Free State Bluegrass Festival, a name derived from the days after the Civil War, when Van Zandt County (of which Canton is a part) seceded both from the state and country.

A bevy of bands will take the stage during the three-day event for 50-minute sets, with the musical conversations between banjos, fiddles and basses echoing in the auditorium and spilling outside, the sounds mingling with the array of impromptu jams performed by inspired attendees.

For more information:

• visit bluegrasscanton.com