Special Consensus at the 2008 Withlacoochee Bluegrass Jamboree.

Ashby Frank from Special Consensus on stage during the 2008 Withlacoochee Bluegrass Jamboree in Dunellon, FL.

Nothin Fancy's Mike Andes and Chris Sexton entertain the masses at the 2008 Withlacoochee Bluegrass Jamboree in Dunellon, FL.

Steve Gulley of Grasstowne on stage at the 2008 Withlacoochee Bluegrass Jamboree.

What’s it like to be a bluegrass festival bum, roaming the country to soak in your favorite music?

I got a taste of that the first two weekends in November, catching Florida’s Withlacoochee Bluegrass Jamboree, near Dunellon, Fla., and then the following weekend, for a real change in landscape (and temperature), the Greater Downstate Indoor Bluegrass Festival, held inside (thankfully) at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Springfield, Ill.

The indoor festival was close to my home turf. The previous weekend, my wife — some call her my Hoosier Bride, others, my Bluegrass Widow — and I flew to Florida to see her two children who live in Orlando. The trip was timed to coincide with the Withlacoochee festival, which I attended with two stepsons, Tom from Orlando and Jeff, who flew in from Toledo to spend the week with us.

This was the third festival I had attended on the beautiful banks of the Withlacoochee River. It’s definitely a trip off the proverbial beaten path, with the festival grounds tucked well off the main highway and easily accessible two ways — by fishing boat, if you have one, by vehicle, down a god-awful, sandy, dusty and bumpy backroad. Don’t be deterred by the description of the road. It leads to one of the prettiest festival grounds I’ve seen, a large tract heavily dotted with with ancient live oak trees draped in Spanish moss, all down by this wide, glassy-smooth Southern river.

I was especially excited about attending the Florida festival this year after learning that Illinois’s best known bluegrass band — that would be Special Consensus — was going to perform there. Not only is the group my home state’s best known bunch of bluegrassers, it’s one of my favorites on the circuit. Leader Greg Cahill of suburban Chicago and his merry band of three pickers never disappoint with their performances.

Cahill and his bandmates have a knack for picking great songs to record and perform. Two concert staples that always shine, “Blue Skies” and “Carolina in the Pines”, came across with their usual polish in this grand Florida festival setting. I also came to the conclusion that I’ve listened way too much to this band’s CDs as I kept telling my two stepsons at the start of almost every song, “This is one of my favorites.” They might have thought I was a little overtaken by the Florida sun, except they also are big Special C fans.

Special Consensus also performed a few songs off their upcoming Pinecastle Records CD, which is due out in March. A bulk of the material, Cahill said during a break between performances, will be original tunes penned by his bandmates. And, yes, for something different, look for a Statler Brothers classic on the new CD.

Grasstowne also wowed the Withlacoochee crowd with two great shows. Lead singer Steve Gulley never fails to dazzle with his soulful voice, which he uses like a finely tuned instrument. His well-known rendition of the George Jones’ classic, “The Grand Tour” brought the usual screams and yells as he milked every phrase for at least 10 times its intended purpose. The belly laughs came later (during both days) with Gulley’s impersonations of some country music artists.

Grasstowne is also gaining notoriety for its instrumental skills, thanks to the playing of mandolinist Alan Bibey, Phil Leadbetter on Dobro and Jason Davis on banjo. Jamey Booher rounds out the fine group on bass.

Here’s the ironic part of getting to play bluegrass bum on back-to-back November weekends. Three of the groups that played at the Florida festival also played the next weekend at the Illinois event. They were the highly decorated Dailey & Vincent, The Grascals and Nothin’ Fancy.

If nothing else, seeing those bands back to back in two different locales gave me an opportunity to compare notes about their performances, set lists, fans’ reaction, etc. For example, are Florida crowds more boisterous than their Illinois counterparts? Are these bands doing the same set lists day after day, honing their shows to perfection but still giving the audiences that feeling of excitement from stage? What’s consistent. What’s not?

Those questions filled my mind, but not to the extent they were going to overpower my original intent of being at both festivals. That, simply stated, was having fun.

But, here’s my take on three groups over two weekends of watching them:

Without a doubt, Dailey & Vincent have become the bluegrass genre’s newest (maybe the genre’s first?) rock stars. But what else would one expect, considering they collectively picked up seven awards a month earlier during the International Bluegrass Music Association’s annual artists’ bash.

Dailey & Vincent’s performances — I caught four shows over a week’s span — evoke a crowd response like no one else receives. One might suspect that a standing ovation when the group is first instroduced on stage, before the first note is sounded, is a good indicator of their status in bluegrass today.

Their vocals, no matter the song, produce goose bumps, throat lumps, tingling neck hair, you name it. The group also scores high marks for instrumental performance. Adam Haynes delivers as smooth and fat fiddle fills as anyone in the business, and his bandmates, Joe Dean Jr. on banjo and Jeff Parker on mandolin also have no shortage of shining moments.

On to The Grascals, who remain a force to be reckoned with in CD sales and festival drawing power. Although the group is vocally strong, their forte lies in the sheer power of the instrumental work. For example, when mandolin player Danny Roberts wields his right hand into a blur on a blistering solo, it’s as if a freight train was getting ready to plow into the first five rows of the audience.

Although the group has received some criticism for relying heavily on country music and bluegrass standards for much of its repertoire, that factor very evidentally remains a strong, selling point for audiences. Guitarists Terry Eldredge and Jamie Johnson both have cutting-edge, high lonesome voices that the bluegrass crowd still relishes. For every fan I’ve heard complaining about the Osborne Brothers-like quality of their vocals, I’ve heard four or five fans praise it.

Well, nothin’s left here except Nothin’ Fancy. Simply stated, I put this group right in the same folder as I place Special Consensus. File them both as extremely under-rated and neglected when it comes to well-deserved industry awards.

Nothin’ Fancy (which did finally pick up this year’s Entertaining Group of the Year honor from SPBGMA) is strong vocally — granted, not as strong as Dailey & Vincent, but still very much the ear candy. And, the five-member group also shines instrumentally, in some regards as strong as any band on the circuit. It’s tough to write off the wonderful talents of the group’s fiddle player, Chris Sexton, who is also a classically trained violinist. And, while they don’t deliver razzle-dazzle instrumental acrobatics, banjo picker Mitchell Davis and mandolinist (and lead singer) Mike Andes are solid as rocks with their tasteful contributions.

What really makes Nothin’ Fancy somethin’ special is the group’s flat-out, natural ability to entertain. It’s so evident how much fun this group of Virginia pickers is having on stage — and that consistently proves to be infectious with the crowd. Everyone enjoys a Nothin’ Fancy show, perhaps no one any more than Nothin’ Fancy (which, incidentally has been together for 15 years.)

If you’ve made it this far, you can see that being a rambling bluegrass bum for a week or so has produced plenty of reasons to ramble in words. Now, my Hoosier bride and I are back home, settled back into the work-eat-sleep routine. But I think we’d both confess to being ready to ramble again.