Staff Writer

If the Mousam River Ramblers don’t win their upcoming competition, said Noah Dest, it’s only because the judges don’t like bluegrass.

“Don’t say that! They’ll read this and we’ll never win,” said band mate Max Robinson.

Dest and Robinson sit next to each in the living room at Robinson’s parents’ Kennebunk home, while John Lyden plucks the strings of his upright bass and Alex Deely tunes his mandolin nearby.

Mousam River Ramblers is one of six finalists in the Maine Academy of Modern Music and Portland Music Foundation’s “Rock Off,” a competition for the best high school band in Maine.

“We’re so proud of them,” said Mark Robinson, Max’s father. “We’re real proud of what they accomplished on their own.”

The band was exhausted even though the boys, who attend Kennebunk High School, are off for spring break. They were up at 4 a.m. to promote their band on a local Fox affiliate news station.

The Rock Off competition started April 10, with 16 other bands vying for six open spots in the finals. Judges from local clubs, radio and print media and recording studios picked five finalists, and one band was chosen by fans in an online poll.

The bands must be comprised of students from Maine high schools, and perform original songs written by members.

Deely and Dest write most of the Ramblers’ songs.

“It always starts with the chorus,” Dest said. He said song-writing begins when he composes a chorus on the guitar, and then Deely takes over.

“They’re stories,” Deely said. “It’s really the only way to write a song. They’re true but I would embellish a detail, or they’re not necessarily true about myself.”

The Ramblers’ sound is distinctly bluegrass with a large upright bass or double bass wielded by Lyden, guitjo,  a banjo-like instrument handled by Robinson, mandolin played by Deely and Dest on guitar. While the band has bluegrass idols such as Old Crow Medicine Show, some listeners might find the sound more mainstream.

“I think Jerry Garcia would sing that song,” Robinson said of some of the Ramblers originals.

While the band has played together for the past year or so and its members knew each other for many years before that, it wasn’t until February the boys got serious.

“I got as good at the mandolin as I’m ever going to get,” said Deely, who also plays guitar and vocals for the group.

“In Feburary we started telling him ‘you have to get good,’” Robinson said.

Robinson got his guitjo a few weeks ago before a show at Bebe’s, a Mexican restaurant in Biddeford, where the band plays once a month. He was shopping for a new guitar when he saw the guitjo on the wall and had to have it. Robinson also sings vocals for the band and plays guitar, which he said is similar to his new guitjo.

While the rest of the band has been playing guitar since they were around 11 years old, Lyden was playing the violin starting around the same age. He said the phase didn’t last long and now he happily leans against his big bass instrument, which is taller than he is.

Bluegrass was the mutual musical interest that first brought the four together, but now with a large band competition within sight, the Ramblers can almost taste the prize.

The winning band will receive recording studio time, radio appearances, performances including at the Old Port Festival and $1,000.

“We’ve been offered to play the Chicago Bluegrass Festival, so (if we win) the money should go to the flights,” Deely said.

The rest of the band let out an audible groan and for a few minutes tossed around ideas how each member might spend his cut of the winnings.

The winning band also will receive the title “Best Young Band In Maine.” While that title might not seem as lucrative as a cash prize, past title holder included Sparks the Rescue, Jeremiah Freed and the 1991 winner, Aces Wild – later renamed Rustic Overtones.

Rock Off finals will be held May 1 at Portland City Music Hall.

Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.