Photo courtesy of BRUSH MOUNTAIN BAND
The Brush Mountain Band consists of Tom Kapinus, from left, Jay Dunkelberger, Kathy Kapinus, LeAnna Kline and Bob Kapinus.

LEWISTOWN — It might be beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but for the Brush Mountain Band it sounds a lot like it, too.

The five-piece bluegrass group – most members hail from Mifflin and Centre counties – has found a successful recipe of banjo, fiddle, guitar and upright bass with up to four-part vocal harmonies combined for traditional bluegrass and gospel music.

“That’s what people expect to hear this time of year,” said Bob Kapinus, who plays banjo, and is married to Kathy, who is on bass and vocals.

“We give the songs a little bend to make them more bluegrassy,” Kapinus added. “We tweak them a little bit, and give our own style to some of the songs.”

The Brush Mountain Band, which has been together in various forms since the early fall of 2002, is scheduled to perform at the Ellen Chapel Church at 6:30 p.m. Saturday for its Live Music Series in the church’s Fellowship Hall, located at 11764 Ferguson Valley Road, Lewistown.

They will be followed by local musician Kevin Zook, playing his trumpet on Christmas carols, at 745 p.m. The Unusual Suspects will host and play for the Christmas Carol Sing-a-long at 8 p.m. Admission is free, and the general public is invited.

The Brush Mountain Band has brought a bit of a different dimension to its recent shows as LeAnna Kline, a guitar player and vocalist, replaced Stan Truckenmiller.

The rest of the Brush Mountain Band lineup remains the same with Tom Kapinus on fiddle and bass vocals; Kathy Kapinus on bass and vocals; Bob Kapinus on banjo; and Jay Dunkelberger on harmonica and vocals.

“With two female voices, we get different harmonies, and we can do up to four-part harmonies instead of three,” Bob Kapinus said.

The band performed at Kish Park in Lewistown at the Shining Light Through the Darkness as the event’s opening act on Saturday.

“That was two hours, so probably 75 percent of the songs we did were Christmas oriented,” Bob Kapinus explained. “Ellen Chapel is only one hour long, so we’ll do complete Christmas selections.

“Since we have some good voices, we’ll get some nice harmonies going,” Kapinus added.

This is also certainly a busy time for Zook, who is from Lewistown. He has organized Quiet Christmas, which highlights the soft sounds of the season presented by local musicians. It’s slated for 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 19 at the First United Methodist Church, 200 E. Third St., Lewistown. Donations from the event benefit the Theil and Andrea Kauffman Memorial Bible Fund.

Unusual Suspects String Band will holiday classic songs, many of which are designed as sing-alongs including “Jingle Bells,” “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas,” “Up on the Housetop,” “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Blue Christmas,” “Christmas Time’s A-Comin’,” “Frosty the Snowman,” “A Holly Jolly Christmas,” “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” “Let it Snow,” “Silver Bells,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “The Marvelous Toy” and “White Christmas.”

The band consists of R.B. Powell, along with Bridget Allen, Doug and George Powell, who all play guitar and sing vocals; Fred Weis, playing bass and singing vocals; Elaine Sherman, playing the hammer dulcimer and singing vocals; and Ken Shafranko playing the Dobro.

Refreshments will be served. A donation basket will be passed to support the musicians.