Burnet Bluegrass Festival is a family affair

DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR

BURNET — All Wendy Pausewang wanted to do was add a little music to a church program with which she volunteered to help three years ago. She had no plans of creating a new life for her and her family of (now) seven. She taught the three older children a few songs, and they took the stage for their Goldthwaite program.

“We got rave reviews,” Pausewang said. “So I took the kids to voice lessons, but the teacher said there was nothing she could do with them. Instead, she said she wanted to be our manager.”

Now, a short three years later, the Pausitive Band made up of Wendy and three of her children — Derek, 15, Mikaela, 13, and Logan, 8 — is a full-time traveling group. The Paustive Band is one of the five groups bringing its bluegrass sound to Burnet’s Haley Nelson Park on July 19 for the Burnet Bluegrass Festival from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. The park is located at 301 Garden Trails off Texas 29. Admission is free.

Family seems to be a big part of the entire show for both spectators and bands. The festival is a family-oriented event, and most of the bands feature a strong family connection including the headliner, Flatt Lonesome.

“My dad was a working preacher in Florida, and we had a family band and we’d all travel along with him,” said Kelsi Robertson Harrigill of Flatt Lonesome. That band, called Sandy Creek Revival, featured the Rev. Dolton Robertson, his wife, Lisa, and Kelsi and her two siblings, Buddy and Charli. But the reverend’s focus was always on the church, and he and his wife encouraged their children to go out on their own.

Harrigill said they added a couple of other musicians, one who would even become her husband, and Flatt Lonesome was born.

“We’re on the road most weekends,” Harrigill said. “We try to come home (to Florida) every week. We all still work part-time jobs, but, hopefully, this will become full time for us.”

Along with Pausitive Band and Flatt Lonesome, the bluegrass festival lineup includes the Sieker Band, the Piney Grove Ramblers and Showman Bluegrass.

For Flatt Lonesome members, bluegrass music forms their roots.

“We grew up listening to it,” Harrigill said. “It was just natural that we would play. And it’s what we really enjoy.”

Bluegrass hails from the Appalachian area of the United States and melds several backgrounds, including Irish and Scottish forms early settlers brought with them. Traditional bluegrass relies on acoustic instruments, typically guitar, fiddle, banjo and mandolin. An upright bass also might find its way into the music, but seldom will you find a drum.

“It’s a very unique and distinctive form,” Pausewang said. “There’s a lot of harmony in the music and singing.”

Harrigill said despite its rural and mountainous roots, bluegrass continues to draw new fans and artists. She describes Flatt Lonesome’s music as traditional bluegrass style. And that’s that way the band likes it as the members avoid the more progressive style that would take them away from those roots.

Though they’re traditionalist when it comes to bluegrass, don’t translate that into “boring” on stage. Flatt Lonesome, with its youthful members (they’re all in their 20s), is anything but serious when on stage.

“We’re pretty outgoing, and we put a lot of that into our show,” Harrigill said. “We have a lot of fun on stage, and the audiences respond.”

Flatt Lonesome plays some bluegrass favorites as well as original pieces. Their latest CD, “Flatt Lonesome, Too,” was released July 15, so people can check it out before the show.

Pausewang said bluegrass resonates across generations and groups.

“It’s true music,” she said. “It’s songs people can relate to no matter where they live or how old they are. The stories are what make it such a powerful form.”

While the Pausitive Band is a family band, Mom knows its the kids who really steal the show. Mikaela is the lead singer, while Derek takes on a few songs himself. Both kids even pen a few of their own songs. One of Wendy Pausewang’s favorite songs is one she and Mikaela wrote together about the man behind the scenes, Wendy’s husband and Mikaela’s father, Michael. It’s called “Just Like My Daddy.”

“Writing with Mikaela was awesome,” Pausewang said. “We each have our own writing styles. But it was so special writing together, especially on this song.”

But when it comes to the live performances, it’s the fiddle player, Logan, who seems to steal the show.

“Wherever we go, people are always amazed by him and his playing,” Pausewang said. “But we all have a great time. And no matter if it’s an audience of a few or a big crowd, we put everything into it.”

Go to pausitiveband.com for more on the Pausitive Band and flattlonesome.com for more on Flatt Lonesome.

Or, better yet, check them out live at the Burnet Bluebonnet Festival. The festival lineup is:

• Sieker Band — 11 a.m. and 3:15 p.m.
• Piney Grove Ramblers — noon and 4:15 p.m.
• Showman Bluegrass — 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
• Pausitive Band — 2:15 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
• Flatt Lonesome — 5:15 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.

daniel@thepicayune.com