It's time for some surprising trans-Atlantic musical stylings.

The Krüger Brothers, a Switzerland-based Americana and bluegrass trio, will unite with local bluegrass masters Ironworks for some old-fashioned but progressively spun tunes at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the State College Friends School, 1900 University Drive.

The concert is presented by the Acoustic Brew Coffeehouse, a non-profit, volunteer-run concert series that produces folk and acoustic shows in smoke-and-alcohol-free environments.

Uwe (pronounced Oovay) and Jens (pronounced Yenz) Krüger have been playing professionally since 1971, but in 1994, the brothers teamed up with bassist Joel Landsberg, whom audiences often mistake for a brother.

"I'm as close as anyone has actually come to being an actual brother," said Landsberg, who moved to Switzerland 15 years ago to marry a "Swiss girl," and has been friends with the Krügers since his relocation.

The key question, however, is not why the band is named after the brothers and not after Landsberg, but how a bunch of Swiss guys ended up forming an American bluegrass band.

"Jens and Uwe's dad was a hydraulics engineer who studied in America in the 1950s, so he brought all that music back with him, and they grew up listening to Pete Seeger and Flatt & Scruggs in addition to European music and Bach and Beethoven," Landsberg said. "We play American music but with a European flair."

The Krüger Brothers' brand of bluegrass fuses folk, country, blues, rock, jazz and soul, Landsberg said.

"We look at what we do as a mission," Landsberg said. "We don't preach. We don't politicize. We don't try to send a message from the stage other than love and harmony and that people should enjoy life and that it's a wonderful world."

Just how a Swiss bluegrass band ended up with a gig in central Pennsylvania remains another curiosity. Catherine Grigor, performer liaison for the Acoustic Brew, said a member of the concert series' board saw the band perform live, and after experiencing its energetic and engaging performance, decided to recruit the Krüger Brothers to play the Acoustic Brew.

"The banjo player is probably the best bluegrass banjo player in the world," Grigor said.

Steve Buckalew, a member of opening act Ironworks, concurs with Grigor's praise, stating that the only banjo player he has heard play at the same level as Jens Krüger is Béla Fleck.

Buckalew, a former member of the now-defunct local act Steele Hollow, said Ironworks, which formed one year ago, plays traditional bluegrass music with a Western swing.

The five-member band formed in hopes of establishing a local bluegrass scene.

"There's a lot of traditional music going on outside of the State College area," Buckalew said. "There's a lot of old-timers out there who have been playing this music for a long time. We're a bit of a bridge between the older and younger generations, since we're all middle-aged."

"We're keeping the bluegrass tradition going and exposing some of the younger people at the university to a kind of music that they may not have heard before," he added.