Flea market pickers blasting folksy tunes for free

Flea market pickers blasting folksy tunes for free

By Aaron Hale
Monday, October 13, 2008

You can smell the roasted peanuts, smoked barbecue and authentic Mexican dishes from the parking lot of the Flamingo Island Flea Market in Bonita Springs.

Once inside, there are all the discounted knick-knacks, locally-grown fruit and vegetables, lavish hat collections and cheap luggage.

Walk outside, though, and you hear the notes of some down-home Americana heaven, a little bluegrass.

Under a pink and white striped tent at the entertainment pavilion, you might find Bobby Shea picking on the guitar, Leslie Weidenhammer plugging at the bass and Karen Batten going to town on the banjo.

It’s bluegrass music from the band The Fleas. The tunes provide a joyous harmony between the stringed instruments and the pickers’ voices provoking foot-tapping from most every pair of legs in the audience.

The performance is part of the weekly acoustic jam session happening every Sunday, except during Florida’s hottest summer months, at the flea market. For seven years, the jam sessions have been inviting acoustic musicians, no matter their experience or talent, to commune and play before an audience looking for bluegrass, country, folk, gospel and Americana music — all free to the public.

On one Sunday you can hear a polished band like The Fleas or the Sawgrass Drifters and later a stage full of unaffiliated pickers jamming through a song.

The music draws some curious flea market shoppers to come by for a few tunes, but it also brings regulars like Georgette Atkins back every Sunday.

- rest at www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/oct/13/flea-market-pickers-blasting-folksy-tunes-free/

 

That's cool, Mike.

 

That's cool, too, Bro. Curtis.